Dang, I saw that useRotationPivotFrom3DS and thought "Aha! That's exactly what I'm looking for."

After setting it to be true though, nothing has changed. D:

What's going wrong.

Well I did try something along those lines, with no success.

All I actually wanted was to just use the original model's pivot. i.e. not calling build at all - and this still didn't fix it.

Wow, that game looks exactly like a top down version of what I'm going for. xD

However, I don't think these fixes will work as the actual final diffuse of the polygons is defined by a shader, so methods and settings in jPCT probably won't affect anything.

As a different approach to constructing my maze I decided I'd make the corridor pieces and slot them in place depending on the map array.

So an area like this:
11111
00X00
11011
Would have a junction model at the X and suitably rotated corridor objects at the 0s (and nothing at the 1s)

However when doing this, for some reason whenever I rotate my asymmetrical junction models (basically just being one wall) they shift about and don't rotate around their origin.

Here is the model relative to the origin in Deled:

(The dark blue lines showing the X and Z axes and their intersection being the origin in all 3 axes.)

(I export the model as .x and import into Milkshape3D to export as .3ds (after mirroring in the Y axis) )

When I put the model into the actual game I get these kind of results:


(The horizontal polygon is merely there to show the offset and because I tried testing it by making vertices on symmetrical sides of the origin (to no avail of course))

And it's even more obscure when I've rotated a quarter turn. :S

I've tried omitting the build method or the compile and strip method. I've tried manually calculating the rotation pivot and the object center (neither of which changed anything)

So I'm kind of stuck now...

I simply can't do what seems an almost trivial task. xD

All the code affecting any one object in the game set up:
blocks[bindex]=wallDummy.cloneObject();
blocks[bindex].setTexture(wallTex);
blocks[bindex].rotateY(-(float)Math.PI/2); // Or some other angle if it's a different junction block
blocks[bindex].setSpecularLighting(true);
blocks[bindex].translate(i*20,0,j*20);
blocks[bindex].setRenderHook(genericNormalMapping);
blocks[bindex].setCollisionMode(Object3D.COLLISION_CHECK_OTHERS);
blocks[bindex].compileAndStrip();
world.addObject(blocks[bindex]);
bindex++;

And wallDummy is retrieved like this:
type="3ds";
path="wall";
wallDummy=Object3D.mergeAll(Loader.load3DS("res/"+type+"/"+path+"/"+path+".3ds",0.125f));
wallDummy.build();
tm.addTexture(path+"Tex",new Texture("res/"+type+"/"+path+"/"+path+".png"));
tm.addTexture(path+"TexN",new Texture("res/"+type+"/"+path+"/"+path+"N.png"));
wallTex=new TextureInfo(tm.getTextureID(path+"Tex"));
wallTex.add(tm.getTextureID(path+"TexN"),TextureInfo.MODE_MODULATE);

I meant that I thought there should be a way to tell each face (of the individual box) to not share the vertices of the adjacent faces. i.e. omit them from the normals calculation and just focus on that face's vertices



Waaaaiiiit a second, ignoring all of that for a minute. - Why is there not just a way to calculate the normals from the overall plane's angle? The same way I seem to remember doing so in maths at school:


I'd have thought there should be a setting to tell polygons to get their normals from adjacent vertices and a converse setting available to tell polygons to get their normals from the literal normal of the face angle.

D:

That all seems awfully complicated.

I found a cheesy fix though.

Instead of having the previous Wall.3ds (with 4 faces (8 triangles)) pasted everywhere.

I now just have WallH.3ds pasted ontop of a load of WallV.3ds (each with only 2 oposing (and non joined) faces) to force vertex sharing off.

This almost seems like there should be a method for doing that in the engine itself - some kind of "don't share vertices from adjacent faces" config or method.

I couldn't begin to imagine what I was supposed to do with IVertexController. :S

It's me again, back with another problem.

I was doing quite well, understanding the API and finding all the methods and things I needed but this latest problem I feel is not something so easily solved. D:

Essentially I have a simple maze game where the level is made up of boxes positioned all over the place.

Each box has the normal mapping shader (that comes with http://www.jpct.net/wiki/index.php/Advanced_example ) and everything is working basically fine. (Asside from me still being a big noob with collision/2d/animation/sound etc.)

