Looks like this is Mark Hood’s last day at Sun. He was a great developer on Java3D and it is sad to see him go. I get the sense that he has been laid off, but I don’t have any confirmation abou that. If he helped any of you out in the past then please send him some well wishes either on the Java3d interest list or to his e-mail:
He was a big help there, and answered many Java3D core technology questions. His posts really extended our understand of the Java3D system…
Kelvin just got laid off also
I think that leaves zero engineers on Java3D
It is sad to see that happening - especially after spending so much time with Java3D - but those guys are so good that they are not gonna have any problems - with their knowledge they should find - rather get new posts in a blink of eye. [man I am so happy we have all these new developements here - without this I would probably start dusting off my c++ … terrible vission !!!]
I guess this means j3d is dead in the water not on hold. Hopefully it will get ported to jogl.
Sorry if this is long winded but I am grumpy.
I find myself surprised at the “jogl is there now so its our target” tone, do we really beleave that this will be supported forever, that the user community will be informed of major changes in support…ha…really HA!
Given my surprise at the death of java3D (note no one has actually announced it yet, doubt they ever will) I am having a hard time gearing up to learn yet another graphics API. How long will this last, will we know if its not successful?? only the “Silence of the forum” will indicate its no longer in fashion. Its like losing your …errr… significant other, at some point they don’t return your phone calls and your on your own again.
What Sun had was a vibrant/active group supporting their API, it seems like this is the exact thing they needed, people who have bought into their ideas. The way this community was just dropped, no word on the future just irks me.
I really feel for the people/companies with a financial stake in the API, did you guys get any warning at all the technology was toast??
Whine whine whine but I LIKE OO approaches, I really don’t want to mess down at the nano-bit level anymore. I know everyone wants to tinker with the bits and bytes but most of us aren’t as good at it as we think. It seems like the successful approach anywhere is to have a standard set of legos that connect and interact in a defined/documented manner. Now when I try to figure out how someone has done something cool I won’t even have the fact that its based on a known API, we’ll all start our own naming conventions etc and on the whole be less helpful to each other.
Why they won’t release it and let us maintain/improve is beyond me…not that I expect to ever find out.
Sun come on…I dare ya…answer the questions…I insists!!
Thanx to the ex-sun folks for all they did. :’(
I feel your frustration but java3d is dead … hail o jogl …that is reality. Also I doubt very much u shall ever get any answer from SUN - chances are equal to seeing PX :), as for learning new API actaully it is not that bad I am slowly rewriting my work and realizing it is much easier then I thought.
So what’s the chance of getting Java3D open sourced now?
I suppose SUN would have to admit that the Java3D project has ended before open sourcing it. They might do this just so they can always come back to it eventually (when they realise their mistake :))
Seems like Xith3D is becoming the open source Java3D 
There are also a bunch of other implementations ontop of JOGL going on…
Kev
[quote]So what’s the chance of getting Java3D open sourced now?
[/quote]
Imho the best way is to help Xith3D grow. It’s better than just waiting for something which may never happen.
i hope the java3d dudes can keep the dream going with what we have from java3d so far. Xith3D is looking very cool as the next java3d api. And JOGL is alot of fun with all its low levelness. i thank the java3d dudes for proving it can be done. now its time to get it to work everywhere for everyone. no more of that ‘dont work on the Mac’ sillyness. lets rock.
[quote]i hope the java3d dudes can keep the dream going with what we have from java3d so far. Xith3D is looking very cool as the next java3d api. And JOGL is alot of fun with all its low levelness. i thank the java3d dudes for proving it can be done. now its time to get it to work everywhere for everyone. no more of that ‘dont work on the Mac’ sillyness. lets rock.
[/quote]
Couldn’t agree more.
The big lession is that Java3D was not open source, so if you didn’t like a feature, needed to add a feature or if they ditch the whole API - tough. Xith3D is an open source API built using other open source API’s. So right from the start it has a lot going for it. Add to that the fact that it is getting very good, very fast and you have an excellent replacement technology for Java3D.
Will.
Perhaps this the first sign of sun becoming aware?
You mean in a SkyNet sense? ???
lol