jMonkeyEngine is a game engine

Game engine

A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...

 made especially for modern 3D

3D computer graphics

3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...

 development, as it uses shader

Shader

In the field of computer graphics, a shader is a computer program that is used primarily to calculate rendering effects on graphics hardware with a high degree of flexibility...

 technology extensively. jMonkeyEngine is written purely in Java

Java (programming language)

Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...

 and uses LWJGL

Lightweight Java Game Library

The Lightweight Java Game Library is an open source Java software library for computer game developers.LWJGL exposes high performance cross-platform libraries commonly used in developing software games and multimedia titles...

 as its default renderer. OpenGL 2 through OpenGL 4 is fully supported.

jMonkeyEngine is a community-centric open source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 project released under the new BSD license. It is used by several commercial game studios and educational institutions. The default jMonkeyEngine 3 download comes readily integrated with an advanced SDK.

jMonkeyEngine 3 SDK

By itself, jMonkeyEngine is a collection of libraries, making it a low-level game development tool. Coupled with an IDE

Integrated development environment

An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...

 like the official jMonkeyEngine 3 SDK it becomes a higher level game development environment with multiple graphical components. The SDK is based on the NetBeans Platform, enabling graphical editors and plugin capabilities. Alongside the default NetBeans

NetBeans

NetBeans refers to both a platform framework for Java desktop applications, and an integrated development environment for developing with Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Groovy, C, C++, Scala, Clojure, and others...

 update centers, the SDK includes its own plugin repository and a selection between stable point releases

Point release

A point release is a minor release of a software project, especially one intended to fix bugs or do minor cleanups rather than add features. The term implies that such releases are relatively frequent, and is generally used with respect to open source projects being developed in the "bazaar model"...

 or nightly updates

Neutral build

In software development, a neutral build is a build that reflects the current state of the source code checked into the source code version control system by the developers and done in a neutral environment, that is in an environment not used for development....

.

Note: The "jMonkeyPlatform" and the "jMonkeyEngine 3 SDK" are exactly the same thing.

History

jMonkeyEngine was built to fulfill the lack of full featured graphics engines written in Java. The project has a distinct two-part story, as the current core development team includes none of the original creators.

jMonkeyEngine 0.1 - 2.0

Version 0.1 to 2.0 of jMonkeyEngine marks the time from when the project was first established in 2003, until the last 2.0 version was released in 2008. When the core developers at that time gradually discontinued work on the project throughout the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008, the 2.0 version had not yet been made officially stable. Regardless, the codebase became adopted for commercial use and the community actively supported the 2.0 version more than any other.

jMonkeyEngine 3.0

Since the departure of jME's core developers in late 2008 the codebase remained practically stagnant for several months. The community kept committing patches, but the project was not moving in any clear direction. Version 3.0 started as nothing more than an experiment. The first preview release of jME3 in early 2009 created a lot of buzz in the community, and the majority agreed that this new branch would be the official successor to jME 2.0. From there on all the formalities were sorted out between the previous core developers and the new. The jME core team is now composed of eight committed individuals.

Example Games and Projects Powered by jMonkeyEngine

• Nord, a browser-based MMO on Facebook.
• Grappling Hook, a first-person action & puzzle game, accomplished by a single independent developer.
• Open Wonderland, a 100% Java open source toolkit for creating collaborative 3D virtual worlds
• Mythruna, a block-based game made in a similar vein as Minecraft
  Minecraft
  Minecraft is a sandbox-building independent video game written in Java originally by Swedish creator Markus "Notch" Persson and now by his company, Mojang, formed from the proceeds of the game. It was released as an alpha on May 17, 2009, with a beta version on December 20, 2010...
  
  , but with greater emphasis on RPG elements, modern graphics and more flexible shapes.

Acknowledgements

• JavaOne 2008 Presentation

• Finalist in PacktPub Open Source Graphics Software Award 2010

External links

• Main Project/Download Site
• jMonkeyEngine YouTube Channel
• jMonkeyEngine Twitter Stream
• jMonkeyEngine LinkedIn Group