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999 lines
37 KiB
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<TITLE>Jogl - User's Guide</TITLE>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY>
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<H1>Jogl - User's Guide</H1>
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<P>
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<UL>
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<LI> Overview
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<LI> Developing with JOGL
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<UL>
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<LI> Building the source tree
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<LI> Local installation for development
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<LI> Java Web Start integration
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<LI> Applet support
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</UL>
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<LI> GLDrawable and GLContext
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<LI> Creating a GLAutoDrawable
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<LI> Writing a GLEventListener
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<LI> Using the Composable Pipeline
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<LI> Heavyweight and Lightweight Issues
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<LI> Multithreading Issues
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<LI> Pbuffers
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<LI> GLU
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<LI> More Resources
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<LI> Platform notes
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<UL>
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<LI> All Platforms
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<LI> Windows
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<LI> Linux
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<LI> Solaris, Linux (X11 platforms)
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<LI> Macintosh OS X
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</UL>
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<LI> Version History
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</UL>
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<H2> Overview </H2>
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<P>
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Jogl is a Java programming language binding for the OpenGL 3D graphics
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API. It supports integration with the Java platform's AWT and Swing
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widget sets while providing a minimal and easy-to-use API that handles
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many of the issues associated with building multithreaded OpenGL
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applications. Jogl provides access to the latest OpenGL routines
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(OpenGL 2.0 with vendor extensions) as well as platform-independent
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access to hardware-accelerated offscreen rendering ("pbuffers"). Jogl
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also provides some of the most popular features introduced by other
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Java bindings for OpenGL like GL4Java, LWJGL and Magician, including a
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composable pipeline model which can provide faster debugging for
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Java-based OpenGL applications than the analogous C program.
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</P>
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<P>
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Jogl was designed for the most recent versions of the Java platform
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and for this reason supports only J2SE 1.4 and later. It also only
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supports truecolor (15 bits per pixel and higher) rendering; it does
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not support color-indexed modes. It was designed with New I/O (NIO) in
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mind and uses NIO internally in the implementation. The Jogl binding
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is itself written almost completely in the Java programming language.
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There are roughly 150 lines of handwritten C code in the entire Jogl
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source base (100 of which work around bugs in older OpenGL drivers on
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Windows); the rest of the native code is autogenerated during the
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build process by a new tool called <a
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href="http://gluegen.dev.java.net/">GlueGen</a>, the source code of
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which is available from its own java.net project.
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</P>
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<P>
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The JOGL source tree in its current form is an experimental workspace
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for the <a href="http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=231">JSR-231</a> Java
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Bindings for OpenGL JSR. JOGL is not the official reference
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implementation, but an evolving workspace. Snapshots of the JOGL
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source tree are run through the JSR-231 Technology Compatibility Kit
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(TCK) to become the official reference implementation (RI). As of this
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writing the JSR has not been finalized, so the first official RI of
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the JSR has not yet been produced.
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</P>
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<H2> Developing with JOGL </H2>
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<H3> Building the source tree </H3>
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<P>
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Most developers using JOGL will download the most current <a
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href="https://jogl.dev.java.net/servlets/ProjectDocumentList">release
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build</a>. Separate instructions are available on how to <a
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href="https://jogl.dev.java.net/unbranded-source/browse/*checkout*/jogl/doc/HowToBuild.html?rev=HEAD&content-type=text/html">build
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the source tree</a>.
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</P>
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<H3> Local installation for development </H3>
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<P>
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The JOGL distribution for developers comes in the form of a zip
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archive which contains the Java classes to call OpenGL from Java, as
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well as the associated JNI native libraries. JOGL depends on some
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run-time support classes and native code provided by the GlueGen
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project; these classes and native code are also provided in the zip
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bundles.
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</P>
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<P>
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If you are developing a new application which uses JOGL, download the
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zip archive for your platform (for example.,
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jogl-[version]-windows-i586.zip) and unzip it. Modify your CLASSPATH
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environment variable to include the full paths to jogl.jar and
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gluegen-rt.jar; for example,
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".;C:\Some\Other\Package\foo.jar;C:\Users\myhome\jogl-[version]-windows-i586\lib\jogl.jar;C:\Users\myhome\jogl-[version]-windows-i586\lib\gluegen-rt.jar".
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(If you did not previously set the CLASSPATH environment variable, you
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may want to make sure that ".", the current directory, is on your new
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CLASSPATH.) Modify your PATH environment variable (Windows),
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LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable (Solaris and Linux), or
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DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable (Mac OS X) to contain the full
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path to the "lib" directory; for example, on Windows, add
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"C:\Users\myhome\jogl-[version]-windows-i586\lib" to your PATH using
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the System control panel, Advanced tab, Environment Variables
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button. At this point your Java installation should be able to see the
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JOGL class files. Users of IDEs such as NetBeans and Eclipse should
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consult the IDE's documentation to see how to add jar files and native
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libraries to their current project.
