INT – New Java 3D Software (September 1998)

INT previewed its new Java 3D visualizationtoolkit J/View3D at the SEG in New Orleans. Toolkit availability is scheduled for early1999.

INT – the widget company that provides many E&P vendors with the building blocks for their graphical user interfaces is moving towards an all-Java offering. The new Java 3D visualization toolkit, J/View3D is based on Sun Microsystems’s Java 3D. J/View3D provides set of high-level classes (that’s subroutines to us old hackers!) that allow programmers to build complex 3D visualization applications. The SEG demo shows how the new product integrates INT’s existing product line by deploying a Java 3D view of a seismic movie created with the J/Seismic library. INT says it is stepping up its development of ‘100% pure’ Java components which will ultimately replace the older libraries based on C++ code. The use of Java allows more efficient deployment and distribution of applications on different computing platforms across the network, and forms part of a trend towards the use of component-based software developed using object technologies. Java is claimed by its protagonists to offer a ‘write once – run anywhere’ facility whereby a development on say a Sun UNIX platform will also run on a PC – or any other computer supporting the Java virtual machine. Java is also a weapon in Sun’s battle with the arch enemy, Microsoft, which has a competing object model, competing distributed development tools and even a competing version of Java – which is of course not 100% pure! INT is also the technology provider for the 2D graphic elements used in the Open Spirit E&P component framework. More from www.int.com.