Heh. My bad for not reading the instructions carefully enough, I missed installing Java3d.
It runs now, but I’m unable to do anything with it. I’ll pound on it a bit to see if I can figure out what I did wrong this time.
Thanks!
Try opening the .jar file and extracting the “parts” folder into the same folder that your .jar file is in.
This will automatically bring up the correct parts list when you click “Add Part”.
Actually, the version currently on the site does not have the parts directory internal to the .jar. Until I get another issue resolved, the parts directory will remain external.
I haven’t heard back from many people about this project, so I’m beginning to wonder if the interest is perhaps not as high as I originally thought.
Mike
I’m trying it with the bracket files (*.wrl) in the “parts” subdirectory, and also with the bracket files in the main “RCK” directory.
It runs but the “Add Part” button seems to do nothing, there are no parts visible, the “New” option in the “File” menu seems to do nothing, but I can rename “Parts”.
I dunno what I’m doing wrong.
Check the info page on my website- New is currently disbled 
.
As far as the “Add Part” button not working, that is probably also a path issue. Contact me via IM, and I’ll help you figure it out.
Mike
What paths need to be set? (I’m an IM luddite.)
Thanks!
Well, I’ve pretty much forgotten all the folders that he had me swap around, but I seem to remember that it involved moving a bunch of files in one ext folder into another ext folder.
I really recommend IMing, though, bc you’ll be here for a few days, otherwise.
Mike, I’ve finally finished DLing the latest version (56k + my robot + school + community service = slow 
).
I’ve been able to zoom in quite a bit closer, but probably not as much as many would like.
Perhaps toning down the size of the “world” a bit more would be best?
Is it possible to have it automatically start zoomed all the way in?
Or, since the world likes to be huge, how about making the pieces really, really big?
Well, the pieces are definitely recognizable, now, even to those who aren’t familiar with them.
Besides the error windows and add part windows hiding when I minimize, there’s some odd things happening with the rotation.
When I’m all the way zoomed in and free-rotating the peices, parts of them die into the background.
Either antimatter is present, or the program doesn’t like free-rotating objects at the microscopic level.
Perhaps resizing will fix that?
As a quick and dirty fix, you can simply copy all the .jar files from both your Java3d installation (Default is something like C:\Program Files\Java\Java3d\1.4.0\lib\ext) and the Xj3d installation (default is C:\Program Files\Xj3D\jars) to your Java directory (default is C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_06\lib\ext).
This is what I ended up having Nick do, but I don’t really recommend it. If you go this route, you’ll eventually start getting packages with the same names. In fact, even with just these three installations, you’ll have conflicts with vecmath.jar. I am working on a system that will automate the path setup process now, but I’m not sure when it will be done.
To respond to Nick:
Nick- can you take a picture of that? I have not experienced that on my end. I know the background color sometimes changes (not sure why yet), but I don’t think that is what you are referring to.
To answer your other questions, however:
Depends on your definition of all the way, but yes, I can set the initial camera position to effectively anywhere in the world.
I’ve toyed with the idea of simply scaling the parts up, and may end up doing this eventually, but I want to avoid that for now, because later on, I would like to be able to integrate sensor data (such as IR and sonar rangefinders) into the world display. To do that, I need to keep the parts to scale, as they currently are. I realize this may make it a bit more difficult to attach the parts to one another, but I have a few ideas on how to make that pretty easier.
Exactly how close are you wanting to get to the parts? Currently, I cull the view at 1cm. You shouldn’t really need to get much closer than that, but I’ll see how close I can get the camera to the object without affecting performance.
Keep the feedback and bug reports coming in. I’m considering putting this project on the back burner for a little while to work on my robot control programs (read a bit more about that on my website).
Mike
Well, I gave it another try, and I can’t seem to get the antimatter simulator up and running again.
I’m having issues with zooming in much more than 3 feet or so, sometimes.
It seems to be only with the first part that I load, though.
I’ll do more testing and post a pic of what’s happening, tomorrow.
(Hopefully, I’ll remember.)
What sort of issues?
Each colored floor square is one meter on a side, by the way, so that should help you judge distances.
Mike
This is a screenshot showing the current version on the website, with culling set to 1cm.
If you need it closer than this, I can do it, but you may start seeing a performance hit with complex robots. It is far too early in the development process to know for sure.
Mike
Sounds great!
Would definatly be useful to have.
I used Maya, Carrara, 3ds, etc. so i can maybe help out if you need the help.
Keep us posted!
If you’ve done programming in Java, specifically collision avoidance and physics simulation, then let me know. Other than that, I think I won’t have much trouble adding the features I want.
My time is very limited, however, and lately, I have been trying to get my other program to a beta release state. For now, the RCK is on a temporary hold due to my time constraints and minimal community interest in the project.
Mike
Don’t feel bad, Mike.
It’s simply that the community itself isn’t large.
We’re getting there.
It’s been a while since I’ve done much with the RCK, but I’m working on tracking down some bugs, and while playing around with it tonight, took a screenshot of all the parts currently available for the RCK.
There is also a slightly updated version on my website now that will hopefully fix the problem many users have been having with improperly set up path variables. If anyone tries it, let me know how it works for you.
Mike
Two things:
I’m not as bad as a mac user with only one button, but my mouse only has two buttons and a scroll wheel. Is there another way to move an object in the z-axis? Related: the scroll wheel zoom behavior feels backwards.
Second: Where are the shadows?
Currently, it is only mouse controls. I’m planning to add keyboard control as well, just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
As far as the “backwaards” feeling goes, all movement is in an absolute coordinate system, and not relative to the camera, so if you move the camera around to a different direction and then move an object, the controls will feel off. Again, something I’m planning to fix, just haven’t had the time yet.
And as for shadows- they aren’t there yet. Maybe later. Not high on my list of priorities. First I want to make it a bit more easy to use, and add features people will NEED (like attaching parts).
Mike