Java Perceived as too Slow for Games? Advantages Overlooked, says Chuk Munn-Lee
Sun Technology Evangelist Chuk Munn-Lee is excited about games . . . specifically, he's excited about Java and games. "But game developers shy away from Java because it's perceived as a bit slow. I'd like to see people get more into Java game development because there are a lot of features that are compelling, that can really make games interesting. [Like that Write Once, Read Anywhere technology.]
You know, performance is only one aspect, and with the dynamic nature of Java and the creativity of the the Java language you can write incredibly smart and innovative games. With so many Java enterprise libraries you can write peer-to-peer games. For example JXTA can be a great platform for games. [JXTA technology is a set of open, generalized peer-to-peer protocol that lets any connected device (cell phone to PDA, PC to server) on a network to communicate and collaborate.]
"Now let's talk about games on the server side. Java is really strong on the server so Java EE potentially could be a game server for Multi-User Games (MUGs). It's getting there.
"Another thing I really like is a project that's been integrated into Glassfish called Grizzly, an NIO framework. Grizzly looks like a really great platform for MUGs.
"Still another project that is really interesting is Shoal, a dynamic Java clustering framework. So if you want your application to be clustered, you can use Shoal to develop the application on. You don't have to develop the framework, the framework is there, just use it." [The framework can be plugged into any product needing clustering and related distributed systems capabilities without tightly binding to a specific communications infrastructure.]
"Also associated with Grizzly is Comet, a way of piggybacking http requests from the server. So the web server can only send data if you request it, Comet allows the server to push data to you without you requesting it. It it's still fairly new, 2-3 years old, that paradigm, I think it will revolutionize the new way of how web application is going to look. It'll use the bandwidth more efficiently and intelligent. Today, the server can't tell you if something interesting has happened -- Comet will allow that to happen. [Read more about Comet in wikipedia.]
Game on, Chuk! Carla King reporting from Sun Tech Days, Shanghai.
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It's always interesting to discover some point of view of experienced people.
Posted by Thierry Bressure on November 07, 2007 at 08:41 AM PST #
i study computer engineering at university.i learn the j2me...
Posted by yaprakyakar on November 21, 2007 at 06:46 AM PST #
very good
Posted by pushpendra on December 05, 2007 at 10:23 PM PST #
Java is horribly slow. It's on cell phones, PDAs and even kitchen appliances. It's used because the virtual machine simulates an operating system, that these small devices still do not have. As soon as someone bright enough writes a compact operating system for these little devices, the use of Java will fall faster than Sun Microsystem's stock price. Java is a horrible language folks. It is platform independent, but that alone is not enough to make it worth using. It is slowing down everyone. How many car accidents have already happened because of the delay in pressing keys on cell phones?
Posted by Mike on December 23, 2007 at 03:58 PM PST #