This specification is written for 3D graphics application programmers. We assume that the reader has at least a rudimentary understanding of computer graphics. This includes familiarity with the essentials of computer graphics algorithms as well as familiarity with basic graphics hardware and associated terminology. Bold Lucida type is used for Java  3D API declarations. Bold type is used to represent variables.
Italic type is used for emphasis and for equations.
Changes to the Java 3D API, version 1.2, are indicated by an icon in the margin. The icon appears in the outside margin for all new methods and constructors. All angles or rotational representations are in radians. All distances are expressed in units or fractions of meters. We gratefully acknowledge Warren Dale for writing the Sound API portion of this specification and Daniel Petersen for writing the scene graph sharing portion of the specification.