jMonkeyEngine 3.0 : Beginner's Guide

Time for action – window, canvas, or headless?

Every jMonkeyEngine game has a so-called context type. The context type specifies whether the game opens an OpenGL window, renders on a canvas, or runs "headless"—without drawing anything to the screen.

1. You switch the context type in your main() method when you app.start() the application:

   public static void main(String[] args) {
     AppSettings settings = new AppSettings(true);
     settings.setTitle("My Cool Game");
     SettingsTest app = new SettingsTest();
     app.setSettings(settings);
     app.start(JmeContext.Type.Headless); // switch context type
   }

2. Run this code.

   The game loop executes in a so-called headless context; this means no video is rendered. We'll look at examples where you would switch context types.

What ...