UridiumGL

WIP games, tools & toy projects Archived Projects
#21

Um. When there’s actually a genuine viable alternative that is less buggy than JWS and has enough features to make it worth adopting, sure.

At the moment, JWS seems to be the only horse in town :(. There’s also something to be said for “keeping it simple” given how much of a struggle it currently is to get a significant portion of developers to even use the thing at all :frowning: [rough stats from JGF: about 40% (keeps increasing the more I harp on about it ;D) submit their games already JWS’d, about 10% categorically refuse because they’re only releasing a windows EXE, no linux or mac at all, about 10% refuse for random arbitrary strange reasons, and the rest can be persuaded if you sell it to them hard enough :D].

FYI to anyone evangelising JWS: the key to persuading most people seems to be, funnily enough, pointing them at Kev’s tutorial and pointing out that:

  • he gives you all you need, just copy, paste, in most cases you’re done.
  • If you need to add more, all the info you need is there.
  • it only takes 30 secs (unlike adopting many other worthy technologies, this one really is trivial to get working; at least, it is with the tutorial ;))
#22

Right, with any luck it should (might) work for Mac and/or Linux (I have no way of testing myself):-

http://www.cruithne3753.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/games/uridiumgl

#23

[quote]Right, with any luck it should (might) work for Mac and/or Linux (I have no way of testing myself):-

http://www.cruithne3753.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/games/uridiumgl
[/quote]
Looks like this bit still isn’t working:


<resources os="Linux" arch="x86">

    <j2se version="1.4+" href="http://java.sun.com/products/autodl/j2se" />

    <nativelib href="lib/lwjgl-linux.jar" />

  </resources>

Try removing the “arch” bit. Kev’s example doesn’t have it, and his games work OK… (just a guess).

In fact, checking what arch 1.4.2_04 reports in linux on a pentium-3 @ 1ghz, I get the answer:

I.e. the linux JVM is apparently compiled only to work on i386 machines (which implicitly means all later pentiums and celerons, but excludes earliers such as the 286 etc - which x86 would NOT exclude).

Still, I’m surprised that the windows JVM reports x86 and the linux reports i386 ???.

#24

I’ve changed it to arch=“i386”… fingies crossed…

#25

[quote]I’ve changed it to arch=“i386”… fingies crossed…
[/quote]
Why don’t you remove it entirely?

Anyway, that seems to work.

However, you have a really clever game. It throws an Exception:

#26

Well, here in the windows world it looks great! Way to fast still, but looks (and sounds) brilliant.

Nice to see a fellow Bristolian producing such quality,

Kev

#27

Just like the rest, looks good, sounds good, but I can’t play at all becaues its about 1000x too fast :-/

1.5b
2000 XP Athlon
Windows 2000

#28

On Mac OS X

An error occurred while launching/running the application.

Category: Launch File Error

No JRE version found in launch file for this system

Ditch the ‘arch’ specification for one. And I think the OS should be “Mac OS” with a space.

#29

I think the arch section is necessary … have look at this

JRE/JDK 1.4.x for Linux:
i386, ia64 - Sun Microsystems
x86_64 (AMD 64Bit) - Blackdown
sparc - Blackdown (planned for late 2004)

JRE/JDK 1.5.x for Linux:
‘various architectures’ (?) - Blackdown
x86_64 - Sun
i386 - Sun

Even on Win there are 3 archictures x86, x86_64 and ia64 … so do not underestimate the necessarity of this attribute in JNLP :slight_smile:

Btw: Thank you for fiddling out that Linux-i386-not-x86 issue, that was an error in my own JNLPs :smiley:

#30

[quote]I think the arch section is necessary …
[/quote]
In some cases. If it is set correctly it shouldn’t be a problem. At some point even the Mac version will likely need 32 bit and 64 bit versions of native libs.

