Java 3D Datasheet

The Java 3D^TM API provides a set of object-oriented interfaces for applications that require high-performance, interactive 3D graphics. With the Java 3D API, developers can take advantage of a simple, high-level programming model that enables them to build, render, and control the behavior of 3D objects and visual environments. By leveraging the inherent strengths of the Java language, Java 3D extends the concept of Write Once, Run Anywhere^TM to developers of 3D graphics applications. With the introduction of the Java 3D API, developers are more easily able to incorporate high-quality, scalable, and platform-independent 3D graphics into Java-based applications and applets.

The Java 3D API takes advantage of existing hardware accelerators via its use of low-level APIs such as OpenGL® and Direct3D®. This layering allows applications written using the Java 3D API to run on any platform with a Java virtual machine(JDK^TM version 1.2 or higher) and an OpenGL or a Direct3D implementation. Support for run-time loaders is included to allow Java3D to accommodate a wide variety of file formats. The Java 3D API benefits developers in a diverse set of application areas including scientific visualization, animation, web site design, virtual world construction, simulations, training, games, and design automation.

The Java 3D API is an integral part of the Java Media APIs, providing developers the ability to better integrate 2D & 3D graphics, video, audio, image processing, and other multimedia and visualization

Simplification of 3D Graphics Application Development

The Java 3D API incorporates a high-level scene-graph model that allows developers to focus on the objects and the scene composition. This allows for rapid application development by freeing the programmer from spending time and effort designing specific geometric shapes and writing rendering code for the scene display.

No longer are you constrained by having a handful of graphics gurus doing your 3D development. The Java 3D API enables a much broader range of developers to create sophisticated 3D applications.

Ideal for Intranet & Internet Visualization Applications

The Java platform was designed from the ground up to be a network-centric computing environment. The Java platform includes a full suite of Java enterprise APIs and technologies such as the JavaBeans^TM component which enables objects to be exchanged over the network. The Java 3D API builds on this by giving developers the ability to do high-end 3D visualization over the network regardless of the target platform. Java 3D incorporates geometry compression as part of its specification. This allows very large 3D models to be rapidly downloaded over the network for remote viewing and manipulation, reducing the impact of potential bottlenecks in network bandwidth.

High Performance

The Java 3D API simplifies the application developer's job by allowing the API to perform many mundane tasks such as scene graph traversal or attribute state management. This allows Java 3D implementations to tune and scale the application's scene graph to the underlying hardware for maximum performance. Java 3D also provides three different rendering modes for optimizing an applications execution: immediate mode, retained mode, and compiled-retained mode. In addition, implementations of the Java 3D API are layered to take full advantage of the most appropriate rendering API for a given platform, namely OpenGL or Direct3D, delivering native graphics acceleration. The Java 3D API delivers the performance needed for visualization and manipulation of very large 3D models through features such as view-frustum culling, execution culling, and multi-threading (MT-hot).