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DirectX has the advantage of other features built in. OpenGL is just graphics. DirectX also does audio and manages controller input.

Low, there are several Open source API's that offer these other features, and some that bundle them with OpenGL, but it isn't as standardized.

I use LWJGL personally.

Indeed, OpenGL and Direct3D are direct competitors, not OpenGL and DirectX. One Free, cross-platform alternative to DirectX used by many games for both 2D and OpenGL-based 3D graphics is SDL

DirectX has the advantage of other features built in. OpenGL is just graphics. DirectX also does audio and manages controller input.

Low, there are several Open source API's that offer these other features, and some that bundle them with OpenGL, but it isn't as standardized.

I use LWJGL personally.

There are well tested, production ready OpenGL bindings for Java: http://lwjgl.org/

HOW ABOUT NO

Wow, how well though-out properly founded, intelligent and logic arguments... ehrm... How about, you’re a dick!?

Java fits better with OpenGL anyway, being cross platform and open in the same vein as OpenGL.

You owe me a new keyboard.
Ok, to be serious now, I can't think of a worse match to OpenGL than Java
You need to work with pictures, access to buffers. Also, speed.

I have worked with OpenGL on Java. There is a ridiculously low overhead for the wrapper library. And in case you didn’t know it: For anything other than Swing GUI stuff, Java is nearly on par with C++.
Which is impressive, for a language that has all the checks and bounds built in, preventing errors that will fuck up your puny C/C++ game at every chance it can get. Build in those checks, and you will be slower than Java!

But you know which languages are really the best for OpenGL?
OCaml and Haskell!
C/C++ is a dinosaur. The COBOL of our days. But as nasty / error prone to code, as Visual Basic.
It literally feels dirty, to go to C/C++ after having worked in Haskell.

There are well tested, production ready OpenGL bindings for Java: http://lwjgl.org/

HOW ABOUT NO

Java fits better with OpenGL anyway, being cross platform and open in the same vein as OpenGL.

You owe me a new keyboard.

Ok, to be serious now, I can't think of a worse match to OpenGL than Java

You need to work with pictures, access to buffers. Also, speed.

There are well tested, production ready OpenGL bindings for Java: http://lwjgl.org/

Java fits better with OpenGL anyway, being cross platform and open in the same vein as OpenGL.

Still alive and kicking, although you should rather use Java WebStart and OpenGL via lwjgl or jogl for it. There are some game engines for it as well.

Hmm you'd probably have to put it into some kind of sandbox that doesn't allow stuff like local file access...

But still, you'd need support for 3D graphics. If only such a thing would exist...

Too bad.

You mean something like JOGL or LWJGL?

Been there, done that, although this is mostly for Java WebStart, not applets.

Do you mean something like this?

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.

https://joal.dev.java.net/joal for Sound according to his site.

https://jogl.dev.java.net/jogl for OpenGL

http://www.lwjgl.org/ Light Wieght Java Game Library

Man this guy is good, he won't even let you copy paste his web text.
Seriously, good work, Are you aware Q3 has been liberated?

This supports most of what you want to do.

you cant be serious in considering that Java is a reputable alternative to writing robust recent good quality 3D openGL apps can you?

Oh, get over it. People said the same thing about C++ several years ago. Back then, no one would have believed that in a few years games like Konami's Metal Gear Solid would be using scripting languages for a lot of their gameplay. Now games are a mixture of several languages - from assembly on up to scripting.

The first commercial game to use Java was Tom Clancy's Politika, and that came out in 1997!

Some commercial games that use Java include:

• Star Wars Galaxies
• Law and Order
• IL-2 Sturmovik
• Tribal Trouble

the benchmarks on this site were for all 800x600? huh? that is so dated. no one writes 3D apps/games using 800x600..and Quake 2?? come on now isnt that a bit outdated?

That's the point. The whole argument is outdated. The language has been capable for years.

So the simple way to understand OpenGL code is to think of a really big state machine. Each call just modifies the currently existing state. The state persists until the state is changed - even to the point of maintaining it between rendered frames.

If you want Java bindings for OpenGL, there's two major projects.

JOGL, which is the basis for the formal bindings in JSR 231.

LWJGL which is a community driven project and somewhat akin to DirectX in that it also merges audio and input device APIs as well.

If you need some tutorials to get started, check out http://opengl.j3d.org in a couple of weeks when it gets officially opened and has lots of beginner tutorials to play with.

After that, the OpenGL Red Book is your friend.

Remember to check the alternatives, too. LWJGL has been around for quite awhile, has been used to make a commercial game, and is BSD-licensed for all your open source needs.

If all you need is a stripped down OpenGL library without all that messy swing and awt code and want to just get down and write some nifty console-style games, LWJGL could be the library for you.

I believe that it is possible for Java3D implementations to be (partial) wrappers around hardware-based OpenGL/DirectX functionality.

Well, there are several projects available which make OpenGL available for Java programmers.
Lightweight Java Game Library
Open GL for Java
Don't think the second one is still being developed, but I think Sun is working on something more up to date.

There are alternatives to rebooting if you want to play.Javagaming
LWJGL

Don't forget, there are two very popular bindings currently out and very usable: lwjgl which does away with AWT/Swing and JOGL which keeps AWT/Swing support. I currently use LWJGL for some hobby stuff I'm doing. Bindings are begining to become VERY good, especially using the new nio package.