Sun Publishes Source Code of Darkstar Game Server

Sep 03, 2007

Sun published the server and client source code for the Sun Game Server (project name "Darkstar") under the GPLv2 this weekend.

Sun describes its game server as a high-performance, scalable server technology for online multiplayer games, saying that users should be able to run any kind of online game on the platform. Server side programming is simpler and is expressly targeted at smaller developers: the developer environment hides the complexity of the network technology giving programmers the ability to focus on developing games.

The developer package includes an API and software for the developer server and/or client. Clients can be implemented using MonkeyEngine or Panda3D, for example. Programming has been in J2SE only thus far; APIs for C/C++ and J2ME are planned. It is necessary to compile the code to create Java bytecode, however.

The development server in the Software Development Kit (SDK) runs on a single host, and lacks several features of the production game server (Sun Game Server, SGS), for example the ability to build server clusters. In its comment on the project website the team does not disclose when the clustering-capable version of the game server will go Open Source. Source code and a binary archive are available for downloading.

The Darkstar project is one of ten projects run by the Sun Labs research department and has been classified as "System Software" by Sun. Other fields of research include "Network Clients" with ten projects, "System Science" with four and "System Hardware" with three projects.

Related content

  • Lutris

    Gaming on Linux has traditionally involved a complex installation and configuration procedure, until now. Lutris lets you enjoy games from different worlds quickly in a unified interface.

  • Game Engines and Platforms

    New game engines and platforms usher in a whole new era for Linux gaming.

  • Free Action Game: Nexuiz 2.5

    After almost a year of development, a new version 2.5 of the free Nexuiz open source action game has come out. What awaits users are some updated graphics and numerous fan-developed game levels.

  • Legacy DOS Games on the Pi

    Play old DOS games on the Dosbian operating system, which turns the Raspberry Pi into an 80486 PC.

  • Open Source Games

    Linux users have an array of open source gaming options at their fingertips. We take a look at five first-person shooters that really stand out.

comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters

Support Our Work

Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

Learn More

News