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A Look at Java 3D Programming for Mobile Devices
An anonymous reader writes "IBM developerworks is running an article that describes the Mobile 3D Graphics API and introduces you to 3D programming for Java mobile devices. Sony's PSP has shown the graphics power you can put into a mobile device and mobile gaming. Although the average mobile phone is technologically behind this specialized game machine, Java seems to be helping to drive the market in a very definite direction."
I have a freind who used to work at a major cell phone company. I remember him telling me people would NEVER use java or linux in embedded products because the memory foot print was just too big.
Ah, Moore's Law, what isn't practical today will be in 18 months (or 36 months, etc.).
He is a smart guy, he just doesn't have the vision to look out that far into the future.
Think Deeply.
How much would it cost these days for a phone that did not have any unnecessities like 3D graphics, address books, calendars, clocks, and so forth? I'm talking about a cell phone equivalent feature-wise to your typical 1960s telephone. How terribly cheap could something like that be produced for? I'd almost be inclined to think that you could find them in vending machines.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
It's a common myth that Java is slow. Modernly, Java applications are (on average) only 10% slower than an equivilant C++ application. With appropriate optimization, that margin is even smaller. Even then, when it comes to 3D rendering, the application is usually running at the speed of the hardware, with the Java code not really even coming into play. In a 3D environment you could say the performance margin can be less than 1% difference.
I'm far from a Java zealot. I'm a programmer, language is an insignificant issue. The fact is, I've done most of my programming in C++. I avoided Java for precisely the reason that I thought it was much slower, and as it turned out a lot of my assumptions were wrong. It's even fast enough for 3d games, like Megacorps Online http://www.megacorpsonline.com/game/
I know how to use plenty of languages, I learn new ones all the time. I wasn't just guessing the execution speed of Java, I was speaking from experience. As for the test code you use to show Java is slower, that's a huge mistake. You've composed a test which is ideal for C++ to execute. That's like proving a jeep is faster than a porche by doing time trials in offroad terrain. Given a more abstract problem than "Go through these loops a billion times", the solution in Java wouldn't even resemble the equivilant solution in C++. You can't approach the same problem identically in both languages, if you do, you're not writing Java code, you're writing C++ code in Java.
There's a lot of utility code that would be necessary in a C++ program that's not necessary to perform the equivilant task in Java. Each language isn't just different syntax, you need an entirely different way of thinking. Trying to port a solution line for line into a different language is senseless.