Improving the Eclipse tutorial?

[ted]

Thanks. Now I just need to look around for examples of setting material, texture mapping, background images, writing to an offscreen BufferedImage that I can return to a caller in another language (MATLAB), and porting my existing Java3D code to jReality. It looks like it will be a lot easier than doing it directly in JOJL... :)

[ted]

Still there are some things that could be improved on that page:

1. I assume the git stuff at the bottom is an alternative to using SVN. If so, the comment "(or alternatively use Subclipse)" could be changed to "or alternatively use Subclipse (instructions here) or Gi (instructions here)" with hyperlinks under each "instructions here" phrase.

2. The instructions about Java1.5 need to be clarified and a screendump should be provided.

3. "Testing (jogl)" should be something more clear, like "Running example code". I'm not sure why there's a reference to JOGL, since this is way above GL, and even way above GLUT. That's like putting (Virtual Machine Code) after a reference to programming with Java. Maybe some text at the top of the tutorial that says JReality is an object-oriented wrapper around JOGL or something to that effect would accomplish what you want.

4. Under "Adding VR data to the project" it says

We have to add the two jars vrData.jar and vrExamples.jar to the classpath. Go to the download page and save the two jars under jreality/lib/.
In Eclipse, right-click on the jreality/lib folder and say Refresh... Then expand the folder, select the two jars and add them to the build path: Right-click on the selection: Build Path->Add to Build Path.

Now run ViewerVR again, you should see the following:

but none of that was necessary for me. Apparently those jars have been placed correctly in the project so that step is unnecessary, as is the grayscale-looking image above that text. I suggest removing it as well.

5. Under Tips and Tricks, list where the tutorials and examples are within the project and suggest running and experimenting with them.

[gunn]

Hi Ted,

This is in response to your next-to-last post:

Thanks. Now I just need to look around for examples of setting material, texture mapping, background images, writing to an offscreen BufferedImage that I can return to a caller in another language (MATLAB), and porting my existing Java3D code to jReality. It looks like it will be a lot easier than doing it directly in JOJL...

I think the best place to start looking for more on these topics is the jReality tutorial, available at http://www3.math.tu-berlin.de/jreality/ ... r_Tutorial.
Materials, texture, and background images are the subject of the following 3 tutorial examples, resp.:

http://www3.math.tu-berlin.de/jreality/ ... hp/Intro03
http://www3.math.tu-berlin.de/jreality/ ... 2d_texture
http://www3.math.tu-berlin.de/jreality/ ... Background

For writing to an offscreen BufferedImage, there is no tutorial, but look at the source code for the class de.jreality.ui.viewerapp.actions.file.ExportImage, which shows how to invoke the JOGL backend to create an instance of BufferedImage.

To see how to use jReality to communicate with Mathematica see the example http://www3.math.tu-berlin.de/jreality/ ... athematica. If you develop something similar for MATLAB, we'd love to have it, please post a tutorial code and we'll integrate it into the tutorial site.

[ted]

Thanks Gunn - I'll take a closer look at that code in particular. Any general advice you can give about its idiosyncrasies will be helpful.

To see how to use jReality to communicate with Mathematica see the example http://www3.math.tu-berlin.de/jreality/ ... athematica. If you develop something similar for MATLAB, we'd love to have it, please post a tutorial code and we'll integrate it into the tutorial site.

Sure - I got MATLAB to talk to Java3D, so when I do the same for JReality soon, I'll post it. It will be necessary a necessary step to get results for my dissertation research. I sure wish I'd started with JReality instead of Java3D because I'd be done with the simulations by now!

[ted]

If you develop something similar for MATLAB, we'd love to have it, please post a tutorial code and we'll integrate it into the tutorial site.

Working on that but need some help on one issue that seems to be related to JNI:

see http://www3.math.tu-berlin.de/jreality/ ... ?f=3&t=623

Please see if the error looks familiar to you.

Thanks,

_-Ted