I noticed when trying out the demos. You run the file, it downloads the necessary pieces and then runs. Would this be necessary when running it as an applet? Or could you stream the files through piece by piece when required? Thanks.
The demos you were running were not applets; those are WebStart applications.
For applets, you would see java's orange loading screen while the jar and resources are being downloaded.
Of course, you can have your own loading screen and stream the resources yourself if you want.
When an applet loads, it downloads every library necessary first, then launched the app, so it would not help you (unless you did something really tricky as Momoko suggests). Furthermore, applets are very restricted in terms of permissions, memory, access to files, etc. so I would discourage you to use them.
Well since he's making a game there's no need for file access or anything security intrusive. The only disadvantage is that the game runs at a reduced performance since it's embedded into a browser inside a canvas.
Applets have a max memory hard set at something like 96MB. To change that you have to actually edit a value in the java control panel, which is something your users will never do, so memory could indeed be an issue depending on the game you are making.
Hmm, sounds like it may be a btter idea to create a downloadable executable/installer. If that's the case, would I be better off with using JOGL or C++/OpenGl? Thanks.
Let us not forget that only signed applets can communicate with IPs other than the one they were launched from.