MPEG-J TicTacToe

Play against MPEG-4/MPEG-J in a game of TicTacToe. MPEG-4, as usual, has a scene and manages the overall rendering. However this content uses MPEG-J, and includes Java class files that contain the game logic and control which scene elements are shown in order to play the game.

Note: This content does not work under Netscape 4.x, see note under Content Details for further explanation.

MPEG-J is 'Java for MPEG-4' and allows Java class files, specific for the content, to be embedded with the content and streamed to the client player. The Java class files are then run alongside the content (much as a browser runs an applet) and can access the elements of the content and interact with them to monitor and change the content presentation. This allows content to have intelligence, and in this this simple example we implement the logic for TicTacToe which monitors for interaction (player clicks on square), changes the scene accordingly and makes its own move until the game is over.

This content was the first use of MPEG-J to create such intelligent content and we demonstrated this at the closing main plenary of one of the International MPEG standard meetings early in 2000 - hence the theme.

Note: This content does not work under Netscape 4.x built-in Java as applet security manager there provides no mechanism to permit custom class loading. A custom class loader is needed in our player to allow creation of Java classes from the MPEG-J stream embedded in the content. If you run this under Netscape 4.7x the initial scene is loaded from content but the MPEG-J code cannot be created and run so the game does not play. The game can be played using the Sun Java plug-in (Netscape 6.x or above) or under IE.