After I finally got around to installing Visual Studio on my new development machine I could again work on some of the native code parts used in MT4j like the Windows 7 multi-touch support. One of the objectives was to compile it for 64-bit mode.
As a result, there is now a 64-bit version of the native library available in the latest . The appropriate version will load automatically depending on the running JVM (32/64 bit mode).
As I dont have a Windows 7 compatible multi-touch screen to test, I relied on a simulator for testing purposes. So if you have such a screen and system - I would very much appreciate some feedback!
For more information about running MT4j using a 64-bit JVM take a look at in the .

Another implemented feature is the ability to get the contact size of the touches from Windows 7 in pixels. You can query this information from the the newly introduced MTWin7TouchInputEvt input event class by using the getContactSizeX/Y() methods. This allows for some interesting features. One obvious scenario which comes to mind is to use this information in a drawing application to set the stroke width.

Have fun!
Chris

A while ago I was asked if MT4j could be integrated with a java swing application. I hadn't really given much thought to that scenario and hadn't tried it myself. But theoretically it had to be possible since the MTApplication class is derived from the Applet class which can be treated as a common java gui component.

Now, after a few little changes and adjustments, java swing/awt is playing nicely with a MT4j application embedded into it.
This alows to use the various components and menus etc. of the Java GUI toolkits in combination with a multi-touch aware mt4j window and to integrate MT4j into pre-existing java applications.
This scenario is powerful in combination with a windows 7 compatible multi-touch screen because windows 7 will generate legacy mouse events for the Java swing/awt GUI but at the same time provide full multi-touch support for the embedded MT4j window.

There is a working example of an embedded MT4j window in a Java swing JFrame in the which you can try out yourself.

Until now the development of MT4j has been going on more or less behind closed doors with source code releases only when relasing a new version. But as some of you have probably noticed already - the MT4j source code has recently been published as a . This step opens up the development process of MT4j in several ways:

» you can now check out the most up to date source code directly from the and get the latest bug fixes and features without waiting for a new big release
» if you come across issues, bugs, have feature requests, etc. you can add them to the
» it is now easily possible to integrate other developers interested in contributing to MT4j into the project.

If you are interested in contributing to MT4j please check out the "" wiki page.

Cheers!

So here it is - the new version of MT4j!

After weeks of working long hours on the release it is finally done.
Many bugs have have been fixed, new features added and countless little improvements have been made since the relase of the first version last year.
The new version is faster, less memory hungry and more stable in general.

One of the exciting new features is the native Windows 7 (multi-)touch support which enables MT4j applications to run on most of the new multi-touch hardware solutions.

So, what else is new in version 0.9?
» more examples! interactive water, MT-Shell application loader, Air-Hockey and more
» new components - MTList, MTOverlayContainer, MTSceneWindow..
» easy to use 2D physics engine integration with examples
» some memory leaks fixed, consumes less in general, loads faster
» lots of bug fixes and improvements
» all examples have been overhauled and improved
» scene transitions more robust, ability to use transition effects (blend, fade, slide etc, easily extendable)
» you can add global touch feedback with one line of code
» multiple mice support on linux
» new and improved tap&hold gesture, new gesture example scene, showing all available gestures and how to use them

For a more detailed list of changes, check out the ChangeLog at:
https://mt4j.org/mediawiki/index.php/Changelog

Download the new version here:
https://mt4j.org/mediawiki/index.php/Downloads

And as images say more than words, a few teasers:

The new MTShell example allows to load and run other MT4j scenes:



The new interactive water, airhockey and maps scene loaded and running in a window:



Have fun guys, and build something awesome!

Chris

Because of the release of MT4j v0.9 we added a set of new Videos. For almost every example contained in the full release, a short video (about 30 sec.) is now available in the . We used our new multi-touch terminal (DI technology) and a HP TouchSmart notebook via the native WM_TOUCH interface on MS Windows 7. A new video will replace the currently featured video on the main page, soon.
You can check out all new MT4j videos on our .

Have fun ;)
Uwe