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</P>
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<P>
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Dropping the JOGL jar and native library into the extension directory
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of the JRE is <b>strongly discouraged</b>. Doing so can cause
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conflicts with third-party applications launched via Java Web Start,
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and causes confusion later when upgrading the distribution.
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</P>
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<P>
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If you are on the Linux platform, please see the Linux-specific
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platform notes, below, with information on incompatibility between the
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JPackage Java RPMs and JOGL.
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</P>
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<H3> Java Web Start integration </H3>
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<P>
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The recommended distribution vehicle for applications using JOGL is
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Java Web Start. JOGL-based applications do not even need to be signed;
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all that is necessary is to reference the JOGL extension JNLP file.
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Because the JOGL jar files are signed, an unsigned application can
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reference the signed JOGL library and continue to run inside the
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sandbox.
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</P>
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<P>
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To reference JOGL within your application's JNLP file, simply place
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the following line in the <code><resources></code> section:
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<PRE>
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<extension name="jogl" href="http://download.java.net/media/jogl/builds/archive/jsr-231-webstart-current/jogl.jnlp" />
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</PRE>
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This JNLP file points to the current JSR-231 unofficial development
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build. For reference, the extension JNLP file for the most recent
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official JSR-231 build is available at
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<PRE>
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<extension name="jogl" href="http://download.java.net/media/jogl/builds/archive/jsr-231-1.1.0/webstart/jogl.jnlp" />
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</PRE>
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Note that before JOGL transitioned to the JSR-231 APIs, there were
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releases of the library in the <code>net.java.games.jogl</code>
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namespace under version numbers "1.0", "1.1", and "1.1.1". All of
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these releases have been superseded by JSR-231. Please update your
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applications.
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</P>
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<H3> Applet support </H3>
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<P>
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Lilian Chamontin, in conjunction with several other members of the
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JOGL community, has contributed a JOGL applet installer. This
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installer uses some clever tricks to allow deployment of unsigned
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applets which use JOGL into existing web browsers and JREs as far back
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as 1.4.2, which is the earliest version of Java supported by JOGL.
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</P>
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<P>
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The JOGLAppletInstaller is distributed inside jogl.jar as a utility
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class in com.sun.opengl.util. It requires that the developer host a
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local, signed copy of jogl.jar and all of the jogl-natives jars; the
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certificates must be the same on all of these jars. Note that in the
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release builds of JOGL all of these jars are signed by Sun
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Microsystems, so the developer can deploy applets without needing any
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certificates.
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</P>
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<P>
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The JOGLAppletInstaller javadoc describes the basic steps for
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deployment of an applet utilizing JOGL. Please refer to this
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documentation for more information. A live example of deploying an
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unsigned JOGL applet will be added to this documentation shortly once
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the first signed build of the JOGLAppletInstaller has been shipped.
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</P>
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<H2> GLDrawable and GLContext </H2>
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<P>
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The JSR-231 APIs specify interfaces two low-level OpenGL abstractions:
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drawables and contexts. An OpenGL drawable is effectively a surface
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upon which OpenGL rendering will be performed. In order to perform
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rendering, an OpenGL rendering context is needed. Contexts and
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drawables typically go hand-in-hand. More than one context may be
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created for a particular drawable. In the JSR-231 abstractions, a
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context is always associated with exactly one drawable.
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</P>
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<P>
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Most end users will not need to use these abstractions directly.
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However, when sharing textures, display lists and other OpenGL objects
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between widgets, the concrete identifier for the "namespace" for these
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objects is the GLContext.
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</P>
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<H2> Creating a GLAutoDrawable </H2>
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<P>
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Jogl provides two basic widgets into which OpenGL rendering can be
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performed. The GLCanvas is a heavyweight AWT widget which supports
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hardware acceleration and which is intended to be the primary widget
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used by applications. The GLJPanel is a fully Swing-compatible
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lightweight widget which supports hardware acceleration but which is
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not as fast as the GLCanvas because it typically reads back the frame
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buffer in order to draw it using Java2D. The GLJPanel is intended to
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provide 100% correct Swing integration in the circumstances where a
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GLCanvas can not be used. See <a href =
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"http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/mixing/">this
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article</a> on <a href = "http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/">The
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Swing Connection</a> for more information about mixing lightweight and
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heavyweight widgets. See also the section on "Heavyweight and
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Lightweight Issues" below. Recent work in the Mustang release of the
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JDK has sped up the GLJPanel significantly when the Java2D OpenGL
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pipeline is enabled; see <a
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href="http://www.javagaming.org/forums/index.php?topic=10813.0">this
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forum discussion</a> for more details.
