Netbook - a low cost gaming platform?

Business and Project Management Discussions
#1

Hello all

The netbooks market is growing quite fast and will probably grow throughout 2009 despite the recession. I’m aware, that these devices are not meant to be gaming platforms, however, nVidia has recently announced, that it will move into the netbooks space with their GeForce 9400M chip. So there will be enough GPU power on those things to run simple 3D games. No hard-core gamer will ever even think about playing a game on a netbook, but casual gamers might be interested. Quite a lot of netbooks run some sort of Linux (of course the majority runs Windows XP, but still), so Windows-only games will have a limited penetration of the market. Could this be a chance for Java? After all, it seems to be the only available technology for creating web-deployable, cross-platform games with decent real-time 3D graphics (Shockwave does not work on Linux). Am I right?

#2

it’s a good idea, I hand you that.

#3

The first thing I did wih my netbook was to get rid of Linpus & install XP ::slight_smile:
Though I guess not everyone will do that…

So long as you arn’t using anything too fancy they’re already ‘fast enough’; as i’ve said elsewhere the Intel GMA 945 in mine can manage 40-60 fps, 1024x600, max detail in Quake 3.

I’d hope it’d be upto running ‘simple 3D games’

#4

Here’s an interesting short article from Netbook News: http://www.netbooknews.it/en/samsung-nc10-netbook-da-gioco/

#5

Linpus is badly packaged… but Xandros is fine. In France, 80% of the EEE PC are sold with Linux and most of the people do NOT install XP instead :slight_smile:
The problem is that it often has only the JRE 1.5 :frowning:

#6

Well, it is not a PC Netbook but you can take a look to the OpenPandora project. We can’t get one right now but I’m planing to try to make Java+LWJGL work on it (it seem that there is allready java on it).

#7

The JVM is optional on OpenPandora :frowning: JOGL-ES works on it.

#8

Bought one for my daughter for Christmas, ASUS with Xandros. Comes with a JVM already installed. Played a bunch of Java games on it, no problem. Played other Linux 3D games, runs really well. The Netbook market is enormous and it will continue to be the laptop market leader for the next 2 years at least.

Good that they are all shipping, at least the Linux ones, with Java 1.5. Oh, and like 4 other kids in my neighborhood got one this holiday as well. Want to target the youth market? Java for Netbooks is a great place to focus!

#9

Whatever happens, developers need to stop assuming screen min height of 768 >:(

#10

?? what do you mean?

#11

Most netbooks have odd resolutions screens, light 1024x600.

Kev

#12

Do you think there’s any chance to make a deal with some Linux maker (Canonical for instance), to have one’s game bundled with the OS?

#13

I guess there is a slim one. but is unlikely.

#14

I’m using a netbook right now for everything after my desktop decided to retire. They’re actually surprisingly powerful, I’ve done some casual gaming(nothing 3D yet, I’ll be trying war3 eventually but not now), light programming(VB.net + database stuff, and working on a Java game), and obviously basic Internet stuff like YouTube/DeviantArt.

flash will “blip” out on occasion like it’s timer skipped a beat or two. from all the java games I’ve tried they’re running as expected. I’ve even tried running runescape and got around 12-15 FPS in it’s “large screen” mode, anything else runs fine. The game that I’m working on still has 60+ FPS and only around 2K-3K skipped frames instead of 20K-30K, I’m using java2D for drawing images and manipulating the rotation/position of the the Graphics2D class. I’ve come across a reviewer who said he managed to run WoW on minimal settings.

Accer Aspire 1. 1.6 Ghz, 1GB ram 256KB of that shared with the 954 chipset for video(no vertex shader, or HW transform/lighting). TONS of CRAPWARE to boot. Obviously no CD drive. Screen resolution 1024 x 600(no ability to go bigger), thank god for the F11 and all the expand view button editors have.

#15

It would be fine but it is quite difficult to make RPM or DEB packages for Java games especially when it uses third party libraries. JPackage might help but there are some problems with JOGL. I am trying to convince the programmers of DJL (“dépôts de jeux linux” = “Games repository for Linux”) to accept Java games.

#16

actually I assumed 720 min height, as in 720p(1280x720x60fps)
my game is able to run in that mode

but 1024x600 ?

nah im not convinced that they will really be all that popular
i can get a high end laptop for maybe 500 Euro

those netbooks do not seem to be all that cheap

#17

Indeed they’re not, by about a factor of 2x more than I’d consider paying for one. The magic price point is about £150 I think.

Cas :slight_smile:

#18

Walmart has sold about a dozen in the past month after I asked the guy where all their stock went. A dozen also isn’t a bad number considering I live in a smallish “almost city”.

I think it fits the trend for going small, but at the same time doesn’t scare away the people who don’t want to go cellphone size.

#19

Funny you should say that - the first Acer Aspire One I bought cost exactly that.
The 2nd one was £130.

Granted they were special clearance deals (from Asda & Tesco respectively) that have yet to be beaten by any big suppliers.
However, you don’t get much of a laptop for £130; certainly not one with a 1.6ghz hyper-threaded cpu, 1gb of ram, 120gb hdd and weights under 1kg.

#20

ya I’m really on Cas with this one.

Also I personally wouldn’t buy Acer notebooks, so that wouldn’t be attractive at all, to me.
Nothing against Acer, just experience ^^ not as robust