Java Game Programming, any future - Essay Example

The main feature of Java is that it is a platform independent language. The program can be written only once in Java and can be compiled in any operating system. To be simple it is write once, run anywhere. It is an object oriented, multithreaded programming language. (King 2000 ). Although a lot has been said about its exponential advancement rates, Java still remains to be a secondary language in field of game development. Legacy languages like C and C++ still remains to be the most preferred language for game developers.

This is said in accordance with only considering desktop and playstation games, since they are the major players in the gaming industry. But, most of the mobile games that are used today are being developed in Java. One can find a number of games in the internet that are built using Java Applets. It can be used in developing interactive games in web as well as mobile phones. So this creates a conundrum of thoughts. The following research deals with this conundrum and aims to explain as to why Java is still not yet as successful as its predecessors and tries to list out the demerits that disable it from attaining that status.

It also aims at explaining the future of Java in game development, which certainly looks promising provided, its disadvantages are overcome. . (Marner, 2002) A game can be defined as software with the sole pur. (Marner, 2002) Games can be categorized based on the environment in which they run. They are basically classified into computer based, console based, web based and mobile based games. Current scenario in the market shows that Windows PC dominates the computer based category and Sony does the same in console categories.

Since these two fields dominate the gaming world, the entire discussion is done considering only the above two technologies.(Mencher et al, 2004)Java - the languageBefore identifying the tools and technologies used with Java language, it is necessary to know few basic things about the language itself. First of all, it is based on Object Oriented Programming Concepts, commonly known as OOPS concepts. It involves higher abstraction level then C++ and provides more user flexibility. But still, it is far easier than C++ to learn.

The important difference between these two languages is that in Java, there are no pointers and hence the learning and understanding is easier in Java. Basically, it consists of a Java platform, made up of two components; Java Virtual Machine and Java libraries. This platform instructs on how the Java program is run irrespective of the Operating System (OS) in which it is installed. The performance related issues that generally arise is due to the virtual machine. But with vast improvement in Java execution, several technologies have been developed which can be used in hand with the virtual environment.

These include the HotSpot, Just-In-Time compilers and other embedded technologies. . (Marner, 2002) The current platform edition is Java SE 6 which has enhanced the user interface of application