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</P>
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<P>
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Both the GLCanvas and GLJPanel implement a common interface called
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GLAutoDrawable so applications can switch between them with minimal
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code changes. The GLAutoDrawable interface provides
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<UL>
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<LI> access to the GL object for calling OpenGL routines
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<LI> a callback mechanism (GLEventListener) for performing OpenGL
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rendering
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<LI> a <CODE>display()</CODE> method for forcing OpenGL rendering to
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be performed synchronously
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<LI> AWT- and Swing-independent abstractions for getting and setting
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the size of the widget and adding and removing event listeners
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</UL>
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</P>
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<P>
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When creating GLCanvas and GLJPanel instances, the user may request a
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certain set of OpenGL parameters in the form of a GLCapabilities
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object, customize the format selection algorithm by specifying a
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GLCapabilitiesChooser, share textures and display lists with other
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GLDrawables, and specify the display device on which the
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GLAutoDrawable will be created (GLCanvas only).
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</P>
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<P>
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A GLCapabilities object specifies the OpenGL parameters for a
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newly-created widget, such as the color, alpha,, z-buffer and
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accumulation buffer bit depths and whether the widget is
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double-buffered. The default capabilities are loosely specified but
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provide for truecolor RGB, a reasonably large depth buffer,
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double-buffered, with no alpha, stencil, or accumulation buffers.
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</P>
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<P>
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An application can override the default pixel format selection
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algorithm by providing a GLCapabilitiesChooser to the GLCanvas or
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GLJPanel constructor. (Not all platforms support the
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GLCapabilitiesChooser mechanism, however; it may be ignored, in
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particular on Mac OS X where pixel format selection is very different
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than on other platforms.) The chooseCapabilities method will be called
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with all of the available pixel formats as an array of GLCapabilities
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objects, as well as the index indicating the window system's
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recommended choice; it should return an integer index into this
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array. The DefaultGLCapabilitiesChooser uses the window system's
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recommendation when it is available, and otherwise attempts to use a
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platform-independent selection algorithm.
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</P>
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<P>
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The GLJPanel can be made non-opaque according to Swing's rendering
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model, so it can act as an overlay to other Swing or Java2D drawing.
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In order to enable this, set up your GLCapabilities object with a
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non-zero alpha depth (a common value is 8 bits) and call
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setOpaque(false) on the GLJPanel once it has been created. Java2D
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rendering underneath it will then show through areas where OpenGL has
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produced an alpha value less than 1.0. See the JGears and JRefract
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demos for examples of how to use this functionality.
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</P>
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<H2> Writing a GLEventListener </H2>
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<P>
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Applications implement the GLEventListener interface to perform OpenGL
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drawing via callbacks. When the methods of the GLEventListener are
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called, the underlying OpenGL context associated with the drawable is
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already current. The listener fetches the GL object out of the
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GLAutoDrawable and begins to perform rendering.
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</P>
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<P>
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The <CODE>init()</CODE> method is called when a new OpenGL context is
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created for the given GLAutoDrawable. Any display lists or textures
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used during the application's normal rendering loop can be safely
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initialized in <CODE>init()</CODE>. It is important to note that
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because the underlying AWT window may be destroyed and recreated while
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using the same GLCanvas and GLEventListener, the GLEventListener's
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<CODE>init()</CODE> method may be called more than once during the
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lifetime of the application. The init() method should therefore be
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kept as short as possible and only contain the OpenGL initialization
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required for the <CODE>display()</CODE> method to run properly. It is
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the responsibility of the application to keep track of how its various
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OpenGL contexts share display lists, textures and other OpenGL objects
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so they can be either be reinitialized or so that reinitialization can
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be skipped when the <CODE>init()</CODE> callback is called.
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</P>
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<P>
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Note also that the GLEventListener should be added to the
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GLAutoDrawable before the GLAutoDrawable is shown or rendered to for
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the first time. If this is not done, it is possible that the init()
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method will not be called on the GLEventListener. JOGL does not
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maintain internal state to keep track of whether init() has been
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called on a particular GLEventListener since the last time an OpenGL
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context was created for that GLAutoDrawable.
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</P>
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<P>
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The <CODE>display()</CODE> method is called to perform per-frame
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rendering. The <CODE>reshape()</CODE> method is called when the
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drawable has been resized; the default implementation automatically
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resizes the OpenGL viewport so often it is not necessary to do any
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work in this method. The <CODE>displayChanged()</CODE> method is
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designed to allow applications to support on-the-fly screen mode
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switching, but support for this is not yet implemented so the body of
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this method should remain empty.
