about java 3d

Java3D is a standard extension to Sun's Java Programming Language. Its Application Programming Interface (API) allows the programmer to create object oriented, scenegraph based 3D content. The API provides a collection of constructs for creating and manipulating 3D geometry and structures for rendering that geometry. Java 3D provides the functions for creation of 3D graphics application programs. I wrote some Java3D applications and applets for my amusement. Have fun with em.

Java 3D is now a community source project developed on java.net.

about java 3d

notes

To run an applet or application you'll need the

• Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) that should already be installed on your system
• and the Java3D API from Sun Microsystems which you have to download and install by yourself

I encountered some problems with the directX implementation. Therefore I recommend to download the openGL version.

• Java3D API Windows download
• Java3D API Mac OS X, Linux, AIX, IRIX downloads

notes

applications

Subdivisions

An application that lets you perform some subdivision operations. Included are 3 schemes (Butterfly, Loop & "Square Root Three" subdivision algorithms), and 8 meshes to play with.

Download the SubDs.zip
(right-click & save to disk)

Use your mouse to translate and rotate the mesh, alt + left mouse button to zoom into it.

Here are some animated gifs and a short descriptions how this 3 schemes work

Lieschen

An application for the artificial intelligence course at the university. A robot (Lieschen) has to search the shortest way through a virtual room. This is achieved by a heuristic best-first algorithm (in this case an A*-algorithm, to be precise).

Download the Lieschen.jar
(right-click & save to disk)

You can control where Lieschen should go, by clicking on the blue vertices. Have fun.

(495KB / Graph framework included /
click here for a bigger screenshot)

applications

applets

Click on a thumbnail to launch an applet.

Virtual Universe

My first Java3D try. It's a stationary sphere and a rotating color cube with the same origin.

Susan Test Board

This is a test board for the game Susan. It consists of 61 stones. On mouse click the color of the stone changes.

Heidi Klum

Texture on cube. A simple thing becomes amazing when the right texture has been choosen ;-)

Carriage

A little applet for the 3D-grapics course at university.

Terragen Lanscape

Imported Terragen landscape, which looks amazing.Next step would be to draw a landscape from scratch (242KB).

Indycar

Worked about 10h on that car and it still locks very simple. Each wheel spins.

Indycar II

Same car as above. This lighting stuff confused me at the time I made this one.
As you can see, the light shading is wrong.

Volone

An ink fish thing that spins around the worlds z coordinate. Despite compression, this applet is rather big in size (170KB).

Applets download:
You can download the applets here, and execute them as applications on your computer. If you are interested in the source code, just drop me a line.

applets