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

Time for action – welcome to Dark Town


From the point of view of a 3D engine, shading and lighting are two separate things. You may have noticed that, by default, our walls, bricks, and cannon balls don't cast drop shadows onto the floor or on each other.

This is how you can activate drop shadows using a SceneProcessor:

  1. Make a copy of Main.java and name the class ShadowDirectional.java. Remember to also refactor the first line of the main() method to ShadowDirectional app = new ShadowDirectional().

  2. Create a directional light source and add it to the scene:

    public void simpleInitApp() {
      DirectionalLight sun = new DirectionalLight();
      sun.setDirection(new Vector3f(.3f, -0.5f, -0.5f));
      rootNode.addLight(sun);
  3. Create a DirectionalLightShadowRenderer object in the simpleInitApp() method. You find it in the com.jme3.shadow package. Initialize DirectionalLightShadowRenderer and use the setLight() method to link it to the global light source:

    DirectionalLightShadowRenderer dlsr = new DirectionalLightShadowRenderer...