Try this: http://www.jpct.net/download/beta/jpctapi.zip
It has a new switch in Config called useFramebufferWithAlpha. If you set it to true before creating your FrameBuffer, the framebuffer should support an alpha value (you'll get a console message about this too). Rendered (and blitted) parts automatically get a 255, the rest depends on how you clear the buffer. Does this help?

as far as i remember i once requested this feature for karga's avatar panel. i'm glad it's now implemented

old transparency functionality with new alpha frame buffer. this way performs better and more important relaxes the restriction on avatar texture colors



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i've submitted a bug report. the automated reponse says it may take up to 3 weeks before it is reviewed and processed. we'll see

thx for your help egon, i really appreciate it

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so the output of test program differs for web start 5 and 6. possibly java 5's output is something like, meaning direct connection:

selector: com.sun.deploy.net.proxy.DeployProxySelector@1592174
----
1 proxies for socket://www.aptalkarga.com:9998
DIRECT: DIRECT: class java.net.Proxy, address: null

if this is the case, we should submit a bug report to sun. i can do that but you have more information about the enviroment

my web start 6 uses correct settings from within both firefox 2.0 and internet explorer 7.0

all my ideas about java bug were depending on the fact that karga runs with java 5 but not with 6. if that's not the case then certainly there's a problem on that machine

as direct connection works on that machine you can workaround the problem by disabling proxy usage, that is: on web start configuration panel, in general tab, in network seettings dialog, select direct connection option

hope that will solve -at least workaround- the problem
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after some digging and hunting that seems to be a proxy related java bug but i'm not sure exactly what it is

if some of you has the same problem with java 6, can you please run the following application with both java 5 and 6 and post the result here or pm me. i hope this may clarify things

http://www.aptalkarga.com/jws/socks.jnlp

btw, it's a good thing that sun does not update get java page with initial release of every major version. i hope this connection issue will be solved till get java page is updated

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ehm, i really dont know what's going on :?

it does work on my windows xp and fedora 4. there's one difference though, in untrusted mode (windowed) on windows, javaws displays a warning about connections to cave (localhost). it goes on to connect if user presses cancel :roll:

have you modified any configuration files ? maybe re-installing java6 may help.

on the good side, fullscreen exlusive mode is now supported on my fedora 4

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Egon,

i understand and appreciate all of the reasons that you dont make jPCT an open source project. however i guess it will be quite nice and beneficial for almost all if you give the source code without making jPCT an open source project.

that case will be free of possible problems that you concern about an open source project. and it will be effectively a guide, a reference point and a tutorial. afterall jPCT is the best 3d engine for java regarding its capabilities, small footprint and 1.1 compliance (IMHO)

sure, you may have been worried about some <bad> guys who may modify, rename, publish and maybe resell your code and steal your credits for your master piece. but isnt that already possible ? those <bad> guys can still decompile and serve your code in a different package, arent they ? you dont use any guards like obfuscation etc..

so in short, if you dont expect any commercial benefits from jPCT you may seriously think of sharing the source code without making jPCT an open source project.

that's just what i think
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this is from a private message, i'm posting it here hoping it may be handy

i originally store each key frame on a seperate 3ds file and each animation sequence in a different folder.

say you have 2 animations: walk and jump. create them in a 3d editor like 3d max, and store necessary keyframes in seperate 3ds files. decide how many keyframes you will use and select them. remember all jpct can do is to interpolate between keyframes. so for walk you need at least these key frames: stand, right foot up, right down and left up, left down and right up, stand again. the file structure will be like:

character/default.3ds
character/walk/frame0.3ds
character/walk/frame1.3ds
character/walk/frame2.3ds
..
character/jump/frame0.3ds
..

then your code to load this animation will be like:

Object3D character = loadDefault3ds();

Animation animation = new Animation(<total number of frames>);
int walkSeq = animation.createSubSequence("walk");
for frames in walk folder {
    Object3D o = loadObjectFromFolder(..);
    animation.addKeyFrame(o.getMesh());
}
// do same for jump

character.setAnimationSequence(animation);

for this to work vertex optimization should be disabled or else jpct will weld close vertices into a single one and which in turn will break animation sequence: all meshes in an animation sequence should have same number of vertices

Loader.setVertexOptimization(false);


after these you can walk your character around by moving it and animate it at the same time by using

character.translate(Vector)
character.animate(index, walkSeq)
you should calculate index so that walk animation should look continuos.

-- o --

for cloting and weapons as i said before there are 2 distinct methods, texture based and mesh based.

for texture based, simply change texture of your character. i dynamically create cloth texture combinations in karga but that is only an addition. you can just use a couple of textures which were prepared offline

for mesh based, say your character has a weapon in his hand. you should put it into hand of your character in 3dmax and animate it with your character and save exactly same key frames. so you will have a directory structure like:

weapon/default.3ds
weapon/walk/frame0.3ds
weapon/walk/frame1.3ds
..
weapon/jump/frame0.3ds
..

load it the same way as your character and add it as a child:
character.addChild(weapon);

then, when you animate your character you should animate weapon too. old code now becomes:

character.translate(Vector);
character.animate(index, walkSeq);
weapon.animate(index, walkSeq);

an important point is, you shouldnt move your weapon as it will move with your character since it's a child of it. when you dont need a weapon just set it unvisible. that will succesfully do the trick

hope this helps
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