But one thing I'm having tremendous difficulty with is the lighting.

Here's a picture of what I mean:


Using the setShadingMode method isn't able to solve this because the lighting is in the shader pipeline.

Now that's fine, maybe I should go and find some help with GLSL for that, but what concerns me is that if I turn the shader off, and use setShadingMode with faked flat shading, the effect is still not what I'm after. - It facets the triangles in the flat surfaces of the boxes, where I just wanted it to show them as flat sided.

What am I really looking for? - This kind of thing was never an issue when I had to deal with DirectX and HLSL. Things were either smoothed to a percentage or flat but squares (i.e. 2 triangles) showed up as flat squares, not flat triangles.

Guidance needed.

!!!

Thanks man, you're awesome.

I knew it'd be something really silly I was missing like obj.clearTranslation(). xD

And not only that, now I have solutions for the 2D stuff too. !!!

A little while ago, I decided I wanted the FPS of my game to display onscreen.

In other engines this seems to be a trivial task (something along the lines of "print fps" or "g.drawString(fps,0,0);" normally does the trick)

But being the inexperienced Java coder I am, I'm unused to how to seek what I desire from a new set of Java libraries (namely jPCT).

I found there wasn't really a way to do 2D at all... or if there is it's extremely convoluted so I went for just seeing if I could get a picture to display on a plane and have that constantly infront of the camera.

First, it took me a while to figure out how to get transparency to work because the Java docs are wrong (it says the maximum value for setTransparency is 0 - which it isn't: it's 5)

After getting a plane with an alpha mapped .png image to render correctly I then searched for something resembling "position object x,y,z" or "setObjectPosition(float x,float y,float z)" but the only things I can find are all these translate, transform, origin, centre and matrix commands. - I honestly can't tell from the Java docs which one would do what I'd want.

All the positioning commands seem relative to previous movement. - Surely I mustn't have to store the vector an object was translated by, then reverse the translation just to move it somewhere else every time?

I wish to position an object at the camera, then move it forward a unit or so every cycle. But I can't see how in the world I'm supposed to achieve this. xD

Something like this:
while(running){
plane.positionObject(camera.getPositionX(),camera.getPositionY(),camera.getPositionZ());
plane.rotateObject(camera.getAngleX(),camera.getAngleY(),camera.getAngleZ());
plane.translate(0,0,1);
}

I feel incredibly stupid or like I'm missing a huge chunk of methods or something...

This kind of thing is nice and easy in DarkBASICPro/C++/other3Dengines as far as I'm aware.

Someone point me in the right direction D:

 

It worked !

I was about to go and get the VM options I'd put in place to show you that I had it all set up correctly then I realised I was linking to what I can only imagine was the Slick2D LWJGL dlls in a similar, but not entirely the same folder.

So after correcting the file route and taking out Logger.setLogLevel(Logger.LL_VERBOSE); (which seemed to crash it after a few seconds) I get this:

!!!!!

