Streaming content and local caching with webstart?

[pchasco]

Hi everyone!

I'm new to Java development and am working on my first Java game. I've been getting along with Java pretty well so far, but there's one thing I'm struggling with.

My game will have lots of content. Megabytes of it. It's going to be infeasible to send all of it down the tubes before the game begins. What I want to do is demand-load and cache content locally. How can I do this within a webstart application in a platform independent, webstart-y way? Is it OK to read and write directly to the filesystem from within a webstart application? If so, how do I know where it's safe to do so? Can I get write access into the users' home directories or is there some sort of sandboxed folder on the filesystem that's "all mine?" I've read about muffins and I don't think these are the right solution.

Thanks!