Sorry, but I didn't check command line.

I updated my PC, and java just hangs.  Uninstalled it and Java 6 worked Ok.  Installed Java 7 SDK including JRE and again nothing works.  Admittedly my PC is full of stuff so there's probably an incompatability somewhere.  Overall it's been a terrible day w.r.t java.  It's enough to make me turn to Flash  

Edit: Reverted to Java 7 Update 17:

KEY_RELEASE: It's a bug.  First seen on Firefox.  Now also on Safari.  I installed a Safari update at the same time as the Java update and that is probably the cause of the lack of KEY_RELEASE events.  It isn't clear how to work around this.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=849172

Also look down at comment 13, which fingers the latest version of Safari as similarly bugged.

The new update appears to break the keyboard routine I've used for this years (and previous) Java4k games (at least on OSX).  It looks like I'm not detecting Key Up events any more.  Maybe I'll go for a reboot, just in case my computer is confused.

Incidentally the unsigned applet warning box still comes up and now has red text warning that the applet is a security risk.

Edit: None of my recent Java4k games works on OSX now (Falcon4k, Assassins4k, Mage Wars and Die Z are all broken).  I guess I'll have to upgrade my PC later and check that too.  Bother - that was a really minimal key handler.  Can I be bothered to update the older programs?  Might do Mage Wars and Die Z as they were both built on my current Java4k tool chain.  Not sure whether to do the others. Bother Bother and bother.

I haven't checked my really old entries Frag4k and Speed4k, but they used a different keyboard handler, so might still work.

Edit2: None (that is no ones, not just mine) of the old webstart stuff loads anymore on my Mac, possibly needs an update to the jnlp files.  So in summary, none of my stuff on Java4k works anymore, at least on OSX.  I think I'll contain my excitement and check whether it works on the PC this evening. 

Interesting development on the security front:


APPLET and APPLICATION seem to be used somewhat interchangeably in the above.  I'm assuming this applies to both, and that it means from now on, an old JRE will only execute applications/applets that are signed with a traceable certificate.  Considering the number of updates recently and that JREs now have a built in expiry date (I assume this does something - obviously not checked), maybe it's time to buy a proper certificate.  Can't really justify the expense though.  Probably I'll just carry on as normal and insist on the latest JRE.  Incidentally, there's now little point in writing code for an older JRE, so as to get a larger user base (unless signing with a traceable cert).

Ho Hum.  Lets go install and take a look.

I've killed 2 Linksys (one wired, one wireless), and a Belkin (wireless) so far and am now working on destroying a Netgear N600.  To be fair to the Belkin, I think the problem is that there is so much contention on 2.4GHz here, it couldn't cope with all the retrys and went into a sulk.  5GHz is much better, but not all my kit supports it.  Fortunately I've got wired connections too.

I liked Toras' Blocks.

Just back from a long weekend.  Congrats to Morre.

Thanks to the Judges for reviewing the games.

Thinking about next year now

You could round off the result to however many decimal places you desire.

E.g.

Ah, results.  Well done zeroone; very nicely balanced  entries again this year.
Couple in the top ten, I didn't expect and will go back and play again and one or two I liked that other folks didn't.
Got to go, work calls.  Looking forward to the judges votes.

There's not much difference between commenting in the forums and formally on the Java4k site.  In both cases you know who has said what.  I don't think it's essential to use real names with comments, login handle should do.

It's always nicer to receive positive comments then negative, but dealing with negative comments is all part of life.  The only one's that matter are those from people you respect.  In those cases, it usually means there's room for improvement.  I never could figure out the Grudge thing, even for people that have mucked me around; I just avoid getting into a position where they can do it again.  They can go annoy someone else.

Voted   

Weirdest ones I've actually tried in order of weirdness.

1. APL - If you type a list of random characters, including punctuation, there's a fair chance it will compile.
2. Forth - Everything is in Reverse Polish Notation and programmed in fixed length frames.
3. LISP - Some interesting associative programming functions intended for rule based AI (but they are slow)

All of these are pretty old and are from the days when programming languages were in their infancy.  APL was even more confusing than using regular expressions, and I didn't use it for anything actually useful.  Forth was better, but the Frame concept (memory was very limited in those days), was very awkward.

