[JAVA][Beginning Java 8 Games Development]

Chapter 2 ■ Setting Up Your Java 8 IDE: An Introduction to NetBeans 8.0
The NetBeans Profiler is something that you learn how to use over time, first through experimentation and then,
as you become familiar with what Profiler can do, by using it with your own projects as they become increasingly
complex and observing what your code base does regarding threads, CPU usage, and memory allocation and usage.
NetBeans Profiler is a powerful and useful tool of this that is going to serve as the code development foundation for
your Java 8 game development. I included it in this chapter to give you a solid overview, as this knowledge base will
help you leverage the software, using it to its fullest potential and capabilities.
Clearly, this is an advanced IDE and software development tool that cannot be covered in one short chapter
(maybe in a book; however, this is not a NetBeans 8.0 games development title), so you will be learning more about
what NetBeans 8.0 can do for you in just about all the chapters in this book, as NetBeans 8.0 and Java 8 (and JavaFX 8)
are inexorably intertwined.
Summary
In this second chapter, you learned about NetBeans IDE 8.0, which will serve as the foundation and primary tool for
your Java 8 game development work process. This IDE is where your Java 8 (and JavaFX 8) code is written, compiled,
run, tested, and debugged as well as where your new media (image, audio, video, 3D, font, shape, and so on) assets
are stored and referenced, using your NetBeansProject folder and its subfolders.
You started by taking a look at NetBeans 8.0 and the high-level features that make it the official IDE for Java 8
and that help programmers develop code quickly, efficiently, and effectively (i.e., make code that is bug free) the first
time. After this overview, you created your Java 8 game project, using as a model a real-world game project that I am
working on for a major client.
You went through the New Java Application series of dialogs and created a JavaFX framework for your game,
which will allow you to use new media assets, such as images, audio, video, and 3D. Then, you explored how to
compile and run an application, using NetBeans 8.0. You also studied the Output tab and how that is used for
compiler output, runtime output, and profiling output, which you considered next.
You examined both CPU profiling and memory profiling in NetBeans 8.0; learned how to set up and start up the
Profile Project tool; and studied some of the output, statistics, and visual reports that the NetBeans Profiler can create
for you, based on your Java 8 game project.
In the next chapter, I will present an overview of the Java 8 programming language to make sure that you are up to
speed on how Java 8 works; a Java primer chapter, if you will.
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