Getting started with cellphone games
Author
I have a decent amount of programming experience but have never done anything with cell phones and was wondering if anyone could recommend some resources to get started.
First of all, can anyone recommend a good book on J2ME game programming for someone with a decent grounding in C/C++ and some Java experience (took a couple of courses in college but am a bit rusty now)?
Secondly, will a regular Java compiler work for creating cell phone apps and, if not, could someone recommend one? I do most of my programming work in Linux so something that runs in that OS would be preferred. IDE recommendations would also be appreciated.
Along the same lines as the previous item, will a regular JVM run J2ME apps and, if not, could someone recommend a simulator that I could use to test my programs before loading them on to a cell phone? Again, something that runs in Linux would be preferred.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
A good book is, believe it or not, J2ME Game Programming. It's pretty good, and it comes with all the stuff you need (ie. compiler, phone emulator, etc).
AFAIK, I think you need a specific compiler, but SUN (and the major phone companies like nokia) provides one, and it comes with an emulator, so no worries there.
Hope that helps
AFAIK, I think you need a specific compiler, but SUN (and the major phone companies like nokia) provides one, and it comes with an emulator, so no worries there.
Hope that helps
Author
Thanks. I did a search on Chapters (big Canadian bookstore) for that title and found this. Is that the book that you were referring to?
That's the book. There's also an online book, and you might want to check the sticky thread about content for the FAQ.
The compiler is the same as the one for J2SE, you just need to specify the MIDP libraries as your bootclasspath. Some SDKs have problems with Java 1.5 so you might want to get the 1.4.2 Java Development Kit. And MIDP classes need to also be preverified (Java classes are verified at runtime, this makes the process more resource friendly). (all of this is handled by the SDKs usually). Sun's emulator is the WTK, and most manufacturers will have their own kits.
shmoove
The compiler is the same as the one for J2SE, you just need to specify the MIDP libraries as your bootclasspath. Some SDKs have problems with Java 1.5 so you might want to get the 1.4.2 Java Development Kit. And MIDP classes need to also be preverified (Java classes are verified at runtime, this makes the process more resource friendly). (all of this is handled by the SDKs usually). Sun's emulator is the WTK, and most manufacturers will have their own kits.
shmoove
NetBeans is a very nice API (if a bit sluggish) that is offered when you download Sun's J2SE - there's an accompanying J2ME Netbeans download that you also need. NetBeans gives you very nice control over projects, versioning, compiler configuration and debugging (I'm surpised more people aren't using it). it also syntax checks your source as you type it and has context sensitive help for the MIDP API (which you'll use a lot)
I picked up Kroll&Haustein J2ME Application Development from Amazon for about $8 shipped. it's a bit lacking in detail, but coupled with the API help, will definitely get you started. also check out www.J2ME.org - lots of links to tutorials and an online book.
I picked up Kroll&Haustein J2ME Application Development from Amazon for about $8 shipped. it's a bit lacking in detail, but coupled with the API help, will definitely get you started. also check out www.J2ME.org - lots of links to tutorials and an online book.
hi friends, I'm a newbie in cellphones & PDA games, but I've solid foundations in desktop developing, as I've traced your texts, the path to 3d developing for cell phones is long and time-consuming, but is there anything like a 3d engine available there for cells? here we have a vast range of OSes, so supporting each one should be a huge problem, for instance I've just bough a Nokia 6630 & I found no games in this expensive cell phones, but I'd heard new phones are released with a bunch of games, indeed I suppose cell phones lack the 3d inspiration, what's the problem with them? do you think developing a game like Doom III for PCs is more difficult than developing a small 3d game for a cell phone?
Quote:Original post by vcGamer
hi friends, I'm a newbie in cellphones & PDA games, but I've solid foundations in desktop developing, as I've traced your texts, the path to 3d developing for cell phones is long and time-consuming, but is there anything like a 3d engine available there for cells? here we have a vast range of OSes, so supporting each one should be a huge problem, for instance I've just bough a Nokia 6630 & I found no games in this expensive cell phones, but I'd heard new phones are released with a bunch of games, indeed I suppose cell phones lack the 3d inspiration, what's the problem with them? do you think developing a game like Doom III for PCs is more difficult than developing a small 3d game for a cell phone?
There are a few 3D games for them out there.
The newest of the PDAs, (specifically those with Intel XScale PXA2xx chipset) have 3D hardware support, and it's easiest to use OpenGL ES with them.
Some of the newer Nokia phones support 3D with M3G. [google]
Most cell phones don't have the CPU power or memory available for that sort of thing. There are a few all-software 3D libraries out there, but the ones I'm aware of all cost a significant amount of money. (I seem to remember around $1000 per developer.)
frob.
My Company Gameloft wrote our own 3D engine however it only runs on Verizon V-Cast phones through Brew. I can't tell you much more then that, but you can check them out. The 3D Titled ones are: Ghost Recon Jungle Storm, Asphalt Urban GT, and Extreme Snow boarding.
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