Performance is your primary concern in game programming. Remember, your big game in the future will need the ultra-high performance as possible, so as even the market suggests, C++ is the way to go. Java/C# make excellent web games, retro games, fantastic toolmaker languages, etc., so know where your audience is, then take the appropriate calls.

Quote:Original post by Anonymous Poster
your big game in the future will need the ultra-high performance as possible

Erm, what kind of a game is the OP actually going to program? A MMORPG? :)

I use both languages professionally and I have to recommend that you learn both :)

Java is easier to learn than C++, so that's a good place to start. If you know java, it's not hard at all to switch to C++ since the syntax is basically the same anyway.

Java (j2me) is the standard language when making games for mobile phones, which is a booming market ... right now it's slow as hell, but that has more to do with the phones and how they implement java, than the language itself.

And ... the biggest hurdle when you're making 3D-games is not actually learning a programming language, it's mastering the math needed.

JAVA and C++ are both good, as for preformance I've seen both JAVA and C++ programs running at equal perfromance, depends on exactly what you are doing. JAVA is faster at some things, C++ for others. Don't let people arguning the perfromance band wagon convince you that either JAVA or C++ are bad languages, they are both good for making games, commercial or otherwise. I've seen good games written in JAVA and crap ones in C++. As the others said use which you are most familiar with, you can always port later if performance is such a big issue. Well written code is far more important than performance, optimisation should *always* be the last thing you do.

If you want to see some commercial games written in JAVA check out most cell phone games :). Also you should look into LWJGL. There are many non cell phone games written with this if you look on the projects page.

I have experience in both C++ and Java, and definitively go for C++.
C++ will always be faster and smaller than Java, simply because a Java program will run inside a Java Virtual Machine which is written in ... C++.

Quote:Original post by derekpainter1
after much googling, ive found that c++ is the correct choicce, and java just for smaller games.

No, there isn't a "correct" choice. May beginners assume that C++ is the best choice, because it's widely used. In reality, the only "correct" choice is to use a langauge that:
A: Has support for the features and libraries you need, and
B: you feel comfortable using. If you have experience with C++, but have never used Java, well, I'd suggest using C++.
If you've been using Java for the last 8 years, and love the language? Use that!

Quote:
C++ will always be faster and smaller than Java, simply because a Java program will run inside a Java Virtual Machine which is written in ... C++.

Er, so? A C++ compiler is typically written in... C/C++ as well. What does that prove?
Misinformation overload!

A Java program will *typically* be a bit slower than a C++ program, but it doesn't have to be.
Java is JIT compiled, which in theory allows for *more* efficient code than C++. But as always, it depends on your code, on whatr exactly you need, which compiler you use and so on and so on. But C++ is not "faster" tha Java. Your C++ program, using a specific compiler at specific settings might be faster than your Java program using another specific compiler with specific settings, that's true. And it will often be the case. But that does not mean the lagauge C++ is in itself "faster".

Quote:
C++ is better choice because java introduces more new limitations than actual features, and it's few good features you can implement in C++ too.

Except many of the "limitations" are merely limitations in how many bugs the compiler will fail to detect. Limiting that is a *good* thing. Yes, you *could* implement all the same features in C++ as well, but it'd be much more error-prone, because *you'd be implementing it all yourself, rather than relying on a widely used framework that has been tested to death*. What's more, you could write your entire game in Java in the time it'd take to implement these few features in C++.

I'm not a big fan of Java, but it's ridiculous to say that C++ is a "better" language because you *could* implement other langauges features using it. You could do the opposite as well.
Java has plenty of shortcomings. Stick to using those if you want to criticise the language.