Java Netrek Specifications

System requirements

Unfortunately, Java in its current state is fairly inefficient. The Java VM code is interpreted, rather than compiled. The memory management of the virtual machine in Netscape is quite primitive. Finally, the Java class library AWT has a relatively poor support for images and image types.

As a result, Java Netrek taxes both CPU and RAM heavily, even though the native Netrek client implementations are very efficient. Below are the minimum hardware configurations I recommend for reasonable performance based on my personal experience (feel free to send me your comments):

Platform	Machine type	Memory
Windows 95	Pentium 60Mhz	16MB
SunOS/Solaris	SUN Sparc Classic	24MB
IRIX	Any so far	???
HPUX	???	???

General package description

Java Netrek is a set of tools which let you place netrek recordings on the Web. The package contains three executable classes:

• Viewer applet

  Replays Netrek game recordings. Designed to be embedded in Web pages. Requires a Java enabled browser such as Netscape Navigator 2.0 or the Sun appletviewer from the Java Development Kit (JDK).

• Extractor application

  Extracts parts of Netrek recordings into separate files. This is a command line application. Requires the Java Language Runtime from the JDK.

• Editor application

  A GUI application which encompasses all of the Viewer functionality, but also allows the user to mark fragments from the recording and save them to a separate file. Requires the Java Language Runtime from the JDK.

All executables work with recordings of Bronco games made with the Paradise client. Xsg recordings are not currently supported and probably will continue not to be in the near future.

Viewer applet capabilities

• Display tactical map, galactic map, or both
• Play the recording at several different speeds
• Jump to any point of the recording, forward or backwards

Extractor capabilities

• Extract a fragment from a recording given initial and final packets

Editor capabilities

• Play the recording at several different speeds
• Jump to any point of the recording, forward or backwards
• Mark a part of the recording and save it to a separate file