Pétanque game in Java

[The Smith]

Hey guys,

 

In one course I am going to need to program an Internet Pétanque game. When it comes to graphics, I have absolutely no idea where to begin, and the course is about planning and documenting so no information is given.

 

In order not to begin on the wrong track, I thought I'd ask you guys your opinion, as I know many of you have some experience in Java and game programming.

 

So. For the physics and display, I searched around the net for an engine and I found jMonkey. Basically, I need to display the game from a top view and a side view because the ball trajectory is in three dimensions. Then we need to calculate the collisions with other balls and the cochonnet. Is such an engine really what I need? Is there a better or simpler one for my needs?

 

Also, we need a server application running, to which four client applets, the players, will connect. For that purpose, I thought to use web services. The stand-alone server would implement some methods such as:

 

CreateGame()

JoinGame()

LaunchGame()

ThrowBall()

etc.

 

Then, during a game, each client would poke the server by calling a method, let's say GameUpdate(), which will return the information on the other player's shots and some other information of this kind.

 

So these are just some rough ideas for the main components of the game. So those who have experience in this kind of stuff, let me know how it looks!

 

Thanks

[The Smith]

anyone?

[rmb938]

Well jMonkey is more for advanced 3d models. You can do that game by just simply using sprites written on a canvas.

[The Smith]

Well jMonkey is more for advanced 3d models. You can do that game by just simply using sprites written on a canvas.

I have looked into this, but my main concern is I don't want to code all the physics. You know, cases like the ball that's being thrown hits another ball but without hitting the ground first... therefore there is an alpha and beta angle between them, and they might not even be aligned at all. Then there is the friction caused by the ground and all, so I feel this is going to get quite messy.

 

So I thought an engine like jMonkey would prevent me to code all of this. Am I right?