Re: Looking for a 3D library

[Peter Hatch <RemoveMep-hatch@uiuc.edu>]

steven wrote:
> 
> Peter Hatch wrote:
> >
> > Xavier Lesage wrote:
> > >
> > > Dear all,
> > >
> > > I am a PhD student in artificial life.
> > >
> > > I would like to animate cubes and spheres in a 3D environment with colours,
> > > textures and shadows. I do not want to re-develop common functions that are
> > > likely to exist somewhere. Has anyone an idea of where I could find such a
> > > library (in freeware or with moderate license costs).
> > >
> > > I would like to access this library from my programms (written in
> > > Smalltalk, Java or ADA) running in Linux, therefore the library must be
> > > compatible with at least one of this environment.
> > >
> > > Thank you for giving me a name or an URL where I could find information.
> > >
> > > Xavier Lesage
> > > Universit� Pierre et Marie Curie
> >
> > You should probably use OpenGL.  It's fast, and it's available for linux
> > as the Mesa libraries.  I know that it works with VW Smalltalk
> > (currently only under Win95/NT, but Terry Fleury just completed a
> > partial port of the Jun display system over to Mesa/Glut so it will soon
> > work under Unix).  If you have access to a WinTel box, you can evaluate
> > the Jun system to see if it meets your needs (I expect that it will).
> > You can get the non-commercial version of VW Smalltalk from (for linux
> > and WinTel):
> >
> > http://www.objectshare.com/vwnc
> >
> > Jun is available from:
> >
> > http://www.sra.co.jp/people/aoki/htmls/FreeSoftwareForSmalltalk.html
> >
> > I will work over the next month (big vacation month, not much free time)
> > on getting Terry's Mesa port ready for general use.  Unless you want to
> > be programming graphics code all day long, you should really try out
> > Jun.
> >
> > -pete
> >
> > --
> > ______    _______________    _____
> >       \  /Peter W. Hatch \  /
> >        >< Zen Smalltalker ><
> > ______/  \_______________/  \_____
> 
> How to get Linux system?
> 
> steve

Given that I'm pretty excited about using Jun under linux, it's one of
my top priorities.  Unfortunately, I am about to go out of town until
the middle of January.

For those that are unfamiliar with Jun, it provides an OpenGL modeling
environment that lets you develop graphical models in the spirit of
Smalltalk (i.e., you can make changes to the models as you look at
them).  Jun is currently available for VisualWorks 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0. 
The model viewing sub-system currently only works for WinTel since the
system uses the Windows API libraries for displaying the models.  Terry
Fleury (one of Ralph Johnson's students this year) has made the system
so that it opens a Glut window for displaying the models.  He modified
the Glut code adding a new event that allows VW menus to be displayed
over the Glut window.  

So, the code "basically works" now.  What I was thinking about doing was
taking a look at his code and seeing if I couldn't get it to work with
the standard Mesa/Glut libraries.  I also want to be able to make the
modeling environment a bit more similar to that in the current Jun
system (with wheel widgets and menus adorning the model's window).

If people want to work on this, send me email (notice the anti-spam
address).  I'd be more than happy to mail the code out to anyone who
wants it.  As soon as we get everything right, we'll put the code up on
the Smalltalk Archive and we can see if Aoki would like to include the
code in the standard Jun distribution.

For those that want to wait 'til the project is complete, I anticipate
that it won't take more than 2 months (but if I get some volunteers it
could take only a week).

All in all, I'm pretty excited about this.  This could be a great
graphics environment for use under Linux (as well as other
platforms...).

-pete

-- 
______	  _______________    _____
      \	 /Peter W. Hatch \  / 
       >< Zen Smalltalker ><  
______/  \_______________/  \_____