[X3D-Public] Xj3D settings for improved rendering; new X3D-Edit, viewpoint snapshots

[Don Brutzman]

Terry Norbraten and I did some work to modify all of the default settings
used for Xj3D, to improve rendering in several applications that use it.
Others who use Xj3D likely want to do the same.

Key rendering improvements include
- antialiasing quality high
- texture quality high
- geometric primitive quality high (particularly noticeable on Spheres)
- Phong shading (includes effects of normals) instead of Gouraud shading,
	which makes just about every X3D scene look a bit better

Code excerpt and references:

        // Xj3D initialization parameters, set for highest rendering quality
        // http://www.xj3d.org/tutorials/xj3d_application.html
        // http://www.web3d.org/files/specifications/19775-1/V3.2/Part01/components/networking.html#t-BrowserProperties
        requestedParameters.put("Xj3D_FPSShown", Boolean.TRUE);
        requestedParameters.put("Xj3D_LocationShown", Boolean.TRUE);
        requestedParameters.put("Xj3D_LocationPosition", "top");
        requestedParameters.put("Xj3D_LocationReadOnly", Boolean.FALSE);
        requestedParameters.put("Xj3D_OpenButtonShown", Boolean.FALSE);
        requestedParameters.put("Xj3D_ReloadButtonShown", Boolean.FALSE);
        requestedParameters.put("Xj3D_ShowConsole", Boolean.FALSE);
        requestedParameters.put("Xj3D_StatusBarShown", Boolean.TRUE);
        requestedParameters.put("Xj3D_AntialiasingQuality", "high");
        requestedParameters.put("Antialiased", Boolean.TRUE);
        requestedParameters.put("PrimitiveQuality", "high");
        requestedParameters.put("TextureQuality", "high");
        requestedParameters.put("Shading", "Phong");
        // Xj3D anisotropicDegree 16 derived from TextureQuality high in BrowserComposite.java

Simple-example comparison images attached, note Sphere improvement.
http://X3dGraphics.com/examples/X3dForWebAuthors/Chapter02-GeometryPrimitives/GeometryPrimitiveNodesWhiteBackground.png
http://X3dGraphics.com/examples/X3dForWebAuthors/Chapter02-GeometryPrimitives/GeometryPrimitiveNodesWhiteBackgroundReducedQuality.png

These enhancements have been tested and deployed in the X3D-Edit authoring tool.
	https://savage.nps.edu/X3D-Edit

These enhancements have also been deployed and tested in the generation of several
thousand images that capture viewpoints in the X3D example archives.

	http://www.web3d.org/x3d/content/examples/X3dResources.html#Examples
	X3D for Web Authors Examples Archive
	Basic X3D Examples Archive
	ConformanceNist Test Suite X3D Examples Archive 
	VRML 2.0 Sourcebook X3D Examples Archive

	For an example see Hello World scene, where the Viewpoint description
	includes an autogenerated image link:
	http://x3dgraphics.com/examples/X3dForWebAuthors/Chapter01-TechnicalOverview/HelloWorld.html
	http://x3dgraphics.com/examples/X3dForWebAuthors/Chapter01-TechnicalOverview/_viewpoints/HelloWorld.x3d._VP_Hello%20world!.png

Continuing work:
- finish upgrading Xj3D settings in Autonomous Unmanned Vehicle (AUV)
Workbench.  The source under version control is working satisfactorily,
but some trickiness remains in jogl path settings for Xj3D when
launching an installer-based end-user application.
	https://savage.nps.edu/AuvWorkbench

- discussion on X3D working group teleconferences whether the X3D
specification settings & defaults should be made higher or more detailed

- getting Xj3D 'replica' classes to be properly invocable and working,
so that offline rendering of scene viewpoints can be performed without
forcing a render to the screen each time.  besides avoiding at least
10,000 screen interrupts on my laptop (no, really!) such 'headless'
offline operation will also let us move this important functionality
to our public nightly build server.
	https://savage.nps.edu/jenkins/job/Xj3dSourceNpsBranch/
	https://savage.nps.edu/jenkins/job/Xj3dSourceTrunk/

- offline rendering would also permit inclusion in X3D Validator so
that authors could generate Viewpoint images on demand someday
	https://savage.nps.edu/X3dValidator

The Xj3D open-source Java browser for X3D is available at
	http://www.xj3d.org
with discussion on the source at web3d.org mailing list at
	http://web3d.org/mailman/listinfo/source_web3d.org

Complementary documentation on the NPS branch to Xj3D is maintained at
https://savage.nps.edu/Savage/developers.html#Xj3D

Suggestion for future work:  probably the X3D community should collect
a few exceptionally high quality X3D scenes that can be used to test,
compare and improve rendering quality of all X3D browsers.  Does
anyone know of good open-source scenes that they want to recommend
or contribute?

all the best, Don
-- 
Don Brutzman  Naval Postgraduate School, Code USW/Br       brutzman at nps.edu
Watkins 270,  MOVES Institute, Monterey CA 93943-5000 USA   +1.831.656.2149
X3D graphics, virtual worlds, navy robotics http://faculty.nps.edu/brutzman
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