I actually solved the ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException. That little program I had written over a few years (it was the first one I built with jPCT) and it uses both the software and the hardware renderer (not at the same time obviously). And in changing it a million times I had introduced a stupid glitch in which I called run in one part of it (one attempt at getting the non-canvas OpenGL renderer to use the software loop), and started a separate thread that called it. So sometimes, draw() was being called twice at the same time (and before it draws it moves the objects). So that's that.

But now here's a question: what's the point of using AWTGLCanvas if the FrameBuffer's Graphics object will still be null (or useless, whichever it is)? I can no more use canvas.getGraphics()'s Graphics instance than I could a frame's (I can, but the screen will flicker). So is this a jPCT bug (I hope so)?

Since I went from the lwjgl window to the AWTGLCanvas (to get access to awt.Graphics) I've been getting this exception thrown at random times in my program a few seconds into it. I imagine it's some sort of thread synchronization issue, but I'm not quite sure how to solve it. The following are the lines that seem to cause it:
else {//IF HARDWARE RENDERER
      Graphics canvasG = awtGlCanvas.getGraphics();
      buffer.display(canvasG);
      this.paint(this.getGraphics());
      awtGlCanvas.paint(canvasG);
}


I need to find the theta of the following triangle. The only trigonometry book I kept from school doesn't answer this very well. Can anyone help?

Not to rush you in any way, Egon, but I was wondering if you already have a beta of 1.18 with that in so that I don't have to do it differently on my code and have to change it later.

I'm trying to make hardware jpct-lwjgl applets that use the joystick and 3D hardware. All three of the first ones have failed to render anything to the screen (except for when on the third one I was using jpct's software renderer). Check out the code of this incredibly simple applet and remember it worked on software rendering (without the canvas). As it is, I get a black screen (nothing renders). By the way, although I'm only using ambient light on this one, the other two had other lights positioned around the world.

import java.applet.*;
import java.awt.*;
import com.threed.jpct.*;
import com.threed.jpct.util.Light;
import org.lwjgl.opengl.*;
import org.lwjgl.input.*; //JOYSTICK AND OPENGL-MODE KEYBOARD

public class SimpleApplet3D extends Applet implements Runnable {
      private Object3D object;
      private World theWorld;
      private FrameBuffer buffer;
      private Camera theCamera;
      private boolean keepGoing;
      private Controller joystick;
      private Canvas theCanvas;

      public void init() {
object = Loader.load3DS("c:/MyPrograms/3D/SimpleApplet/Girl.3DS", 1f)[0];
buffer = new FrameBuffer(800, 600, FrameBuffer.SAMPLINGMODE_NORMAL);
buffer.enableRenderer(IRenderer.RENDERER_OPENGL);
buffer.disableRenderer(IRenderer.RENDERER_SOFTWARE);
Config.maxPolysVisible *= 3;
theWorld = new World();
theCamera = theWorld.getCamera();
this.add(theCanvas = buffer.enableGLCanvasRenderer());
Controllers controllers = new Controllers();
try {
      controllers.create();
      if (controllers.getControllerCount() > 0) {
joystick = controllers.getController(0);
System.out.println("Got the joystick. Its name: "+joystick.getName());
      }
}
catch (org.lwjgl.LWJGLException e) {}
theWorld.addObject(object);
theWorld.setAmbientLight(65, 65, 65);
keepGoing = true;
      }
      public void start() {
Thread appletLoop = new Thread(this);
appletLoop.start();
      }
      private void draw() {
buffer.clear(Color.black);
theWorld.renderScene(buffer);
theWorld.draw(buffer);
buffer.display(theCanvas.getGraphics());
// buffer.displayGLOnly();
      }
      public void run() {
while (keepGoing) {
      if (joystick != null) {
theCamera.moveCamera(Camera.CAMERA_MOVEIN, joystick.getYAxisValue());
      }
      draw();
      try {
Thread.sleep(50);
      }
      catch (InterruptedException e) {}
}
      }
      public void stop() {
keepGoing = false;
      }
      public void destroy() {}
}


I've read everything on the subject that I could find by searching Google. Figured somebody here might know. I cannot, for the life of me, change the volume of the midi playback in my program. The following is my code. The last part (before the call to start()) is my attempt at discovering which Synthesizer is attached to the Sequencer. And the very last nested loop was an attempt to change everyone's volume. By the way, if my test for synthesizer.getDefaultSoundbank() == null is valid, I'm using the software synthesizer on my computer.

