Virtual Flying Dukes

Virtual Flying Dukes Content Is Open

The highly popular T-Shirt Hurling Contest has morphed into the Virtual Flying Dukes competition at this year's JavaOne Conference, and the contest opened on Monday, May 7.

The contest will reward the entrant who "demonstrates the most skill in writing code to create and manipulate a 3D avatar in an effort to locate and catch a virtual T-shirt as it is launched from a virtual stage." The virtual hall was created using jMonkey Engine (jME).

Prizes will be awarded to the first 50 contestants who correctly solve the problem, with larger prizes for the most creative, humorous, and realistic solutions. The top contestants will be judged by the attendees at the After Dark party on Thursday night, May 10. Selected entries will be shown at the party, and an Applause-o-meter will be used to determine the favored entries.

The Virtual Flying Dukes site offers existing 3D models that can be used as avatars, such as the following one.

Contest rules, development description, support links, and the project file are posted on the Virtual Flying Dukes website . The Formal Problem Description (under "Development" in the left navigation column) describes the virtual keynote hall, with its virtual cannon; the gravitational constant; coordinate system; and specific parameters to launch.

Competitors are invited to post comments and questions on the Forum.

Virtual Flying Dukes Prizes Awarded Tonight

CommunityOne and JavaOne attendees were invited to create and animate a 3D avatar that catches a t-shirt launched from a virtual stage using jMonkeyEngine (jME). Prizes will be awarded to the first fifty contestants who correctly solve the problem, with larger prizes for those who come up with the most creative/humorous/realistic solutions as judged by Thursday night's After Dark party attendees.

Those who are interested in the development process, tools, and physics behind this contest should plan to attend this technical session: "Behind the Virtual Flying Dukes Developer Contest," by Joshua Slack of jMonkey Engine and John Wetherill and Kevin McDonnell of Sun Microsystems (TS-1550, Friday, May 11).