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This article may contain excessiveorirrelevant examples. Please help improve the article by adding descriptive text and removing less pertinent examples. (August 2010)
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| Developer(s) | JogAmp Community |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 1.1.1 / May 22, 2008; 16 years ago (2008-05-22) |
| Preview release | 2.0-rc9 / June 20, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-06-20) |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Type | 3D computer graphics software (library/API) |
| License | BSD license |
| Website | jogamp |
Java OpenGL (JOGL) is a wrapper library that allows OpenGL to be used in the Java programming language[1][2]. It was originally developed by Kenneth Bradley Russell and Christopher John Kline, and was further developed by the Sun Microsystems Game Technology Group. Since 2010, it has been an independent open source project under a BSD license. It is the reference implementation for Java Bindings for OpenGL (JSR-231).
JOGL allows access to most OpenGL features available to C language programs through the use of Java Native Interface (JNI). It offers access to both the standard GL* functions along with the GLU* functions; however the OpenGL Utility Toolkit (GLUT) library is not available for window-system related calls, as Java has its own windowing systems: Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT), Swing, and some extensions.
The base OpenGL C API, as well as its associated Windowing API[3], are accessed in JOGL via Java Native Interface (JNI) calls. As such, the underlying system must support OpenGL for JOGL to work.
JOGL differs from some other Java OpenGL wrapper libraries in that it merely exposes the procedural OpenGL API via methods on a few classes, rather than trying to map OpenGL functionality onto the object-oriented programming paradigm. Indeed, most of the JOGL code is autogenerated from the OpenGL C header files via a conversion tool named GlueGen, which was programmed specifically to facilitate the creation of JOGL.
This design decision has both its advantages and disadvantages. The procedural and state machine nature of OpenGL is inconsistent with the typical method of programming under Java, which is bothersome to many programmers. However, the straightforward mapping of the OpenGL C API to Java methods makes conversion of existing C applications and example code much simpler. The thin layer of abstraction provided by JOGL makes runtime execution quite efficient, but accordingly is more difficult to code compared to higher-level abstraction libraries like Java3D. Because most of the code is autogenerated, changes to OpenGL can be rapidly added to JOGL.
As of 2007, JOGL provides full access to the OpenGL 2.0 specification. The last 1.1.0 version is the reference implementation for JSR-231 (Java Bindings for OpenGL)[4]. The 1.1.1 release gives limited access to GLU NURBS, providing rendering of curved lines and surfaces via the traditional GLU APIs.
Version 2.0 is currently in development, which includes a minor API refactoring and support for OpenGL profiles GL 1.3 - 3.0, GL 3.1 - 3.3, GL ≥ 4.0, ES 1.x and ES 2.x.
Since the Java SE 6 version of the Java language, Java2D (the API for drawing two dimensional graphics in Java) and JOGL have become interoperable, allowing it to :
This example code snippet shows how the conventional C style API would be used through JOGL in a hypothetical display() class method. It uses the deprecated fixed-function pipeline for the sake of simplicity.
// Required imports.
import javax.media.opengl.GL;
import javax.media.opengl.GL2;
import javax.media.opengl.GLAutoDrawable;
// Example method: clear the framebuffer and draw a quad.
public void display(GLAutoDrawable gLDrawable) {
final GL2 gl = gLDrawable.getGL().getGL2();
gl.glClear(GL.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
gl.glClear(GL.GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);
gl.glBegin(GL2.GL_QUADS);
gl.glColor3f(0.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f); // Set the color of the quad
gl.glVertex2f(-1.0f, 1.0f); // Top left
gl.glVertex2f( 1.0f, 1.0f); // Top right
gl.glVertex2f( 1.0f,-1.0f); // Bottom right
gl.glVertex2f(-1.0f,-1.0f); // Bottom left
gl.glEnd();
}
JOGL originated as a project named Jungle, which was created by 3D graphics experts Ken Russell (of Sun Microsystems) and Chris Kline (of Irrational Games).
In order to facilitate maximum community participation for the Java Binding for the OpenGL API, we use the JOGL project on java.net found at https://jogl.dev.java.net. The JOGL source code can be found there, licensed under a liberal source code license (mostly licensed as BSD except where we use other parties' licensed code). We take a snapshot of the code from this project every few months, run the Technology Compatibility Kit on the source code, and then officially make it the Reference Implementation for each formal Java Binding for the OpenGL API release.
