This is not a jME sponsored contest, but definitely something I think you all would be interested in.
From our front page:
The jMonkeyEngine will be featured this year's JavaOne Developer Contest!
Attendees at JavaOne 2007 will be able to participate in a developer contest where they build and animate a 3D avatar that catches a t-shirt launched from a virtual stage. A physical t-shirt launching contest has been a long-standing tradition at JavaOne. This year it is being replaced with a virtual contest.
jMonkeyEngine is the development platform for the contest. Participants will load an avatar into a jME scene graph, then write jME animation code to catch the shirt. Prizes will be awarded to the first fifty entrants who correctly solve the problem, with big prizes for those who come up with the most creative/humorous/realistic solutions.
For more information see http://www.virtualflyingdukes.com/vfd/home.html
Wow, that's quite some publicity we're getting there! Good luck to everyone entering the contest.
That's cool!!
So it looks like it officially starts May 7:
This contest will open on Monday May 7, at which time the links on this page will be activated. Bookmark this site and come back and see us then.
Can't we get any sneak peek information? haha ;) ;)
dougnukem said:
Can't we get any sneak peek information? haha ;) ;)
I'm helping look over the contest code and I'm thus under NDA, so... no. :) But if you look at their "about" page and their "before the show" page, you pretty much have all the information you need to start thinking about the contest.
what a wonderful opportunity for jme 
I have one of my employees lined up to go to JavaOne, I told him to drop by the contest and check it out.
If you are out at JavaOne this week, I really encourage you to go participate in this contest. You could win $$$, up to $5,000. Prizes were just announced here:
http://moscone1.virtualflyingdukes.com/vfd/prizes.jsp
I told one of my team members who is out there to drop by. Hopefully he can try to win!
Looks cool! I really hope you get some good submissions.
Wow $5000 that's a HUGE prize!! That's a little step up from the plush monkey dolls 
.
After the contest is Sun/jME developers going to release the Virtual Flying duke contest code to the public? I'd be interested to try it out, seeing as I wasn't able to go to JavaONE.
Good question. I'm not sure about code release because who knows, maybe this will be the new traditional contest for JavaOne going forward. I'll bring up the possibility with John (the Sun guy I'm stealing session talk time from…)
I would be very interested to have a go at this problem but like dougnukem I was not able to make it out to the JavaOne this year. Any way we would be able to have a try at it would be great !
Thanks.
–
Shawn
No way to win the prizes except be there, but like I said, I'll ask whether the code will be released for people interested in simply trying it out for their own fun.
So JavaOne is over - how did it go? Who won? Who's got the story?!
It went very well. I've written about it on my blog and being lazy… I'll let you read more there (the video I put together is up there as well.)
http://www.renanse.com/blog/2007/05/flying-home.html
Great…any chance there is a video you can post showing the winning entries?
darkfrog said:
Great...any chance there is a video you can post showing the winning entries?
While we're at it, is there any way to make the videos available over something other than youtube? I have to think I'm not the only person who works for a company that blocks all access to that domain. Might be nice to put the videos up in the showcase section of the site anyway- what better showcase than JavaOne? Just give a direct download link.
The original movie is about 75MB which might be taxing (read: start costing me money) on my personal hosting and I'm not sure about the hosting situation with jmonkeyengine.com. YouTube is free and faster than 75MB (although the quality is not as good.) Download it from home? I'm open to other options as well.
As for the winning entries, I have videos of them (I made them…) but I'm not sure if Sun owns the rights to them or what. I'll have to see if they are ok with posting them.
can't wait
renanse said:
The original movie is about 75MB which might be taxing (read: start costing me money) on my personal hosting and I'm not sure about the hosting situation with jmonkeyengine.com. YouTube is free and faster than 75MB (although the quality is not as good.) Download it from home? I'm open to other options as well.
p2p ?
yep, someone create a torrent and i'll help seeding.
http://www.vuze.com/SelfPublish.html