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</P>
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<P>
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It is strongly recommended that applications always refetch the GL
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object out of the GLAutoDrawable upon each call to the
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<CODE>init()</CODE>, <CODE>display()</CODE> and <CODE>reshape()</CODE>
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methods and pass the GL object down on the stack to any drawing
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routines, as opposed to storing the GL in a field and referencing it
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from there. The reason is that multithreading issues inherent to the
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AWT toolkit make it difficult to reason about which threads certain
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operations are occurring on, and if the GL object is stored in a field
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it is unfortunately too easy to accidentally make OpenGL calls from a
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thread that does not have a current context. This will usually cause
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the application to crash. For more information please see the section
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on multithreading.
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</P>
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<H2> Using the Composable Pipeline </H2>
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<P>
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Jogl supports the "composable pipeline" paradigm introduced by the
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Magician Java binding for OpenGL. The DebugGL pipeline calls
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<CODE>glGetError</CODE> after each OpenGL call, reporting any errors
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found. It can greatly speed up development time because of its
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fine-grained error checking as opposed to the manual error checking
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usually required in OpenGL programs written in C. The TraceGL prints
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logging information upon each OpenGL call and is helpful when an
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application crash makes it difficult to see where the error occurred.
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</P>
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<P>
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To use these pipelines, call <CODE>GLAutoDrawable.setGL</CODE> at the
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beginning of the <CODE>init</CODE> method in your GLEventListener. For
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example,
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<PRE>
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class MyListener implements GLEventListener {
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public void init(GLDrawable drawable) {
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drawable.setGL(new DebugGL(drawable.getGL()));
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// ...
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}
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// ...
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}
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</PRE>
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</P>
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<P>
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Note that the GLAutoDrawable.setGL() method simply calls setGL() on
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the default OpenGL context created by the GLAutoDrawable, so
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sophisticated applications creating their own OpenGL contexts can use
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the composable pipeline with these contexts by setting the GL object
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in the context object itself. The composable pipeline needs to be
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re-installed every time GLContext.makeCurrent() returns
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CONTEXT_CURRENT_NEW.
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</P>
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<H2> Heavyweight and Lightweight Issues </H2>
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<P>
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As mentioned above, JOGL supplies both a heavyweight (GLCanvas) and a
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lightweight (GLJPanel) widget to be able to provide the fastest
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possible performance for applications which need it as well as 100%
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correct Swing integration, again for applications which need it. The
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GLCanvas usually provides higher performance than the GLJPanel, though
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in recent releases the GLJPanel's speed has been improved when the
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Java2D/OpenGL pipeline is active as described in <a
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href="http://www.javagaming.org/forums/index.php?topic=10813.0">this
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forum discussion</a>. Nonetheless, the GLCanvas can be used in almost
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every kind of application except those using JInternalFrames. Please
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see the Swing Connection article mentioned above for details on mixing
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heavyweight and lightweight widgets. A couple of common pitfalls are
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described here.
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</P>
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<P>
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When using JPopupMenus or Swing tool tips in conjunction with the
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GLCanvas, it is necessary to disable the use of lightweight widgets
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for the popups. See the methods
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<CODE>ToolTipManager.setLightWeightPopupEnabled</CODE>,
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<CODE>JPopupMenu.setLightWeightPopupEnabled</CODE>, and
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<CODE>JPopupMenu.setDefaultLightWeightPopupEnabled</CODE>.
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</P>
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<P>
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There are occasionally problems with certain LayoutManagers and
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component configurations where if a GLCanvas is placed in the middle
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of a set of lightweight widgets then it may only grow and never
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shrink. These issues are documented somewhat in <a href =
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"https://jogl.dev.java.net/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=135">JOGL Issue
|
|
135</a> and most recently in the thread <a
|
|
href="http://javagaming.org/forums/index.php?topic=8699.0">"Resize
|
|
behaviour"</a> in the JOGL forum. The root cause is behavior of the
|
|
Canvas, and in particular its ComponentPeer. The implementation of
|
|
getPreferredSize() calls getMinimumSize() and getMinimumSize() turns
|
|
around and calls Component.getSize(). This effectively means that the
|
|
Canvas will report its preferred size as being as large as the
|
|
component has ever been. For some layout managers this doesn't seem to
|
|
matter, but for others like the BoxLayout it does. See the test case
|
|
attached to Issue 135 for an example. Replacing the GLCanvas with an
|
|
ordinary Canvas yields the same behavior.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
One suggestion was to override getPreferredSize() so that if a
|
|
preferred size has not been set by the user, to default to (0,
|
|
0). This works fine for some test cases but breaks all of the other
|
|
JOGL demos because they use a different LayoutManager. There appear to
|
|
be a lot of interactions between heavyweight vs. lightweight widgets
|
|
and layout managers. One experiment which was done was to override
|
|
setSize() in GLCanvas to update the preferred size. This works down
|
|
to the size specified by the user; if the window is resized any
|
|
smeller the same problem appears. If reshape() (the base routine of
|
|
setSize(), setBounds(), etc.) is changed to do the same thing, the
|
|
demo breaks in the same way it originally did. Therefore this solution
|
|
is fragile because it isn't clear which of these methods are used
|
|
internally by the AWT and for what purposes.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
There are two possible solutions, both application-specific. The best
|
|
and most portable appears to be to put the GLCanvas into a JPanel and
|
|
set the JPanel's preferred size to (0, 0). The JPanel will cause this
|
|
constraint to be enforced on its contained GLCanvas. The other
|
|
workaround is to call <CODE>setPreferredSize(new Dimension(0,
|
|
0))</CODE> on a newly-created GLCanvas; this method is new in 1.5.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Another issue that occasionally arises on Windows is flickering during
|
|
live resizing of a GLCanvas. This is caused by the AWT's repainting
|
|
the background of the Canvas and can not be overridden on a per-Canvas
|
|
basis, for example when subclassing Canvas into GLCanvas. The
|
|
repainting of the background of Canvases on Windows can be disabled by
|
|
specifying the system property
|
|
<CODE>-Dsun.awt.noerasebackground=true</CODE>. Whether to specify this
|
|
flag depends on the application and should not be done universally,
|
|
but instead on a case-by-case basis. Some more detail is in the thread
|
|
<a href="http://javagaming.org/forums/index.php?topic=8770.0">"TIP:
|
|
JOGL + Swing flicker"</a> in the JOGL forum.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
|
|
<H2> Multithreading Issues </H2>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Jogl was designed to interoperate with the AWT, an inherently
|
|
multithreaded GUI toolkit. OpenGL, in contrast, was originally
|
|
designed in single-threaded C programming environments. For this
|
|
reason Jogl provides a framework in which it is possible to write
|
|
correct multithreaded OpenGL applications using the GLEventListener
|
|
paradigm.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
If an application written using Jogl interacts in any way with the
|
|
mouse or keyboard, the AWT is processing these events and the
|
|
multithreaded aspects of the program must be considered.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
OpenGL applications usually behave in one of two ways: either they
|
|
repaint only on demand, for example when mouse input comes in, or they
|
|
repaint continually, regardless of whether user input is coming in. In
|
|
the repaint-on-demand model, the application can merely call
|
|
<CODE>GLAutoDrawable.display()</CODE> manually at the end of the mouse
|
|
or keyboard listener to cause repainting to be done. Alternatively if
|
|
the application knows the concrete type of the GLDrawable it can call
|
|
repaint() to have the painting scheduled for a later time.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
In the continuous repaint model, the application typically has a main
|
|
loop which is calling <CODE>GLAutoDrawable.display()</CODE>
|
|
repeatedly, or is using the Animator class, which does this
|
|
internally. In both of these cases the OpenGL rendering will be done
|
|
on this thread rather than the internal AWT event queue thread which
|
|
dispatches mouse and keyboard events.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Both of these models (repaint-on-demand and repaint continually) still
|
|
require the user to think about which thread keyboard and mouse events
|
|
are coming in on, and which thread is performing the OpenGL rendering.
|
|
OpenGL rendering <B>may not</B> occur directly inside the mouse or
|
|
keyboard handlers, because the OpenGL context for the drawable is not
|
|
current at this point (hence the warning about storing a GL object in
|
|
a field, where it can be fetched and accidentally used by another
|
|
thread). However, a mouse or keyboard listener may invoke
|
|
<CODE>GLAutoDrawable.display()</CODE>.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
It is generally recommended that applications perform as little work
|
|
as possible inside their mouse and keyboard handlers to keep the GUI
|
|
responsive. However, since OpenGL commands can not be run from
|
|
directly within the mouse or keyboard event listener, the best
|
|
practice is to store off state when the listener is entered and
|
|
