Hi, Perusing through some of the information here on Gamedev as well as other places here on the Internet, I have noticed that when developers discuss games in Java, they use applets. Has anyone tried to use a full Java Windowed Application instead of an applet? Swing, AWT, JFC? Also, when using those API''s it is possible to compile the application to a Native executable. Anyone attempt this? Thanks Kevin =) ----------------------------- kevin@mayday-anime.com http://dainteractive.mayday-anime.com

I am currently attempting to write a game using java that is not an applet. As of right now i plan to just have a jar file instead of a native executable. As of right now (hopefully) it looks like it will turn out all right. You can look at the jbuilder4 questions topic to see how i got it

grasshopa55,

I have made a game (albeit a very buggy one) late last year that was a multiplayer networked board/card game, that did not run on an applet.

Unfortunately, we didn''t really allocate ourselves enough time to finish it off.

For "distribution" (it was primarily a Uni project) what we did was the following:
1. Loaded the JRE 1.3 onto the CD.
2. wrote a .bat file to run the .jar file from the jre.
3. Put a pretty interface (along with rules, tutorials, intro movie etc) into a Director presentation, and allowed users to run that to run the game.

The major issue I found with using Swing as a application developer, is that it is takes FOREVER to load up complex screens.

While it is so much easier to develop with than AWT, (except for a JTextArea inside a JScrollPane.. that one is a weird one..and done on purpose too.) The overhead is much smaller for AWT than it is for Swing.

Which is one of the reasons applets are a useful way to develop games, as they can be quickly and easily ported to the web, and they are a cheap way to display images on screen.

Thats all I can think of right now, but I hope that it aids in your thinking

Mark

----
www.emanatemultimedia.com
----

Don''t forget that it is possible to write your game so that it can work as an applet (great for demoing) and as an application.

I''ve done that with several projects. e.g. for a racing game I had an applet that only let you race on one track, without other players, and the application version allowed you to race on lots of different tracks, against people over a LAN.

John