What This Book Is About

This book describes modern (i.e., fast and efficient) Java programming techniques for writing a broad range of games, including 2D arcade-style, isometric (2.5D), 3D, and network games, with a strong emphasis on 3D programming using Java 3D.

The 3D topics include loading externally produced 3D models, 3D sprites, first person shooters (FPS), terrain generation, particle systems and flocking, and different approaches to animation.

Several chapters on network games build to an example where users move sprites around a networked 3D arena.

I focus on J2SE 1.4.2, J2SE 5.0 and Java 3D 1.3.1. Under the hood, Java 3D utilizes OpenGL or Direct3D, which means that it'll work on all current versions of Windows, various flavors of Linux and Unix, and the Mac. Java 3D requires no special graphics hardware and is compatible with all modern graphics cards.

J2SE 5.0 (or 1.4.2) and Java 3D 1.3.1 can be downloaded from http://www.java.com:80/en/download/manual.jsp and http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/3D/.

Which Software Versions?

My Java code is designed to compile and run in J2SE 5.0 and J2SE 1.4, which means that I avoid using new language features and API introduced in J2SE 5.0. The main reason is to allow my code to be backward compatible with older (and still popular) Java versions. The main areas where I lose out are in the availability of type-safe collections and the nanosecond time method, System.nanoTime( ), introduced in J2SE 5.0.

However, my code uses the J2SE 1.4 collections in type-safe ways, and I utilize the Java 3D nanosecond timer instead of nanoTime( ) to achieve the same timing accuracy. In Chapter 2, I discuss these issues in more detail.

I use Java 3D 1.3.1. although there is a bug release version, 1.3.2, which is regularly updated. I decided to employ Version 1.3.1 since it's stable and well-documented. In Chapter 14, I talk about Java 3D in more detail.