Building Creative Graphics Applications in JavaFX

[Jeffrey Guenther]

Hello, 

I have been using JavaFX for the last couple years to build a prototype for my PhD research. I’ve really enjoyed myself as I’ve used it. For the most part, I can implement a UI as fast as I can understand what it needs to do. The scene graph is wonderful.

JavaFX is great if you want to build a more traditional application that uses buttons, list views, tables views, etc. What I’m still trying to understand is how well JavaFX can help me build more complex interactive graphics applications. The majority of my work is in data visualization and image creation. I’ve been working some something like NodeBox or Grasshopper for Rhino. I’ll finish the prototype with JavaFX. What I’m pondering is if I can/should keep using JavaFX should I take the project commercial or will it be coding myself into a corner.

My question to you is: has any one tried to build, even as a sample project, a small image editor or vector drawing application with JavaFX?
What worked well? What kinds of problems did you run into?

What has been the experience of the SceneBuilder team? SceneBuilder is probably the most advanced creative tool I’ve seen built with JavaFX so far.

I read a post about there being a OpenGL view added to JavaFX one day. What’s the latest on this?

I’m very convinced by the work done by Netflix with RxJava and their other projects that Java/JVM applications work great in the enterprise on the server. What I’m wondering is if Java and JavaFX can compete with tools like Apple’s Cocoa or Qt for building creative applications like say the next generations of Photoshop and Illustrator, or some other new innovative way of creating content.

Thank you for your time!

Jeff