Where to start?

Java on Mobile Devices J2ME
#1

I’ve been producing stuff with Java3D and Java2D and I thought I might come and have a play with J2ME. I was just wondering where to start?

  1. Restrictions in J2ME? (No floats, No java.awt.image.*, any others?)

  2. Different Platforms Specs, what res do these things run at?

  3. Example code/Tutorials, are there any? Google seems to come up a bit blank.

  4. Raycasting/Fast Graphics update, is this possible?

Cheers for any help,

Kev

#2

  1. A lots, …

  2. A lots, take a look at
    forum.nokia.com
    wireless.java.sun.com ((http://wireless.java.sun.com/device/index.html for a not so updated devices list)

  3. goto 2) for some good examples for gaming
    http://jfdoue.free.fr/index.html (a good starting point)

  4. Fast graphics … hum … No direct pixels access on MIDP1.0, possible with MIDP2.0 Nokia UI, Siemens SDK, and , VSCL, Moto Game API. since MIDP2.0 is not widespreaded making J2ME applis is a bit complex.

I working on a SDK to simplify this process:
mee.dev.java.net

Duh,

Mik

#3

  1. Check http://www.forum.nokia.com/main.html

  2. There’s a recent thread on raycasting in this forum?

#4

  1. What you said, plus e.g. no reflection so no serialization or RMI.

  2. Nokia’s devices for example are pretty much all 12-bit colour nowadays (4 bits each for R,G,B), and come in three main resolutions: 96x65 (e.g. Nokia 3510i: low-end but high volume), 128x128 (e.g. Nokia 7210, 5100, 6100, 3300, …) and 176x208 (e.g. Nokia 3650: the ‘Series-60’ camera phones).

  3. I can recommend the tutorials and examples at forum.nokia.com (but then I would, I wrote several of them ;))

  4. Basically don’t bother trying ‘real’ 3-D yet, unless you go the Symbian C++ route with those Series-60 devices. With MIDP Java think more along the lines of e.g. Game Boy Color capabilities, with an additional restriction that everything (compiled code, sounds, images, …) has to fit into a typically max 64KB JAR file, but the additional advantage of networking capabilities. Longer-term, the JSR-184 Mobile 3-D API demos at JavaOne looked promising.