Sun and SGI to make OpenGL go Java

By Alun Williams

Posted on 29 Jul 2003 at 12:39

A Java interface to the OpenGL cross-platform graphics API. This is the goal of Sun and SGI, who have announced they will cooperate on developing Java bindings to the OpenGL API.

What this means is that Java developers will have an easier way into the well-established graphics world of OpenGL.

'Working with Sun to enable OpenGL graphics application developers to use Java creates an excellent opportunity for both developers and consumers,' said Shawn Underwood, director of marketing, Visual Computing Systems, SGI. 'We will have two cross-platform standards operating together: Java and OpenGL. This effort will enable tens of thousands of developers, who write graphics applications, to gain the many benefits of the Java technology.'

Sun echoed this sentiment. 'Java and OpenGL together will make a powerful win-win combination for graphics developers everywhere,' said John Fowler, Sun's chief technology officer, Software. 'The power of OpenGL and the wide deployment of Java means graphics developers will now bring together the best of two worlds: Java and graphics.'

The Java Community Process (JCP) and the OpenGL Architecture Review Board (ARB) will oversee the development process for the new bindings.

The two companies also highlight the recent OpenGL ES announcement by the Khronos Group. This specifies a subset of OpenGL for use with mobile devices. Essentially, it will be another a way of providing advanced graphics capabilities for small-footprint applications.

The idea is to help raise the bar for graphics in embedded applications and 'mobile terminals' such as mobile phones and PDAs. Particularly, the visual quality of games may get a boost - Sun is mentioning complex 3D games and the use of video and GPS (see also Sun gets into Java games in a big way).

OpenGL deals with 2D and 3D rendering, texture mapping and other visual special effects, and allows direct access to graphics hardware acceleration. Introduced by SGI in 1992, OpenGL is available on Windows NT, Windows 98, Mac OS X, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX and IRIX.

GUI support has always been an issue for Java - the handling of graphics, scroll panes, tables, tree controls, etc. Being a platform-neutral language it has struggled to compete with the latest interface bells and whistles of specific platforms, eg Windows XP. It began with the AWT (Abstract Windows Toolkit), which is generally recognised as a 'lowest-common denominator' approach'. The Swing library was introduced with Java 2, and provides a more sophisticated version of the Java GUI classes.