Orphaned packages need YOUR support!

Engines, Libraries and Tools Xith3D Forums
#1

Would you like to make a contribution to Xith3D and become the official maintainer of a part of its functionality?

There are three features of Xith3D which need someone to take charge of:
org.xith3d.ui.swingui (previously com.xith3d.userinterface),
org.xith3d.terrain (previously com.xith3d.terrain), and
org.xith3d.collider (previously com.xith3d.collider).

These features are very useful features of Xith3D but need someone who can understand how they work, further develop and maintain them.

Some background on the SwingUI package:

[quote]The swing userinterface package for Xith3D was created by David Yazel and released on 2003-10-05. What it provides is a way to use Swing from within Xith3D, where the widgets are drawn using OpenGL inside the window instead of being in a seperate frame. Amongst other things, this allows for nice transparency effects for example. Swing is incredibly versatile as a UI toolkit, allowing the developer to create custom skins and components. It isn’t generally regarded as a “high-performance” UI toolkit partly due to the overhead this versatility brings, but as it is very powerful, the trade-off is worth considering.
[/quote]
This package is quite innovative, and a great feature to have in Xith3D, but it lacks someone who can look after it.

If you would like to make a contribution to Xith3D and learn it at the same time, this is a good oppertunity :slight_smile: What you do is up to you, but some nice things would be: Fix any bugs, help people with questions in the forum, maybe even release some documentation or tutorials.

If you are interested, please reply to this thread.

Cheers,

Will.

#2

What number base are you using there when 3 items is two features? :slight_smile:

endolf

#3

As I planned to do a game-oriented GUI system for Xith, I see no interest for me maintaining the SwingUI package. I’ve not a lot of knowledge about terrain generation, and I do not see why there are collider package in a scenegraph (apart that Dave Yazel wanted to put the maximum feature imaginable in his projet :))

#4

Put me down for the SwingUI if no one else steps up to the plate within the next week or so. I like the concept of using Swing in Xith, my project is currently dependent on it, and I already know of at least one itch that needs to be scratched within that code. I might not have a lot of time for it immediately, however, so I’m OK if someone else wants it.

#5

endolf,

Sorry, I edited my post to add a third and must have missed that :wink:

BlueSky,

Some people have expressed interested in the collision detection, I guess it might be useful if you’re not using Odejava. Personally I don’t use it, and it’s actually broken (probably a trivial bug, but nevertheless - broken). The demo was pretty cool when it worked.

croft,

The package is yours. Thank you! Of the three, this package is the most valuable to Xith3D I believe. It is such a powerful package to have fallen by the wayside.

David created a pretty awesome demo to highlight it’s potential, I’m not sure if you have seen it. You can download it here: http://xith.org/Demos (note this demo has not yet been converted to use org.xith3d.ui.swingui). Unfortuantely some of the code there is a free license so we can’t add it as an official demo.

Thanks all :slight_smile:

Will.

#6

With respect to the SwingUI in Xith, does the the Java2D and JOGL interoperability not help here?

http://192.18.37.44/forums/index.php?topic=10813.0

Kev

#7

I will look into the collider system. It is an integral part of my game. I will not be able to mess with it for a bit though. Trying to finish an alpha release of my game.

A cannot work the terrain system just yet. I have messed with it before and know there is a cool demo using that and the xith noise routines to generate ranoom terrains.

#8

kevglass,

I do not know. I can’t say I am an expert on this Xith3D package. My understanding was that it takes a different approach to a similar problem (noting that David much to his credit managed to solve it two years ago). I just ran a test and could not get the SwingUI working with the LWJGL renderer which is a shame (I knew the input wouldn’t work, but I hoped that the displaying might). Personally I am using LWJGL as my primary renderer (but I like having JOGL as a backup), so renderer specific solutions arn’t ones I am considering.

hawkwind,

Great news! Thank you. Terrain is the least important IMHO, it’s not too hard to implement ones own terrain package. If you get a chance, it would be nice for the demo to be working again (I actually thought the whole package was broken, but based on what you said I get the impression the package is working and maybe it’s just the demo that’s broken).

Thanks all, I am really glad to see two of these packages find a home!

Cheers,

Will.

#9

as i said before i’m doing some terrain rendering stuff myself atm

i looked over the terrain package and found it to be a 2 level geomipmap approach which isn’t that bad
my implementation is a dynamic level geomipmap terrain which will use some vertex programs to speed up rendering ( which will of course be optional ) …
the only problem is that i’m currently waiting for my new ( shader stuff enabled ) graphics card to arrive so it’ll take some additional time until vertex program stuff is implemented
additionally i’d like to have a terrain texture make which blendes several images into one based on a heightfield

so … have no more time …
Florian

#10

about terrain: I made also a terrainloader myself, maybe we should try to combine all these approaches to one big, nice, easy useable tool?

Arne

PS: I have no idea how the Xith-Terrain Loader works.

PPS: My terrainloader also loads a GeomTriMesh ODEJava Terrain. That’s the main reason, why I wrote my own, to have Xith and ODE in sync. It also supports manipulation of the terrain during the game, even if this is not tested yet.

#11

yep … would be good … if i may i’ll open up an post tomorrow … that’ll get long and giving a little overview about several rendering technics + some additional thoughts by me …
if anyone is interested before: http://vterrain.org was my major source of inspiration … under “Rendering”->“Implementations” and “Papers” are most terrain rendering algorithms assembled …

and now … about 1 am … and i’ll go to bed and watch “The Tuxedo” with my girlfriend … not that this would interest someone :wink:

#12

Discussion about terrain plz look at this:
http://192.18.37.44/forums/index.php?topic=10996.0

#13

Are the online demos using the current xith libs?? The maze demo uses the collision system and still works.

#14

No, they are a bit out of date I think.

It should be possible to compare the two versions and see what has changed I guess. It’s one of those things where the longer you leave it the harder it gets, I think it went unnoticed for a while.

I did a quick test a while ago where I rolled the collision package back to an earlier version but I had no luck getting the collision drop test demo to work (making me wonder if the changes were elsewhere?).

I didn’t have an incentive to fix it though being that I don’t use it and there is a gazzilion other things that are a higher priority, so I never really looked deep into the problem.

Will.

#15

I can support the org.xith3d.ui.swingui package, I’m using it and have Developer access. I already fixed some small things.

#16

[quote="<MagicSpark.org [ BlueSky ]>,post:15,topic:24787"]
I can support the org.xith3d.ui.swingui package, I’m using it and have Developer access. I already fixed some small things.
[/quote]
I think that one was assigned to me. You are welcome to it as I have not touched it.

I do use it in my applications, however, so please give me a heads-up if you change the interfaces (method signatures, etc.).

#17

I think that one was assigned to me. You are welcome to it as I have not touched it.

I do use it in my applications, however, so please give me a heads-up if you change the interfaces (method signatures, etc.).
[/quote]
Ah ok didn’t now. Now 2 are better than one ^^