Sun Microsystems Isn't Interested in Supporting Java Gaming

Sun Microsystems Isn't Interested in Supporting Java Gaming The games market isn't a traditional one for Sun, and it'll probably never have the depth of knowledge of a Sony or Nintendo. However, the last few years have demonstrated Sun's increasing commitment to gaming. J2SE has strengthened its games support through successive versions: Version 1.3 improved its graphics and audio capabilities, and Version 1.4 introduced full-screen mode and page flipping in hardware. Faster I/O, memory mapping, and support for nonblock sockets, which is especially useful in client/server multiplayer games, also appeared first in 1.4. Version 5.0 has a decent nanosecond timer at last. Java extension libraries, such as Java 3D, the Java Media Framework (JMF), the Java Communications API, Jini, and JAXP (Java's peer-to-peer API) offer something to games programmers. Sun started showing an interest in gaming back in 2001, with its announcement of the Java Game Profile, a collaboration with several other companies, including Sega and Sony, to develop a Java gaming API. The profile was perhaps too ambitious, and was abandoned at the end of 2003. However, it did produce three game-focused technologies: a Java binding for OpenGL called JOGL, a binding for OpenAL (a 3D audio library) called JOAL, and JInput. Part of the 2001 initiative was the creation of the JavaGaming.org web site (http://www.javagaming.org), initially manned by volunteers. In 2003, the Game Technology Group was formed, and JavaGaming.org received a substantial makeover as part of the creation of the new java.net portal (http://www.java.net) aimed at the technical promotion of Java. Java.net hosts many discussion forums, user groups, projects, communities, and news. The communities include: Java Desktop, Java Education and Learning, Java Enterprise, and Java Games. The Java Games community pages can be accessed through http://www.javagaming.org or http://community.java.net/games/. The site includes Java games forums, projects, news, weblogs, a wiki (http://wiki.java.net/bin/view/Games/WebHome), and links to games affiliates. Numerous Java game forums can be accessed from http://www.javagaming.org/cgi-bin/JGNetForums/YaBB.cgi. These are probably the best sources of technical advice on Java gaming on the Web, with over 4,500 opinionated registered users. Discussion topics include Java 3D, Java 2D, Java Sound, J2ME, networking, online games development, performance tuning, JOGL, JOAL, and JInput. There are also sections on projects and code examples. The project sections (https://games.dev.java.net/) mostly concentrate on JOGL, JOAL, and JInput, but the games middleware and games forge sections are wider ranging. The games forge projects include Chinese chess, jbantumi (a strategic game from Africa), and an online fantasy football management system. The most relevant Java user group for gaming is GameJUG (https://gamejug.dev.java.net/). Its sections include online and downloadable Java games, presentations and articles, lists of Java game programming web sites, and a collaborative web page and mailing list for teachers of Java game programming. I'm a former GameJUG president, a role that sounds grander than it really was. The real work was done by David Wallace Croft and James Richards. Sun's substantial presence at http://community.java.net/games/ is mostly as a host for community forums and open source projects (or projects with licenses very close to open source). The projects include JOGL, JOAL, JInput, and Java 3D. Sun is relying on community involvement to move these projects forward, since the Game Technology Group is quite small. One in-house product is a server architecture for massively multiplayer online games, the Sun Game Server, first demoed at the Game Developers Conference in 2004. This focus isn't surprising since Sun makes its money from selling server hardware. Online multiplayer gaming is a potential growth area for its servers.