retrieve this state during the next call to
|
|
<CODE>GLEventListener.display()</CODE>.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Furthermore, it is recommended that if there are long computational
|
|
sequences in the GLEventListener's <CODE>display</CODE> method which
|
|
reference variables which may be being simultaneously modified by the
|
|
AWT thread (mouse and keyboard listeners) that copies of these
|
|
variables be made upon entry to <CODE>display</CODE> and these copies
|
|
be referenced throughout display() and the methods it calls. This will
|
|
prevent the values from changing while the OpenGL rendering is being
|
|
performed. Errors of this kind show up in many ways, including certain
|
|
kinds of flickering of the rendered image as certain pieces of objects
|
|
are rendered in one place and other pieces are rendered elsewhere in
|
|
the scene. Restructuring the display() method as described has solved
|
|
all instances of this kind of error that have been seen with Jogl to
|
|
date.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Prior to Jogl 1.1 b10, the Jogl library attempted to give applications
|
|
strict control over which thread or threads performed OpenGL
|
|
rendering. The <CODE>setRenderingThread()</CODE>,
|
|
<CODE>setNoAutoRedrawMode()</CODE> and <CODE>display()</CODE> APIs
|
|
were originally designed to allow the application to create its own
|
|
animation thread and avoid OpenGL context switching on platforms that
|
|
supported it. Unfortunately, serious stability issues caused by
|
|
multithreading bugs in either vendors' OpenGL drivers or in the Java
|
|
platform implementation have arisen on three of Jogl's major supported
|
|
platforms: Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. In order to address these
|
|
bugs, the threading model in Jogl 1.1 b10 and later has changed.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
All GLEventListener callbacks and other internal OpenGL context
|
|
management are now performed on one thread. (In the current
|
|
implementation, this thread is the AWT event queue thread, which is a
|
|
thread internal to the implementation of the AWT and which is always
|
|
present when the AWT is being used. Future versions of Jogl may change
|
|
the thread on which the OpenGL work is performed.) When the
|
|
<CODE>GLAutoDrawable.display()</CODE> method is called from user code,
|
|
it now performs the work synchronously on the AWT event queue thread,
|
|
even if the calling thread is a different thread. The
|
|
<CODE>setRenderingThread()</CODE> optimization is now a no-op. The
|
|
<CODE>setNoAutoRedrawMode()</CODE> API still works as previously
|
|
advertised, though now that all work is done on the AWT event queue
|
|
thread it no longer needs to be used in most cases. (It was previously
|
|
useful for working around certain kinds of OpenGL driver bugs.)
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Most applications will not see a change in behavior from this change
|
|
in the Jogl implementation. Applications which use thread-local
|
|
storage or complex multithreading and synchronization may see a change
|
|
in their control flow requiring code changes. While it is strongly
|
|
recommended to change such applications to work under the new
|
|
threading model, the old threading model can be used by specifying the
|
|
system property <CODE>-Djogl.1thread=auto</CODE> or
|
|
<CODE>-Djogl.1thread=false</CODE>. The "auto" setting is equivalent to
|
|
the behavior in 1.1 b09 and before, where on ATI cards the
|
|
single-threaded mode would be used. The "false' setting is equivalent
|
|
to disabling the single-threaded mode. "true" is now the default
|
|
setting.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
In the JSR-231 APIs the single-threaded behavior continues to be the
|
|
default and the <CODE>setRenderingThread()</CODE> and
|
|
<CODE>setNoAutoRedrawMode()</CODE> APIs have been removed. The public
|
|
<CODE>Threading</CODE> class still provides some control over the
|
|
internal use of threads in the library as well as external access to
|
|
these mechanisms.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
|
|
<H2> Pbuffers </H2>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Jogl exposes hardware-accelerated offscreen rendering (pbuffers) with
|
|
a minimal and platform-agnostic API. Several recent demos have been
|
|
successfully ported from C/C++ to Java using Jogl's pbuffer APIs.
|
|
However, the pbuffer support in Jogl remains one of the more
|
|
experimental aspects of the package and the APIs may need to change in
|
|
the future.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
To create a pbuffer, call
|
|
<CODE>GLDrawableFactory.createGLPbuffer()</CODE>. It is wise to call
|
|
<CODE>GLDrawableFactory.canCreateGLPbuffer()</CODE> first to ensure
|
|
the graphics card has pbuffer support first. The pbuffer is created
|
|
immediately and is available for rendering as soon as
|
|
<CODE>createGLPbuffer</CODE> returns.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
A pbuffer is used in conjunction with the GLEventListener mechanism by
|
|
calling its display() method. Rendering, as always, occurs while the
|
|
pbuffer's OpenGL context is current. There are render-to-texture
|
|
options that can be specified in the GLCapabilities for the pbuffer
|
|
which can make it easier to operate upon the resulting pixels. These
|
|
APIs are however highly experimental and not yet implemented on all
|
|
platforms.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
|
|
<H2> GLU </H2>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Jogl contains support for the GLU (OpenGL Utility Library) version
|
|
1.3. Jogl originally supported GLU by wrapping the C version of the
|
|
APIs, but over time, and thanks to the contributions of several
|
|
individuals, it now uses a pure-Java version of SGI's GLU library. The
|
|
pure Java port is enabled by default, and addresses stability issues
|
|
on certain Linux distributions as well as the lack of native GLU 1.3
|
|
support on the Windows platform. In case of problems with the Java
|
|
port, the C version of the GLU library may be used by specifying the
|
|
system property <CODE>-Djogl.glu.nojava</CODE> on the command
|
|
line. All of the same functionality is exposed with both the Java and
|
|
C versions of the GLU library; currently NURBS support is the only
|
|
missing feature on both sides. If you run into problems with the Java
|
|
port of the GLU library please file a bug using the Issue Tracker on
|
|
the Jogl home page.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
To use the GLU, simply instantiate a GLU object via <CODE>new
|
|
GLU()</CODE> at the beginning of your program. The methods on the GLU
|
|
object may be called at any point when an OpenGL context is current.
