Welcome to Java Elite ships, a site devoted to the original
Elite game and it's space craft. Check out the Shipyard for a more detailed look at all
of the ships.
You'll notice that this site is an almost exact visual replica of my first Elite site. So why bother?
Well, unlike the original site that relied on the functionality of IE4 and DirectX 6, this
site uses a home written Java applet to render the ships in real time, making it less platform
dependent.
Throughout the site, you can control the rate of X/Y rotation using the mouse and
Start/Stop the animation using the mouse button. With the mouse pointer located centrally over
the animation there will be minimal rotation, moving outwards will progressively increase
rotation in the plane in which the mouse is moving.
22/05/2002: Created a new applet to allow custom paint schemes. The individual palette entries
for each of the ships on this page can be tailored to suit. How about a bright orange Viper?
22/02/2002: On the Shipyard page there is now
a link to some experimental work on texture mapping. I have extended the Java applet to
include per face texture mapping of .gif or .jpg images.
19/12/2001: On the Shipyard page there is now
the option of rendering the ships with Gouraud shading. The results are arguably more realistic at the expense
of a slight performance hit.
09/11/2001: Models now include specular lighting to give the impression of light from
a distant star reflecting on the glossy surface of the ship.
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