Java3D Tutorial Jenny Orr, Willamette University

Loaders

• Creating visual objects in Java3D requires creating shapes from polygons (e.g. triangles) point by point.
• Calculating and inputing these points can be extremely difficult and tedious.
• A preferable method is to use one of the many visual editors available to create 3D scenes.
  • Lightwave, VRML, 3D StudioMax, Maya, AutoCAD, etc
• The Java3D Loader interface makes it possible to convert these 3D scenes into the Java3D scene graph format.
• Once the object is loaded into a scene graph, it can be manipulated and animated in Java3D.
• Downside:
  • Sun provides the Loader interface and not the actual classes.
  • Loader classes for each type of 3D scene (e.g. .obj, .vrml, etc) requires someone writing it.
  • Many loader classes do currently exist, however, their functionality is limited.
• See loader demo.