|
|
Because the GLU implementation is not thread-safe, one GLU object
|
|
should be created for each GLEventListener or other entity performing
|
|
OpenGL rendering in a given thread.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
|
|
<H2> More Resources </H2>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
The <A HREF="http://javagaming.org/forums/index.php?board=25.0">JOGL
|
|
forum</A> on <A HREF="http://javagaming.org/">javagaming.org</A> is
|
|
the best place to ask questions about the library. Many users, as well
|
|
as the Jogl developers, read this forum frequently, and the archived
|
|
threads contain a lot of useful information (which still needs to be
|
|
distilled into documentation).
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
The <A HREF="http://jogl-demos.dev.java.net/">JOGL demos</A> provide
|
|
several examples of usage of the library.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Pepijn Van Eeckhoudt, Kevin Duling and Abdul Bezrati have done <A
|
|
HREF="http://pepijn.fab4.be/software/nehe-java-ports/">JOGL ports of
|
|
many of the the NeHe demos</A>. These are small examples of various
|
|
pieces of OpenGL functionality. See also the <A
|
|
HREF="http://nehe.gamedev.net/">NeHe web site</A>.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Pepijn also did a <A
|
|
HREF="http://www.glexcess.com/files/glexcess.jar">JOGL port</a> of
|
|
Paolo Martella's <A HREF="http://www.glexcess.com/">GLExcess</A>
|
|
demo. To see the news update about this port, go to the main GLExcess
|
|
site and scroll down.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Gregory Pierce's <A
|
|
HREF="http://javagaming.org/forums/index.php?topic=1474.0">introduction
|
|
to JOGL</a> is a useful tutorial on starting to use the JOGL library.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
For release information about the JOGL library, please see the <A
|
|
HREF="http://javagaming.org/forums/index.php?topic=1596.0">JOGL Release
|
|
Information</A> thread on the JOGL forum on javagaming.org.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Please post on the JOGL forum if you have a resource you'd like to add
|
|
to this documentation.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
|
|
<H2> Platform Notes </H2>
|
|
|
|
<H3> All Platforms </H3>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
The following issues, among others, are outstanding on all platforms:
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
|
|
<UL>
|
|
|
|
<LI> A few remaining stability issues, mostly on older graphics cards.
|
|
|
|
<LI> JOGL now supports experimental integration and interoperability
|
|
with the Java2D/OpenGL pipeline in Java SE 6 (Mustang), enabling a
|
|
much faster GLJPanel as well as other features. Please see <a
|
|
href="http://www.javagaming.org/forums/index.php?topic=10813.0">this
|
|
forum discussion</a> for more details.
|
|
|
|
</UL>
|
|
|
|
<H3> Windows </H3>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
For correct operation, it is necessary to specify the system property
|
|
<CODE>-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true</CODE> when running JOGL applications
|
|
on Windows; this system property disables the use of DirectDraw by
|
|
Java2D. There are driver-level incompatibilities between DirectDraw
|
|
and OpenGL which manifest themselves as application crashes, poor
|
|
performance, bad flickering, and other artifacts. This poor behavior
|
|
may exhibit itself when OpenGL and DirectDraw are simply used in the
|
|
same application, not even just in the same window, so disabling
|
|
Java2D's DirectDraw pipeline and forcing it to use its GDI pipeline is
|
|
the only way to work around these issues. Java Web Start applications
|
|
may set this system property by adding the following line to the
|
|
<CODE><resources></CODE> section of the JNLP file: <PRE>
|
|
<property name="sun.java2d.noddraw" value="true"/> </PRE>
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
There is a serious memory leak in ATI's OpenGL drivers which is
|
|
exhibited on Windows XP on Mobility Radeon 9700 hardware. It's
|
|
possible it will be present on other hardware as well though it was
|
|
not reproducible at the time of this writing on desktop Radeon
|
|
hardware or older ATI mobile chips. The bug is documented in <A
|
|
HREF="https://jogl.dev.java.net/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=166">JOGL Issue
|
|
166</A> and a bug has been filed with ATI. You can confirm the
|
|
presence of the bug either with the test case in that bug report or by
|
|
simply running the Gears demo; if the process size grows over time in
|
|
the Task Manager, the memory leak is present on your hardware. For the
|
|
time being, you can work around this memory leak by specifying the
|
|
system property <CODE>-Djogl.GLContext.nofree</CODE> on the command
|
|
line when launching your JOGL applications. There is no good
|
|
general-purpose workaround for this bug which behaves well on all
|
|
hardware.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
|
|
<H3> Linux </H3>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
The Sun JDK "compatibility" RPMs (java-1.5.0-sun-compat,
|
|
java-1.6.0-sun-compat) provided by jpackage.org are incompatible with
|
|
JOGL. These RPMs symlink an internal JDK directory to /usr/lib, which
|
|
overrides how both NVidia and ATI currently provide their drivers to
|
|
some Linux distributions, which is through an override in
|
|
/etc/ld.so.conf (actually, in /etc/ld.so.conf.d). The implicit
|
|
presence of /usr/lib on LD_LIBRARY_PATH forces the /usr/lib/libGL.so.1
|
|
version of OpenGL to be used, which is typically Mesa and which will
|
|
provide only software rendering.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Unfortunately the JPackage maintainers have so far been unreceptive to
|
|
changing their installation mechanism; see <a
|
|
href="https://www.zarb.org/pipermail/jpackage-discuss/2007-January/010871.html">this
|
|
mailing list posting</a>. Until this is resolved, we strongly
|
|
discourage the use of the JPackage installers for the Sun JDK.
