JMP’s 3-D scene language is built on top of the OpenGL API, extending, replacing, and leaving out various parts of the OpenGL API. As such, the 3-D scene language is not certified or licensed by Silicon Graphics, Inc. under the OpenGL API.
This chapter documents JMP’s JSL functions for creating 3-D scenes but is not a tutorial on OpenGL programming. If you are not familiar with OpenGL programming, you might want supplemental material. If you are familiar with OpenGL programming, you still need to read this chapter because some items are nonstandard.
JMP is shipped with sample files in the Scene3D subfolder of Sample Scripts to get you started and give you some ideas. Some of the example scripts are similar to some of the examples in this chapter; some are almost complete applications.
The website https://opengl.org is a good source for information, as is your favorite search engine.
JMP’s Scene 3-D language does some work for you that the OpenGL API requires you to do for yourself. JMP makes text easy, gives you a built-in arcball controller, and makes sure the matrix operations that belong on the model view stack and projection stack go on their respective stacks. JMP uses its own display list manager so that your scenes can be journaled and played back later, and provides a select mechanism that calls back to your JSL code to tell you what object in your scene is under the mouse, with almost no extra effort on your part. At this time, JMP does not provide access to some features, like texturing.