Hi my name is rob and im currently planning to use a 3d java egine for my computing project for school. I'm in my last year before university called "A2" in the british education system and im studying programming. I wanted to know how possible it is for a commited programmer to make a 3d fps game with this egine in a few months on their own, or is this a hgihly complex engine which requires a team of 20 to make over 2 years say. Thanks for reading,
Rob.
Welcome on the jME boards!
As this is your first 3D game (or probably even your first game at all?) it will be tough. But you can surely do it if you're focused. Try to get something very very simple (i.e. a box which can be controlled to chase another box on a basic terrain) working in a short time frame (e.g. one week full time). If you can do that, you will most probably get something you could call an fps in a few month.
The Flag Rush Tutorial (in the wiki) should get you started.
People in the past have done something like that, though usually with more than 1 person. Don't expect to make Quake V though… expect to make something like Wolkenstein: http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/jmeforum/index.php?topic=2111.0
Ok, thanks for the clarification and feedback, i think ill have a stab at it, my course doesnt fully start untill september so i have a few months in the summer to learn the engine. I have programmed 2d games before in python, and a text game in c. My java expeirence is a GUI interface with several buttons and real time displays, with some calculations, basicly a simple virtual petrol pump system where you can change the price and refill at each terminal which updates total earning ect., that is my expeirence of java. Wolkenstein looks pretty cool, not so sure about the wackey textures 
but looks quite nice. Is there any guide for basic installation, where to put the .jar files ect. I've mainly only built java programs from scratch or the college has provided the classes automaticly.
There are tutorials for netbeans and eclipse on the wiki.
Looks like you at least have some useful programming experience, so you might be able to make it… (if you don't like the wolkenstein art you better start thinking about how you're gonna get yours though :P)
Ok ive got it up and running and ive fiddled around with some of the skybox objects, created my own and moved them around on basic xyz axis, gonna explore more later. One last peice of advice if you could, should i use a 3rd party graphcis program (like moray, maya ect) for the graphics or should i use the jme inbuilt graphcis for the most simple option? Basicly which one is going to be the least time consuming?
you’re going to want to use external models. a good place to start looking for some media for your project is the resource page here http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/wiki/doku.php?id=resources
ok cool thanks
do you know wether you can use more than on od those for program? or is it the norm to stick to one?
every technology/program/modeltype you use will take time, because it all has some quirks you have to figure out. I'd advise you to stick to one kind of model type and texture type.
I have experienced .obj (lightwave) and .3ds models to be quite good for static objects. Furthermore, I'd encourage you to use .DDS (DirectDrawSurface) textures, for they have no performance cost, remain compressed in memory and if you use MipMapping, they look better than other approaches. I tell you this now, because switching to .DDS later is quite hard because they have some restrictions that you have to consider right from the start.
good luck and have fun,
Andy
You have no idea how long it will take you to get 3D models right, whether you use supplied models or make your own. Perhaps you should look at something that’s more targeted to your task, such as the Cube Engine 2. Having said that, jME is one of the best engines around.
Well i really want to use a 3d engine, i have used moray, maya and vue'desprit before.
I'm for good diet as much as the next man, but I hadn't thought of it as a replacement for a 3d engine