Using JXTA in online gaming?

[Gerry Giese]

Anyone know of any open/semi-open projects that intend to use JXTA in an online game or player matching application? It would seem to me that this technology could be quite useful. At least for a player matching application, instead of the client going out to a server and asking who has a good ping-time, client just goes and checks for himself. And it would be a great way to distribute updates and new content without tying up server space and bandwidth somewhere. Would this week's giveaway book be useful for helping design an application like I'm suggesting?
I'm planning to start work on a game soon (I'm in the learning stages of game programming right now, and at work have done server-side java mostly, with a little bit of GUI tinkering on the side) and hope to incorporate JXTA into it somehow. My initial thought is a simple top-down RPG where your computer manages maybe 10 small randomly-generated levels (a dungeon) and persists them so anytime you go online they become available to others to explore. When you go to leave a dungeon, you would have the ability to return to your 'home' dungeon, or the top 3 other dungeons, ranked by uptime, connection stability and speed, and possibly player preferences regarding the type or difficulty of dungeons they like to explore. I expect this would be more of a tech demo to start with, but version 2 might be worthy of playing for fun after it's polished and has more content.
Thoughts? Suggestions?

[Sing Li]

Gerry,
Great idea. You may want to join the �discuss� mailing list over at http://www.jxta.org/ . There are many who will be able to give you feedback.
Recently, there was a brief discussion on IBM�s Robocode�
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/j-robocode/
This simulator allows you to create robots using simple Java code and then have them battle against other robots in a graphical arena. Multiple matches are played out, and score is kept.
JXTA would be natural for creating a world-wide arena for robot matches in such a scenario.
Best Regards,
Sing Li

[Gerry Giese]

What is the best 'mobile agent' api/toolkit out there that would be high-performance and compatible with JXTA? I started thinking about my idea, and it would be interesting to the the NPCs/monsters wander around between servers of their own accord. They could 'discover' where they like to be, establish a 'territory' to live in/defend, etc. Using genetic algorithms for this maybe?? Hmm.. the possibilities are endless.
BTW, what's the name of that virtual aquarium screensaver software where the fish move themselves from computer to computer?? I think I'll go research that a little...
Thanks!

[Michael Ernest]

Originally posted by Sing Li:

This (Robocode) simulator allows you to create robots using simple Java code and then have them battle against other robots in a graphical arena. Multiple matches are played out, and score is kept.
JXTA would be natural for creating a world-wide arena for robot matches in such a scenario.

Speaking to the 'differences' between P2P and distributed services: a friend and I 'Jini-ized' Robocode for grins and giggles. A P2P framework would make more sense to use, but we didn't have one at the time, so we made do with Jini.
I might redo the whole thing on a JXTA platform once I get the time and the learning curve under my belt.

[Sing Li]

Gerry,
Sorry but I do not know of any JXTA compatible mobile agents API/toolkit.
Hi Michael,
If you do get around to do it, please drop me an email - or post on discuss at jxta.org. I can help to put it on the fast track.
You *will* be loved by all Robocode fanatics the world over ;-)
Best Regards,
Sing Li