LWJGL questions

[javazoid]

I have some (silly ?) questions aboug LWJGL:

• does it support transparent backgrounds (see my prevous topic about DTV) ?

• does it support 3D text like Java3D ?

• can I use Java2D to write over LWJGL buffers ?

• can I save single animation frames from LWJGL ?

• does it support field-rendering (I mean odd/even video fields) ?

Thanks a lot,

Javazoid (Mik)

[alexz]

I can be wrong in some points but anyway…

• does it support transparent backgrounds (see my prevous topic about DTV) ?

It depends on the hardware… I believe that some cards allow rendering to texture with alpha channel nowadays.

• does it support 3D text like Java3D ?

No. LWJGL is a low-level API. Conserning graphics it’s just OpenGL wrapper (you can think that graphics part of LWJGL simply means OpenGL). So the question could be: “does OpenGL support 3D text directly?”. The answer is no but it’s possible to provide this functionality on top of the library.

• can I use Java2D to write over LWJGL buffers ?

No. LWJGL has no connection with AWT. But you can use Java 2D to draw in a BufferedImage then use the pixels as a texture and draw textured quad to the buffer.

• can I save single animation frames from LWJGL ?

Yes, it’s the same as for OpenGL. For instance, render your frame then grab the pixels by using glCopyPixels() and save 'em on disk in desired format.

• does it support field-rendering (I mean odd/even video fields) ?

Does OpenGL support them?

Note that LWJGL is a low-level API. It (OpenGL) has most of necessary features for developing a video-editing software on top of it. At the moment there is no such software using LWJGL so you have a chance to be a pioneer in this field! 8)