JavaGaming.org app idea

General Discussions
#1

This is a double post, from the LWJGL forum.

But I was wondering, now that applets are dead, is it possible to setup a java app that can load an LWJGL application with security restrictions. I was thinking this even as a general Java-gaming.org app for showcase/competition purposes (possibly open a ‘.jgo’ text file to locate online resources, package version…). Just a basic application that takes the arguments of another applications main class and includes LWJGL in its class path (or other standardised java packages JME…), but with general security restrictions (except on LWJGL packages) to prevent harm to testers.

I understand JNLP’s are an option, but accepting security certificates is still a bit of a concern. On the current version of MACOSX, unrecognised certificates get rejected automatically.

I figure it became a general java-gaming standard to game testing with security, it might take off. A sort of Java Steam for testers.

At the very least an app like this would work well for a gaming competition for people to test applications without fear of harm.

I was just wondering if this would even be possible. Before I look to heavily in to Java security, just wondered if this might lead to a dead end?

#2

The Java distribution landscape has changed alot and there is no guarantee anymore that computers even have a system JVM installed (let alone applet or java web start support).

Therefore the way to distribute java applications is to bundle it with your own jvm. In which case jvm sandboxing makes little sense (on top of the sandboxing most OS’s have for local applications).

Its better to spend time looking at some of the web brower tech’s that allow you to run Java applications in the browser (GWT, WebGL, Asm.js, EMScripten, TeaVM, etc) for app’s which require sandboxing and need to be mass distributed like applets.

#3

It is quite an effort for little gain, in my opinion. To get anywhere these days, we need standalone applications or android apps.

If anybody else would do it, just forget about sandboxing - Sun/Oracle couldn’t get it right, who are we to think we can, it’s complex stuff. Just prompt the user ‘You are about to launch this awesome game. [ play ] [ quit ]’ and if the user dared to click [ play ], launch the app in a separate process, with the same privileges the parent app had. In the end any Steam app can be mallicious too, or just buggy to the point where it destroys your OS - we just don’t even give it a second thought.