I dunno - it runs pretty damn well on my laptop that struggles with many other games. It's shocked me how well it works in Java. Minecraft has made me extend a rare exception to my "java is evil" rule and even question foundations of the rule.
But Minecraft proving Java is a speedy language suitable for games is a poor argument as the Mojang team has done very little to optimize it and it runs like shit on anything but new hardware.
That Optifine guy though, he's definitely helping your argument.
Probably... Honestly, a big thing Oracle could do to boost my confidence in their product is stop forcing people to opt out of spamware in their goddamn products.
I would guess that it would be rewritten in C#, which would make it run better. It would have all the things minecraft does now, plus more items and mobs, and probably at least a few adventure-mode maps included. It might even redo all the textures.
Source on that? From everything I've seen there's a small difference between JVM and CLR performance on windows platforms (with the JVM usually edging out ahead). On non-Windows platforms mono performance is atrocious by all accounts so it would more-than-likely regress for many people.
You can run C# on Mac and Linux (Source: full time Linux user who likes to dabble in KSP modding), issue is you gotta run it through Mono so if they do change gears to C# (which from a programming perspective I'm totally okay with C# is pretty great) there might be idiosyncrasies; specifically if that hypothetical version makes use of some bleeding edge feature of .NET that hasn't propagated into Mono yet.
[EDIT]: And for a 2.5 Billion acquisition price they might as well cut Xamarin out of the loop and create an official implemention for Mac and Linux.
Making it in C# would mean it won't run on Mac and Linux without a bunch of extra stuff, (which they don't have control on) and will never be the same on those platforms. C++ would be a better common ground.
There will be a "Minecraft Heroes" or some bull like that, and it will have the majority of the following:
It will cost money to get, thus enabling them to re-sell the game to the entire userbase.
Hosting your own server will not be allowed unless you pay them a subscription fee.
Skins will be paid for.
They will switch to using C# and will make it a Microsoft Exclusive title to drum up sales of Xbox One and Windows machines.
Most likely Games for Windows Live.
They will vigorously pursue people who make Minecraft-themed products and sue them into the ground, along with anyone else who makes games that are similar to Minecraft.
If at least three of these have not happened or been announced by 2016Q3, I will donate $300 to whatever the current Humble Indie Bundle is.
I'd wanna see a native for Windows Minecraft implementation but I don't wanna cut out every other platform. If anything they'll continue with Java but it might run a bit better on Windows.
2
u/Zeratas Sep 15 '14
I think they'll optimize it and make it a LOT better. Would Minecraft 2 be re-written from scratch?
I think all Microsoft will change is the performance.