Original Post
Hey all...
I''ve ported Bryan Turner''s ROAM implementation as featured in his Gamasutra article:
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20000403/turner_01.htm
I used Magician and Java2 1.3 (JDK1.3, or whatever the hell they are calling it these days!
.
I basically wanted to see for myself whether or not Java can hack it for some serious game development. I must say, I am *very* happy with the results I got.
If you''d like to take a look yourself, I got the source, sample texture, height map and everything else here:
http://www.indigenoustech.com/Downloads/JavaROAM.zip
At the end of his paper, Bryan qualifies his C implementation with these figures:
Platform- Win98, AMD K6-2 450 MHz, 96 MB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 256 DDR video.
Resolution- 640x480, 32-bit color
Default # of "TriTreeNodes"- 10,000
With this he gets about 30 fps for textured landscape and about 36 fps for non-textured, solid-filled landscape.
My implementation figures:
Platform- Win98SE, PIII 600 MHz, 256 RAM, NVIDIA Diamond Viper (16 VRAM?? don''t remember...)
Resolution- 640x480, 32-bit color
Default # of "TriTreeNodes"- 10,000
For textured landscape, I''m averaging about 28 fps.
Just like Bryan''s implementation, I haven''t done any OpenGL optimization yet (no display lists, triangle fans, etc.) nor have I implemented any of the suggested ROAM optimizations (Geomorphing, Merge Queues, Frame Coherence, etc.) To me, this just means there is much more I can do with Java!
Also, I must say that I first ran this implementaion using JDK1.2. And, yes, it was slower. About 20 fps for textured landscape. Still, not bad. But obviously Sun is making good on their increased-performance gains.
Obviously, the Magician OpenGL binding had everything to do with this performance. I hope this helps some people out in their decision-making when considering Java for game development.
I am, by the way, a complete OpenGL and game developer novice! (Maybe a couple months or so into this?) Hell, I''m not even that great of a Java programmer. So for people who still think they need to start with DirectX and re-write Tetris for the billionth time, let me suggest that naivety has its benefits as does a healthy dose of imagination!
All comments and ridicule equally appreciated..
-Omar
---
"We are Indigenous. Welcome."