{"id":190,"date":"2012-04-17T17:35:09","date_gmt":"2012-04-17T17:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cores2.com\/blog\/?p=190"},"modified":"2012-04-19T18:04:02","modified_gmt":"2012-04-19T18:04:02","slug":"spacecore-java-lwjgl-flight-simulator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cores2.com\/blog\/?p=190","title":{"rendered":"SpaceCore – Java LWJGL Flight Simulator"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wrote a little space-flight over this past weekend. I wanted to learn more about Java, LWJGL (an OpenGL java bindings library), and most importantly: how a slow processor-side run-time affect graphical performance.<\/p>\n

I’ve mentioned in a previous post<\/a> that Java, and other byte-code languages, actually use a JIT (Just-in-Time) compilation technique to really speed up execution. Still, even with such technologies, the run-times are not as fast as native-languages (i.e. compiled into native code, like C or C++), yet what I learned was that it doesn’t (or shouldn’t, if you know what you’re doing) matter!<\/p>\n

Game development is complex, and really requires a big effort to\u00c2\u00a0distinguish\u00c2\u00a0between processor-side computing and graphics-side computing. In the end, even if Java wasn’t JIT-based, a simple video game shouldn’t require heavy processor-side computing, as much of your work really should be pushed onto the graphics card. Though my game is tiny and requires little processing, I can see why people would used managed languages & environments for programming games: the tools and easier, you can develop faster, and all of the built-in libraries really help\u00c2\u00a0enormously!<\/p>\n