Games on the Intel Macs
There is a lot of discussion on how the switch to Intel will effect software development for Macs. What I'm pondering concerns the notoriously poor support for game development or game porting to the Mac.
Who thinks that there will be more support in this arena for Macs? Or do you plan on loading Windows on your Mac just so you can play the latest PC games?
Either way the PC game market just got a boost from the Mac community.
Who thinks that there will be more support in this arena for Macs? Or do you plan on loading Windows on your Mac just so you can play the latest PC games?
Either way the PC game market just got a boost from the Mac community.
Comments
Originally posted by ragingloogie
i talked to this w/ my brother, and he said games that are for pc/MS operating system wont be able to work w/ the new intel/mac machines coming out
Not on OS X. However, Apple's current official stance is that one can load Windows on an Intel Mac. A dual boot Mac. So if this is true you should be able to play Windows games when you boot into Windows.
Originally posted by LiquidR
Not on OS X. However, Apple's current official stance is that one can load Windows on an Intel Mac. A dual boot Mac. So if this is true you should be able to play Windows games when you boot into Windows.
And that could become a major problem. Developers could lost interest to port their games to OS X just because most people will have this dual boot setup. On the other hand, expect porting to be easier since the CPU architecture will be the same.
Originally posted by LiquidR
Not on OS X. However, Apple's current official stance is that one can load Windows on an Intel Mac. A dual boot Mac. So if this is true you should be able to play Windows games when you boot into Windows.
so the intel/macs will be able to run both os x and windows on one machine?
Originally posted by PB
And that could become a major problem. Developers could lost interest to port their games to OS X just because most people will have this dual boot setup. On the other hand, expect porting to be easier since the CPU architecture will be the same.
I don't think so, how many people want to have a dual boot system to begin with? I doubt developers want to or will rely on people having two operating systems on their computer to justify dropping support for a whole OS.
Originally posted by PeePeeSee
I don't think so, how many people want to have a dual boot system to begin with? I doubt developers want to or will rely on people having two operating systems on their computer to justify dropping support for a whole OS.
prolly... but you do get those people out there who use mac os x for everything except games b/c it wont play the games it has, so then those people have window boxes just to play games on... so those people are hoping for 2 operating systems on 1 machine despite how much it doesnt make sense... but when i talked to my brother about it... he said that the new intel/mac machines wont be able to play windows games anyway....
Originally posted by ragingloogie
so the intel/macs will be able to run both os x and windows on one machine?
This is far from certain. The comments that LiquidR was talking about were very specifically about the developer boxes, and not about the final product. I would not expect Apple to do much to specifically prevent the final boxes from running Windows.
But Apple will probably make their own motherboard designs (possibly custom variants on the Intel reference designs), and therefor Windows will not support these designs without someone doing the work. And since Apple would be the only one in a place to do this work, it won't get done fast.
How the Darwin project play into this (which Apple is under no obligation to continue), and to what level Windows would need to be modified (and if that were even possible)... well those are guesses that no-one is in a position to make.
All of this hinges on a whole series of decisions that have probably not even been made at Apple, so anyone who tells you they know is deluding you.
Originally posted by ragingloogie
prolly... but you do get those people out there who use mac os x for everything except games b/c it wont play the games it has, so then those people have window boxes just to play games on... so those people are hoping for 2 operating systems on 1 machine despite how much it doesnt make sense... but when i talked to my brother about it... he said that the new intel/mac machines wont be able to play windows games anyway....
Well it's pretty obvious that you aren't going to simply just be able to run a windows program in OS X and have it work, it will take a rewrite of the program to some degree to get it to work.
Easier than porting it to PPC/OS X? I have no idea.
Originally posted by Karl Kuehn
This is far from certain. The comments that LiquidR was talking about were very specifically about the developer boxes, and not about the final product. I would not expect Apple to do much to specifically prevent the final boxes from running Windows.
But Apple will probably make their own motherboard designs (possibly custom variants on the Intel reference designs), and therefor Windows will not support these designs without someone doing the work. And since Apple would be the only one in a place to do this work, it won't get done fast.
How the Darwin project play into this (which Apple is under no obligation to continue), and to what level Windows would need to be modified (and if that were even possible)... well those are guesses that no-one is in a position to make.
All of this hinges on a whole series of decisions that have probably not even been made at Apple, so anyone who tells you they know is deluding you.
http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1120
On the other hand, Schiller said Apple won't intentionally stop users from trying to run Microsoft's Windows operating system on the forthcoming Intel-based Macs, although there will be no official support from Apple on that front.
"That doesn't preclude someone from running [Windows] on a Mac. They probably will," he said.
Originally posted by PeePeeSee
I don't think so, how many people want to have a dual boot system to begin with? I doubt developers want to or will rely on people having two operating systems on their computer to justify dropping support for a whole OS.
peepeesee hits the nail right on the head.
Developers would have to make a big assumption that people will suddenly rush out and install a 300$ Windows XP on their Macintels. They will have to assume that people will have the technical knowledge to set their Macs up for dual-boot.
Mac marketshare won't change....it may even grow, a lot. Why developers will suddenly drop Mac support is beyond me.
The non techie people just want it to work. Of course the HaXors will try the dual boot or triple boot configs but they are not huge in marketshare.
But, what do I know. Last week I thought PPC was the way!
Also, wasn't there talk, not so recently, about how OS X could become a major development tool for games due to some of the software now available- can't remember any names or anything, maybe it was called 'game builder' or something.
Originally posted by ragingloogie
i talked to this w/ my brother, and he said games that are for pc/MS operating system wont be able to work w/ the new intel/mac machines coming out
And your brother is the expert on the cross-platform game development industry.
Originally posted by Placebo
And your brother is the expert on the cross-platform game development industry.
never said he was an expert, but he knows his stuff... and knows what there is about computers and what not... and he knows the types of software that the pc games have and he can accuratly tell me whether or not the new machines will run the pc games... and he said it wont... but that was also before the talk of running windows and os x... i just asked if it would be able to run it w/ mac os x on there... so... if i went and told him about talk of 2 operating systems, his answer might still be the same... but at the same time, it might not be.... ypu yup...
Will the games written for windows run on OS X out of the box? Of course not, why would anyone think otherwise?
Could this be done? Between Linux and MacIntel users, maybe it could happen?
Does anyone know how successful/relevant this product has been. There was a bit of a mini hoohaa over it a number of months (years?) ago, then nothing.
I especially liked the little animation showing you how it works
Originally posted by jumpyspider
Hm, just looked at this .
Does anyone know how successful/relevant this product has been. There was a bit of a mini hoohaa over it a number of months (years?) ago, then nothing.
I especially liked the little animation showing you how it works
hehe... didnt even know that product existed.... guess im oblivious, huh?