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.

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 Groupís 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.

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.

Beats a trail around the camp fire without ever cooking anything

This appears to have been written by a Java evangelist who loves to talk shop about the ins & outs of Java programming. Unfortunately, this is supposed to be about game programming, and in that regard, I found nothing practical about it. A single chapter on 2D graphics? This book goes into great depth providing the mathematics of 3D collision detection (chapter 16), but doesn’t get any further in the graphics department than drawing a few static (non-animated) Actors (i.e. "sprites").

The focus of this book is off-point from the start, in my opinion. The chapters toward the end on 3D graphics provide insufficient information to build a 3D game, and yet the material up to that point is insufficient to build a 2D game. What you end up with in the end is a lot of knowledge about Java, but not a single practical program, let alone game.

This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the CD includes .java and .class files, but no explanation on what to do with them (the back cover does say this is a Beginning-Intermediate book, not Advanced).

The Java Developer’s Kit comes with much better demos than you will find in this book WITH convenient .html files with code to run the applets, which is something these authors should have included.

Interesting but flawed

Overall I find this a good book. It has interesting discussion and introduction of several topics that interest me. However it is flawed with typos and misstatements (sometimes contradicted in the next sentence). It’s also fairly out of date now (JDK 1.5 comments are somewhat out of date now and JOAL comments are a bit out of date).

Pick it up at a bargain price (under $5) and I do recommend it as a good book on JOAL and several other topics of value for Java programming (not just games).

Also found it disappointing

I also found this book to be disappointing. I would also agree that the author sees it necessary to discuss the techniques involved rather than talk about a technique and then present the code for that technique.
I bought this book on the basis that it was going to be "practical" programming, i.e techniques and code, but all i found was a long winded discussion on the topic. The author does show that he has a great knowledge of java game programming but it is poorly presented to the intermediate java programmer, and not recommendable to beginners.

Do not buy this book if you think your going to be getting involved with code, rather, buy it if you do not know what techniques are used in java game programming, and wish to hear a discussion on those techniques.

A good starting point for game development

Hi. First off, id like to state that I am by no means a professional programmer. I am a high school junior, who is currently working through AP computer science. I picked this book up on a trip as reading material, and it has been very informative. The code samples are extremely well written, and easy for me to follow. My only major critisim is that the printed code samples have several typos in them, but if you look through the code included on the cd, then you’ll have no problems. Overall, I thought it was well worth the $36.00 I paid for it.

Nice intro into the + and - of Java as a game language

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.

First book about Java Games and Game Technologies Projects

I waited long for this book and I’m happy that it focus on the Java Games and Game Technologies Projects, like jogl and joal. The book discusses the new features of jdk1.4 out of the view of a game developer and even mentions the upcoming features of jdk1.5. If you are a member of the net.java.games community you will find many chapters about these projects. The code presented in this book lags of quality in some places and seems to be coded in a hurry, but is still good enough to get the point out of it. I suggest this book to all who want to use the Java Games and Game Technologies Projects!!! If you want to learn how to implement a whole game and game architecture chose another book.

This was a great book!

My personal experience with this book was very different than the previous reviewer. I am a Java programmer who has been looking to get into game programming, but didn’t have a reference to start from. I thought that this book very much lived up to its title. It’s focused on getting the reader in tune with what is possible with Java in the current iteration. It then follows the step by step foundation for getting a game made and running. The book moves from the basic architecture into 2d game programming and then on to more advanced concepts like sound programming, database development and even JNI (Java Native Interface) coverage (though that thought scares me as a Java purist). Before getting the book, I had found very limited documentation on the Java libraries for gaming online and this book showed me the basics of using each one of them in turn. The samples were very good and they provided me a basis from which to build my work. As of now, I have a small, but playable version of a 2D Platformer, built right out of the book.

My only criticism of the book is that it has alot of assumptions when you go to the 3d components. The explanation is very solid, but my personal background in 3D Math was very limited when I started with the book. There is coverage on 3d foundations, but it could take a whole book just to adequetly cover that topic. I continue to practice that as I go.

Overall, a good selection. I would be interested in a sequel to cover more advanced topics.