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Porting the full Sun Java to the PS3 would be great, but for real development you'd need Sony (or NVidia)'s help getting the OpenGL acceleration working.

I play Wurm Online, a fairly involved persistent online fantasy simulator which runs in Java and JOGL and games like it could easily be made to work on the PS3 with PS3Linux, if the OpenGL acceleration were available.

Several games.

Jake2 (Quake 2 clone) as the AC already posted.
Puzzle Pirates
Tribal Trouble (good!)

check out javagaming.org for tons of discussions about the subject.

and tools? how about:

LWJGL: http://www.lwjgl.org/
JMonkeyEngine: http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/
Xith3D: http://xith.org/

And there are probably tons of other games and tools I'm forgetting.

And regardless what the trolls will say, it is perfectly possible to create a 2006-level game in java.

Having moved to the Mac a few years back, I haven't found many demos which run natively on my machine.

Try Robotron 4096. It was developed on a Mac, then tested on Windows. ;-)

Is this a sign the demo scene may just kick off big time for J2SE?

This contest is currently running into its fourth year. It garnered quite a bit of attention the first year, but the quality of the entries was pretty low. The second year two competitors really tore up the contest with full graphics, sound support, and full screen applications. The third year gained attention from many professional game developers. taking the contest into 3D, real-time raytracing, and other areas that it had never been before.

The fourth year is shaping up to be even bigger and badder than ever before. Visit JavaGaming.org for more info.

It's worth pointing out that pre-releases of Java 6 (Mustang) are showing in the order of 10-20% speed increases for many Java apps

see: http://www.javagaming.org/forums/index.php?topic=1 1422.0

I got 20% increase on a ray-tracer. AFAIK this is still without having implemented optimisations based on escape analysis - which are expected to be a huge win for Java, so Java performance is set for another big jump again.

http://www.javagaming.org/

on Linux only. Then they fixed it silently apparently. See here

If it's true, I'm wondering why their QA or TCK didn't catch it.

cheers,
dalibor topic

So, Check this for Mac compatability

Java3D is out on linux and osX too now. It is also on it's way to being Open Sourced, apparently.

There is a discussion about this very topic over at the Java Gaming forums

There is a discussion about this very topic over at the Java Gaming forums

Can you prove that general sorting cannot be less than O(n log n)? This is fundamental. If you can't do it, you do not know computer science

Yes, I can. And that's my point. I learned how when I was given my first book on data structures. It was a little weird at first, but if you're going to do things right, you have to know the math behind them. In fact, modern computers long ago made me give up the desktop calculator. Trying to develop for the processing power of today requires numbers far beyond what my old desktop calculators could do. It's too bad, because it was so convenient to not have to switch windows. And yes, I'm too cheap to get a decent scientific calculator. :-)

Put out a publication comparing your methods with other known methods.

You mean like this one? Looking back at it, I should have taken the time to clean up the english. I was so excited about my algo, that I just pushed it out. :-)

Keep an eye on Java Developers Journal for an article on logging. They wouldn't let me publish a pure research paper, but I was able to squeeze in a dissertation on using ThreadLocals for multiplexing a stream.

Does anyone know any *good* comp-sci journals? Dr. Dobbs looks promising, but I had already promised an article to JDJ.

Java 2D (the graphics backend, also used by swing) has been hardware accelerated on windows since ~1.4 by use of directx.

Now it seems that java 1.5 will use opengl on linux to achieve the same (or even better...;) graphics performance as seen on windows.

i.e.: http://www.javagaming.org/cgi-bin/JGNetForums/YaBB .cgi?action=display;board=jogl;num=1060784520;star t=0#6

Yes, in fact there are some libraries available that will do the bare metal stuff for you.
Also, a lot of the runtime code swapping capabilities will make it easier/nicer to create mods by the community.

Try looking at the Java gaming online forum

Btw, other nice Java tries can be found at Javagaming.

