The Java 3D Scene Graph

The idea of using a graph as a way to organize the parts of a 3D scene has been around for a number of years and certainly isn't unique to Java 3D. The general purpose of the scene graph is to contain a complete description of the scene. Figure 10.5 contains a portion of a scene graph. This particular example shows scene elements (LeafNodes) grouped together under a TransformGroup that is the child of a BranchGroup. In most applications, the majority of the work is in making the LeafNodes and adding them to the appropriate TransformGroup. This particular partial scene graph example doesn't show the superstructure elements Locale and Universe that you will encounter later.

Figure 10.5. Portion of a scene graph.

The scene ...

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