Practical Java Game Programming
(Game Development Series) by Syrus
Mesdaghi
Nice Intro Into The + And - Of Java As A Game Language
Java™ is gaining more and more acceptance in the game development
community, and with good commercial-quality Java games on the market,
it will become a definitive choice. Practical Java Game Programming
identifies the technological path developers need to take to make this
happen. It explores and illustrates cutting-edge Java game programming
concepts and techniques through specific explanations from existing Java
game projects, with fully executable example code. Intended for both Java
programmers new to game development, and for game programmers
interested in Java, the book offers usage patterns that leverage Java’s
strengths and points out weaknesses to avoid. It teaches Java
programmers how to deliver outstanding games and details the specific
issues in Java to make game development straightforward and efficient.
Java has always provided a powerful platform on which to develop

interactive content, and with the addition of the Java Technology Group’s
gaming APIs, Java becomes a third-party platform choice and delivery
model for game developers. Each chapter includes working code
examples that can stand alone for easy implementation into one’s own
projects, or be used toward the creation of a fully functional demo game.
This allows beginning programmers to follow the topics step-by-step, and
more experienced programmers to use specific areas of interest. Although
this book is centered on Java and the platform technologies, its message
is for developers to maintain a wide view regarding new technologies, as
well as to keep creative ingenuity intact while implementing games on the
Java platform. Highlights
* Provides a complete guide to Java game development for Java
programmers new to game development
* Focuses on Java specific topics such as performance issues and the
virtual machine, garbage collection, Just-in-Time (JIT) compiler, native
timers, and Java as a scripting language
* Covers 3D game development issues including the new Java bindings for
OpenGL (JOGL), using JOGL to make a 3D Render Engine, and Collision
Detection and Response
* Includes a chapter on Local Area Networks for Java Games by Jeff
Kesselman, the Sun Game Server Architect, and Game dbases and JDBC
by Sun Certified Java 2 Programmer, Will Bracken
* Explains genre specific issues for sports, puzzle, racing, strategy, action/
adventure, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games
* Provides up-to-date information on J2SDK 1.5 in the book and on the
companion site On The CD-ROM
* FIGURES: all the figures from the book by chapter
* CODE: examples, libraries, and materials from each chapter
* SUN® J2SDK: the latest version of the Sun J2SDK 1.4.2_04 as well as
Java3D™ and JOGL for Linux, Mac OSX and Win32 SYSTEM
REQUIREMENTS:
Windows 2000 or better, Linux or Mac OSX; Pentium 1Ghz or better,
100MB free hard drive space. For 3D graphics examples, OpenGL 1.2
accelerated video support is required. For some 3D graphics examples full
OpenGL 1.4 support is required.
Personal Review: Practical Java Game Programming (Game
Development Series) by Syrus Mesdaghi

Be careful of your expectations here. This is NOT a 'how to' book with
100+s pages of code samples. This is not a book in the 'java cookbook'
series.
What this IS is a book that describes the +/- of the java language and the
JVM and talks about PERFORMANCE issues extensively. The author
goes out of his way to talk about the issues surrounding the use of Hotspot
VM/JIT and benchmarks with math/IO, etc.
The last 1/2 of the book (maybe less) deals with some high-level
understanding of rendering and collision detection.
Topics include bindings to OpenGL (jogl), JNI (it's cost vs. benefits in it's
use), performance of java.math and where it can be optimized, some
simple treatment of sockets vs. datagram/multicast sockets, audio
integration, proper use and performance with direct bytebuffers vs. java
arrays (java.io/java.nio), also a little on GC collection algorithms. Also a
treatment of java's +/- as a scripting language, as well as a good look at
rendering and collisions.
Overall a very interesting techical look at the VM and performance
challenges that java as a GAME language faces.
The author makes it clear that good java games can be written but good
PERFORMANCE games takes an understanding of the JVM and proper
code architecture that takes into account java's strengths (as oppsed to it's
weaknesses).
I would recommend this a a great starting point for someone interested in
making good java games or just learning about java performance issues. If
you want a 'cookbook' you'll need to look elsewhere.
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