How to get in to Java games programming?

[gmehta]

I am knowledgeable in Java and J2EE and always wanted to get in to games development. So where would I start ? Are there any books that I can srart with ?

Help appreciated. Thanks.

[n00bie]

I also have a question along the same lines.  I don't know hardly anything about Java, and want to learn.  I'm 14, and know a little bit about BASIC, PASCAL, and C++, but want to learn Java and game programming.  I don't know the best way to learn.  I had a tutor for a while, but she moved.    

Can somebody give me some suggestions?

[Jeff]

There is at least one decent book about there. I forget the name but other guys around here will remember.  

Shawn Kendall's book, which I hope will be excellent, is due out any day now. Its called "Practical Java Game Programming" and is from New Riders press.

The other thing to do ofcourse is to look at good sampel code.  There is a lot of it around here.  Then there is the question of environment.  I write this a lot it seems and shoudl probabyl doa  FAQ somewhere...

The first question you need to ask yourself is 'what KIDN of game do I want to do?'  Applet programming is very different from J2ME cell phone programmign and BOTH are quire different from desktop (j2SE.)

The most completeand easiest to work with  environment is J2SE.  If you are going that route the NEXT thing you need to ask is "wil lthis be a 2D or a three D game?"  If you know ntohing about either Java game prgroammign or 3D then I STRONGLY advise doing a 2D game as your first project.  3D is a very compelx areain of istelf., OTOH if youve already done 3D programmign and knwo all about vectros, transforms, view culling etc then you might want to do 3D.

Based on the above I suggest you picka  first project. Tell us what you think you want to do and we'll direct you further.

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

[princec]

Alien Flux source code here. You will also need SPGL from CVS, and LWJGL also from CVS.

It's complicated fiddly stuff but there's a few gems in there.

Cas

[CodexArcanum]

I'm currently working my way through a few books to try and get this stuff down.

I'd reccomend Head First Java, by Kathy Sierra and Burt Bates (published by O'Reilly) as a good book for a total newb.  It's pretty easy to follow and has you build fun example programs.  I highly reccomend it to learn java basics.

Right now, I'm reading David Brackeen's, Developing Games in Java. It's an ok book so far.  He covers a lot of useful concepts, and he seems to know his Java.  I haven't gotten too far into it so far, so I'm not sure how much I can reccomend it.

[Jeff]

One Warning if i may...

Unless you are plannign on building Applets skip any stuff on using AWT or Swing to do games.  Its old info and not the best way anymore.

Other then that, yeah any book that gives you a good intro to how Java wortks is a great start, then we can help point you to the right APIs for various things here.

If yo uare learning Java coding for the first time, once you get the feel of Syntax I'd also recommend strongly Josh Bloch's book "Effective Java".  It will teach you lots of good Java programming habits.  

If you are coming from other languages with different performane characteristics I'd also recommend Steve and my book "Java Platform Performance".  Its getting a bit long in the tooth but most of it is still relevent.  Its actuallyall on-line fi you can stand to read on-line (I'cant) at http://java.sun.com/docs/books/performance

[duncanIdaho]

To add to the good advice above I'll say that I learned a LOT by reading these forums, searching the archives, and picking apart sample code found on the site.

There are many technologies out there and choosing one can be really tough if you want your game to run on many platforms.  I agree with a previous poster that you should start 2D, and that J2SE is a nice place to start using the Java2D APIs.

Finally I'll plug a great book in line with my suggestion:  Vincent J. Hardy's "Java 2D API Graphics" ISBN 0-13-014266-2.  Easy to read with great pictures although it never mentions game programming.

[CodexArcanum]

Hmmm...yeah, this book uses AWT and Swing pretty heavily.

Well, if there's a better method...what is it and where is it?

[Jeff]

Okay, ASSUMING...

(1) Yo uwant to use the built in APIs in j2SE
and either
(2) You want to deploy some reasonable tiem in teh future
OR
(3) You don't care about Mac

Then for 2D you want to use what are called the "Fullscreen" API along with BufferStrategy and VOlatileImages

Together these provide a platform neutral abstraction of video memory and video buffer flipping which are the two  fudnementals of doing 2D games.  

The term "fullscreen" is misleading as actualy the same technique works in either fullscreen or windowed mode with only about 2 lines of different set-up code.

There are a few exampels around. I wrote one called "Scroller" that one of the other guys cleaned up and is posted around here somewhere (on the Wiki I think.)

Good articles to read include:

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/extra/fullscreen/

http://web.archive.org/web/20021102075642/www.java-gaming.org/Documents/Understanding_AWT_Image_Types/understanding_awt_image_types.html


The reason for the Mac warnign is the current Mac VM has a performance bug and really crawls at flipping buffers.  They know about it and its on their list to get fixed...

[n00bie]

I have been reading "Learn to Program with Java" by John Smiley.  Its pretty easy to understand, but only covers the basics.  What should I know about Java before I get into gaming?  

I'm learning about making my own objects, and how client programs use them...basics.  

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

[mezcal]

One Warning if i may...

Unless you are plannign on building Applets skip any stuff on using AWT or Swing to do games.  Its old info and not the best way anymore.

What do AWT and Swing do which aren't done the best ways?  And how else do you do it?  (Which is the same question CodexArcanum had, I guess)

Isn't Fullscreen part of awt?

[Orangy Tang]

What do AWT and Swing do which aren't done the best ways?

Well unless you're very careful and restrictive in what you're doing, most drawing is done on the CPU in software, which is never going to be able to compete with dedicated graphics hardware in terms of speed.

And how else do you do it?  (Which is the same question CodexArcanum had, I guess)

Grab yourself an OpenGL binding (like LWJGL ) and use that instead. Nice, fast, hardware accelerated drawing will all sorts of added extras you normally wouldn't be able to do with regular 2d graphics.

Isn't Fullscreen part of awt?

Dunno whether its tecnically part of AWT or Java2D, but yes its part of the regular java platform. It still seems to be somewhat buggy though from what I've seen. Of course if you use LWJGL you get its own fullscreen methods which tend to be more reliable.

Oh, and if you fancy giving OpenGL a shot, grab yourself a copy of the RedBook

[mezcal]

Ok, well I have been wanting to play with openGL for a while, anyway, so LWJGL sounds good.  

I have a few questions though..  how exactly does an openGL "binding" work?  / What is it doing? / How do I use it?

[Matzon]

I have a few questions though..  how exactly does an openGL "binding" work?  / What is it doing? / How do I use it?

A binding is made up of java classes with native methods, that bind to another api.
For example:
GL11.java in LWJGL declares a method:

1	public static native void glClearColor(float red, float green, float blue, float alpha);

which when loaded will link to the lwjgl.dll and when executed will run this method in the dll:

1   2   3   4

static void JNICALL Java_org_lwjgl_opengl_GL11_glClearColor(JNIEnv * env, jclass clazz, jfloat p0, jfloat p1, jfloat p2, jfloat p3) {       glClearColor((GLfloat) p0, (GLfloat) p1, (GLfloat) p2, (GLfloat) p3);       }