Where to start?

[kevglass]

I've been producing stuff with Java3D and Java2D and I thought I might come and have a play with J2ME. I was just wondering where to start?

1) Restrictions in J2ME? (No floats, No java.awt.image.*, any others?)

2) Different Platforms Specs, what res do these things run at?

3) Example code/Tutorials, are there any? Google seems to come up a bit blank.

4) Raycasting/Fast Graphics update, is this possible?

Cheers for any help,

Kev

[mik]

1) A lots, ...

2) A lots, take a look at
forum.nokia.com
wireless.java.sun.com ((http://wireless.java.sun.com/device/index.html for a not so updated devices list)

3) goto 2) for some good examples for gaming
http://jfdoue.free.fr/index.html (a good starting point)

4) Fast graphics ... hum ... No direct pixels access on MIDP1.0, possible with MIDP2.0 Nokia UI, Siemens SDK, and , VSCL, Moto Game API. since MIDP2.0 is not widespreaded making J2ME applis is a bit complex.

I working on a SDK to simplify this process:
mee.dev.java.net

Duh,

Mik

[daybyter]

3) Check http://www.forum.nokia.com/main.html

4) There's a recent thread on raycasting in this forum?

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[davidaprice]

1) What you said, plus e.g. no reflection so no serialization or RMI.

2) Nokia's devices for example are pretty much all 12-bit colour nowadays (4 bits each for R,G,B), and come in three main resolutions: 96x65 (e.g. Nokia 3510i: low-end but high volume), 128x128 (e.g. Nokia 7210, 5100, 6100, 3300, ....) and 176x208 (e.g. Nokia 3650: the 'Series-60' camera phones).

3) I can recommend the tutorials and examples at forum.nokia.com (but then I would, I wrote several of them )

4) Basically don't bother trying 'real' 3-D yet, unless you go the Symbian C++ route with those Series-60 devices. With MIDP Java think more along the lines of e.g. Game Boy Color capabilities, with an additional restriction that everything (compiled code, sounds, images, ...) has to fit into a typically max 64KB JAR file, but the additional advantage of networking capabilities.  Longer-term, the JSR-184 Mobile 3-D API demos at JavaOne looked promising.