I am section head of the Virtual Reality section ("Halden Virtual
Reality Centre") which is organised under the Visual Interface
Technologies Division at the Norwegian Institute for Energy Technology.
We currently have eight full-time employees using Java3D for software
development as well as several students working on Java3D-based
projects.About Us
We are using Java3D to develop software internally and in collaboration with other organisations and educational institutions (especially the Norwegian University of Science and Technology -- we have MSc and PhD students working on a wearable computing project at the moment). The research that we do is done under the auspices of the OECD Halden Project, the results of which are distributed to 120 organisations in ca. 20 countries in the energy sector. We also have collaborative agreements with other organisations in other industries including the space industry.
We use Java3D to develop prototype applications for usability and feasibility studies and we develop software systems for collaborative design, work planning, and training, which are usually the result of the research-oriented prototyping. We have found Java3D to be very suitable for rapid prototyping of application concepts. The most mature of our "off-the-shelf" software systems is our user-centred design software suite which we started work on in 2000. It was designed in collaboration with the R&D division of Elecricite de France and can be found on our website (http://www.ife.no/vr/) where there are also some screenshots. Although it was developed to support the design of control rooms where there are often strict requirements for tracking the design process and following guidelines, we have found that it can be used for a wide range of activities with similar needs. For example, we have recently received confirmation of funding from the Norwegian Research Council to continue to develop the software to support the design and evaluation of environments from the perspective of disabled people, in collaboration with the Oslo School of Architecture.
- Why Java 3D?
We have been using Java 3D since early 2000. We made the decision to migrate to Java3D for a number of reasons, one of most important being that we wanted a cross-platform scene graph API that could load geometry stored in VRML and enable us to embed interactive 3D content and functionality into Java applications. We also needed software that could be freely distributed without licensing costs for end-users.
We have been quite happy with the Windows and Linux versions of Java 3D but we have been disappointed to see the SGI IRIX version get stuck at version 1.2.1 and to see no Java 3D on Mac OS X at all. It is therefore important for us that whatever technology we go for in the future is cross-platform and that all the major platforms within the 3D-oriented industry are supported.
- Current Wishes
For our current needs, we would simply like Java3D 1.3.x to continue to be maintained and fixed and we would like to see the Linux/Unix (including Mac OS X ports) get done/updated. This would enable us to continue to use and extend our existing code base and gradually transition to a next generation Java 3D API some time in the future. We need to make some decisions very soon about what API to use for new projects -- we're currently treading water -- hoping that some sort of support for Java 3D 1.3 will continue. To this end, our current preference would be that Java 3D be made completely open source with a central reference implementation and a "code referee" to coordinate its maintenance. This could perhaps be done via the Web3D Consortium, since the reference implementation of X3D (Xj3D) is currently mostly based on Java 3D and I believe that several Consortium members have significant Java3D-oriented code bases which may be sufficient to convince the board to channel some funding via the the Consortium?
- Future Wishes
For the future we would like to see a revitalised Java 3D API, however
we don't really care whether it evolves from the existing Java3D 1.3
spec (or code base) or is something entirely new, as long as it has a
similar base feature set (including multiple displays, multiple
processors and multiple thread support) so that we can migrate our code
relatively easily. If the Java 3D source is completely open source,
then it could be used as either a basis for developing a new Java 3D
API without affecting the reference implementation of the 1.3
specification referred to in the previous paragraph, or it could be
used just for reference ("lessons-learned").- Summary
We would like to see a well supported (by the community) Java 3D API and believe that releasing the Java3D source code under a fair open source license would be the best way to ensure that maintenance of the existing 1.3 spec and provide a reference for developers of future Java 3D APIs.
As long as a future API is open source and benefits us, we would be happy to contribute code and even help to sponsor maintenance (although we have limited resources for that).
Best wishes,
Michael Louka
-- Section Head, Halden VR Centre, Visual Interface Technologies Division Institutt for energiteknikk, PO Box 173, N-1751 Halden, Norway Tel: +47 69 21 22 54 (direct), Fax: +47 69 21 24 90 HVRC on the Web: <http://www.ife.no/vr/>
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