Hi,
I'll throw my 2c worth in. Having been involved with
a failed attempt to use J3D with the VRML Loader to build
an end user product. The technical decision to use J3D
was out of our hands and after some initial euphoria
it rapidly became a drag.
1.) Stability across platforms/cards was very weak. I know
that much of this is driver related but other 3D programs
seem to be able to get it more consistent. Sort of sunk the
cross platform attraction of Java in the first place.
2.) OpenGL versus D3D generated distinctly different
results.
3.) Memory Leaks/Load time/overall performance both speed
and memory.
4.) Integration of Canvas3D with Swing resulted in amateurish
results. Canvas3D mouse grab, blt problems.
5.) Poor 2D overlay performance (should say non-existent).
6.) Collision/Picking Bugs.
7.) Behaviours just ate the CPU time.
8.) Installation nightmare for a non-literate customer.
9.) VRML Loader code appears to be a proof of concept. Not
something you can base anything industrial on.
10.) Transparency bugs.
11.) Texturing bugs - to be fair many of these were driver related
but given a naive end user it meant having to make sure the latest
drivers were loaded also.
I could go on I guess.
Basically J3D provided a quick proof of concept and as indicated by others
just sunk in the last 10-20% of work required to take this proof of concept
to finished product. Actually I'd quibble about that percentage for any
project but that's for another discussion (IMO its more like 50% of the work
for most projects - its just boring work).
In the end the project failed. Unless the next release is magically better
my opinion is that J3D is a long way from being something you could base a
non-specialized project on. This was disappointing given the leg up that it
initially provided.
rgds
JR
===========================================================================
To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and include in the body
of the message "signoff JAVA3D-INTEREST". For general help, send email to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] and include in the body of the message "help".
