LWJGL,Slick,AWT,J3D Which is the best???

General Discussions
#1

Begin Java developers i think we’re very lucky in the fact that we are given a lot of different graphics packages to work with, and it’s awesome that they don’t require pages and pages of complex code like C/C++ would, but I’ve been wondering which one is actually better to use?

I suppose a start would be to say it depends on what kind of game your writing, I suppose if your writing a 2D game J3D is going to be your last option, but when it comes down to AWT or Slick2D, which one is more efficient?

The same can be said for 3D. I know that generally OpenGL is the accepted library for testing, but under what circumstances do you think J3D would be a better option than OpenGL, or AWT a better option than Slick2D

Quick note: If this should be in ‘Newbie and Debugging Questions’ then feel free to move the post, it’s just that i felt it more of a discussion topic

#2

Slick2D will have a much more stable performance than AWT/Swing (especially on Linux). This is mainly because Slick is hardware accelerated with LWJGL/OpenGL. AWT/Swing is hardware accelerated, but it is very hard to predict what will be accelerated and on which systems. If you are looking to use a 2D library I would recommend libGDX or Slick. libGDX is a more portable(linux, windos, mac, web, andriod, and iOS) and powerful, but I found that Slick2D to have an easier to learn api. For 3D I would say dont use J3D. Again I would recommend libGDX for 3D, but for a full 3D game engine you cannot beat jmonkeyengine. libGDX has better portability, but jmonkeyengine is a full engine and comes with a full feature editor(based on netbeans).

libGDX: http://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/
LWJGL: http://www.lwjgl.org/
jmonkeyengine: http://jmonkeyengine.com/

#3

Hi

JogAmp (JOGL, JOAL, JOCL, …) might be interesting for you as a set of low level bindings. I ported Java3D to JOGL 2.0 but I would rather advise you to use Ardor3D or JMonkeyEngine. There are only a very few people able to help you on Java3D because this project has been revived only very recently. JOGL 2.0 has its own Java2D implementation as an external project (GLG2D), GTGE contains something a bit similar for LWJGL.

I’m not sure Java3D is really interesting for games, I’m really sad to write that. You can use it, there are a few examples of games written with it but if I were you, I would use it only if your boss doesn’t let you the choice.

#4

Here is a short breakdown of some popular libraries:

Java2D/JavaSound is a poor choice for game development. It’s slow, unreliable, unnecessarily complex, does not include any game-specific features (sprite sheets, tile map loading, camera utilities, UIs, etc), requires a lot of boilerplate code (e.g. game loop), and has a horrible sound API.

Slick2D used to be a good alternative to Java2D but it’s no longer actively maintained. There are a lot of crippling bugs in the API that may never get fixed, but for general purposes it’s stable enough and has enough of a community/wiki surrounding it to develop some small games. The API is relatively easy to learn and abstracts many OpenGL concepts such as frame buffers, textures, matrices, etc.

LibGDX is the best choice for 2D games, albeit with a slightly steeper learning curve. Since it ports to HTML5, Android and iOS, it’s also an excellent choice for 3D games. However, the 3D API is not as fully developed as some other libraries. I personally would recommend LibGDX if you want to make 2D games.

Java3D is crap; best to just ignore it.

JMonkeyEngine is a great choice if you are specifically looking to make a 3D game. It has a lot of features and tools to boot.

Ardor3D is a less mature library than jME (and thus doesn’t have all the same goodies) but it’s very well designed. Many seem to prefer the API.

LWJGL is a simple OpenGL wrapper which you shouldn’t need to use unless you plan to write your own engine from scratch. Even then, it would probably be better to just use LibGDX as your OpenGL wrapper in able to target Android/HTML5/iOS.

JOGL is another OpenGL wrapper which is less popular for Java game dev than LWJGL. However, its flexible window system, font rendering, and integration with Swing seems to make it a better candidate for applications that require hardware accelerated graphics. Ultimately it is not very different from LWJGL.

#5

I’ve not done any 2D stuff for ages, so I’ll let others advise on that. For 3D, unless you want to learn about 3D engine design, ignore LWJGL, jogl and libgdx. These are all lower level that is useful for getting stuff done. You should be looking at Ardor3D or JMonkeyEngine, JMonkeyEngine provides more of the game engine as well as 3D, I’ve not used it for a number of years so can’t comment on those extra features, the designer etc is also based on netbeans. Ardor3D has a nicer API (my personal opinion, it’s subjective, so each to their own).

Endolf

#6

…there’s also, suffering from the usual ignorance, jPCT (available for Java, Android and BlackBerry): http://www.jpct.net / http://www.jpct.net/jpct-ae

#7

You need to start p1mping that lib more Egon! More bloggage, more articles, more adverts!

Cas :slight_smile:

#8

For example, start use twitter :slight_smile:

#9

the latest demo videos for JPCT-ae look awesome. what phone are you running those on?

#10

My good old Nexus S. It runs around 60% faster on my Nexus 7 tab, but i haven’t made a video using that device yet.

#11

Just use LWJGL (Even though I haven’t used any of the others ;D)