LWJGL features : OpenGL Shaders and 3Ds Loaders

OpenGL Development
#1

Hi,
I’m wondering if LWJGL supports GLSL and Cg ?
And if it can load 3Ds models ? I supposed yes because i see a XMLLoader class in the util package, but it looks non-specific file format and it looks a bit small…
And the last question, can LWJGL load 3Ds Max animations ?

PS : LWJGL gives an acces to the full OpenGL API ? Can i do anything in OpenGL with LWJGL, no ? Does it support all the OpenGL specification, even OpenGL 2.0 (i see the GL20 class, but that’s no clear in my head) ?

Thanks a lot for answering and sorry for my english (i’m a french man).

#2

LWJGL supports GLSL
I am unsure about Cg, but I think that Cg toolkit can produce some code that you can load, one way or another.

LWJGL does not load models and/or animations, it merely lets you render in OpenGL.
There is some work being done on this in the model package, but afaik its incomplete

#3

Thanks.

But i can make 3Ds loaders myself, or use some of the Xith3D loaders (or base my loaders on them) ?

And LWJGL gives an acces to the full OpenGL API ? Can i do anything in OpenGL with LWJGL, no ? Does it support all the OpenGL specification, even OpenGL 2.0 (i see the GL20 class, but that’s no clear in my head) ?

#4

LWJGL does not support everything you can do, but more or less everything you would do
There are a lot of extensions that 0.0000001% use, which we just dont support, since it doesn’t make sense.

You can use your own loaders, yes- but typically, you’d want to use a scenegraph instead, like:
jMe
Xith3d
Espresso3D
etc. etc.

So, except for the extensions no one use, LWJGL support OpenGL 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 2.0

#5

Thanks, so LWJGL lets us make nearly everything that we would do, except for some extensions which are non used by many developers . (Can i have an example of those extensions ?)

For the scenegraph, i think it’s too high level for me. I want to start at the basics, even if there is something in a higher level which makes nearly all the job for me. Because if i use directly a scenegraph, i will not know how that works below. And i want to learn opengl low level API, because if one day i must use another langage, it will quite easy for me to use this langage for 3D. And above all, i want something optimised for what i want to do.

Even if it will be longer and more difficult, I want use a low level API (low level is relative). LWGL is a really good API which provides me all what i need (opengl, sound and image processing - i don’t know what fmod 3 is-), so if i must make my own loader, i will do them, i’ve found some docs about it, in C.

But with a few modifications, i can use loaders from those scenegraph (with the agreement of the authors of course) independently of them, no ?

#6

http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/registry/I3D/wgl_digital_video_control.txt
http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/registry/SGIX/hyperpipe_group.txt
http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/registry/OES/byte_coordinates.txt
and so forth :slight_smile:

You can see most of them here, and compare to which LWJGL has:
http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/registry/
If you should ever use one that you feel is missing, you can ofcourse always just whine to us, and we will add it (if it makes sense)
if not, you have full access to the LWJGL source code, and can easily add it yourself :slight_smile:

Fmod3 is a sound api - http://fmod.org

yes, you should be able to use their loaders - with modification. They usually load to their internal scenegraph format, which you wont.

#7

Thanks. But why do you have two different sound API ? FMOD3 and OpenAL.

And thanks for your great API :).

#8

OpenAL is a lot less powerfull than FMOD, however FMOD isn’t entirely free - so we have both.
Specifically, OpenAL does not play modules and generally only does PCM data, whereas fmod play most of what you can throw at it - and it’s much simpler to use, particularly with long files.

#9

Which parts don’t we have acces in Fmod3 with LWJGL because they’re non free ?

#10

basically, FMOD3 is only an option if you want simple audio usage and:
a) free game (then fmod is free to use too)
b) shareware game, then price is 100$

#11

OK thanks, i think i will use OpenAL because it’s for a commercial project and we use Jogl too, and there isn’t any independant Java wrapper for FMod.