Libgdx Setup and 3D animation Test Utility On Linux Platform

Libgdx Setup On Linux Platform

In this article we will look at setting up Libgdx on Ubuntu 12.04 from sources and running a sample test utility for 3D models.

libGDX is a cross-platform Java game development framework based on OpenGL (ES) that works on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Android, your WebGL enabled browser and iOS.

Setting up Eclipse

To develop your application via Eclipse, you need to install the following softwares.

• Java Development Kit 7+ (JDK)
• Eclipse, the “Eclipse IDE for Java Developers” .
• Android SDK, you only need the SDK, Install the latest stable Android platforms via the SDK Manager in eclipse.
• Android Development Tools for Eclipse, aka ADT Plugin. Update site: https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/
• Git distributed version control system

Libgdx download

• Get the libgdx sources by cloning the libgdx github repository or downloading the repository

• Let the source be placed at the path $WORKSPACE/libgdx

Libgdx Eclipse Setup

• Select the option File->Import
• Choose General->Existing Projects into Workspace
• Navigate to the $WORKSPACE/libgdx directory and complete the import process.
• All the libgdx projects would have been imported into eclipse
• Build all the sources successfully to make sure there are no dependency issues

Testing libgdx

• Run the gdx-tests-lwjgl project .Which is default testing utility shipped with the sources.
• Select the various options to test and checkout the features of libgdx

Testing utility for Linux

We will look at a small test program that can be used to test 3D static and animated models on linux

libgdx allows static models files in obj,g3dj,gd3b format and animated models in g3dj and g3db format.

Presently the test utility has the following basic features

• Display the models at their default location
• Sequentiall play animations
• Rotate the view about the origin

The test utility has following main classes

• BaseCharacter - used for static models
• AnimatedBaseCharacter - used for dynamic models
• GameWorld - configures the world,camera and initiates the rendering process

To change the scale or position of the object you can modify the following lines in initializeActors function in GameWorld.java file

		Pose p=new Pose();
		p.mPosition=new Vector3(0,0,0f);
		p.mOrientation.setFromAxis(new Vector3(1,0,0),90);		
		p.mScale=new Vector3(1f,1f,1f);

The models files are placed in same directory as the project in the assets sub-directory.

Upon running the project the GUI will display the list of models in the folder.Upon selection of the model a new window will open which will display the 3D view of the model.

If the model is a obj file directly a static model is loaded ,

The source for the testing utility can be downloaded from the bitbucket repository https://pi19404@bitbucket.org/pi19404/libgdx-apps.git

Import the project into eclipse to and select the suitable model file to run

Converting the models

Models can be converted from fbx to g3dj or g3db format using The source for the conversion utility can be found at link or can be downloaded from build server link

Currently libgdx only supports pose transformations and material transformations are not supported.

Use the command fbx-conv -f -o G3DJ A.fbx or fbx-conv -f -o G3DB A.fbx to convert the fbx model files to libgdx compatible files.