Understanding The Primitives

Java contains a great number of basic primitive types of geometry. Unlike higher level APIs like VRML, primitives are not the same as primitive object types like spheres and cones. To Java3D, primitives are much lower level - purely different ways of describing a bunch of polygons.

In the Geometry Types section of this chapter the basic arrangements were described. These are then used to describe the four basic renderable objects - points, lines, triangles and quadrilaterals. Not all combinations are possible however. Does it make sense describe points as a fan array, for example, when there is no difference to a normal strip array?

The Primitives

Raw Geometry
• LineArray
• PointArray
• QuadArray
• TriangleArray

Non-indexed Arrays
• LineStripArray
• TriangleStripArray
• TriangleFanArray

Indexed Arrays
• IndexedPointArray
• IndexedLineArray
• IndexedLineStripArray
• IndexedTriangleArray
• IndexedTriangleStripArray
• IndexedTriangleFanArray
• IndexedQuadArray