Davison Andrew. Pro Java 6 3D Game Development: Java 3D, JOGL, JInput, and JOAL APIs

This book is divided into three main sections: Java 3D, nonstandard input devices for game playing,and JOGL.
Java 3D is a high-level 3D graphics API based around the construction of a scene graph data
structure that contains the objects that appear in the 3D scene. Java 3D topics covered here include how to build your own 3D models, load existing models, create detailed landscapes, display beautiful skies and backgrounds, and have users navigate through the scene, bumping into things as they go.
I examine three nonstandard input devices: the webcam, the gamepad, and the P5 data glove—all fun alternatives to the rather boring PC keyboard and mouse.
JOGL is a Java wrapper around the popular OpenGL 3D graphics API, which offers a less high-
level programming abstraction than Java 3D (in particular, there’s no scene graph to build). JOGL’s closeness to OpenGL means there’s a wealth of existing OpenGL examples, tutorials, and program-
ming tips and techniques that can be reused without much recoding. I look at topics similar to
those for Java 3D: landscapes, skyboxes, billboards, picking, fog, overlays, and building and loading
models.
Another theme of this book is the examination of games-related Java APIs that aren’t part of the
standard Java distribution (i.e. , they’re not in the software you get when you download Java SE). I’ve already mentioned Java 3D and JOGL. Other APIs include JInput (for interfacing Java to nonstan- dard input devices), JOAL (a Java wrapper around the 3D sound API, OpenAL), JMF (for managing time-based multimedia, which I employ for rapidly taking webcam snaps), and Odejava (a Java layer over the physics API, ODE).
This book examines the latest Java SE 6 features relevant to gaming, including splash screens,
JavaScript scripting, and the desktop and system tray interfaces.
All the source code can be found at http://fivedots.coe.psu.ac.th/~ad/jg2/. I’ve also uploaded
early drafts of the chapters there, including a few that didn’t make it into the book.Product Details.ISBN-13: 978-1-59059-817-7
ISBN-10: 1-59059-817-2* Paperback: 527 pages.
* Publisher: Apress; (2007).
* Language: English.