New category: "Cross-platform games dev"

General Discussions
#21

OT’ing? Im not familiar with that term :-/

I only request the AI forum when another forum is being requested only because I feel that the AI forum should be given priority. Mainly because if I go and ask something over at gamedev.net, they’l answer in C/C++ terms. Then i would have to think of a way to rewrite that to my best knowledge (which isn’t that brilliant) for java.

And no, your not getting on my nerves, your getting on a lot of people’s nerves. So much infact, some people refuse to come on here because they dislike you so much.

swpalmer, I dont see anything in the WIKI regarding AI. Could you perhaps point me in the right direction? Or do you mean that I should put things in there regarding AI?

DP

#22

:o If that’s the case then you really ought to be doing something about it. Since no-one - ever - has said anything to me, aside from your side comments in other threads, there seems little reason to think so at the moment.

#23

OT’ing = OffTopic’ing

This is starting to get ugly - let’s just stop this right now!

FWIW, As long as people write semi on topic, thought out comments, then they’re welcome on the board.
As far as I can remember, blah^3 has always written this type of comment (and lengthy!) - I value his posts.

Now please stop with the mud throwing, before someone invokes Godwin’s Law

#24

[quote]swpalmer, I dont see anything in the WIKI regarding AI. Could you perhaps point me in the right direction? Or do you mean that I should put things in there regarding AI?
[/quote]
I mean that an AI section can be put there. There are articles about fullscreen mode, fast blitting, etc… Articles about AI, and sound would be welcome.

[quote]There is already a push for cross platfrom stuff at the LWJGL department, and thats how you solve things. By the underlying API, not by changing your own code.
[/quote]
That is absolutely false. Java has many areas where you MUST write YOUR code for it to be cross-platform friendly. One example is being Mac friendly - using the appropriate keyboard shortcuts, e.g. Command or Meta key instead of CTRL, there is a Java API to query the appropriate key, but you have to know to use it. Another more common example is the use of hard coded characters for the path/file separators. And the setting of a property to get the “screen” menu bar on the Mac… coding properly to bring up context menus etc…

There is plenty that you need to handle in your own code.

#25

I’d love the section. We can be more efficient in learning workarounds than the Sun guys can be in fixing stuff. Aside from that, it’s nice to have your games work cross platform with current (or even old) Java versions. Who wants to sit around and WAIT for an update that will HOPEFULLY contain the fix they need? Having to depend on the Sun developers is a major drawback. We can do much better. We’re all in the same boat trying to find ways to cope with inconsistencies and we can all help each other out. A Cross-platform section would help us to organize that.

I’m all for the new forum. I’ll surely check it and use it often.

#26

Alternatively, we could do an article or similar on this on JGF, and I could update it with each platform-specific issue that comes up with new games being submitted each week (thanks to the testers who are now testing each and every platform :)).

An article seems best at first, but then you realise it changes quite frequently (each new MINOR java version as well as just new problems being discovered all the time) and something more wiki-like seems better (NB: to all who remember my knee-jerk aversion to wiki’s, this is one of those examples of where I think it is the correct tool for the job). But…until JGF moves to a new server, we don’t have Perl/PHP/etc to be able to run a Wiki, so it would be a list of issues and their solutions instead of a collaborative thing.

On the plus side, if you have any problems that you’ve seen in the past, or are seeing now, and which are bugging you (or you would just like to share your tips), then send me an email now, and I’ll start collating them…

#27

[quote]USE THE WIKI… I tis the one spot on JavaGaming.org that any java.net member can modify freely. We can make it what we need as far as a central place to find this info.

It’s not perfect, but it works so it is worth the time needed to figure out how to use it.
[/quote]
If ChrisM et al @ the GTG actually did some community management round here, and made the Wiki a more central part of this community, then yes.

As it is, AFAICS the wiki continues to be hardly used (despite the sterling efforts of a hardcore few who regularly add to it) and is still a second-class citizen on this board.

Although JGF v3 is still some way off, it seems to me (going on the evidence from the last couple of years) that it’ll be finished and a lot easier to use way before the GTG gets around to even thinking about promoting or better integrating the wiki. Rather than write everything twice, I’m just putting everything directly into JGF now (I no longer periodically re-check the Wiki for things I can improve or add to).

Shrug. Maybe I’m too pessimistic here, but I just don’t feel I have the time to faff about with it when it’s not going anywhere fast.

#28

+1 for me.

I had apples Java enjineers to myself for a day when MacOSX was first comming out and had to point out to them that Applets on the Mac sending URLs did not also send the cookies, wheras all other implementations did. That has since been fixed but there are still a few little cotchas.

Java with the Aqua interface is pretty good looking but it brings up some questions about making games deal with platform specific look and feel. Lots of devs seem to take full control of the L&F and ignore platform but there must be better ways of tackling this.