I would say lighting, AI, and physics would be the best to aim for.

i think i can finally add something worthwhile. i dont think that c# is up to scratch for game programming and i think that the same applies to java although i can be wrong there.

i just finished writting a program in c#. it is about 250 lines but it reads 1230 records from a file. it then checks the database to see if the information in the file record is already in the database and if it is in error based, amongst other things, on what is already there. then it either writes it to the database, the error file or to a remainder file since a criteria applies as to whether or not it should be written to the database or not.

the program runs on a pentium four with 500 megs of ram. it takes about 30 seconds when i run it without publishing it first. that means i just press the dark green arrow for run and the IDe first build it and then runs it.

microsoft claims that the virtual machine is not slower or much slower than C++. in fact it claims better performance since just in time compiling can better take advantage of a given processor. but it is slow. as i said almost half a minute. i admit that i ran the program with the debug which is slower than the full publish but even so. if the program takes 30 seconds to proccess 1000 records then there is little hope of these languages possing a rivalry to C++ in the gaming industry.

faster or better hardware in the future will not improve java or c#'s chances. future hardware will enable them then to accomplish what c++ can accomplish today but by then C++ developers will build even better games with the future hardware.

When you work with databases (i presume some SQL database), the client language makes little difference. Database communication is very slow compared to anything that happens in a game engine. And those are two very different applications. Was your application perhaps so slow, because it called "commit" after each insert, or queryed a large table not using the primary key? Database performance was what slowed you app down, not C#.

Besides, does Java still have the fastest XML parser around? It too tells nothing about performance as a language for a game engine either.

As 3D rendering relies more and more on GPU algorithms, the language of the program runing on the CPU is less important. A shader program on the GPU runs with same speed, it doesnt matter if it was created from a C or Java program.

@VeAR

maybe you are right. for each record the app uses a select query on the database twice. and neither time does it use the primary key. no commit was used though although i dont know if any automatic commit was called by database or app or dot net framework. also i admit to having written it not for the best possible speed( no need). the database was closed and reopened for each write( but there was only 130 writes) and for each group of two checks.

still. i have run small c++ programs as well as small c# programs. the c++ runs at speed so fast that before you even remove your mouse pointer from the button it is done. but the c# can have you waiting a few seconds.

well this could go half and half. if your looking to make a shitty browser based game that ever one seems to love like runescape. go with java and java your heart out. if your looking to make a good game engine that makes a good game that everyone loves, go with c++. thats what i think atleast. as far the whole java speed compared to c++ i don't know what my opion is on that. i'll have to look in on it and let you go. but for now i'm saying c++ is faster.