Introduction to jME

The jMonkey Engine framework (jME) is a high-performance, 3D scenegraph based graphics API, written in Java. It supports both LWJGL and JOGL OpenGL rendering systems. jME is completely open-source under the BSD license and you are free to use it in anyway you see fit, be it hobby or commercial. The current stable version is jME2.

About the jMonkeyEngine Framework (jME)
- Video: Joshua Slack about jME
- Video: jME in Action
Complete Feature List
Glossary of Terms
License Info
jME ChangeLog

Looking for jME3 (alpha)?

For more information about the in-development jMonkeyEngine 3.0, please refer to our work-in-progress jME3 documentation. Please keep in mind that it is still in alpha, so both code and docs is subject to change on a daily basis.

Contributor's Handbook

Contributing to jME is easy. Lots of favors don't even require programming experience. Not a programmer? Just jump straight to step 3.

Get affiliated with our commit_practices and development_conventions
Look for any issue of interest on the ideas_list and roadmap
Now figure out how much time you've got and start contribute

For all relevant pages see the complete Contributor Category

Installing jME

Prerequisites

Setting Up jME in an IDE

Eclipse IDE: 3.4, 3.5 / video-tutorial (3.5)
NetBeans IDE: 6.7+ (SVN) / 6.7+ with jME 2.0.1 / 6.1 / 6.5 (using maven) / older versions
IntelliJ IDE: 6/7/8
BlueJ IDE: any
JCreator IDE: 4.50(ANY?)

:!: "UnsatisfiedLinkError: no lwjgl in java.library.path" solution

Beginners: Starter Tutorials

Video: Creating Games on the Java Platform with the jMonkeyEngine (JavaOne 2008)

Hello World - SimpleGame, rootNode, Box
Hello Node - Nodes, Bounding Volumes, basic Colors, Translating and Scaling, Sphere
Hello TriMesh - TriMesh, custom 3D shapes
Hello States - MaterialState, TextureState, Colors/LightState
Hello KeyInput - KeyBinding, Texture Wrapping and Scaling
Hello ModelLoading - Loading 3-D models, BinaryImporter, FileConverter
Hello MousePick - Clicking, InputSystem, AbsoluteMouse vs RelativeMouse, Transparency
Hello Intersection - Shooting bullets: Sound, basic Collision Detection, Skybox
Hello Terrain - TerrainBlock, HeightMap, ProceduralTextureGenerator
Hello Animation (1) - SpatialTransformer, moving LightNode
Hello Animation (2) - Morphing, KeyframeController
Hello LevelOfDetail - Faster Performance using AreaClodMesh, moving CameraNode using CurveController
Hello SimpleGame - Renderer, DisplaySystem, Update Loop, InputSystem, FirstPersonHandler

Questions and Answers

Intermediate: Your First Game

User's Guide (as PDF) - Examples might be outdated but lots of concepts are explained.

API/Feature Mapping – “I want to do X, what jME 2 API do I use?”

Extending SimpleGame, Introduction to Scenes
1. Starting with SimpleGame – The game loop
2. Creating Your First App With SimpleGame – Objects and Textures in the Scene
3. Creating your First Scene – Objects and Bounding Volumes in the Scene
4. StandardCanvasGame – An example by a user