Ok I just copied all the .dlls into the same path as jpct.jar and the lwjgl.jars and now I'm getting this output in console:
run:
Loading Texture...example/GrassSample2.jpg
[ Thu Dec 29 18:29:02 GMT 2011 ] - ERROR: File 'example/GrassSample2.jpg' not found - replacement texture used instead!
Loading Texture...example/disco.jpg
[ Thu Dec 29 18:29:02 GMT 2011 ] - ERROR: File 'example/disco.jpg' not found - replacement texture used instead!
Loading Texture...example/rock.jpg
[ Thu Dec 29 18:29:02 GMT 2011 ] - ERROR: File 'example/rock.jpg' not found - replacement texture used instead!
Loading Texture...example/normals.jpg
[ Thu Dec 29 18:29:02 GMT 2011 ] - ERROR: File 'example/normals.jpg' not found - replacement texture used instead!
Loading Texture...example/sky.jpg
[ Thu Dec 29 18:29:02 GMT 2011 ] - ERROR: File 'example/sky.jpg' not found - replacement texture used instead!
Java version is: 1.7.0
-> support for BufferedImage
Version helper for 1.5+ initialized!
-> using BufferedImage
Software renderer (OpenGL mode) initialized
Software renderer disposed
mode: 800/600/32/75
mode: 720/576/32/60
mode: 1280/720/16/60
mode: 1152/864/32/60
mode: 640/480/16/75
mode: 1280/960/16/60
mode: 1280/1024/32/60
mode: 1366/768/16/60
mode: 1024/768/32/75
mode: 1152/720/16/60
mode: 1360/768/16/60
mode: 720/480/32/60
mode: 1024/768/16/75
mode: 1366/768/32/60
mode: 1152/720/32/60
mode: 1360/768/32/60
mode: 720/480/16/60
mode: 800/600/16/75
mode: 720/576/16/60
mode: 1280/1024/16/60
mode: 1280/960/32/60
mode: 640/480/32/75
mode: 1152/864/16/60
mode: 1280/720/32/60
mode: 1280/768/16/60
mode: 800/600/16/60
mode: 720/576/16/75
mode: 640/480/32/59
mode: 1280/1024/16/75
mode: 640/480/32/60
mode: 1024/768/16/60
mode: 1280/800/32/60
mode: 1440/900/32/60
mode: 720/480/16/75
mode: 1280/800/16/60
mode: 1024/768/32/60
mode: 1440/900/16/60
mode: 720/480/32/75
mode: 800/600/32/60
mode: 1280/768/32/60
mode: 720/576/32/75
mode: 640/480/16/59
mode: 640/480/16/60
mode: 1280/1024/32/75
Can't find desired videomode (800 x 600 x 24) - searching for alternatives
Current mode:800 x 600 x 32 @75Hz
[ Thu Dec 29 18:29:03 GMT 2011 ] - WARNING: ZBuffer depth of 24 not supported - trying something else now...!
[ Thu Dec 29 18:29:03 GMT 2011 ] - WARNING: Does this machine actually support OpenGL? Trying everything at lowest settings now!
java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: org.lwjgl.opengl.WindowsDisplay.nSetTitle(JJ)V
at org.lwjgl.opengl.WindowsDisplay.nSetTitle(Native Method)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.WindowsDisplay.setTitle(WindowsDisplay.java:442)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.setTitle(Display.java:567)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.createWindow(Display.java:312)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:899)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:808)
at com.threed.jpct.GLHelper.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.GLRenderer.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at rats.Rats.init(Rats.java:94)
at rats.Rats.main(Rats.java:56)
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Only one LWJGL context may be instantiated at any one time.
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:870)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:808)
at com.threed.jpct.GLHelper.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.GLRenderer.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at rats.Rats.init(Rats.java:94)
at rats.Rats.main(Rats.java:56)
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Only one LWJGL context may be instantiated at any one time.
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:870)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:808)
at com.threed.jpct.GLHelper.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.GLRenderer.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at rats.Rats.init(Rats.java:94)
at rats.Rats.main(Rats.java:56)
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Only one LWJGL context may be instantiated at any one time.
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:870)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:808)
at com.threed.jpct.GLHelper.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.GLRenderer.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at rats.Rats.init(Rats.java:94)
at rats.Rats.main(Rats.java:56)
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Only one LWJGL context may be instantiated at any one time.
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:870)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:808)
at com.threed.jpct.GLHelper.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.GLRenderer.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at rats.Rats.init(Rats.java:94)
at rats.Rats.main(Rats.java:56)
Driver is unknown!
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 0
[ Thu Dec 29 18:29:03 GMT 2011 ] - ERROR: Unable to set any valid videomode on this machine!
at rats.Rats.init(Rats.java:121)
at rats.Rats.main(Rats.java:56)
[ Thu Dec 29 18:29:03 GMT 2011 ] - ERROR: Can't set videomode - try different settings!
Software renderer disposed
Loading file example/rock.3ds
[ Thu Dec 29 18:29:03 GMT 2011 ] - ERROR: Couldn't read file example/rock.3ds
[ Thu Dec 29 18:29:03 GMT 2011 ] - ERROR: Not a valid 3DS file!
Java Result: 1
BUILD SUCCESSFUL (total time: 1 second)


