Quake2 Ported to Java, Play Via the Web

casemon writes "Quake2 fans unite! Thanks to German software developer ByTonic software, you can now play Quake2 via the web with Jake2 a java port of ID Softwares seminal Quake2. ByTonic claims performance is similar to original C version. From the Jake2 website; "Jake2 is a Java 3D game engine. It is a port of the GPL'd Quake2 game engine from idSoftware. To use the Jake2 engine you need either the data files from the original game or from the demo version available for download from ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com." You actually don't need to get the data files, they've set it up to automatically download the 38Mb demo assets using WebStart. Just click the Play Now button and away you go. Most features supported, even multiplayer server!"

Comments

C and profile feedback optimization.

[bored]

I have two points.

Comparing a static C binary, with a JIT is sort of silly. Logically comparing a JIT with a C binary compiled with profile based feedback optimization is probably more legitimate.

Secondly, the released Quake engine had a couple of assembly routines. Proving that C wasn't always the best choice, even back then. My understanding is that the versions of quake with assembly loops are roughtly 30% faster than the C only version they are comparing this with.

In the end these sound like good results, I'm continually amazed at how fast java has gotten. The fundamental arch is pretty much broken for generating fast binaries, and it speaks volumes about the quality of the coders writing the JIT engines that they can make a stack based compilation target run fast on modern processors.

Oh, one final thing, did anyone see what C compiler they used for those numbers? I'm currious if it was the same compiler ID originally used, or one of the more modern intel compilers?