Pro Java 6 3D Game Development Java 3D, JOGL, JInput and JOAL APIs

Create strange lands filled with mysterious objects (cows frozen in blocks of ice, chirping penguins, golden globes with wavering eyes) and throw away your keyboard and mouse, to go exploring armed only with a gamepad, power glove, or just your bare hands!

Java gaming expert Andrew Davison will show you how to develop and program 3D games in Java technology on a PC, with an emphasis on the construction of 3D landscapes. It's assumed you have a reasonable knowledge of Java—the sort of thing picked up in a first Java course at school.

Topics are split into three sections: Java 3D API, non-standard input devices for game playing, and JOGL. Java 3D is a high-level 3D graphics API, and JOGL is a lower-level Java wrapper around the popular OpenGL graphics API.

You'll look at three non-standard input devices: the webcam, the game pad, and the P5 data glove.

Along the way, you'll utilize several other games-related libraries including: JInput, JOAL, JMF, and Odejava.

Learn all the latest Java SE 6 features relevant to gaming, including: splash screens, JavaScript scripting as well as the desktop and system tray interfaces.

Unique coverage of Java game development using both the Java 3D API and Java for OpenGL, as well as invaluable experience from a recognized Java gaming guru, will provide you with a distinct advantage after reading this book.

Java 3D.- Introducing Java 3D.- Get a Life (in 3D).- Get a Life (the Java 6 Way).- The Colliding Grabbers.- When Worlds Collide.- A Multitextured Landscape.- Walking Around the Models.- More Backgrounds and Overlays.- Nonstandard Input Devices.- More Backgrounds and Overlays.- Navigating a 3D Scene by Waving Your Arm.- Building a Gamepad Controller with JInput.- Gamepad Grabbers.- 3D Sound with JOAL.- The P5 Glove.- JOGL.- Two JOGL Programming Frameworks.- Touring the World.- Loading Models.

Andrew Davison received his Ph.D. from Imperial College in London in 1989. He was a lecturer at the University of Melbourne for six years before moving to Prince of Songkla University in Thailand in 1996. He has also taught in Bangkok, Khon Kaen, and Hanoi. His research interests include scripting languages, logic programming, visualization, and teaching methodologies. This latter topic led to an interest in teaching games programming in 1999. His O'Reilly book, iKiller Game Programming in Java/i, was published in 2005.