Java/H&H CPU Usage

[Truth0]

I recently began playing again and convinced a few people to join me. They're too shy or lazy to make a thread, so I'm doing it for them. Out of the four of us, two of us can play fine. The other two experience massive CPU usage under Java (for H&H), near to or at 100%. One of them can play BF3 on ultra, and the other can run most modern games on medium to low. Obviously even the worst of computers should be able to handle H&H, therefore something is wrong. The question is what. Taking all suggestions...

Thanks.

Edit: I've told them both to check to see if they have the newest java update and to uninstall+reinstall Java as a basic possible solution.

[sabinati]

make sure they have latest video drivers from manufacturer

[Truth0]

Why would that hurt their Java and not anything else? I will let them know, however. I also spent some more time skimming past threads and it seems others have had this problem and there was no fix to it.

[boshaw]

OpenGL 1.1

[Truth0]

What does that mean?

[sabinati]

complicated computer shit. just install the latest drivers.

[loftar]

Why would that hurt their Java and not anything else?

As one potential explanation, it might not be Java, but OpenGL (as opposed to DirectX). In particular Microsoft's own drivers obviously have tend to have much worse support for OpenGL that for DirectX.

[MagicManICT]

Why would that hurt their Java and not anything else?

As one potential explanation, it might not be Java, but OpenGL (as opposed to DirectX). In particular Microsoft's own drivers obviously have tend to have much worse support for OpenGL that for DirectX.

Not just that, but nVidia and ATI (AMD) are both horrid about providing good OpenGL support for their desktop cards. If you want great OpenGL support on Windows, you pretty much have to pony up the money for a workstation level card (which won't hardly support DirectX).

[christhemad]

yes im old pc but can still play c&c 4 fine and red alert 3 and star craft 2 fine abit on low but they dont hang or lag or anything but on here its 100% cpu useage and lag city but i do have an old ati all in wounder 9600 pro video card

[MagicManICT]

yes im old pc but can still play c&c 4 fine and red alert 3 and star craft 2 fine abit on low but they dont hang or lag or anything but on here its 100% cpu useage and lag city but i do have an old ati all in wounder 9600 pro video card

Here's the deal:

In a DirectX game, the processor doesn't do too much other than regulate data flow to the various devices, thus leaving it free to do this like AI processing, pathfinding, and such. Also, the program is processed in machine code (basically: one instruction-one machine cycle), which is magnitudes faster than how Java works.

With Java programs, the developer compiles the code, but the resulting object code is still basically text. It's just packed down to a form that's faster than just plain text interpretation (like old-style BASIC) (one instruction can be hundreds or even thousands of machine cycles). This is what significantly sucks processor time and why you haven't see too many 3D programs in Java. The ones out there are five to ten years behind the visual standard. However, HnH is an alpha program and so isn't even CLOSE to properly optimized meaning you're going to be going even slower than a release version of an equivalent tech game.