I had heard somewhere that using sprites in a 3D environment is faster than using a strictly-2D coding system, due to hardware acceleration. Is this true? Would using only LWJGLSprites for a graphics-intensive 2D game be faster than using Java2D? If so, how much of a speed difference is there?
Using hardware accelerated sprites is BY FAR faster than using Java2D (even with the openGL switch on). I actually made my first games in Java2D first, only to be horribly disappointed by the performance (if you use ANY translucency in Java2D, it'll dramatically slow down - you're stuck with transparency only). As for actual numbers, well, using openGL boosts it so much higher that it becomes kinda ridiculous. :P