I ran that at the beginning of the main method on Advanced example and got this:
run:
Loading Texture...example/GrassSample2.jpg
[ Wed Dec 28 20:57:04 GMT 2011 ] - ERROR: File 'example/GrassSample2.jpg' not found - replacement texture used instead!
Loading Texture...example/disco.jpg
[ Wed Dec 28 20:57:04 GMT 2011 ] - ERROR: File 'example/disco.jpg' not found - replacement texture used instead!
Loading Texture...example/rock.jpg
[ Wed Dec 28 20:57:04 GMT 2011 ] - ERROR: File 'example/rock.jpg' not found - replacement texture used instead!
Loading Texture...example/normals.jpg
[ Wed Dec 28 20:57:04 GMT 2011 ] - ERROR: File 'example/normals.jpg' not found - replacement texture used instead!
Loading Texture...example/sky.jpg
[ Wed Dec 28 20:57:04 GMT 2011 ] - ERROR: File 'example/sky.jpg' not found - replacement texture used instead!
Java version is: 1.7.0
-> support for BufferedImage
Version helper for 1.5+ initialized!
-> using BufferedImage
Software renderer (OpenGL mode) initialized
Software renderer disposed
mode: 800/600/32/75
mode: 720/576/32/60
mode: 1280/720/16/60
mode: 1152/864/32/60
mode: 640/480/16/75
mode: 1280/960/16/60
mode: 1280/1024/32/60
mode: 1366/768/16/60
mode: 1024/768/32/75
mode: 1152/720/16/60
mode: 1360/768/16/60
mode: 720/480/32/60
mode: 1024/768/16/75
mode: 1366/768/32/60
mode: 1152/720/32/60
mode: 1360/768/32/60
mode: 720/480/16/60
mode: 800/600/16/75
mode: 720/576/16/60
mode: 1280/1024/16/60
mode: 1280/960/32/60
mode: 640/480/32/75
mode: 1152/864/16/60
mode: 1280/720/32/60
mode: 1280/768/16/60
mode: 800/600/16/60
mode: 720/576/16/75
mode: 640/480/32/59
mode: 1280/1024/16/75
mode: 640/480/32/60
mode: 1024/768/16/60
mode: 1280/800/32/60
mode: 1440/900/32/60
mode: 720/480/16/75
mode: 1280/800/16/60
mode: 1024/768/32/60
mode: 1440/900/16/60
mode: 720/480/32/75
mode: 800/600/32/60
mode: 1280/768/32/60
mode: 720/576/32/75
mode: 640/480/16/59
mode: 640/480/16/60
mode: 1280/1024/32/75
Can't find desired videomode (800 x 600 x 24) - searching for alternatives
Current mode:800 x 600 x 32 @75Hz
[ Wed Dec 28 20:57:05 GMT 2011 ] - WARNING: ZBuffer depth of 24 not supported - trying something else now...!
[ Wed Dec 28 20:57:05 GMT 2011 ] - WARNING: Does this machine actually support OpenGL? Trying everything at lowest settings now!
java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: org.lwjgl.opengl.WindowsDisplay.nSetTitle(JJ)V
at org.lwjgl.opengl.WindowsDisplay.nSetTitle(Native Method)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.WindowsDisplay.setTitle(WindowsDisplay.java:442)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.setTitle(Display.java:567)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.createWindow(Display.java:312)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:899)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:808)
Driver is unknown!
at com.threed.jpct.GLHelper.init(Unknown Source)
[ Wed Dec 28 20:57:05 GMT 2011 ] - ERROR: Unable to set any valid videomode on this machine!
[ Wed Dec 28 20:57:05 GMT 2011 ] - ERROR: Can't set videomode - try different settings!
at com.threed.jpct.GLRenderer.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at rats.Rats.init(Rats.java:94)
at rats.Rats.main(Rats.java:56)
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Only one LWJGL context may be instantiated at any one time.
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:870)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:808)
at com.threed.jpct.GLHelper.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.GLRenderer.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at rats.Rats.init(Rats.java:94)
at rats.Rats.main(Rats.java:56)
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Only one LWJGL context may be instantiated at any one time.
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:870)
Software renderer disposed
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:808)
at com.threed.jpct.GLHelper.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.GLRenderer.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at rats.Rats.init(Rats.java:94)
at rats.Rats.main(Rats.java:56)
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Only one LWJGL context may be instantiated at any one time.
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:870)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:808)
at com.threed.jpct.GLHelper.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.GLRenderer.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at rats.Rats.init(Rats.java:94)
at rats.Rats.main(Rats.java:56)
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Only one LWJGL context may be instantiated at any one time.
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:870)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:808)
at com.threed.jpct.GLHelper.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.GLRenderer.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at rats.Rats.init(Rats.java:94)
at rats.Rats.main(Rats.java:56)
Loading file example/rock.3ds
[ Wed Dec 28 20:57:05 GMT 2011 ] - ERROR: Couldn't read file example/rock.3ds
[ Wed Dec 28 20:57:05 GMT 2011 ] - ERROR: Not a valid 3DS file!
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 0
at rats.Rats.init(Rats.java:121)
at rats.Rats.main(Rats.java:56)
Java Result: 1
BUILD SUCCESSFUL (total time: 2 seconds)

