Hi, I'm trying to work on a topdown tile-based multiplayer RPG (not a MMO though, separated 'rooms'), but I pretty much died at language selection.
I tried using C++ w/ SFML but it felt like doing too much to accomplish little. Then I tried C#/XNA, but since I'm on Linux, it didn't really work out since MonoGame feels more like a tool for porting games made in actual Visual Studio XNA. So now I was considering the middle way, Java. But my experience with Java in terms of games (from a few years ago) is that it's slow, bloaty, crash-prone and doesn't run on a lot of computers natively.
So my questions:
1, Is Java today comparable to SFML / XNA?
2, How is the speed of development and user-accesibility compared to the latter?
Thank you!
How viable is Java for GameDev?
It is possible to create Games with Java, the best example would be Minecraft.
In order to create games with Java you need to use OpenGL which should Run on every common OS.
You could use the http://www.lwjgl.org/ Library which provides easy access to OpenGL functions with Java.
Minecraft is also build on this Library.
A disadvantage is that it is much harder to create a game with lwjgl compared to XNA. I think XNA gives you faster results.
If you dont want to get mad with low level stuff you can also use the jMonkeyEngine http://jmonkeyengine.com/ which is written in Java using OpenGL.
Best Regards
Olaf
In order to create games with Java you need to use OpenGL which should Run on every common OS.
You could use the http://www.lwjgl.org/ Library which provides easy access to OpenGL functions with Java.
Minecraft is also build on this Library.
A disadvantage is that it is much harder to create a game with lwjgl compared to XNA. I think XNA gives you faster results.
If you dont want to get mad with low level stuff you can also use the jMonkeyEngine http://jmonkeyengine.com/ which is written in Java using OpenGL.
Best Regards
Olaf
1. Java being a language isn't comparable to game libraries/frameworks but java libraries probably are. Like for example lwjgl.
2. Download Eclipse or Netbeans and see how advanced the tools are. I found them to be pretty awesome ;).
2. Download Eclipse or Netbeans and see how advanced the tools are. I found them to be pretty awesome ;).
Well if you know C++ (assuming that you're not learning C++ while trying to make a game), then why not try C++, SDL, and Lazy Foo's tutorials. Then go back to SFML. With that said, Java is as viable and robust and C#. Their game dev libraries pretty much the same.
I see. How is Slick2D?
I've been dabbling with lwjgl and slick2d lately. For lwjgl it' basically the same thing as writing opengl code for C++. Slick2D is written on top of lwjgl and provides a nice way to create 2D games. From what I can tell Slick2D is a pretty damn good library. Another library you might want to look into is TWL for creating some GUI elements.
http://www.gamefromscratch.com/post/2011/08/04/I-want-to-be-a-game-developer.aspx << This sound really be a link that's stickied. Great link about the pros and cons and great tools for each language including Java.
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