New tutorial: Vertex buffer objects in an Eclipse RCP application

Hi guys,

Here's another tutorial in my series that shows how to set up an Eclipse RCP application with JOGL: http://wadeawalker.wordpress.com/2010/10/17/tutorial-faster-rendering-with-vertex-buffer-objects/.

I feel a bit foolish doing such basic tutorials when so many others here are doing super-advanced rendering with JOGL, but hopefully this will help some people get "over the hump" and get a first JOGL application up and running.

For the next tutorial, I'll probably show how to export multi-platform binaries, since I've seen some others on this forum asking about that.

-w

Really nice! Again an impressive tutorial

>I feel a bit foolish doing such basic tutorials when so many others here are
>doing super-advanced rendering with JOGL, but hopefully this will help
>some people get "over the hump" and get a first JOGL application up and running.

"Basic Tutorials" is exactly what JOGL/Jogamp is desperately in need of. As I got started with OpenGL a year ago the lack of solid "straight to the point" tutorials like urs (wich also included IDE stuff) nearly stopped my JOGL efforts. So ur tutorials really fill a very important gap here.

Already looking forward to ur next one  ...

Wade Walker wrote

For the next tutorial, I'll probably show how to export multi-platform binaries, since I've seen some others on this forum asking about that.

There are several solutions to solve this problem. Personally I use Ant to generate the .classpath file. I prefer using Ant because in some projects the developers may use different IDE and it is then better to have a common build tool. Generating Netbeans and Eclipse files with Ant allows to have the best of the both world, an Ant build and the possibility of using the builder/debugger of the IDE. If you don't really see what I mean, look at my build file.

Some corporations do like you, one cross-platform plugin and one plugin per OS/architecture couple.

Excellent tutorial.

I know what you mean about generating the Eclipse .classpath (and presumably also the .project) with Ant. I've always wanted to try that, but haven't got the resources at work right now to revamp our whole build flow

The other option (if you don't have to support Netbeans) is to use PDE Build, the method that the Eclipse team uses to build Eclipse itself. It's a pain to set up, though, and it's annoying that Eclipse has two different build systems in it (the one for "plain" Eclipse projects, and the PDE Build that's used for plugin export and "headless" builds).

Plus, if you use PDE Build, all your projects have to be plugin projects. At work, I have some legacy projects that are plain old Eclipse projects, so I'd have to convert these to plugins to get PDE Build to work correctly.

My tutorials are all pure plugins on purpose, so that I can show how to use PDE Build later on with no problems

Wade Walker wrote

I know what you mean about generating the Eclipse .classpath (and presumably also the .project) with Ant. I've always wanted to try that, but haven't got the resources at work right now to revamp our whole build flow

It is quite simple especially if you are accustomed with using Ant. I don't need neither Ant-contrib nor Antilope nor JavaScript nor custom Java Ant tasks to do this, my solution is smart and compatible with OpenJDK ;) I could improve it to set the source path when the source code is in the workspace.

Wade Walker wrote

The other option (if you don't have to support Netbeans) is to use PDE Build, the method that the Eclipse team uses to build Eclipse itself. It's a pain to set up, though, and it's annoying that Eclipse has two different build systems in it (the one for "plain" Eclipse projects, and the PDE Build that's used for plugin export and "headless" builds).

Plus, if you use PDE Build, all your projects have to be plugin projects. At work, I have some legacy projects that are plain old Eclipse projects, so I'd have to convert these to plugins to get PDE Build to work correctly.

My tutorials are all pure plugins on purpose, so that I can show how to use PDE Build later on with no problems

A colleague of mine suggested me this option. Lots of our bundles have been configured automatically.

Actually, when you want to use the same application inside and outside Eclipse RCP, using JOGL GLCanvas is a plus.