Book Image

jMonkeyEngine 3.0 : Beginner's Guide

Book Image

jMonkeyEngine 3.0 : Beginner's Guide

Overview of this book

jMonkeyEngine 3.0 is a powerful set of free Java libraries that allows you to unlock your imagination, create 3D games and stunning graphics. Using jMonkeyEngine's library of time-tested methods, this book will allow you to unlock its potential and make the creation of beautiful interactive 3D environments a breeze."jMonkeyEngine 3.0 Beginner's Guide" teaches aspiring game developers how to build modern 3D games with Java. This primer on 3D programming is packed with best practices, tips and tricks and loads of example code. Progressing from elementary concepts to advanced effects, budding game developers will have their first game up and running by the end of this book.From basic concepts and project creation to building a complex 3D Game, you will learn to layout 3D scenes, make them interactive and add various multi-media effects.You will find answers to common questions including best practices and approaches, how game characters can act and interact, how to simulate solid walls and physical forces, how to take it online to play over a network and much more.From Zero to Hero, start your journey to make your game idea a reality.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
jMonkeyEngine 3.0 Beginner's Guide
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Populating the scene


Now you know where you are, and how to position and transform 3D objects. When you start populating the scene, you face the issue of handling possibly hundreds of objects. In order to keep track of all your stuff, the jMonkeyEngine provides you with a special data structure—the scene graph. The scene graph manages all elements in a 3D scene. We call the elements in the 3D scene spatials.

Spatials are attached to one another in a parent-child relationship. When we speak of attaching a spatial, we mean that we add the spatial to the scene. When we speak of detaching a spatial, we remove it from the scene.

One specific parent spatial in every game is the root node of the scene. Every spatial that is attached to this one root node, directly or indirectly, is part of the scene graph.

Tip

JMonkeyEngine speeds up large scenes by ignoring spatials that are out of view or behind the camera. This feature is called culling. To make a spatial disappear temporarily without detaching...