4.5 Scenegraph advantages | JAVA 3D Programming | Chapter 4

By now you should be aware of many of the advantages of using a scenegraph. Setting up the scenegraph hierarchy imposes a design rigor upon the application developer. Initially, particularly with scientific visualization applications, the scenegraph may seem unnecessarily restrictive, especially for developers from a low−level OpenGL or DirectX background. However, advanced planning and design will usually prove the utility of the scenegraph model, even for applications that do not initially appear to contain hierarchical graphical objects per se.

Object management

        The scenegraph is a data structure. All the Nodes in it can also reference external data through the ScenegraphObject.setUserData method (discussed in chapter 8).

Rendering optimization

        Scenegraph node Bounds play an important role in optimizing rendering and behavior scheduling.

Picking support

        Mouse object selection operations (picking) are automatically supported by the scenegraph.

Behavior model

        Using Java 3D scenegraph behaviors allows scenegraph objects to be automatically rotated, transformed, and scaled using interactive user input, aligned relative to the FOV, animated, morphed, or controlled using a level of detail (LOD) behavior.

Collision detection

        The Java 3D scenegraph supports basic collision detection between objects within the scenegraph.

Multiple thread aware

        The Java 3D scenegraph traversal, rendering, behavior, and collision detection systems are all thread aware and will make use of multiple threads.

Hierarchical control

        Changing the position of a parent Node automatically changes the position of child Nodes accordingly. This is such an important and powerful concept that it is the subject of the next section and example.