Quote from: EgonOlsen on July 26, 2010, 11:24:44 PM
Usually shaders are faster albeit using real geometry would be the better solution overall. Modern DX11 hardware can create real geometry on the fly by using tesselation. Shaders don't really extrapolate geometry, they just "fake" it.

   And pixel shaders fake it by using nothing but some basic information (color, position, etc) about that pixel, correct? So how is it possible to fake an elaborate, curving rockface just from that, without any information about nearby polys? 

I've noticed that many programs use extremely complicated shader code in order to extrapolate geometry from a small number of polygons, thereby reducing the number of polys but presumably slowing performance to a crawl?  Unless I'm missing something, wouldn't it be far better just to generate a larger number of detailed polys ?  To give a example of what I'm referring to, here's a video of a program which renders waterfalls and uses pixel shaders to extrapolate the rock details, creating extremely elaborate rock formations from just a few rough polys - amazing programming, but it seems like an unnecessarily slow way of doing it ? Click on the top video, labeled "Cascades: Technical Overview"  - http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_cascades_videos.html

Quote from: EgonOlsen on July 13, 2010, 10:39:40 PM
Depends on the format of the generated texture. If it's an int[]-array or similar, the best way is to use an ITextureEffect.

  Just an array of pixels in RGB format. Is there an example of using ITextureEffect for something like this?

Once I've generated the textures I need via my code, what's the easiest way to transfer that array to a usable texture graphic which jPCT can use?  I assume for a .bmp, I just need to reverse the array so it's "upside down" and then add a header?  Or is it best to use premade conversion code from a library? Or am I way off base...?

Billboards are described as a quad, but is it possible to use only a single poly if that's all that's needed for the particular shape of the billboard? Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places or confused about the entire issue, but I haven't been able to find any information on this.

Quote from: EgonOlsen on June 27, 2010, 10:39:10 PM
No concrete plans to add this yet...but that might change if you really need this feature. Do you?

  Well, don't add it for me, especially since my plans aren't finalized yet. I was just wondering.
BTW, do you know whether a Java webstart app can start a regular (.exe) program? 

Are there any plans to add the ability to define an RGB color for each vertex so the colors can be automatically blended by the video card, similar to DirectX's custom vertex data such as the one at the following page (scroll down to the colored triangle screenshot at the bottom and the code just above it)
http://www.directxtutorial.com/Tutorial9/B-Direct3DBasics/dx9B4.aspx#still

Quote from: EgonOlsen on June 24, 2010, 11:20:22 PM
Just try it. If you are giving absolute paths in the jnlp to the file storage, i think that this will work. I'm not 100% sure though. Might be blocked a security-oh-my-god-we-all-going-to-die-thingy...

  Sourceforge allows webstart apps to be initiated from their site itself, but apparently Sourceforge is only for open source projects, correct? 
  Is there another option for software which isn't open source?  Mediafire.com ? 

Is there any way to store a webstart Java app on a file service (as is routinely done for other software) and still have it start as normal from my website?  Or does the app have to be stored on my website's server?

How large is the jPCT code within the jar file for an application?   Is there any way to reduce the size?

Since shader code runs on the 3D graphics card (correct?), what happens if another program is also running shader code at the same time?  I would think multitasking would really foul things up here...

Quote from: EgonOlsen on April 15, 2010, 09:10:31 PM
No, you don't have to do it this way. You can use GLSL, which is more like a high level language...like a variant of C. You can find a simple example here: http://www.jpct.net/wiki/index.php/Shaders
However, creating a realistic water shader is an art form and once you enable shaders on an object, you'll have to do a lot on your own that the fixed function pipeline will do for you otherwise (like lighting and stuff).

  You know, I'll bet they produced that flowing water effect just by making an animated texture for the underwater rocks etc, with a moving refraction pattern; then placed another object above that for the surface foam patterns etc.  Or wouldn't that work very well?

Quote from: EgonOlsen on April 11, 2010, 11:23:42 PM
It's a shader effect, i.e. you have to write yourself some pixel/vertex shaders for this.

  I've been reading a bit on the subject of shaders, and apparently they have to be coded in assembly language?  I know assembly, but how is that done via jPCT ?  Is there a tutorial somewhere?

I'm wondering if anyone has any idea how to produce an effect similar to the flowing water you can see in the following video of "Big Game Hunter 2010" at c. 4:26 onward and again c. 5:07 onward - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H458jdZov48&feature=related

It looks like they've got a refraction effect as well as the obvious surface foam flowing along (which is easy enough). I guess my question is: how do you produce the refraction effect?

Quote from: raft on January 06, 2010, 11:45:01 PMAt the moment, the project is at "Proof of Concept" state. Skinning and mesh deformation works, but skeleton poses can only be created programmatically. Hence it's not really useful for games at the moment.

  It's strange that you claim it's not useful -  I've been looking for a way to generate this type of thing programmatically so that it's based on context rather than being locked into a small set of stock poses (and so that I don't have to tediously make the poses manually).
I'm hoping you'll retain this feature - this is exactly what I've been looking for, and even the early demos look impressive.