I’m very curious what any one of you would recommend as a “prelude” to starting development with jMonkeyEngine. This could be anything from reading material to alternative technologies.
One example might be Processing. It was an actual user’s transition from Processing to jMonkeyEngine 3 that got me thinking of these preludes. There’s a bunch of resources out there well worth reading before facing up to the daunting jMonkey; really as long as you’re writing games in Java you’re probably on the right track, but surely some resources must stand out as particularly useful for monkey prep-work?
Hmm, my prelude, the conditions that led me to jME. It was a desire to one day bring my models into a 3d game world. It has often been a struggle in the past for me to be able to design something in a 3D environment, and at the same time be able to seemingly seamlessly integrate the same object / scene into a virtual 3D “world”. It is a daunting task, as I’m sure the developers of jME know all to well. And none the less to someone looking out for something in terms of a real-time engine for their creations. But as for a prelude, I think a-lot depends on ones own personal drive to want to learn and achieve the goals set in their mind. But on that note, i’d also like to add, that if it wasn’t for jME, I would still be wishing for jME tools for whatever environment I was currently evolved with 
I’m not a professional 3D game maker by any stretch, It’s just been a fun / cool hobby over the years, and possibly with jME it could become more!
Thanks jME team!
I think you should break it out by project or game type because the required reading and skill set really differs based on your end game.
For example, under networked multiplayer games there are FPS, Turn based, MMO etc… which would are going to require you be a intermediate to expert in java language. You will need a good understanding of networking concepts (TCP, UDP), as well as design techniques and architectures (UML, client-server, Different popular algorithms, AI, etc…), graphics and animation, code optimization
Non networked multiplayer games you can complete with very little java experience. Minimal design techniques, Most likely need a strong AI background, graphics and animation.
You could possibly compile a detailed list which links references for each type of game and have it as a tutorial. So people new to JME come in, have a lot of information about the possible game types. Decide which fits them best and beginning reading.
Even today most people see java as slow, I did myself untill I realized that the difference to c++ is very low if the concept of the programm is good. I would make some explanations here, why jme3 is not slower than ogre for example (at least not relevant for any project someone want to do), what it means that it is shader based (maybee a comparison here to non shader based languages here?) And a engine neutral explanation why rendering 100,000 cubes won’t work in any engine without tricks.
A lot of people coming to jME for the first time don’t really understand vectors, math, or 3d graphics in general. Thats where I feel most questions are asked about.
Simply looking up “3D graphics introduction” would be a good start for many people I think.