|
|
Instead, download the JRE or JDK installers directly from Sun's
|
|
website.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Archived forum postings illustrating this problem are <a
|
|
href="http://www.javagaming.org/forums/index.php?topic=15610.0">here</a>
|
|
and <a
|
|
href="http://www.javagaming.org/forums/index.php?topic=16105.0">here</a>.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
|
|
<H3> Solaris, Linux (X11 platforms) </H3>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Support has been added to the JOGL library for allowing multiple
|
|
threads to each have an OpenGL context current simultaneously, for
|
|
example to implement multi-head CAVE-like environments. Normally a
|
|
global AWT lock is held between calls to GLContext.makeCurrent() /
|
|
release() for on-screen heavyweight contexts (for example, those
|
|
associated with a Canvas or GLCanvas). We have found this to be
|
|
necessary for stability purposes on all supported X11 platforms, even
|
|
with relatively robust drivers such as those from NVidia.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
To enable multiple GLContexts to be made current simultaneously on X11
|
|
platforms, specify the command line argument
|
|
<CODE>-Djogl.GLContext.optimize</CODE> when starting the JVM. Note
|
|
that this may incur robustness problems, in particular when resizing
|
|
or moving windows. We have also found that ATI's proprietary drivers
|
|
do not work at all with this flag, apparently because they cause GLX
|
|
tokens to be sent to the X server for various GL calls even for direct
|
|
contexts. For this reason if the GLX vendor is ATI then this flag
|
|
currently has no effect.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
|
|
<H3> Mac OS X </H3>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
There are some problems with visual artifacts and stability problems
|
|
with some of the Jogl demos on Mac OS X. It appears that at least some
|
|
of these problems are due to bugs in Apple's OpenGL support. Bugs have
|
|
been filed about these problems and it is hoped they will be addressed
|
|
in the near future.
|
|
|
|
</P>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
The Mac OS X port of Jogl, in particular the GL interface and its
|
|
implementation, can be used either with the provided GLCanvas widget
|
|
or with the Cocoa NSOpenGLView. In order to use it with Cocoa the
|
|
following steps should be taken:
|
|
|
|
<UL>
|
|
|
|
<LI> Create an "external" OpenGL context using the
|
|
<CODE>GLDrawableFactory.createExternalGLContext()</CODE> API. The
|
|
context object must be created while a real underlying OpenGL context
|
|
is current.
|
|
|
|
<LI> Fetch the GL instance out of the context using getGL() as usual.
|
|
Only use the GL instance when the OpenGL context from the NSOpenGLView
|
|
is current.
|
|
|
|
</UL>
|
|
|
|
<B>NOTE:</B> the Cocoa interoperability has not been retested
|
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recently, though similar interoperability has been tested on other
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platforms. Please report any problems found with using Jogl with an
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NSOpenGLView.
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</P>
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<P>
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The following issues remain with the Mac OS X port:
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<UL>
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<LI> Due to the mechanism by which the Cocoa graphics system selects
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OpenGL pixel formats, the GLCapabilitiesChooser mechanism can not be
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implemented on Mac OS X as on other platforms. Currently the
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|
underlying Cocoa pixel format selection is used on an
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|
NSOpenGLPixelFormat derived from the settings in the GLCapabilities,
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|
and the GLCapabilitiesChooser is ignored.
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</UL>
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</P>
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<H2> Version History </H2>
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<P>
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JOGL's version history can be found online in the <a
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|
href="http://javagaming.org/forums/index.php?topic=1596.0">"JOGL Release
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|
Information"</a> thread in the JOGL forum. Comments about the 1.1
|
|
release train are in the thread <a
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|
href="http://javagaming.org/forums/index.php?topic=4217.0">"JOGL 1.1
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|
released"</a>.
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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