Java3d gaming problem *HELP*

Question

Hi all,
I am a student completing my dissertation and need some help urgently.
I have a game that has a main JPanel added to a JFrame and want to add another JPanel to the JFrame which I have done successful.
The problem is the new JPanel, which is to load an object file, displays nothing.
Can anyone give me pointers as what i need to do - do i need to have a canvas3d, or transformgroup or something?
The idea i had in mind was to have this second Jpanel display the life of the user and link to the main JPanel so that if the user got hurt this secondpanel would update to show this.
Thanks in advance,
Catheren

Answer 1

Catheren,
This was taken from one of the Java 3D examples taken from the SDK. It is used to load an *.obj file. It uses the Canvas3D class.
*     @(#)ObjLoad.java 1.22 02/10/21 13:46:12
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import com.sun.j3d.loaders.objectfile.ObjectFile;
import com.sun.j3d.loaders.ParsingErrorException;
import com.sun.j3d.loaders.IncorrectFormatException;
import com.sun.j3d.loaders.Scene;
import java.applet.Applet;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import com.sun.j3d.utils.applet.MainFrame;
import com.sun.j3d.utils.universe.*;
import javax.media.j3d.*;
import javax.vecmath.*;
import java.io.*;
import com.sun.j3d.utils.behaviors.vp.*;
import java.net.URL;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
public class ObjLoad extends Applet {
    private boolean spin = false;
    private boolean noTriangulate = false;
    private boolean noStripify = false;
    private double creaseAngle = 60.0;
    private URL filename = null;
    private SimpleUniverse u;
    private BoundingSphere bounds;
    public BranchGroup createSceneGraph() {
     // Create the root of the branch graph
     BranchGroup objRoot = new BranchGroup();
        // Create a Transformgroup to scale all objects so they
        // appear in the scene.
        TransformGroup objScale = new TransformGroup();
        Transform3D t3d = new Transform3D();
        t3d.setScale(0.7);
        objScale.setTransform(t3d);
        objRoot.addChild(objScale);
     // Create the transform group node and initialize it to the
     // identity.  Enable the TRANSFORM_WRITE capability so that
     // our behavior code can modify it at runtime.  Add it to the
     // root of the subgraph.
     TransformGroup objTrans = new TransformGroup();
     objTrans.setCapability(TransformGroup.ALLOW_TRANSFORM_WRITE);
     objTrans.setCapability(TransformGroup.ALLOW_TRANSFORM_READ);
     objScale.addChild(objTrans);
     int flags = ObjectFile.RESIZE;
     if (!noTriangulate) flags |= ObjectFile.TRIANGULATE;
     if (!noStripify) flags |= ObjectFile.STRIPIFY;
     ObjectFile f = new ObjectFile(flags,
       (float)(creaseAngle * Math.PI / 180.0));
     Scene s = null;
     try {
       s = f.load(filename);
     catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
       System.err.println(e);
       System.exit(1);
     catch (ParsingErrorException e) {
       System.err.println(e);
       System.exit(1);
     catch (IncorrectFormatException e) {
       System.err.println(e);
       System.exit(1);
     objTrans.addChild(s.getSceneGroup());
     bounds = new BoundingSphere(new Point3d(0.0,0.0,0.0), 100.0);
        if (spin) {
       Transform3D yAxis = new Transform3D();
       Alpha rotationAlpha = new Alpha(-1, Alpha.INCREASING_ENABLE,
                           0, 0,
                           4000, 0, 0,
                           0, 0, 0);
       RotationInterpolator rotator =
           new RotationInterpolator(rotationAlpha, objTrans, yAxis,
                           0.0f, (float) Math.PI*2.0f);
       rotator.setSchedulingBounds(bounds);
       objTrans.addChild(rotator);
        // Set up the background
        Color3f bgColor = new Color3f(0.05f, 0.05f, 0.5f);
        Background bgNode = new Background(bgColor);
        bgNode.setApplicationBounds(bounds);
        objRoot.addChild(bgNode);
     return objRoot;
    private void usage()
