Supported Java3D Cards

This was a VERY hot topic on the Java3D mailing list. No consensus was ever found by the developers on the list or the people at Sun on a list of supported Java3D cards and their functions. Let me explain this further. Java3D is made to run on 'any' OpenGL system. It does have the Beta Direct3D drivers but the author, and I'm sure most developers, prefer to stick to the OpenGL drivers since 1) They are more stable 2) They are more widely supported on different platforms. Most hardware accelerated cards today (GeForce, Voodoo3, etc.) support OpenGL. With the advent of Quake it is hard to find a non-OpenGL accelerated video card now-a-days. This is the problem. While many SAY they support OpenGL, most only support enough to run Quake. OpenGL is a HUGE standard and is very encompasing. Many features on many different cards either behave differently or do not work at all. Some, like the Voodoo2 due to its exclusive mode and its weakened mini-GL drivers, do not work at all (Although I read there is a fix). So, this article is to cut through all the marketing hype and misinformation typical of most net discussions to find 2 things;

1) What cards accelerate at least some of Java3D.

2) What features of Java3D do/do not work on that card.

The Java3D developer community is clammoring for a list like this and there is none to be found, until now.

Voodoo2 and Voodoo1 ? 3DFX
This card uses exclusive mode and appears to have problems. At j3d.org they say they have a solution but it did not seem to work for me. I will try more on this later. They say to use the beta opengl drivers. The problem with this is that even if you get it to work, it can not work in a window and the proportions may not be correct. I have been fighting with this too long and will look at it later.
Riva 128 ? Nvidia
This does appear to work ok. They do have opengl drivers that perform decently but performance takes a big hit the larger you make the window. Too slow for practicality. Also, I tried this on a Diamond Viper V330 and a STB Velocity. The Diamond Viper drivers DO NOT WORK. There is a memory allocation problem with the diamond drivers that cause a windows blue screen of death. To get it to work on my machine I just used the Nvidia Riva 128 reference drivers.
TNT and TNT2 ? Nvidia
These performed beautifully! The opengl drivers are very fast for this card. Performed extremely fast and looked great. You can not apply textures for backgrounds though (as noted in yesterdays code, 5-15-2000 where the background texture code was commented out). I have heard of some issues between different vendors and this needs to be looked into.

These are the only cards I have tested and talked to others about. These cards alone probably encompass roughly 60% of the 3d graphic card market though. I will add more as I get them and make an easily referenced table when more cards are tested and evaluated.

The Cards

Works at all with Java3D

Known Issues with Java3D

NVidia Riva 128

Yes
This does appear to work ok. They do have opengl drivers that perform decently but performance takes a big hit the larger you make the window. Too slow for practicality. Also, I tried this on a Diamond Viper V330 and a STB Velocity. The Diamond Viper drivers DO NOT WORK. There is a memory allocation problem with the diamond drivers that cause a windows blue screen of death. To get it to work on my machine I just used the Nvidia Riva 128 reference drivers. This section will be further refined into different cards with the Riva 128 chip.

3DFX Voodoo1 & 2

Depends
They say there is a fix and I've tried it unsuccessfully. This will have to be continued. In the mean time you can check out...
http://www.j3d.org/faq/video.html#3dfx
Keep in mind that this page is pretty out of date and incomplete. All the results shown here are my own personal accounts and do not reflect the results shown on their page. This section will be further refined into different cards with the Voodoo1&2 chip.

NVidia TNT1 & TNT2

Yes
These performed beautifully! The opengl drivers are very fast for this card. Performed extremely fast and looked great. You can not apply textures for backgrounds though (as noted in yesterdays code, 5-15-2000 where the background texture code was commented out). I have heard of some issues between different vendors and this needs to be looked into. This section will be further refined into different cards with the TNT1&2 chip.

NVidia GeForce

Yes
Nothing Yet. This section will be further refined into different cards with the GeForce chip.

NVidia GeForce2

?
Nothing Yet. This section will be further refined into different cards with the GeForce2 chip.

Voodoo 3

NO!!!
This didn't work! I tried everything I could and nothing worked! I added and removed textures, I removed and added background border images, I changed the lighting, everything! Nothing worked! I 'HEARD' that the Voodoo1&2 could work with some coaxing. This coaxing was due to its full screen only mode. Well, I couldn't get exclusive mode for this one. Exclusive mode was 'supposed' to be included with 1.3 but it doesn't look that way. That is another story. Anway, I tried everything and could not even get this to work. The program loads just fine but the window is just white! Nothing! Just a title bar and a white window. Oh well. If events change I will update this section. OpenGl support my butt.

Voodoo 4-6

?
Nothing Yet. This section will be further refined into different cards with the Voodoo4-6 chip.

ATI Rage Pro

X
This works beautifully. This is a strange result. I ran a pretty good test run through this card and couldn't seem to find any problems. This is where it gets strange...I know it has problems!! I used the opengl drivers to run Quake 2 on this machine and got horrible flickering, it was too dark, the textures were awful, etc. But, using Java3D, everything seemed to work and be pretty well hardware accelerated also! I saw no difference between any of the versions of this chip between hardware vendors. This should be the case with the other chips shown here! I guess most of them just use the basic Rage Pro reference drivers.