If I'm allowed to consider weird CPU architectures, resulting in strange assembler programming, the following are pretty weird, and as a bonus, I've actually used these professionally:

1. TMS570 HET Assembler - 96 bit instruction Risk CPU specialised for counter/timer operations, which is included with a number of Texas Instrument ARM Core based CPUs.  There are no data areas, only instructions.  Instructions can self modify themselves by design.  Every output has a programmable delay, allowing 10nS timing. Hard to code, but capable of some amazing stuff. Well worth the effort.
2. RCA 1802 - 16 general purpose registers, any of which can be the program counter and the stack pointer.  This made glueing together code from different sources, which used different PC and SP conventions really challenging.  Very much like the Thunks you had with early 16 bit/32 bit Intel '86 programming. I think the idea was to make ISR's really efficient, but frankly trying to work out which register was the PC and which was the SP from a code fragment, was hard.  You could implement multiple SP's too for added confusion.

I would imagine the transputer would go here too, but I never got to use it.

Slightly off topic, as these are not programming languages, but formal methods.  

1. Z  I successfully used this to prove part of an algorithm.  It was a proof by induction.  Works well for small contained problems, but gets increasingly unwieldy for large ones.

There are other methods such as B.

Good idea; It would work for muting sound when the applet doesn't have the focus.
However the applet doesn't start with the focus.  I suppose one could have a special case where sound is on at the start and only disabled when focus is lost.

Annoyingly the applet doesn't get the focus back if I tab away and then back again.  Maybe I could do something with Javascript and call into the Applet to let it know whats going on.

Edit: javascript document.hasFocus() looks possible.

Applets don't seem to stop on Safari when I navigate away from the page.  isActive() remains true and stop() is not called.  If the tab is closed, then stop() does get called then.

Haven't checked to see if this is generic or Safari specific.  I thought the whole idea of start and stop was to suspend the applet when it isn't being displayed.  I'm noticing because my sound generation isn't stopping, and as this is actively driven by the game thread.

There is a demo applet on the oracle website at
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/deployment/applet/lifeCycle.html
This prints out debug info
You need to have the console open to see what's going on.

I expected to get a stop() when navigating away from the page and a start if the page is redisplayed.  I thought that destroy() would be called to unload resources.  However I only get stop() when the tab is closed.  Is there a way to determine whether an applet is currently displayed?

Have you seen the download stats on java4k.com?  You've got 2000 more views in the last 24 hours.  I wonder if you've been slash dotted or something.  Excellent game by the way.

I like the graphics, but keep missing.  I'm probably at the wrong height, although it's difficult to tell.  It's definitely different, which is a major plus

Time's almost up, so make sure your final version is in java4k.com by the end of february (tomorrow)!

I would imagine it would be possible to use Java on PS4, provided you bought a dev-kit.  However it sounds like these are still going to be moderately expensive as they have 8GB of DDR5, which must add several £100 to a base gaming PC price.  Then they are charging something for the dev kit software.  For reference PS3 dev-kits started at about $20,000, was slashed to $10,000 and then again eventually to $2000.
(http://gamasutra.com/view/news/187093/QA_What_does_Sonys_most_open_console_promise_mean.php#.USxZgKXaZhA)

I notice they mention Playstation Mobile there, so I had a look. £65 Publisher fee and no special hardware required allows development for the PS framework on android phones and also on the Playstation Vita.  The latter is mildly interesting, but they haven't exactly been flying off the shelves.  Maybe that's why the cost of entry is so low; Sony are hoping that an influx of indie offerings will increase interest.  While it's difficult to get excited about it, it does shed some light on the potential commercial model that could be applied to PS4 should Sony decide to go that way. (https://psm.playstation.net/portal/en/index.html#register)

Sadly, I'm not volunteering as I don't have the time to commit and so would be unreliable. There's plenty of programmers here, but not so much in the way of artists and musicians.  The hard part of team work is planning and communication.  Do some initial concept work before recruiting.  Split the job up into well defined packages.  Plan incremental development.  Hold regular team meetings via twitter or Skype.  It's also easier to get people when you have some concept work to show.  Also look at your potential team members work.

A combination of the fact that I make good money in my day job and that writing indie games would be a business decision in a very competitive market.

After a quick scan, I'm going to look at the Jigsaw and Garbage Collector ones for a start.

I think there are more videos, that those in the above play lists.  I liked the JavaFx 3D presentation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBKHdV-_rIc

Downloaded the API.  Not familiar with JavaFx, but can't see how to do fog or fade to grey with distance.