...why you think you can't use Java.For all the bad press Java gets about being "slow", it is mostly old, outdated FUD. Newer virtual machines are often faster than C/C++ applications, especially in the number crunching arena. Intensive graphics are no big issue since Java now has a fullscreen API (page flipping, double buffering, and all that), a very fast implementation of Java3D, and (if you prefer) OpenGL wrappers.

Even if you feel that Java doesn't cut it for everything, apply the 80/20 rule. 80% of your non-performance critical code in Java, and the later 10& in C/C++. This solution would at least *reduce* your multi-platform woes. You might try posting this on JavaGaming. The guys over there are wizards at making Java perform with intensive graphics. (No surprise considering that some of the industries greatest performance experts hang out there.) They can also help you find the APIs you need. I'd really take a second look before you toss Java out as an option.

"You forgot Java 3D. (R.i.P)"

Watchoo talkin' 'bout Wills?
http://www.javagaming.org

... er ...

Oh, those aren't screenshots? Erm, never mind then. :-)

Duke Nukes Stuff. Before the code was VSync locked (and timing locked) it ran 400 FPS! Say what you will, but Sun has come through this time. See Java Gaming for more info.

Sun's Java gaming effort

No, for Windows you can either choose a version using Direct X or one using OpenGL for rendering.

Yes, that means that there is C code running at a low level (i.e., the OpenGL implementation provided by each graphics card provider), but that is no different that *any* language other than C that uses the OpenGL standard, including C++.

My complaint is that there is no Java3D version that is portable and free at the same time. But that is my general problem with Sun's Java licensing.

I agree that Java may have missed the mark, as far as performance-intensive applications like games are concerned, but given that people are seriously interested in Python-based game development (as evidenced by pygame, PyOpenGL, etc.), I think it's hardly reasonable to attack it on the basis of performance.

The present Java games are not bad. But they are the same league, like games written in Flash are. Hard to imagine a Java title would show up in the games top 10, and this mainly due to the fact, that most top titles try to really use the hardware at its limits, thus performance is an issue.

Personally, I'd rather hear the opinion of someone who had actually worked on commercial- scale gaming projects.

Java gaming is a good resource. Several of my colleagues are former game professionals. They watch the Java game development community with great interest. As far as I can tell, their opinion on Java for gaming seems to range from promising to not suitable (at least not for Quake III like games, where state of the art 3d engines are needed that squeeze out every cycle).

The crucial question for them is if you can make money with such a title, which seems to be not easy in the games industry. Perhaps it will be in the mobile phone market?

That's an interesting statement, because, in a discussion with a Sun engineer (Jeff Kesselman I believe), people were told that, concerning optimization, the point of the compiler was to produce code in a form that was optimal for the VM to optimize. I can't remember exactly where the discussion was, but I'm sure you can find it if you do a search through www.javagaming.org.

God bless,
-Toby

I'd guess that the vast bulk of Java development is for relatively small applets and servelets...

I don't believe that is true at all. Why the big hype about J2EE then, which encompasses a whole host of enterprise technology including Servlets/JSP, JMS, JDBC, EJB, JNDI, etc...? The last two projects that I've worked on have been writing supply chain systems for DaimlerChrysler and Boeing. I'd hardly call that small applets and servlets.

That being said, unlike a lot of posters here, I don't see speed as being a permanent impediment to Java's growth.

HotSpot has definitely improved Java speed greatly. JDK1.4 also includes some tremendous performance changes for Java with additions like file mapping, asynchronous i/o, native byte buffers, and volatile images to the API. You're about to start seeing some kick-butt client-side applications (including games) for Java.

For example, check out www.javagaming.org.

God bless,
-Toby Reyelts

can't write an FPS in java, eh? so what do you call the quake clone done by the team at fullsail? it was shown at quakecon just last week and was received very well from what i've heard. see javagaming.org for more info. - danboo