I honestly think java should be the official gaming language. A lot of people say it is much slower than c++, but no one has built a gigantic game yet to prove it.
You seem to know enough about Java to know about the JIT (Just-In-Time compiler for those of you who don't know). This functions much like the client side scripting engine in Tribes, it essentially compiles and executes files on the fly. This would of course cause a slow down as the envirinment and machine independent bytecode is re-compiled into processor based assembly instructions.
As for the speed compared to C++, as I began to learn Java, I was reading through some books in the bookstore to get an idea of how different it was from C++. Turns out there is quite a bit. The book showed a chart of C++ vs Java vs Perl for the exact same code. It ran a for() statement (I'm not sure what that is in Perl), but when they ran the program through a stand alone program to measure clock cycles, the C++ was at 9 cycles, Perl at 10 or 11 and Java at 14. This was just for a basic loop in the program. Do that a bunch per frame to render particle systems or special effects or sorting bullets and/or enemies in their respective linked lists and it starts to build up fast. Also, remember that Java does not have pointers as C++ does, so some data structures take more and longer functions to access there respective parts. I don't find much wrong with Java, but I have had OpenGL experience with both C++ and Java and I know that I compile both on my machine and have them render a simple green grid in a black sky and the C++ can get me 10 FPS more.
Just needed to get that out of my system. (no pun intended)
