Owen, If you haven't already, check out www.delta3d.org.
It wraps together openscenegraph, open dynamics engine (physics) and character animation lib (cal3D). All open-source. It's a very game-like development environment, with an eye towards the differences between simulations and games. However, it is not necessarily geared towards an agent-based approach. Jim > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Behalf Of Owen Densmore > Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2006 10:37 AM > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group > Subject: [FRIAM] Animation via Behavior: Killer Game Programming in Java > > > This may seem a bit odd, but bear with me! > > We've been using Processing.org's great graphics system: the > libraries and the nifty IDE and tools for managing > "sketchbooks" (projects), building web pages/applets, and even > building applications for Windows, Mac and Linux. We've had success > (i.e. got paid for!) two projects using Processing: a Stadium model, > and a generalized Data Visualization system. Quite nice. > > So now we've got two interesting environments for modeling: NetLogo, > our old friend which keeps getting better, and Processing which seems > great for what I'd call "wire frame" modeling. We've also got high > end rendering experience with Blender: we can both use it to build > Processing meshes for our models and can render agent motion inside > blender, using NetLogo and Processing output. > > BUT we're missing a "sweet spot" in the middle: a fairly realistic 3D > environment that can do realtime modeling .. i.e. animation via > behavior. We also want to have some notion of "physics" .. i.e. > things bouncing off walls or agents colliding. (Blender thus far has > not worked, but we're still poking.) > > This prompting me to look into Java graphics and game books, one of > which is Killer Game Programming in Java. The book has a website > which includes a LOT of material that is not in his book: > http://fivedots.coe.psu.ac.th/~ad/jg/ > This let to getting in touch with the author, asking for pointers to > "game engines", see email attached. > > Now to the question to FRIAM: Has anyone found a good environment > for agent based modeling with "game-like" 3D realism and with modest > libraries for collision detection, scene graphs and so on? > > -- Owen > > Owen Densmore http://backspaces.net > > Begin forwarded message: > > From: "Dr. Andrew Davison" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Date: September 4, 2006 10:56:45 PM MDT > > To: Owen Densmore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Subject: Re: Processing.org > > > > > > Owen, > > > > Thanks for the pointer to processing.org. It's a very nice system. > > > >> We're also looking for Java "game engines" to make our work > >> simpler. Do you have any pointers? > > > > Here's a snippet from an article I'm writing: > > > > Xith3D (http://xith.org) uses the same basic scene graph structure > > as Java 3D, but can also directly call OpenGL operations. Since the > > high-level APIs of Xith3D and Java 3D are so similar, porting Java > > 3D code over to Xith3D is fairly straightforward. There are > > versions of Xith3D that run on top of JOGL and LWJGL. > > > > jME Graphics Engine (jMonkey Engine, http:// > > www.mojomonkeycoding.com/) was inspired by the scene graph engine > > described in 3D Game Engine Design by David H. Eberly (http:// > > www.magic-software.com/Books.html). jME is built on top of LWJGL. > > > > JAVA is DOOMED (http://javaisdoomed.sourceforge.net) includes > > loaders for Quake 2 MD2 and 3D Studio Max 3DS files . The > > implementation uses JOGL, and the distribution includes Escape, a > > Doom-like game. > > > > Aviatrix3D (http://aviatrix3d.j3d.org/) is a retained-mode Java > > scene graph API above JOGL. Its tool set is aimed at data > > visualization rather than gaming, and supports CAVEs, domes, and HMDs. > > > > JView (http://www.rl.af.mil/tech/programs/JVIEW/) is another > > visualization API, supporting both 2D and 3D graphics, developed by > > the U.S. Air Force Research Lab. GL4Java, an older low-level Java > > API for OpenGL, was used to build it. > > > > Espresso3D (http://www.espresso3d.com/), a games-oriented library, > > includes OpenAL audio, sprites, collision detection, input, and > > rendering support. It's built using LWJGL. > > > > - Andrew > > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
