A universal Java interface to native 3D rendering platforms using multiple scenegraph representations

There are many 3D formats used for displaying 3D objects and supporting interactivity, sophisticated lighting and cinematography, and media integration of geometry, text, images, sound, vector graphics and video. Some of these also permit access to virtual scenes on the Web, and many permit some sort of programmatic scripting of the scenes. A few of these are VRML, X3D, MPEG4 and a variety of game engine formats. For reasons of processing speed and availability of 3D libraries these formats are generally implemented in native C/C++ code. However, these languages may not be the most elegant languages to use for artificially intelligent control of 3D for dramatic narrative, believable speaking characters, dynamic cinematography and stage management. A good alternative is the Java language which provides very productive syntax and a body of developed application code for control and management of 3D scenes. We first present an analysis of the problems of interfacing Java to 3D rendering systems, and some preliminary solutions in the context of interfacing Java to VRML. Finally we present a Java interface which is defined independent to the underlying 3D representation and format. This solution makes it possible to abstract out the particular field types used in the 3D rendering platform. Therefore a Java control system using the interface presented should be simple to port and integrate with any 3D rendering system using any 3D format