hi there,

first of all i am quite new to java3d as i got involved in a
university-project which should meassure the performance of java3d and
provide a networkgame. in concrete the game should provide a platform where
users can walk on. the platform itself should rotate on the center of the
platform depending on the center of gravity. The server-application
receives the view-direction (vector3f) and the speed of the user an
calculates the exact position of the users as well as the rotation of the
platform which is sent as a result to the users to modify their view.

so far i have written an application-framework which provides independence
of the used output-device (windowed-jframe, fullscreen-jframe and applet)
which uses an Application-Factory based on the introductory chapter of
Norman Lin's "Linux 3D-Gameprogramming". The network-code has been
implemented in the last 2 to 3 days, which is based on chapter 6 of
"Developing Games in Java" (co-author Bret Barker wrote this chapter) too.
and i am able to exchange messages.

having managed this so far i implementet a FrameCounter-Behavior which is
very simple. just count the frames got from the view object (framenumber)
and reduces it by the old framenumber. this happens every second to get a
FramePerSecond-Counter as you can imagine. so far I have written the output
to the console but this is imho not nice.

to come to my problem: i am currently writing the text (text2D) into the
canvas. but as i change the position of the view the text-object gets
changed too even thoug i place the text-object in a seperate branch-group
of the viewGraph. my second attempt is to fetch the graphics2d-device from
the canvas i use and to draw the text ant paint the graphics-device with
the canvas3d paint()-method. no error but no seeable output too. this leads
to my next try. i create a text3d-object as follows:

Font3D font = new Font3D(new
java.awt.Font("Serif",12,java.awt.Font.PLAIN),new FontExtrusion());
Text3D text = new Text3D(font,s,new Point3f( 0.5f, 0.5f, 5.0f));
Shape3D sh = new Shape3D();
Appearance app = new Appearance();
Material m = new Material();
m.setLightingEnable(true);
app.setMaterial(m);
sh.setGeometry(text);
sh.setAppearance(app);
Transform3D t = new Transform3D();
t.setTranslation(new Vector3f(-0.1f,-0.1f,0.1f));
m_ctx.setModelTransform(t);
m_ctx.draw(text);
m_ctx.flush(true);

where m_ctx is a reference to a GraphicsContext3D-Object and s ist just a
holder for any string. But this leads to the following exception (if run in
postRenerer() the exception markes Exception occured during Canvas3D
callback instead of Behavior execution)
Exception occurred during Behavior execution:
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: TriangleArray: illegal vertexCount

but i used the creation of the text3d out of an example wo i am a little
wirred of what goes wrong?!

next approche: using the  graphics-object (not the graphics2D!!!) which is
returned by canvas3D and define the following in the postRenderer() of an
extended version of canvas3d

java.awt.Graphics g = this.getGraphics();
g.drawString(s,10,10);

this works but the text blinks and is therefore not well suited. drawString
of graphics2D-object don't work for me and i don't know why (neither on
linux nor on windows)

2 more solutions:
1: Create a Text2D Object and show it using the GraphicsContext3D-Objects'
methode draw() (again in postRenderer() of derived Canvas3D-Class). This
shows text but this text moves with the scene if i change the view (the
branch the view is in). after a time i receive an
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError as new Objects seem not be garbage collected

Transform3D t = new Transform3D();
t.setTranslation(new Vector3f(-0.6f,0.4f,0.0f));
Text2D m_text = new Text2D(s, new Color3f(0f, 1f, 0f),"Serif", 10,
java.awt.Font.PLAIN);
m_text.setString(s);
m_ctx.setModelTransform(t);
m_ctx.draw(m_text);

if i define m_text outside of postRenderer() i don't even see the text

2: last one again in postRenderer()

// private Classfields
private java.awt.geom.AffineTransform t = null;
private java.awt.Font m_font = new
java.awt.Font("Serif",50,java.awt.Font.BOLD);

// in postRenderer()
J3DGraphics2D graphics = this.getGraphics2D();
t = graphics.getTransform();
t.setToScale(12,12);
graphics.setTransform(t);
graphics.setColor(java.awt.Color.green);
graphics.setFont(m_font);
graphics.drawString(s, 0, 1);
graphics.flush(true);

this methode works. i can move the view an the text stays on position. but
this works just for static text as the old text, which has been drawn the
frames before, dosn't get cleared and so the text overrides itself (which
for static purposes isn't bad). another thing to mention here is that
framerate drops by more than half. if i print the framerate to console i
get on a athlon xp 2200+, 512 ddr, nvidia gforce 4400 ti, mandrake linux
10, xfree 4.3 ~500-800 frames/sec. with this methode i get just ~280 fps.

so has anybody an idea of how to deal with this? any help is appriciated. i
would be glad if you can send code too :)

lg,
roman