As you may now, GEF3D is moving to Eclipse. GEF3D uses OpenGL for rendering GEF diagrams in 3D, and since OpenGL is a C library, a Java wrapper library has to be used. LWJGL is such a library and GEF3D uses LWJGL. It works with SWT out of the box, that is there is no need for using the SWT-AWT-bridge, which isn't working on Mac OS X (maybe this will change with the new Cocoa version of SWT?). The latest version supports OpenGL 3.0 and runs on Mac, Windows, Linux and Solaris. Unfortunately, the LWJGL library didn't got IP approved. So it cannot be added to the Eclipse orbit project.
The good news is, that lwjgl.org now provides an LWJGL Eclipse plugin! Brian Matzon has installed the update site today. Thank you so much, Brian! It is the plugin I wrote for GEF3D, and it is now available at http://lwjgl.org/update/. This plugin is interesting for people developing Eclipse plugins (or using GEF3D), since it simply wraps the LWJGL library (including the native code) into an Eclipse plugin. Not only the libraries are made available, but source code and documentation as well.
Another plugin will be made available shortly at the same update site, providing LWJGL support for standalone Java applications developed with Eclipse. This plugin will define a new library "LWJGL Library", that is it resolves the jars, native libs, sources and JavaDoc using the LWJGL plugins above. Since the native libs will be defined as well, a standalone Java application can easily be started using Eclipse's "Run As - Java Application" without the need to set a library path. So, this plugin saves some mouse clicks and configuration problems.
With these plugins, it is very easy for Eclipse developers to use OpenGL, either by an Eclipse plugin or by a standalone Java application developed with Eclipse.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
LWJGL Plugin at lwjgl.org
As you may now, GEF3D is moving to Eclipse. GEF3D uses OpenGL for rendering GEF diagrams in 3D, and since OpenGL is a C library, a Java wrapper library has to be used. LWJGL is such a library and GEF3D uses LWJGL. It works with SWT out of the box, that is there is no need for using the SWT-AWT-bridge, which isn't working on Mac OS X (maybe this will change with the new Cocoa version of SWT?). The latest version supports OpenGL 3.0 and runs on Mac, Windows, Linux and Solaris. Unfortunately, the LWJGL library didn't got IP approved. So it cannot be added to the Eclipse orbit project.
The good news is, that lwjgl.org now provides an LWJGL Eclipse plugin! Brian Matzon has installed the update site today. Thank you so much, Brian! It is the plugin I wrote for GEF3D, and it is now available at http://lwjgl.org/update/. This plugin is interesting for people developing Eclipse plugins (or using GEF3D), since it simply wraps the LWJGL library (including the native code) into an Eclipse plugin. Not only the libraries are made available, but source code and documentation as well.
Another plugin will be made available shortly at the same update site, providing LWJGL support for standalone Java applications developed with Eclipse. This plugin will define a new library "LWJGL Library", that is it resolves the jars, native libs, sources and JavaDoc using the LWJGL plugins above. Since the native libs will be defined as well, a standalone Java application can easily be started using Eclipse's "Run As - Java Application" without the need to set a library path. So, this plugin saves some mouse clicks and configuration problems.
With these plugins, it is very easy for Eclipse developers to use OpenGL, either by an Eclipse plugin or by a standalone Java application developed with Eclipse.
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3 comments:
Simply, thank you for sharing that. I realized somedays ago OpenGL for Eclipse wasn't really supported anymore on OSX. You just save my life. GEF3D rocks hard !!! Kudos !!!
Rather use JOGL
@ gouessej Actually, we have two render adapters for GEF3D: one uses LWJGL, the other one JOGL. However, the latter has not been made public yet. Besides, I don't know why JOGL should be better then LWJGL or vice versa. I figure both framework have certain advantages and disadvantages, and it's good to be able to have a choice. You may be interested in the following blog posting, as it comments some legal issues: Do you want 3D in Eclipse? .
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