Setting up Java 3D in linux for Eclipse programming...

Question

I'm trying to start programming with Java 3D, but I think I'm having problems with the initial setup. I installed Java3D using the amd64 bin script into the active jre: /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/. I'm working in Eclipse and have included j3dcore.jar, j3dutils.jar, and vecmath.jar in the build path. It compiles just fine.
My program is a very simple test from a tutorial:
package tests;
import com.sun.j3d.utils.universe.SimpleUniverse;
import com.sun.j3d.utils.geometry.ColorCube;
import javax.media.j3d.BranchGroup;
public class Hello3d {
  public Hello3d()
    SimpleUniverse universe = new SimpleUniverse();
    BranchGroup group = new BranchGroup();
    group.addChild(new ColorCube(0.3));
    universe.getViewingPlatform().setNominalViewingTransform();
    universe.addBranchGraph(group);
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    new Hello3d();
    System.out.println("blah");
}And I get the following exception when it runs:
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax.media.j3d.X11NativeConfigTemplate3D
   at java.lang.Class.initializeClass(libgcj.so.90)
   at java.lang.Class.forName(libgcj.so.90)
   at javax.media.j3d.NativeConfigTemplate3D$1.run(NativeConfigTemplate3D.java:60)
   at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(libgcj.so.90)
   at javax.media.j3d.NativeConfigTemplate3D.createNativeConfigTemplate3D(NativeConfigTemplate3D.java:55)
   at javax.media.j3d.NativePipeline.initialize(NativePipeline.java:107)
   at javax.media.j3d.Pipeline.createPipeline(Pipeline.java:151)
   at javax.media.j3d.MasterControl.loadLibraries(MasterControl.java:926)
   at javax.media.j3d.VirtualUniverse.<clinit>(VirtualUniverse.java:280)
   at java.lang.Class.initializeClass(libgcj.so.90)
   at java.lang.Class.initializeClass(libgcj.so.90)
   at tests.Hello3d.<init>(Hello3d.java:11)
   at tests.Hello3d.main(Hello3d.java:19)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: sun.awt.X11GraphicsDevice not found in gnu.gcj.runtime.SystemClassLoader{urls=[file:/home/max/Dropbox/Projects/Basic Java3D Linux AMD64/,file:/home/max/Dropbox/Projects/Basic Java3D Linux AMD64/Java3D/Linux AMD64/lib/ext/j3dcore.jar,file:/home/max/Dropbox/Projects/Basic Java3D Linux AMD64/Java3D/Linux AMD64/lib/ext/j3dutils.jar,file:/home/max/Dropbox/Projects/Basic Java3D Linux AMD64/Java3D/Linux AMD64/lib/ext/vecmath.jar], parent=gnu.gcj.runtime.ExtensionClassLoader{urls=[], parent=null}}
   at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(libgcj.so.90)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(libgcj.so.90)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(libgcj.so.90)
   at java.lang.Class.forName(libgcj.so.90)
   at java.lang.Class.initializeClass(libgcj.so.90)
   ...12 moreI installed libgcj via Synaptic (I'm running Ubuntu) but still get the same error, so I'm unsure how I should proceed. Any ideas what's wrong?

Answer 1

A late reply but I encountered the same issue. For anyone who googles this thread and everyone else I have a solution!
Use Sun's JRE! It seems GCJ doesn't support the API 100% so what you need to do is
$ sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jreand then in Eclipse change the default workspace JRE or the project JRE to the new one. Eclipse apparently only scans the system for installed JREs on first run so you need to add it manually:
Right click on project, select Properties. Go to panel Java Build Path and select tab Libraries. Select your JRE from this list, it should be named similar to java-1.5.0-gcj-4.3-1.5.0.0, and click Edit. Click Installed JREs and then Add.
Enter a descriptive JRE name, such as Java 6 Sun JRE 1.6.0.x and then enter the path where the JRE is installed - on my Ubuntu machine it's in +/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre+.Select OK twice, select the new JRE as the default for all projects in the workspace or select it via the Alternate JRE setting which will only use Sun's JRE for this project.
Good luck!