Java3D 1.4!
Don’t misunderstand - it’s still in beta right now - but I am still pretty excited about Java3D 1.4 being released soon. Version 1.4 of Java3D is focused on introducing one major feature: programmable shaders! And, given that I have just been learning about GPU programming, I think this is pretty awesome.
It looks like the Java3D 1.4 shader-support only allows “uniform” shader-variables; that means their values don’t change on a per-vertex (or per-pixel) basis. Rather, you set the variable before rendering a whole polygon or a group of polygons. I think this is a fine limitation; that is the most efficient approach to use, and it also matches up with how a low-level feature should be used from a language like Java.
Anyway, something new for me to download and play with…