3D Games - some questions

[DELOCH]

I would like to ask some questions related to 3D game programming:
please answer in general form that explains the programming technique.

1. How to make models move properly-->
as in, is it possible to use the animation frames in the model as an animation resource?
2. How can models "wield" things: such as swords, guns, platemail, skirts, etc.
3. How do you add special effects: bright lights, red glow,animation glow(as model moves, red tracks remain for a second).
4. What is a method to move model that makes it look realistic(such as walking) yet not move exactly from tile to tile(which makes it look like it's teleporting from tile to tile)
5. what is the best method to add leveled terrain(mountains, uneven landscape) without ramming up a person's memory with unneeded information(such as off-view-objects).
6. What is a good method to represent a map? text file? bitmap? some-personal numerical format?
7. Is there a better method to loading and manipulating objects in Java other than a scene-graph?

note, I am hoping to use Java (yes, many argue it's not good, though i ignore those arguments since runescape is made in java and it works perfectly fine)

You don't have to answer all of the above, but if you can explain any, please do.
Thanks ahead of time.

[Gox]

I'll update with more specific answers later, but since I only have a moment for now I'll leave you with the following two links.

3D Model Interaction with Java 3D (http://www.daltonfilho.com/articles/java3d)
Java 3D API Tutorial (http://java.sun.com/developer/onlineTraining/java3d/)

[DELOCH]

my main question is what do most games use for graphic effects either 2D or 3D

for example spells where there is a cool graphic displayed either around you or rolling through space doing fire effect/ice effect etc

[Gox]

Shaders are usually used to do graphic effects like bloom, haze, lighting etc, and can also be used for things like fire and smoke.

I don't know how many shader languages are out there but I can think of 3 off the top of my head.
GLSL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLSL) for use with OpenGL. This is probably your best bet since you're using Java.
HLSL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Level_Shader_Language) which was developed by Microsoft for use with Direct3D and DirectX.
Cg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cg_(programming_language)) which was developed by Nvidia. Apparently Cg will output for OpenGL or DirectX (according to Wiki), so it's another option.

Here's a link to a couple pages of Examples of using Shaders for XNA (using HLSL), but it might give you a better idea of what people use them for and what can be accomplished.
http://creators.xna.com/en-US/education/catalog/?devarea=14

[DELOCH]

another question, how do most games merge models(such as merging a player with shoulderpads which are tagged to certain points of player body and animate as the player animates)

I know you can load some models at the same time to overlap each other but it won't work well if the character is animated(which i'm not sure about either)

about animation, i know that you can animate in 3d max, can you use that animation set to animate your character in a game?