I thought Java3D was pretty much done for and expected no-one to ever talk about it again, but well… What do you know? The latest pre-release builds uploaded have the date 2010-11-07 marked above them. For some reason this makes me feel all warm inside me, even though I myself use JOGL.
Might as well try tinkering with this Java3D stuff again, it was fun.
Fun is the last word that comes to mind for me ;D I’m surprised it’s still kicking, though. Gave up on it myself when a new version of it decided it didn’t want to work with my video card, and that was a loooong while ago.
Interesting first spam^H^H^H^H post.
Hardly a spam post, just caught my attention when checking if the project was still alive ;D Someone over at ubuntuforums asked if Java3D was still a viable choice or whether they should try their hands at one of the more low-level bindings like LWJGL or JOGL, so I thought about sharing my opinions on the matter. But now that they seem to be updating their work, it might be interesting to see what its capabilities are in, say, small scale game development. Just for the kicks.
There is nothing new in 1.6.0 except a handful of bugfixes. There is no new development on Java3D.
Java3D is very stable and is ok at what it does. However it has a some design flaws that make it unsuited for games. I know because I work with Java3D every day at work. Better to look at one of the many other scenegraph apis in java.
Yes, it has been made quite clear earlier that Java3D is far from the best choice for heavy graphics development. What I wasn’t aware of, however, was that it is still used for more than just random tech tests by people like me. That explains the updates.
Too bad, though. The first time I gave Java3D a go it seemed like a more suitable way for me to get my graphics stuff done. Ah well.
It is still used, atleast in the scientific community. Not so much for games.
It is not its lack of performance that make it unsuited for games. It is its lack of multipass rendering and its multithreaded architecture.
It’s advantages are good documentation, both javadoc and tutorials. Support for stereo and advanced view setups like caves.
If all your going to do is learn some 3D or create a game for youself, then its ok. If you want to create a commercial game, then stay away.
A noticeable part of the scientific community has switched to JOGL or other solutions…
FWIW, I am still using it for game development of a MMO game. 8)