        private void playMidi(String fileName) {
try {
     midiPlayer = MidiSystem.getSequencer(true);
     Synthesizer synthesizer = MidiSystem.getSynthesizer();
     midiPlayer.open();
     synthesizer.open();
     Transmitter transmitter = midiPlayer.getTransmitter();

     if (synthesizer.getDefaultSoundbank() == null) {//MEANING "IF USING HARDWARE (NOT JRE) SYNTHESIZER"
transmitter.setReceiver(MidiSystem.getReceiver());//THIS IS RIGHT FOR HARDWARE
System.out.println("Hardware synthesizer!");
     }
     else {
transmitter.setReceiver(synthesizer.getReceiver());//SYNTHESIZER.GETRECEIVER() IS RIGHT FOR SOFTWARE

System.out.println("Software synthesizer in use!");
     }

     midiPlayer.setSequence(MidiSystem.getSequence(new File(fileName)));

     ShortMessage volumeMessage = new ShortMessage();
     int numberOfChannels = synthesizer.getChannels().length;
     for (int i = 0; i < numberOfChannels; i++) {
volumeMessage.setMessage(ShortMessage.CONTROL_CHANGE, i, 7, 5); //7 IS MASTER VOLUME CONTROLLER, 5 IS VOLUME BETWEEN 0-127
transmitter.getReceiver().send(volumeMessage, -1);
     }
System.out.println("Is the sequencer an instance of Synthesizer? "+(midiPlayer instanceof Synthesizer));

     MidiDevice device = MidiSystem.getMidiDevice(midiPlayer.getDeviceInfo());
     java.util.List<Transmitter> transmitters = device.getTransmitters();
     Transmitter[] transmitterArray = new Transmitter[transmitters.size()];
     transmitterArray = transmitters.toArray(transmitterArray);

for (int y = 0; y < transmitterArray.length; y++) {
for (int x = 0; x < 16; x++) {
volumeMessage.setMessage(ShortMessage.CONTROL_CHANGE, y, 7, 5); //7 IS MASTER VOLUME CONTROLLER, 5 IS VOLUME BETWEEN 0-127
transmitterArray[y].getReceiver().send(volumeMessage, -1);
}
}

     MidiChannel[] channels = synthesizer.getChannels();
     for (int i = 0; i < channels.length; i++){
channels[i].controlChange(7, 5);
System.out.println("Can we lower the volume? "+(channels[i].getController(7)!=0));}

     midiPlayer.start();
}
catch (Exception e) {System.out.println("Midi File Error: "+e.getMessage());}

The way the ship flies forward is it's always chasing targetCone. After the following method flips firing to true, the game loop makes the lasers chase after the laserTarget variables using the very same method that always works for the ship. What's weird is that the following code only works before the ship is rotated. Then, for some bizarre reason, the laserTargets start showing up in the wrong place. It's worth mentioning that the laser cylinders are ALWAYS aligned to the ship, but they end up flying sideways after the first rotation.

      private void fireLasers() {//SETS IT UP, THEN FLIPS firing TO TRUE SO THAT THE GAME LOOP TAKES IT FROM THERE
targetCone.calcCenter();
laser1 = Primitives.getCylinder(16, 4f, 20f);
laser1.build();
laser1.translate(laserDummy1.getTransformedCenter());
align(laser1, wing1);
// laserTarget1 = Object3D.createDummyObj();
laserTarget1 = Primitives.getBox(10, 1);
align(laserTarget1, targetCone);
moveTowards(laserTarget1, targetCone.getTransformedCenter(), 1f);
theWorld.addObject(laser1);
laser2 = Primitives.getCylinder(16, 4f, 20f);
laser2.build();
laser2.translate(laserDummy2.getTransformedCenter());
align(laser2, wing2);
theWorld.addObject(laser2);
// laserTarget2 = Object3D.createDummyObj();
laserTarget2 = Primitives.getBox(10, 1);
laserTarget2.build();
moveTowards(laserTarget2, targetCone.getTransformedCenter(), 1f);

laser1.addChild(laserTarget2);
laser2.addChild(laserTarget1);
theWorld.addObject(laserTarget1);
theWorld.addObject(laserTarget2);
laser1.setAdditionalColor(Color.red);
laser2.setAdditionalColor(Color.red);
System.out.println("Laser to Ship Distance: "+calculateDistance(xWing, laser1));
firing = true;
      }