Java Gaming Dev Platform

[johng]

Hi all,

Considering buying new laptop.  Being a style-over-content kinda guy I'm drawn to the (low-end) Apple iBook.  

Any known (and limiting) issues regarding Java (particularly game) dev on these?

Thanks for your time,

John G

[swpalmer]

The Java VM releases tendto lag Sun's a bit.. There is no JAva 1.5 preview that is publicly available for the Mac yet for instance.   AWT graphics in Java 1.4.2 can be a little slow - depending on a few factors.  (They have made some improvements there.)  but if you are using JOGL then you are all set.

The Mac has Java 1.4 built-in with Web Start.  The OS is slick, I believe it was Jame Gosling that said that Mac OS X is linke Linux with Style and QA.  You get a solid BSD Unix core OS, with a UI that is a zillion times better than anythign I've seen on X windows or Windows.

I'm not sure what sort of graphics chips they are putting in the iBooks these days.  You might get more if you go for a Powerbook.
You can compare the hardware details on the Apple website of course.

Eclipse runs fine on OS X, (was slow -  still might be a bit slower than on Windows, but they have improved the speed so it very usable).

Java 1.5 should be a big deal for Mac, with the OpenGL rendering pipeline and OS X using openGL for the core graphics engine of the desktop (Apple calls its use of OpenGL for the UI Quartz Extreme).

There are currently some issues with LWJGL.  There are a few people looking into that.  But Alien Flux does run fine on Mac, it just doesn't play nice with AWT on Mac.

[kevglass]

The Java2D performance isn't just a bit slow, its actually non-accelerated altogether. Its the only factor thats stopped me buying a powerbook for the last 6 months.

Although looks like waiting might have been the right option anyway, G5 time.

Kev

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

[johng]

Thanks guys

[ribot]

Just the screen size really:

I just upgraded from a 12inch iBook I bought last November to a maxed out 17inch powerbook.  I seriously think this is the best choice I could have ever made and won't be ever able to switch back to a small screen laptop (however much I like the cute little ibook).

[dtjavanet]

I am going to make a laptop purchase soon. I wish to do java gaming development on it, what brand and spec of laptop would anyone suggest.

Price Range £1000 to £2000

Spec Below

1. Either an Athlon or Intel Centrino
2. 15 inch screen.
3. 512MB Ram (?1024MB)
4. 40GB Hard Drive

Thanks and Regards

dtjavanet

[swpalmer]

Just thought I would add to this thread that Java 1.5 (5.0) will be available for OS X 10.4 (also named Tiger),  It was shown to a degree at the Apple developer's conference.  And of course it will have the hardware accelerated OpenGL pipeline for Graphics2D.

Oh, and my choice for a laptop - a Powerbook.  (Sorry, I have seen the light, no more wintel crap for me .)

http://www.apple.com/powerbook/
http://store.apple.com/

Whatever you choose, go for 1GB RAM.