A couple of questions about Java

Java 2D
#1

Hey guys, I have 3 questions that have been bugging me for a while during the design of a 2d game in java.

Question 1 - Translucent Images

I notice that java does not have hardware accelerated translucent images and thus they are extremely slow to render, does this apply to simple shapes as well or what?
If so, does this mean that ANY transparent images onscreen will significantly slow down the game? An RPG with nice translucent effects would then be out of the question in java, or am i wrong?

Question 2 - Transformed Images
I was considering a 2d top-down shooter that would include rotating the world but after some preliminary tests it seemed too slow and not feasible because AffineTransforming an image was taking a lot of time and resources. (I am almost 100% sure that nothing else was causing the speed issue). What I don’t understand is how something like that can cause a slowdown yet a 3d engine (which manipulates textures in every frame) can run smoothly.

Question 3 - TileMap / Game Design
When designing a game that uses a tilemap of images, how exactly would you allow it to support more than one screen resolution? (Assuming you want the view to be the same for every resolution) My thinking is having a ‘native’ resolution (1024 768) and then scaling everything based on the difference between the native screen resolution and the actual resolution. So if it was to run in 800 600 then ye scale the image by 800/1024 x and 600/768 y.
Is that how it is generally done or what?

Anyway, sorry if some of this is unclear but I would appreciate any help with any of these questions. Thanks very much :slight_smile:

#2

If you want translucent stuff use some opengl binding.

If you want lots of rotations etc use some opengl binding.

And tilemaps… generally those games don’t support different resolutions. If you really want to scale around use some opengl binding.

#3

If you run opengl pipelines transluecent images will not slow the game much. I use transparent .png images, and i have a tilemap (and haxagon) program that supports any resolutions you want, so if you wanna talk…

#4

Thanks for the replies! Wow, I’m surprised that in none of the articles I read about java translucent images etc. that “opengl bindings” were never mentioned. Thanks for the help, I’ll do some googling now but if you happen to know a very good source of information on the subject I would appreciate it.

Also, I take it that using an opengl pipeline without translucent images would speed up normal rendering?

About the tilemaps resolution, Dark, is the method of scaling each image and all necessary dimension down the way I mentioned what you did? if not I’de be interested to hear you’re approach.

Thanks

#5

OpenGL:
LWJGL
JOGL

2D game libs/enablers:
Slick
GAGE
GTGE
Easy Way

3D Scene Graphs:
jMonkey Engine
Xith3D
Java3D

#6

I did incorporate a numerical zoom in / zoom out function on both my tile and hex map programs. They work well, and they only draw the tiles they need. So yes, i did an afflineline transform in the tile draw methods. I also draw coordinates and grids both both programs. If you need, i could upload my tilemap and hexmap program for you to download, yet i dont have many comments so it may look strange, and i never said they way i handled multiple maps was good coding style either lol. i could most easily upload them both in .jars and you can extract their resources from a zipping program.