First steps to a 3D framework

Simon Heinen, RWTH Aachen

First steps in 3d development - Using openGL ES in combination with the android sensor api

There are many application types which benefit by using 3d graphics and at the moment the only way to do this on the android platform is using openGL ES by using the view class called GLSurfaceView and communicating with the adapter class "GL10" to transform your object orientated code into 3d objects.

But OpenGL only does the rendering for you so you always will you have to build your own object structure upon this to create dynamical and flexible 3d worlds. There are some very useful design-patterns which help to build dynamical 3d worlds while keeping performance high and "performance orientated" code is very important when working in three dimensions.

In an interactive 3d simulation you will have to react on user input and change the 3d world parallel while rendering the scene and multi-threading is a good way to solve this problem.

Another important point to mention is that user input is no longer limited to the keyboard or the touchscreen. it could be anything from the orientation sensors of the device to the camera or the gps system and because of this you have to design the virtual input structure as dynamical as the hardware sensors can change.