Java has everything necessary to do high quality PC games. Why do you think only a few games are using it? People prefer to create low quality gc solutions in C++ and having trouble with dll bugs?
Also i noticed that even among people who are interested in Java games that they usualy create games with a simple AI. Perhaps this is because Java still lacks a good AI package. Or perhaps we just need a game that uses it well so that everyone can experience with it and learn from it.
This looks basically like yet another C++ vs Java thread 
I think it comes down to this:
This is why a community like this is so important. We get increasingly more knowledge and experience with using java for games, and there seems to be some real interaction between Sun and this community: Their java implementation becomes more and more capable for games and they provide game oriented libraries (jogg/joal/jinput, project darkstar).
Good observation - mostly due to projects not getting far enough or not being complicated enough to require complicated AI.
Kev
[quote="<MagicSpark.org [ BlueSky ]>,post:3,topic:28136"]
Its possible to do very complex games with just a scripting language and a path grid if you are doing an rpg. Games like Fallout, Morrowind, Baldurs Gate, Kotor never got much more far than this.
Another thing, that is probably slowing down Java indie games is the lack of a good Collada exporter for a free modeler like Blender. I think Xith and JME already have some support for it but Blender exporter is not very good still.
Besides Collada theres little else i have seen in the Java panorama to create an entire scene including, materials, animations, path grids, etc
Maybe Collada isn’t really the right format for games. How do you export a path grid in Collada for example?
It’s quite ambitious to wish to create an unique format to rule them all… COLLADA isn’t adapted for levels.
I think because the pros don’t use it and most wannabes spend most of their time studying what their programming heroes do.
That, and the total lack of PS/XBox support.
Cas 
That is true. Collada is very good for Playstation but should it mater to everyone else as much as it maters for Sony and their parteners? Creating a game engine is full of pitfalls so it’s good to learn with those that made something instead of just following related game sites.
[quote="<MagicSpark.org [ BlueSky ]>,post:7,topic:28136"]
It’s quite ambitious to wish to create an unique format to rule them all… COLLADA isn’t adapted for levels.
[/quote]
I never said that and i don’t know Collada in deep imideatly discard it. But reason with me. You are not going to set path grids by hand. You need to browse your scene and edit the path nodes. Even if you use a tool to automatically place the grid, tools aren’t perfect so everything needs to be visualized and checked. So if you have to make your scene editor anyway why bothering with Collada? You could have an option to import Collada objects for static and animated object but read ahead.
Path grids are just an example. There are toons of other game objects like activators, physics objects, traps, etc that will require a game scene editor.
Collada has its advantages to export animated and static scenes using basic skeletal animation techniques. But if you try to do something more advanced, like “Die By The Sword” did, again, i will have to ignore Collada because it’s not useful. So we are left with Collada for static scenes, lights and materials. No wonder that so many people use their own scene and data formats, with versions of xml/text for exporters and binary versions for loading speed.
This is an area where Java can take advantage from the competition. And using X3D instead, because you can create your own personal extensions, and use whatever encoding you want (xml, vrml syntax, text or whatever) may be a better choice for your scene editor.
Die By The Sword! I’d forgotten about that game.
Great idea, very close to unplayable in practice…
Sorry, that’s not really on topic is it?
Indeed.
For small commercial projects, what’s the point of writing in java when you can’t get on the two biggest-selling platforms for games (PS2 and DS)? I mean, it puts the whole “is it worth supporting OS X?” debate into the shade when you look at the volume of games purchasers you shut out by not using at least one of those two platforms. IIRC global installed base of PS2 was around 120 million last time I checked…and ALL those are pure games machines with known characteristics and only one set of hardware to support :).
For casual games, why use java when it doesn’t have a working webstart etc - if you’ve got to write your own installer/updaters, your own DRM code, etc then you might just as well use C++ anyway. Most of the production time is NOT in development, so java’s advantages in dev time are halved straight out the door.
Yet, embarking on a 8-figure publisher-funded project where it’s a possibility to use java for the MMOG backend, I try to contact Sun about evaluating java for this, and there’s no response :(.
No-one but no-one *** is going to go around risking commercial projects when the support for java games development is still so immature. I would want to see 2 or 3 major real games come out with the GTG’s involvement before I started to take it on trust that if I did a multi-million dollar project they’d be willing and able to provide an appropriate level of support and that the java platform were up to it.
*** - oh, OK, there’ll always be a crazy few
There are several modes of control. Theres a familiar Streetfighter controls and an hardcore mode where your mouse and movement keys are linked to your sword, legs and torso. So you actualy control every movement of your body and sword by raising or lowering the mouse to raise your sword or clicking a mouse button to extend your arm. It’s crazy but thats not everything. If you cut a foes leg or the two legs he will still fight jumping with one leg or crawling. Cut his arm and he will fight with the other arm. Cut both arms and he will fight with is head and feet. You can rotate your torso while running and cut your oponent from the side with hardcore control or be caught upside down with a rope on your legs and still swing your sword and attack. Thats a game made when? 8 years ago? Technology used in games, except for cg, is old no mater how much they hype them.
On another note I’m willing to work on flexible and independent scene editor for games. Even before trying to create my own game engine or modify an already existing one to create my game. I think this is fundamental before wasting time on anything else.
Check your e-mail
-Chris
Would not mind hearing the answer as well.