Java Is Too High-level | Killer Game Programming in Java

This complaint is the age-old one of abstraction versus speed and control. The details of the argument often include the following statements:

Java's use of classes, objects, and inheritance add too much overhead without enough coding benefit.
Java's machine independence means that low-level, fast operations, e.g., direct Video RAM I/O are impossible.

Statement 1 ignores the obvious benefits of reusing and extending Java's large class library, which includes high-speed I/O, advanced 2D and 3D graphics, and many networking techniques, from lowly sockets to distributed agents. Also forgotten are the advantages of object-oriented design, typified by UML, which makes complex, large, real-world systems more manageable during development, implementation, and maintenance.

Statement 2 impacts gaming when we consider high-speed graphics, but it's been addressed in recent versions of Java. J2SE 1.4 introduced a full-screen exclusive mode (FSEM), which suspends the normal windowing environment and allows an application to access the underlying graphics hardware more directly. It permits techniques, e.g., page flipping, and provides control over the screen's resolution and image depth. The principal aim of FSEM is to speed up graphics-intensive applications, such as games.

Statement 2 comes into play for game peripherals, e.g., joysticks and game pads; machine independence seems to suggest that nonstandard I/O devices won't be useable. Java games requiring these types of devices can utilize the Java Native Interface (JNI) to link to C or C++ and, therefore, to the hardware. There's also JInput, a new game controller API.

An interesting historical observation is that the gaming community used to think that C and C++ were too high-level for fast, efficient games programming when compared to assembly language. Opinions started to change only after the obvious success of games written in C, such as Doom and Dungeon Master, in the mid-1980s. Also important was the appearance of cross-platform development tools that supported C, such as RenderWare.