      System.out.println(
     "Usage: java ObjLoad [-s] [-n] [-t] [-c degrees] <.obj file>");
      System.out.println("  -s Spin (no user interaction)");
      System.out.println("  -n No triangulation");
      System.out.println("  -t No stripification");
      System.out.println(
     "  -c Set crease angle for normal generation (default is 60 without");
      System.out.println(
     "     smoothing group info, otherwise 180 within smoothing groups)");
      System.exit(0);
    } // End of usage
    public void init() {
     if (filename == null) {
            // Applet
            try {
                URL path = getCodeBase();
                filename = new URL(path.toString() + "./galleon.obj");
            catch (MalformedURLException e) {
           System.err.println(e);
           System.exit(1);
     setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        GraphicsConfiguration config =
           SimpleUniverse.getPreferredConfiguration();
        Canvas3D c = new Canvas3D(config);
     add("Center", c);
     // Create a simple scene and attach it to the virtual universe
     BranchGroup scene = createSceneGraph();
     u = new SimpleUniverse(c);
     // add mouse behaviors to the ViewingPlatform
     ViewingPlatform viewingPlatform = u.getViewingPlatform();
     PlatformGeometry pg = new PlatformGeometry();
     // Set up the ambient light
     Color3f ambientColor = new Color3f(0.1f, 0.1f, 0.1f);
     AmbientLight ambientLightNode = new AmbientLight(ambientColor);
     ambientLightNode.setInfluencingBounds(bounds);
     pg.addChild(ambientLightNode);
     // Set up the directional lights
     Color3f light1Color = new Color3f(1.0f, 1.0f, 0.9f);
     Vector3f light1Direction  = new Vector3f(1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f);
     Color3f light2Color = new Color3f(1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f);
     Vector3f light2Direction  = new Vector3f(-1.0f, -1.0f, -1.0f);
     DirectionalLight light1
         = new DirectionalLight(light1Color, light1Direction);
     light1.setInfluencingBounds(bounds);
     pg.addChild(light1);
     DirectionalLight light2
         = new DirectionalLight(light2Color, light2Direction);
     light2.setInfluencingBounds(bounds);
     pg.addChild(light2);
     viewingPlatform.setPlatformGeometry( pg );
     // This will move the ViewPlatform back a bit so the
     // objects in the scene can be viewed.
     viewingPlatform.setNominalViewingTransform();
     if (!spin) {
            OrbitBehavior orbit = new OrbitBehavior(c,
                                  OrbitBehavior.REVERSE_ALL);
            BoundingSphere bounds =
                new BoundingSphere(new Point3d(0.0, 0.0, 0.0), 100.0);
            orbit.setSchedulingBounds(bounds);
            viewingPlatform.setViewPlatformBehavior(orbit);        
     u.addBranchGraph(scene);
    // Caled if running as a program
    public ObjLoad(String[] args) {
      if (args.length != 0) {
     for (int i = 0 ; i < args.length ; i++) {
       if (args.startsWith("-")) {
     if (args[i].equals("-s")) {
     spin = true;
     } else if (args[i].equals("-n")) {
     noTriangulate = true;
     } else if (args[i].equals("-t")) {
     noStripify = true;
     } else if (args[i].equals("-c")) {
     if (i < args.length - 1) {
          creaseAngle = (new Double(args[++i])).doubleValue();
     } else usage();
     } else {
     usage();
     } else {
     try {
     if ((args[i].indexOf("file:") == 0) ||
          (args[i].indexOf("http") == 0)) {
          filename = new URL(args[i]);
     else if (args[i].charAt(0) != '/') {
          filename = new URL("file:./" + args[i]);
     else {
          filename = new URL("file:" + args[i]);
     catch (MalformedURLException e) {
     System.err.println(e);
     System.exit(1);
// Running as an applet
public ObjLoad() {
public void destroy() {
     u.cleanup();
// The following allows ObjLoad to be run as an application
// as well as an applet
public static void main(String[] args) {
new MainFrame(new ObjLoad(args), 700, 700);