gdkinney_2
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Best way to do 3D Scenes or Animations we are using Java Swing and 2D API's currently?
We are currently using Java 2D API's to draw rectangles, strings and ovals through implementation of a class where we implement it's paintComponent method. These rectangles represent Tanks in a battle scene where a user can specify the angle (heading or direction of the tank) and the position in the x,y coordinates of each tank in the scene. Right now the view is above the scene looking down like an observer above along the z-axis.
We are thinking about doing a 3D Scene where the observer's position can change in relation to the scene in other words I guess he would be able to rotate the scene in different directions using the mouse. What would be the best and or easiest way to do this?
Thanks
We are thinking about doing a 3D Scene where the observer's position can change in relation to the scene in other words I guess he would be able to rotate the scene in different directions using the mouse. What would be the best and or easiest way to do this?
Thanks
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ASKER
Hi jgordos
Actually we have nothing 3D at the moment or anything other than a simple 2D module to do tank scenes. We will need 3D development to begin soon though is what I am hearing. It will be in Java and yes it will be part of an Java application. I think they want to be able to model terrain as well so that it looks like the tanks are on some real surface.
Hope this helps. Should I start buying books on JOGL and OpenGL at this point?
Actually we have nothing 3D at the moment or anything other than a simple 2D module to do tank scenes. We will need 3D development to begin soon though is what I am hearing. It will be in Java and yes it will be part of an Java application. I think they want to be able to model terrain as well so that it looks like the tanks are on some real surface.
Hope this helps. Should I start buying books on JOGL and OpenGL at this point?
ASKER
I keep hearing about Java, JOGL and openGL as well. I wonder if that is worth looking at and what the learning curve would be. How long would it take us to have tanks or other platforms in a scene where each platforms position (x,y,z) and orientation(yaw, pitch, roll) could be specified. Also we need to be able for the observer to change his position relative to the scene. We probably will eventually want to be able to specify terrain in the background as well. I am not sure but they might want users to be able to change the position of the platforms(tanks) by selecting and dragging them to different positions also.