Direct X in Java? Something fun to play with

[Dru Lee Parsec]

Well, it's not exactly Direct X. But the new Full-Screen Exclusive Mode in Java 1.4 looks like something fun to play with. :tu:
You can change and set the display modes, do double buffering and page flipping. If It can do color cycling I may turn into a giggling/grinning/foaming at the mouth/graphics hacker for a few weeks. (Wow! I gotta cut down on the coffe this morning)

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/extra/fullscreen/index.html

I can't wait to get home (where I have 1.4 installed) and play with the examples.

Or maybe I should go to dinner with my wife and enjoy my birthday (which was Wednesday) dinner instead of hacking code. Yeah, big thick steaks and a Black & Tan sounds better than hacking code.

<hint to obvious next question> Wednesday was August 7th. I'm 2 weeks older than Hawaii. From that you could figure out what year I was born and thus, how old I am </hint to obvious next question>

[Bradmont]

Why on earth would you use directx over opengl? Stupid microsoft-specific proprietary junk. (you can use OpenGL in java 1.4, BTW)

[Dru Lee Parsec]

OpenGL in Java? Kewl!

BTW, This isn't actually DirectX in Java. It's a way of running graphics in full screen mode adn doing things that are similar to DirectX. But if you could call OpenGL in Java that would be cool too.

So many fun things to play with, so little time. :goofy:

[Isengard]

I heard that 1.4 had some really cool graphics. I`ve used the advanced imaging toolbox up to now for advanced handling.
Have you got any sites which deals with open gl in Java ?
I would be great to have a look at some examples and / or tutorials.

[darelf]

Java isn't going to make OpenGL any easier than it is in Python or Tcl.... I still have a *very* hard time understanding the concepts behind OpenGL. (And I hate the way math people use the word "transform" when talking about movement)

[kmj]

if it's only movement, it's not a transformation, it's a translation. Other transformations are scaling and rotation. :)

[darelf]

Well there you go.... why not just call it "movement" and "rotation"..... Einstein gave me fits over the same stuff talking about his stupid train....
Them math geniuses need to use regular words for stuff.....

Oh and Dru.... what are you thinking? Coding. Then the rest of life.

[Dru Lee Parsec]

Oh and Dru.... what are you thinking? Coding. Then the rest of life.

But big thick steaks and a Black & Tan (actually, I had a full rack of BBQ ribs and TWO black & Tans) was way better than writing full screen exclusive mode Java code.

Forgive me just this once?

[Strike]

Originally posted by darelf
Well there you go.... why not just call it "movement" and "rotation".....
They do call it rotation, but "movement" in the sense that you seem to be thinking of it is really translation. Why, you ask? Why not? If you're gonna be messing with 3D stuff extensively, you'll want to learn a good deal of linear algebra, and such transformations are discussed in that course with the terminology used in the OpenGL library's language.

[darelf]

Originally posted by Strike

They do call it rotation, but "movement" in the sense that you seem to be thinking of it is really translation. Why, you ask? Why not? If you're gonna be messing with 3D stuff extensively, you'll want to learn a good deal of linear algebra, and such transformations are discussed in that course with the terminology used in the OpenGL library's language.

I realize it would get overly tiresome for me to continue an attempt at humour.....

So, I'll say this... I did a little work in OpenGL. It's cumbersome. I've looked at various wrappers, etc. Nothing I like, so far. Visual Python was cool.... that's about it. And the wierd thing is, I screwed around with all of that because I wanted a 2d surface that zoomed in and out at user command, and also static animations. (You know, rotating logo in the corner of the app... map interface that allows panning and zooming of the surface... etc.)

Anyway, since the project was just for fun, and I wasn't having any(fun that is), it died in my head.....

[kmj]

Dude... 3D is a rather complex thing. There's no two ways about it. OpenGL does become less complicated when you're only dealing with 2D though. If you're ever interested in trying it again. I can show you some of my professor's example code to do all kinds of basic stuff in OpenGL.

[Dru Lee Parsec]

In Java I believe the call it an Affine Transform. There's even a class called java.awt.geom.AffineTransform that will do a rotation via a matrix multiplication.

[nanode]

I wish I had the spare time and enthusiasm to play with stuff like this.