[quote]Even on Win there are 3 archictures x86, x86_64 and ia64 … so do not underestimate the necessarity of this attribute in JNLP :slight_smile:
[/quote]
Well sure, except there is no 64 bit version of any of the native libraries (LWJGL, JOGL, etc.) as far as I know. So for now it would probably be best to not specify and hope that the 32 bit subsystem of the 64 bit Win OS versions is able to cope with it. I don’t know if the 64 bit VM can use a 32 bit JNI lib or not.

#31 

 Well sure, except there is no 64 bit version of any of the native libraries (LWJGL, JOGL, etc.) as far as I know.

I hope that they are prepared for this …

#32

Hi
I hope we get someone with the kinda dosh and time that means we can get someone to build and test for us on the different arch and os’s, either that, or pay me to do it and buy me the hardware ;D

Endolf

#33

  1. if I made a game, you wouldn’t know its java that was running.

  2. it wouldn’t be distributed via webstart because not a single professional game would use webstart, whos gonna download 300Mb through webstart?!

  3. Java 1.5 isn’t out yet, release anyway, thus, im not trying it because i know how “good” beta’s are.

  4. Webstart version of the game is currupt. Going over to NORMAL installation

  5. Webstart isn’t available to FreeBSD, thus, im eliminating an entire audience of people away. and im a big fan of FreeBSD. Yes, it can emulate Linux, but there are. BeOS, NetBSD, OpenBSD. Alot of OS dont like webstart, but still run java.

I have to admit, webstart is nice for little games like this, demos…etc. Not for full games. Full games refering to Call Of Duty, MOHAA…etc. Which will be doable in java. Actually, they are doable in java.

Edit: Normal mode doesn’t exist anymore! :frowning:

#34

Any progress on removing your hard-coded “I don’t like linux” call?

#35

Well, seeing as a large number of people are foolish enough to do just that with MSIE (slows down the download, unless MS have finally fixed their HTTP-streaming bugs, which I don’t think they have?), and thousands use the download-managers (even knowing that they are full of spyware, viruses, and ads), I don’t see why they wouldn’t use JWS.

This game didn’t have a proper JWS installation initially; that was nothing to do with JWS AFAICS?

That’s a major concern. Of course, if you’ve got JWS setup on your server, then people can just manually download the JAR’s anyway. So, it’s not a “lock-out” barrier, it’s just a “BSD users can’t share the convenience” barrier.

Who provides the BSD JVM that has no JNLP handler? Actually, IIRC, the BSD JVM is a bit screwed anyway - what’s the latest release, and how reliable is it?

#36

As a major consumer of games of all types, I give my vote to JWS. 3 megs or 300 megs, you have to download it somehow. Better to use JWS and let it handle updates and such as well, instead of offering only the .jar. I actually like the idea of a game manager too, that keeps all my games on one shortcut, allows for easy deletion, etc.

#37

I found I could switch off VSync via Control Panel (nested off of various “Advanced options” buttons in there though) and I realise what people meant by it being too fast. Maybe it’s worth checking you’ve got it switched on. For v0.21 I’ve added the option to toggle VSync, and adjust the frame rate if it’s not available to get the smoothest (ie. least “rough”) animation, and also moved the graphic and sound resources into seperate JARs - no more further need to download almost 7Mb for updates to 115k of code (quicker for me to upload too!)

#38

[quote]Nice to see a fellow Bristolian producing such quality
[/quote]
So you’ll know what the “GL” actually stands for!

#39

The “linux not supported” exception has gone but it’s still broken, with an error about “unsatisfied link error” trying to find “liblwjgl” or similar.

Why don’t you just copy the JNLP from one of the LWJGL demos that already works (I think JCD’s demos do? Or Elias (or was it someone else?) had an LWJGL + software renderer in this forum that worked OK too…), just to save you the hassle of debugging it?

#40

Pinch Alien Flux’s webstart http://www.puppygames.net/downloads/alienflux-full.jnlp and tweak it.

That works on your box doesn’t it blah^3?

Webstart rocks. Even the crappier 1.4 implementation is a league apart from using a Windows installer.

Cas :slight_smile: