It appears that there is an at least semi-official Sun OGl wrapper for java now (see http://games.dev.java.net/\). Should OM switch to using Jogl? It's very similar to gl4java, so I wouldn't think it would be too much work.
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Yep, the move should be fairly easy.
Here is what we have to say about OpenMind and the JSR-134 :
As some of you may have noticed, Sun has released a set of open source APIs related to javagaming :
- JoGL : an OpenGL Java binding
- JoAL : an OpenAL Java binding
- Jinput : a joystick device API
- Jutils : a set of utilities for the 3 APIs above.
We are quite satisfied with SUNs java gaming politics, and we believe they have made an intelligent choice answering the needs for java gaming by publishing a set of quality open source APIs everyone can contribute to, and eventually fix the bugs met without having to wait six month till an uncertain bug fix.
However there are some issues we are not too happy with, such as the fact that jogl is nothing but a revamped GL4Java with credit to Sven Gothel being removed in favour of SUN employees, or the fact that we have been waiting for 2 years in a total secrecy from SUN, navigating blind about their javagaming strategy, for ending with a set of APIs that bring only a little advance compared to existing open source solutions. We were expecting way more from SUN, and with such a little advance, their commitment to javagaming remains to be proved : Will they support these APIs in the long term, or is this just an announce effect ? Will they improve their communication and work hand in hand with java gaming developers, or will they keep this useless secrecy while the competition (mainly DirectX from Microsoft) is light-years ahead with far more developers working on game APIs development and innovation?
Java gaming being still emerging, we believe it is not the time to split the efforts, and thus we decided to join forces with SUN's initiative and move OpenMind on top of the new set of APIs. This should bring better support and reliability for the low level APIs OpenMind is based on, and will bring its set of new features.
So what should we expect next for OpenMind ?
Jinput will bring Joystick support, on Windows for the beginning, then MacOSX and Linux should arrive some day. JoGL will bring support for DDS textures featuring precomputed image compression, precomputed mipmap levels (this means faster load times and lower memory consumption). It will also bring support for Java image I/O apis, opening perspectives for easier implementation of various image file formats. JoAL will bring support for EAX sound effects for sound cards featuring a Digital Signal Processing unit.
What about open source developpers ?
Fabio Zambetta came with an implementation of multitexturing and environment mapping that we should adapt to OpenMind once the port to JoGL will be done.
James Jones is advancing on the collision detection with implementation of a quick hull bounding volume.
Gaspar Sevilla expects to develop an exporter from 3dsMAX to OpenMind with improved features.
While Mind2Machine is spending a lot of time on project management and answering various emails about OpenMind received from users, we are currently advancing slower than expected on OpenMind, being working on raising funds dedicated to financing the open source development of OpenMind. We believe a better financial independence would help us develop faster and better in the future, keeping in mind the goal to share the work on OpenMind with the community in the free software spirit. So keep being patient with us. OpenMind is a long term initiative, and if it may grow slowly, it is surely following its path.
Alban Cousini
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
It appears that there is an at least semi-official Sun OGl wrapper for java now (see http://games.dev.java.net/\). Should OM switch to using Jogl? It's very similar to gl4java, so I wouldn't think it would be too much work.
Yep, the move should be fairly easy.
Here is what we have to say about OpenMind and the JSR-134 :
As some of you may have noticed, Sun has released a set of open source APIs related to javagaming :
- JoGL : an OpenGL Java binding
- JoAL : an OpenAL Java binding
- Jinput : a joystick device API
- Jutils : a set of utilities for the 3 APIs above.
We are quite satisfied with SUNs java gaming politics, and we believe they have made an intelligent choice answering the needs for java gaming by publishing a set of quality open source APIs everyone can contribute to, and eventually fix the bugs met without having to wait six month till an uncertain bug fix.
However there are some issues we are not too happy with, such as the fact that jogl is nothing but a revamped GL4Java with credit to Sven Gothel being removed in favour of SUN employees, or the fact that we have been waiting for 2 years in a total secrecy from SUN, navigating blind about their javagaming strategy, for ending with a set of APIs that bring only a little advance compared to existing open source solutions. We were expecting way more from SUN, and with such a little advance, their commitment to javagaming remains to be proved : Will they support these APIs in the long term, or is this just an announce effect ? Will they improve their communication and work hand in hand with java gaming developers, or will they keep this useless secrecy while the competition (mainly DirectX from Microsoft) is light-years ahead with far more developers working on game APIs development and innovation?
Java gaming being still emerging, we believe it is not the time to split the efforts, and thus we decided to join forces with SUN's initiative and move OpenMind on top of the new set of APIs. This should bring better support and reliability for the low level APIs OpenMind is based on, and will bring its set of new features.
So what should we expect next for OpenMind ?
Jinput will bring Joystick support, on Windows for the beginning, then MacOSX and Linux should arrive some day. JoGL will bring support for DDS textures featuring precomputed image compression, precomputed mipmap levels (this means faster load times and lower memory consumption). It will also bring support for Java image I/O apis, opening perspectives for easier implementation of various image file formats. JoAL will bring support for EAX sound effects for sound cards featuring a Digital Signal Processing unit.
What about open source developpers ?
Fabio Zambetta came with an implementation of multitexturing and environment mapping that we should adapt to OpenMind once the port to JoGL will be done.
James Jones is advancing on the collision detection with implementation of a quick hull bounding volume.
Gaspar Sevilla expects to develop an exporter from 3dsMAX to OpenMind with improved features.
While Mind2Machine is spending a lot of time on project management and answering various emails about OpenMind received from users, we are currently advancing slower than expected on OpenMind, being working on raising funds dedicated to financing the open source development of OpenMind. We believe a better financial independence would help us develop faster and better in the future, keeping in mind the goal to share the work on OpenMind with the community in the free software spirit. So keep being patient with us. OpenMind is a long term initiative, and if it may grow slowly, it is surely following its path.
Alban Cousini