Hi, all.
I've just gotten a new job and will be focusing a lot more on Java development. I figure I'll do my business stuff (Web) during the day, and then do a bit of playing after hours (Game Dev).
It's been forever since I've been active in any sort of Java game development community; is there a good central source for such information? Source demos, frameworks, books, that sort of thing?
Thanks! IVR Avenger
You could do worse than investigate the Light Weight Java Games Library (LWJGL).
Also JOGL.
Also FengGUI for 2D interfaces in OpenGL (think a themable Quartz 2D Extreme in Java).
Killer Game Programming in Java by Andrew Davison
Some of the content is a few years old (but mostly still relevant) and he just added a new chapter in June, so the site is still active.
I would also take a look at Project Darkstar. The project deals with distributing actions and messages between game client(s) and game server(s), essentially dealing with client-server gaming backend. It also has a good forum for different integrations with different Java frameworks for GUI.
a java game engine;
One thing that I liked about jmonkey is that it had decent resources for getting the project to build using several combinations of tools. I think you'll find the demos are adequate as well.
gamedev.net and devmaster.net are pretty much the two game development resources; language-agnostic, maybe leaning towards the C++ side, but it's all the same thing no matter what language you express it in.
Unfortunately those two sites just don't cut it for me. I would really like to see a GOOD game dev website. Maybe it's just me but it seems like everyone's working on their own thing and there really isn't any good central repository for, like, everything. I love the concept of gamedev.net's articles section, but many are outdated now and don't seem to be kept up. It's a shame, really. Stackoverflow is my best game dev resource right now.
Also check out the questions I've asked in the past, and my favorited questions (if you can see them). I keep a very close eye on tags related to java and/or gamedev here all the time (thus what led me to this question :) ).
Check out the java gaming forums. http://www.javagaming.org/ They are quite active, and seem to have experience developers that probably can point to the latest in javagaming tech.
Also, here are some engines I know of for 3D games.
jpct www.jpct.net small jar file and relatively fast, supports both software and hardware (OpenGL via LWJGL or JOGL) rendering. Not open source, but the developer answers questions promptly. By the way, I'm not the developer of jpct.
Also, jmonkey engine as posted before, very mature engine. There are others like Xith3D, 3DzzD, but I would say jmonkey is the largest right now.
If you're looking into 2D content, I would say check out PulpCore or Slick 2D.
If you're looking at Java Applets, in my opinion, the best overall resource is Pulp Core.
This deals with the common problems you'll face with Applets, in particular with loading. In addition it abstracts you from problems like animation timers, client sound issues. The applets work without any installation other than Java - which for me is a very high requirement.
See the example game and the Bubble Mark score. I'm not affiliated with them in any way but I have delved into the source before!
Don't be put off by Java Applets. They have a bad past but the present is different. Installation is faster, startup more than acceptable, and the environments are no longer so polluted by Microsoft's deliberately bad VM. Java currently has a 75% adoption rate but for gamers you will typically get a much higher percentage (over 95% of new visitors to my gaming site have Java already installed).
Some useful resources that may help you: