course on Graphics in Java (GUIs, 2D graphics, JOGL2) available online

Hello,
I am glad to announce that I  have just made available online the lecture notes of a course on Graphics in Java which covers GUIs, 2D graphics and 3D graphics with JOGL2.

The part on JOGL2 (43 pages) is as practical-oriented as I could design it and can serve as a straightforward introduction to JOGL2 integrated inside a GUI.

I would be delighted if it could be of any help to anybody.

The http address is:
http://eng.eul.edu.tr/manuel/Course_on_Graphics_in_Java/Course_on_Graphics_in_Java.htm

Note that I am planning to open soon a follow-up course on advanced 3D graphics with JOGL2 and  Java.

Also, there is a course on Java language which is available on the same website (prerequisite of the course on Graphics in Java).

Manuel Carcenac
Computer Engineering Department
European University of Lefke

Hi!

Thanks for sharing. It is a very good piece of news :) JOGL is used in lots of universities, in Brazil (Brumenau, etc...), Germany, France (UPMC), etc...

If you need any help, let us know. Do you plan to speak about algorithmic aspects? space subdivision? Gimbal lock?

Edit.: The subsection entitled "Installing JOGL on your PC" should be renamed "Installing JOGL on Windows" because you don't explain how to install JOGL on PC not running Windows (Linux for example). I'm not sure that creating an environment variable is mandatory to use JOGL even on Windows.

You use Euler angles, maybe you should speak a little bit about gimbal lock in another section.

Thanks for the interest !

I have just updated the source file with "Installing JOGL on Windows". I am going on leave now, when I come back I will ask the administrator to upload it on the website.

I will soon prepare a follow-up course in which I should cover the topics you mentioned (I don't know if I will put Gimbal lock in the current course or the follow-up).

It is just the first draft of the course, so many things may be clumsy, even dead wrong. And I am not so up to date on many technical topics in graphics...    :-(

The best help you can give me right now is your remarks and suggestions. I will be more than grateful !

Manuel

Nice! We should add that to the Wiki. U may consider converting the lessons to a more readable html/pdf format, as I guess noone uses Microsoft Word around here

Looking forward to the coming lessons. Keep up the good work!

I agree with Demoscene Passivist, maybe a good compromise would consist in using PDF. I use LibreOffice.

2 working solutions exist for the problem of Gimbal Lock:
- non eulerian transforms (see Pascal Mignot' formula about that) with quaternions
- eulerian transforms with a non linear handling of singularities (implemented in Ardor3D as far as I know)

a quaternion impl is available in jogl, added it to use in graph
transformation :), if needed.

com.jogamp.graph.math.Quaternion

cheers

Great course Manuel! Thanks for writing this -- I think it will help a lot of people  It looks like Sven has already added it to our wiki page at http://jogamp.org/wiki/index.php/Jogl_Tutorial.

I would second Demoscene's opinion about the format, though. I think if you post it in HTML or PDF format, your course might find a wider audience. MS Word has an option to write out both of these formats, so it should be pretty straightforward. Of course, I notice all your other courses are in the same format, so maybe you want to keep consistency

Thank you everybody for the advice and encouragements !

I am putting everything into a to-do list for when I am back from leave.

You are right for the format, I will make different formats available for each file.

And I have now good pointers to interesting topics in graphics... I mean, I am myself learning about the field by writing this course...     ;-)