Appearance3DChooser : A few Tips

top.jpg

Introduction

Appearance3DChooser will let you play with some of the parameters of a Java3D Appearance object. The Appearance object defines all rendering state that can be set as a component object of a Shape3D node.

This help reminds some parts of the Java3D V1.5 documentation in order to help you to better understand the way the differents parameters of this component work. Moreover it will also help you to construct your own object using the Java3D library.

The rendering state consists of the following:

top.jpg

The Rendering Panel

The rendering Panel may be used to check the effect of the parametrisation done. You have 4 different views (Right, Front, Left, Top) to check the result and and a checkbox to add a bigger Front view. Any Java3D primitive (ie Cone, Cube, Sphere and Cylinder) may be choosen for the scene. In each view you may use the mouse to navigate : the left button handles rotations, the right one handles translations and the middle one is used for the zoom.

RenderPanel-1.png

You may add Antialiasing on the scene and the 3 Axis (x,y,z) to help you to manipulate the objects. Each axis is 1.0 in length.

You also may add the different Java3D lights into the scene :

By default only one of each light type is shown, but a panel is available to add some more if needed. The resulting lighting will then be applied on each view.

top.jpg

The Material Panel

The Material Panel defines the appearance of an object under illumination, such as the ambient color, diffuse color, specular color, emissive color, and shininess. These attributes are defined in a Java3D Material object. It represents the Java3D Material class.

MaterialPanel-1.png MaterialPanel-2.png

The Material Panel includes the following:

top.jpg

The Transparency Panel

The Transparency Panel defines the attributes that affect transparency of the object, such as the transparency mode (blended, screen-door), blending function (used in transparency and antialiasing operations), and a blend value that defines the amount of transparency to be applied to this Appearance component object. It represents the Java3D TransparencyAttributes class.

TransparencyPanel-1.png

The Transparency Panel includes the following:

top.jpg

The Texture Panel

The Texture Panel defines attributes that apply to texture mapping.

TexturePanel-1.png TexturePanel-2.png

The Texture Panel includes the following:

top.jpg

The System Info Panel

The System Info Panel gives information on the system environnement, in particular the architecture, the Operating System and the memory used in real time through the JVM. This panel is accessible from the question mark in the menu bar.

The GC Button may be used to force a Garbage Collector.

SystemInfoPanel-1.png

This panel also gives a flash view on the live Threads.

SystemInfoPanel-2.png

top.jpg

The 3D Info & Characteristics Panel

The Java3D Characteristics Panel queries information from the used Java3D Universe and Canvas. This panel is accessible from the question mark in the menu bar.

3DInfoPanel.png

In particular this Panel gives the following information :

top.jpg

The Java Info Panel

The Java Info Panel gives information related to Java, ie the Java Version and the JRE used, the CLASSPATH ... It is accessible from the question mark in the menu bar.

JavaInfoPanel-1.png

This Panel also shows all the used class and their version.

JavaInfoPanel-2.png

Through this Panel it is also possible to see all the defined Java System properties.

JavaInfoPanel-3.png

top.jpg

The User Info Panel

The User Info Panel gives mostly information related to the user, ie your Login, you Home directory, your language ... It is accessible from the question mark in the menu bar.

UserInfoPanel-1.png

top.jpg

The Parameters Values Info Panel

The Parameters Values Info Panel summarizes all the Appearance3DChooser values that are handled by this component for a java3D Appearence object.

ParametersInfoPanel-1.png