I'm reasonably certain my graphics drivers are up to date as I regularly update them from the nVidia site.

I've tried going through the first topics on the Wiki but as soon as I got to the Hello World one, I found problems...

First off, it doesn't actually tell me how to make any of the objects it wants, I'm just sorta guessing at where the line World world; needs to go and whether I need FrameBuffer buffer; or something else.

And as for making the object box, I have absolutely no idea what it's talking about so I had to leave that code out.

After getting some code to work (omitting the parts that concern box of course) I get the following output in the console because I can't set the screen to use width, height, colour depth, frequency and screenmode - it's only got room for width, height and sampling mode as parameters:
run:
Java version is: 1.7.0
-> support for BufferedImage
Version helper for 1.5+ initialized!
-> using BufferedImage
Software renderer (OpenGL mode) initialized
Loading Texture...box.jpg
Software renderer disposed
Current mode:800 x 600 x 32 @75Hz
[ Wed Dec 28 20:23:24 GMT 2011 ] - WARNING: ZBuffer depth of 24 not supported - trying something else now...!
[ Wed Dec 28 20:23:24 GMT 2011 ] - WARNING: Does this machine actually support OpenGL? Trying everything at lowest settings now!
Driver is unknown!
[ Wed Dec 28 20:23:24 GMT 2011 ] - ERROR: Unable to set any valid videomode on this machine!
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Only one LWJGL context may be instantiated at any one time.
[ Wed Dec 28 20:23:24 GMT 2011 ] - ERROR: Can't set videomode - try different settings!
New WorldProcessor created using 1 thread(s) and granularity of 1!
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:870)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:808)
at com.threed.jpct.GLHelper.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.GLRenderer.init(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at com.threed.jpct.FrameBuffer.enableRenderer(Unknown Source)
at rats.Rats.main(Rats.java:24)
Software renderer disposed
BUILD SUCCESSFUL (total time: 9 seconds)
My monitor doesn't do 75Hz as a refresh rate and I can't tell it not to use a 24bit Z buffer anywhere.

So whatever, I left that and went for the only complete code example I could find which was the Advanced example. So I stuck that code in, changed all the right thing and ran it. - It did exactly the same thing, kicking up a fuss about Zdepth, resolution and LWJGL instances.

So I gave up and went off to see if I could run the examples that actually came with the engine. (Because I already knew the examples available from the website worked fine.)

I tried running all 4 examples and each .bat just opens and closes without making another window. - Running the .bats in cmd tells me the following:
Unable to load native library: Can't load IA 32-bit .dll on a AMD 64-bit platform
And as far as I'm aware, the .dlls for LWJGL on a 64bit system are in the natives\windows folder because they're the same ones I use on my other Java games (in Slick2D).

So now I'm stumped... I've tried following the tutorials, I've tried looking for an FAQ page, I've tried searching the forums for similar problems or a place for beginners, I've tried searching Google for similar problems.

I literally have no idea what I'm supposed to do to get jPCT to work. xD

Please halp.

System specs:
Windows7x64
ASUS P5Q SE Plus
nVidia Geforce 9800GT
4gb DDR2 RAM
1440x900x32@60Hz
Java7 using Netbeans 7.0.1