generating 3d pictures

Engines, Libraries and Tools Xith3D Forums
#1

Hi,

i don’t know where to ask these questions, but after searching through the forum, i thought you could help me.

I have to generate 3d pics on a server without 3d hardware (Linux). I found mesa what, if i understood it right, beside others can act as an openGL implementation using pure software rendering. My first question:

  1. If i use mesa as a software renderer, does it support all the features, openGL in the same version would do within a hardware-driver ?
  2. Using xith with jogl, could i render scenes (only a static image) using xith on the top, jogl “in the middle”, and mesa as low-level openGL implementation ?
  3. If so, would you thing that would be easier/better with jme and lwjgl (posted the same topic on the forum there, only inversed :)) ?

Even if not, please answer following questions:

Because fps is no problem in this case, i want to use fullscreen antialiasing. I found some topics related to that problem, but not the definitive answers:

  1. Does xith support FSAA or can i use this as openGL feature calling gl functions over jogl-methods within xith ?
  2. Again, could issue 4 be easier implemented with jME/lwjgl ?
  3. Anyway, is it possible, to write pixels from a frame to an image on disk (or another stream) ? (Should be in my thought)
  4. In view of treating xith as an typical 3d engine for games, would you thing it would by a good choice for my concern, or again, would maybe jME/lwjgl be the better choice (or another java solution) ?
#2

I can answer only one question (I’m not an expert in this kinda stuff):
Yes you can use Mesa (It automatically did at my comp, because I didn’t initialized hardware acceleration correctly). I did that using jogl. I don’t know if this is also the case using lwjgl. (In case you’ve missed it Xith supports both jogl and lwjgl as renderers)

Ahh another thing I know: You can acess some features of jogl and lwjgl, that are not able to be acessed in one of the abstracted classes, by acessing the RenderPeerImpl directly. But even with this you can’t acess all functions jogl or lwjgl provide.

#3

[quote]Yes you can use Mesa (It automatically did at my comp, because I didn’t initialized hardware acceleration correctly). I did that using jogl.
[/quote]
Hmm, a coder on the jme forum answered, that software-rendered mesa does only implement openGL 1.1, and even here not all features.

#4

IIRC the latest version of Mesa supports OpenGL 1.5 (and probably a bunch of additional extensions) so it’s quite up to date. Just don’t expect it to be fast.

Window’s default software rendering (which is MS’s, not Mesa) only supports 1.1 though, sure you’re not confusing the two?

#5

I knew it supports openGL 1.5, but after the answer on jme-forum, i thought that means only for mesa used as the core in most unix hardware driversm, not for pure software-rendering. Now i read more on mesa3d, and i thing it should work.

No, he meant mesa, but he answered wright now that he was not informed about newer mesa versions and that it could work. ::slight_smile:

Off course, i don’t, but that should’nt be the big problem as i don’t have to take care about fps. For every scene, i just need one frame :).
Thanks a lot, i’ll try out.

Further answers to above questions are welcomed 8)

#6

When I last tried, Mesa doesn’t work with LWJGL, so don’t listen to anything a LWJGL person (including jME) tells you about Mesa, it’s probably an excuse :wink:

Software rendering is very slow so I can understand why they may not bother supporting it.

Mesa is kept pretty well up to date, and using JOGL you should be able to use Mesa to render in Linux (I have done this before).

Will.

#7

Bad. I just decided to use jme and not xith. :frowning:

Hmm, they didn’t realize software-rendering for gaming purpose.

Ok, now you and arne both used jogl with mesa, so that should work. So, maybe i’ll found somewhere anything about mesa <-> lwjgl, or about lwjgl <-> mesa

#8

Ehmm, Will, i just found your topic http://192.18.37.44/forums/index.php?topic=4055.msg37561;topicseen#msg37561

Nevertheless, my model should work ???

(What a shit, i never have the time just trying it…)

#9

hehe good find, that is indeed where I leant about LWJGL and Mesa.

LWJGL is quite game focused, if you are not writing a game, it may not be the best way to go.

The nice thing about Xith3D is that it supports both, and if you are careful you can chop and change.

Will.