Sean, have you ever looked into LWJGL?  That's what the Eclipse GEF3D  
folks are using and through that also the (fairly rudimentary) 3D  
support AMP provides. Though LWJGL doesn't have the most sensible  
interface in the world either -- at least it isn't low-level  
masquerading as high-level, and the performance seems quite good.

On Sep 2, 2009, at 7:21 AM, Sean Luke wrote:

> Okay, here's the deal.
>
> Java3D isn't, shall we say, the easiest to use rendering system.   
> But it's what we need to make do with.  :-(  One of the problems  
> with Java3D is that it has a lot of hidden, undocumented nonsense.   
> Changing colors in spheres is one of them.  Things that Sun never  
> told us:
>
> 1. You can't create a *new* Appearance object once the scene is live  
> -- you have to change the existing one.
> 2. BUT you still have to call setAppearance(...) with this existing  
> object.
> 3. AND you have to call setAppearance on the shape, not the  
> SpherePortrayal3D.  Even though the SpherePortrayal3D has... as  
> setAppearance method.
>
> Grrr...
>
> Okay, I've got something working, so if you need something  
> immediately I can provide you with an example, and two revised  
> files, which will change colors as you like.  But to do it well and  
> properly, I'll need to make a few more tweaks.
>
> Sean
>
> On Sep 2, 2009, at 6:59 AM, Joerg Hoehne wrote:
>
>> Dear developers,
>>
>> I'm trying to change the color of an SpherePortrayal3D object  
>> during runtime. I've checked my
>> code and I'm positive the color of the object will be changed but  
>> not visualized accordingly.
>>
>> I've got the impression the color of a XXXPortrayal3D object can't  
>> be changed after the first
>> construction (or display) of the 3D scene by j3d. Before the first  
>> construction/display I was able to
>> change the color with the same code snipped found below.
>> Here is the code snippet anyway ('this' references to a subclassed  
>> SpherePortrayal3D object):
>>
>> this.appearance = SpherePortrayal3D.appearanceForColor(color);
>>
>> There has been a discussion some years ago about a similar topic  
>> (changing the transparency
>> during runtime) and I wonder if a solution has been found.
>>
>> I'm working on a Mac with OS X 10.6. The monitored effect might be  
>> os depended because j3d
>> might cache some information about the displayed objects and  
>> assumes some properties won't
>> change in the future.
>>
>> Help!
>>
>>
>> Jörg

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