For those Java programmers who have not yet worked with Java 3D, whats it like?
The best way to start with Java3D is modifying the demo code found under the $(JAVA_HOME)/demo/java3d directory (after installing Java 3D). Since those demos are very visual, I’m sure you will enjoy learning while hacking the code. The most important things to learn first would be the terminology and concepts used for the Java 3D technology. Once you’re comfortable with these, it is fairly easy to play around. There’s some trickiness here and there, especially around writing things to behave efficiently, but it is fun to learn, since the API provides a high-level and object-oriented abstraction of 3D features. One big benefit of using Java 3D as Project Looking Glass’s platform technology is that there are lots of “free” Java 3D materials on the Web. So not only does the project benefit from that directly, but it makes it easier for new people to get involved with only a modest ramp-up of preparation. You might want to start with J3D Tutorials, Jenny Orr’s Lectures (Willamette Universi
