Native Rendering integration for JavaFX (13 and beyond)
NativeFX adds native rendering support to the JavaFX scene graph. It uses Boost IPC to share memory among multiple processes. In contrast to other solutions it runs with the official APIs. No workarounds necessary. And since the native rendering is done in a seperate process it won't crash your JVM if something goes wrong. That's ideal if you are interesed in a robust solution.
Why should you use it? Ever wanted to integrate native applications into the scene graph? Maybe you want to add OpenGL support, a Qt application or Blink/WebKit. All of this will be possible with NativeFX!
Got curious? This project is still WIP. But it comes with a sample server that shows how to use it. We run it on Linux, macOs and Windows (on x64). There's a good chance it will work for you as well. If not, create an issue and let us know!
Many features are still missing. We are working on stabilizing the API in the upcoming months so that we are ready if JavaFX 13 will be released.
There have been efforts to do this before. Why should this approach be any better?
Good question! For now, we use a direct buffer and use the PixelWriter interface to update a WritableImage that displays the content. There's a new PR for the upcoming version of JavaFX (JavaFX 13) which will highly improve the performance of NativeFX once it's released. Early tests show that twe can expect a performance boost of around 50%. For our use cases this is a game changer!
If you are willing to use internal APIs you can try DriftFX. Which will work with direct texture sharing instead of slow CPU based buffers. NativeFX is a more conservative approach.
- Java >= 11
- C++11 compliant compiler (GCC, Clang, Visual Studio 2017)
- CMake >= 3.9
- Internet connection (dependencies are downloaded automatically)
- IDE: Gradle Plugin (not necessary for command line usage)
Open the NativeFX Gradle project in your favourite IDE (tested with VSCode) and build it
by calling following tasks clean classes assemble.
Navigate to the NativeFX Gradle project (i.e., path/to/NativeFX/) and enter the following command
bash gradlew clean classes assemble
gradlew clean classes assemble
On Windows, make sure the environment is configured for development (MSBuild.exe must be in the path).
To compile and run the sample-server, do the following (releatrive to the previous project folder):
cd src/main/native/sample-server
mkdir build
cmake ..
make
./sample-server -i _mem_info_0 -b _mem_buff_0
cd src/main/native/sample-server
mkdir build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_GENERATOR_PLATFORM=x64
MSBuild.exe sample-server.sln', /property:Configuration=Release /property:Platform=x64
Release\x64\sample-server.exe -i _mem_info_0 -b _mem_buff_0
Navigate back to the NativeFX project folder (i.e., path/to/NativeFX/) and do the following:
bash gradlew run
gradlew run
That's it!