[PirateEggs]

You idiots have no idea how Java works. Java is a virtual environment, a virtual machine if you will. Java throws everything into the memory (RAM), it requires very little IO (reading and writing files to your hard drive), the downfall there is it needs loads of RAM and CPU power to execute everything. I have 16GB of RAM in my PC, if I run Java with a 512x texture pack I need to throw 8GB at Java to get a decent frame rate, I also have a 2600k @ 3.7GHz, which is a pretty decent CPU. I only have a GTX560 in my rig, but, I can run a 1024x texture pack if I really wanted to, and I have done before, it does however take ages to load the game, it has to unpack hundreds of MB of textures files and place them in your memory for Java to use.

Minecraft on Xbox, does not use Java, it's a new engine, it's an entirely different game. The textures for it aren't 16x, just incase you were wondering, they are upscaled. The worlds are limited to 864x864, which is 54x54 chunks. A maximum of 373,248 blocks. The game's coded in C++, a much cleaner language, which has direct access to hardware, Java, does not.