However a quick googling suggests that there is a Shader language compiler for JavaFx, although I can't find anything more.
http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/openjfx-dev/2012-November/004292.html
Anyone know anything about that?

Edit: After reading more carefully, I think Decora isn't a end-user tool and only is of use to Oracle.  Unless anyone can find a way of bolting stuff on via any unsupported APIs.
Edit2: I found this: http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/openjfx-dev/2013-February/006136.html

Edit 3: <quote>Our current 3D implementation makes no use of the decora-compiler translator, which means that the 3d shaders are hand written which means they are different, and theoretically could introduce a bit of shader code that isn't as well tested (In practice it isn't that big of a deal). Prism's use of JSL itself is also in need of work since writing a shader is only half the battle. We need to be able to provide flexible vertex data objects/interfaces and manage these in a way that is simple and flexible if we are to provide shaders to developers.</quote>

Oh well, never mind.

http://www.opengl.org/wiki/Core_And_Compatibility_in_Contexts

My Macbook Air has OSX Mountain Lion - Intel HD Graphics 4000

Compatibility Profile
============
v1.1 (100 % - 7/7)

v1.2 (100 % - 8/8)

v1.3 (100 % - 9/9)

v1.4 (100 % - 15/15)

v1.5 (100 % - 3/3)

v2.0 (100 % - 10/10)

v2.1 (100 % - 3/3)

v3.0 (95 % - 22/23)

v3.1 (25 % - 2/8)

v3.2 (70 % - 7/10)

v3.3 (10 % - 1/10)

v4.0 (0 % - 0/14)

v4.1 (0 % - 0/7)

v4.2 (0 % - 0/12)

v4.3 (0 % - 0/18)


Core Profile
========
v3.0 (100 % - 23/23)

v3.1 (100 % - 8/8)

v3.2 (100 % - 10/10)

v3.3 (30 % - 3/10)

v4.0 (0 % - 0/14)

v4.1 (0 % - 0/7)

v4.2 (0 % - 0/12)

v4.3 (0 % - 0/18)


So OpenGL 2.1 in compatibility profile or 3.2 in Core profile if you want it to run on OSX 10.8 (I gather this holds for 10.7 too)

Looks interesting. Does it have lighting? What's the performance like? Does it work in an applet? Wish I had more time.

How about subclassing BufferedImage and implementing interface java.io.serializable?
You can then implement



Now look at java.io.ObjectOutputStream and java.io.ObjectInputStream etc.

I haven't tried this.  There's probably some additional overhead too, but probably not much compared to the image data.  It might be worth compressing the data before transmission too.  It might be better to make a general purpose update utility, so you can update any file on load, not just the skins.

Probably not many links in from other sites, so low page rank.

When it comes down to it, it's mostly the balance of calories in versus calories out.  I've ranged from 157lb through to about 220lb at various times. Currently around 175lb to 180lb, which is a bit too much.  Part of the problem is people keep bringing cakes into work, although of course I'm not obliged to eat them.  Personally I find it much easier to enforce a sensible diet by buying only sensible food in the supermarket.  If there isn't any junk food in the house, then I can't possibly eat it.  Still I'm going for a walk round the zoo and going dancing tonight, which will help.

This topic suddenly makes me think of the 'Fat Princess' game (on PS3).  It's basically a capture-the-flag game, but the flag is a princess who has to be forcibly abducted.  You have to gather food and feed her up to make her difficult to carry, so the enemy team have difficult in carrying her off.  I wonder what other game plots we could do.  Maybe a platform game where you collect cream cakes, but get fatter and slower as a side effect.  Obviously your jumping distance goes down, but perhaps you are less easily dislodged when pelted with enemy missiles...

Love the 3D maze.  Nice fireballs/iceballs. Aiming is a bit hard, there's a difficult tradeoff between turn rate and aiming accuracy.  Perhaps the turn rate can come down just a tad.

The texturing is having a problem at close quarters. Not sure if it's spherical aberration (algorithm projects onto a cylinder, but is drawn on a plate).  Alternatively, it might be you are using the fast (inaccurate) method for calculating texture points.  That is known to bow in/out if the surface being textured varies considerably in Z-depth.  I've made both of these errors at various times.  Or more likely, it's something else.

I'm sorry to report still no joy on movement. Now using cursor keys I get one move. 'R' always works.  No errors in console.

Edit: Tried it on my PC, where it works fine, so I'm not missing out.    Very smooth and jump distance is just right.
I wonder whether the timer granularity is different on the two machines.