Video Card Acceleration :::

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Was wondering, on the PC, DirectX is used primarily in games for video......



what does the mac use?



Is directX going to be implemented on the mac? or has it already?



what type of video drivers are used/included with the GeForce3 and GF4 Ti on the mac?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 13
    fuzz_ballfuzz_ball Posts: 390member
    No its not part of the Mac and it will never be; of course never say never



    DirectX is a Microsoft developed (and owned) API. DirectX encompases a set of functions that allow programmers to have access to hardware in an abstract/generic way. On the Mac (OS X) there is OpenGL (primarily for 3D, but it can also be used for 2D), and then for other issues such as sound, input/joysticks/gamepads, and network-related-stuff there are other APIs. In OS 9 there were the Sprockets (sp?) APIs for utilizing all that stuff.



    Drivers for video cards are not related to an API such as DirectX. DirectX, OpenGL, Sprockets merely provide an abstract way to access the features of video cards without having to know what "specific" video card is installed (well this is mostly true, I believe that there are some cases where knowing "what" specific hardware is in a system can be helpful).



    So don't confuse the API with the driver. A driver is written to adhere to the specification of an operating system. So the Geforce3 driver for Windows, Linux, and Mac will all be implemented differently, in order to conform to the interface that the operating system supports. Of course, ideally all the features for the Geforce3 will be implemented for all operating systems. The API (DirectX/OpenGL) just allows you to access the features that are supported by the driver.



    Okay, I'm repeating myself and its late. Goodnight.



    [ 05-31-2002: Message edited by: fuzz_ball ]</p>
  • Reply 2 of 13
    badtzbadtz Posts: 949member
    does mac os9 and mac os x both use openGL?
  • Reply 3 of 13
    airslufairsluf Posts: 1,861member
  • Reply 4 of 13
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    [quote]Originally posted by AirSluf:

    <strong>Yes, for 3D applications.</strong><hr></blockquote>Plus, Mac OS X will soon (10.2, Jaguar) use OpenGL to accelerate the Quartz compositor, speeding up the whole 2.5D interface overall. You'll need a current video card to do it, though. PCI cards and older AGP cards with prior to the Radeon or GeForce2MX are technologically inferior to today's offerings and will not support "Quartz Extreme" (though they will run 10.2 just fine without it).
  • Reply 5 of 13
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    [quote]Originally posted by starfleetX:

    <strong>. PCI cards and older AGP cards with prior to the Radeon or GeForce2MX are technologically inferior to today's offerings and will not support "Quartz Extreme" (though they will run 10.2 just fine without it).</strong><hr></blockquote>



    That's not Apple say on his own site after WWDC. Quartz extreme will be supported by geforce 2 mx and radeon AGP card.



    From the french site : *Â*NVIDIA : GeForce2MX, GeForce3, GeForce4 Ti, GeForce4 ou GeForce4MX. ATI : toute carte AGP Radeon. 32 Mo de VRAM recommandés pour une performance optimale.



    [ 05-31-2002: Message edited by: powerdoc ]</p>
  • Reply 6 of 13
    I do not have the link anymore, but about a month ago it was announced a company made something to the effect of direct x for the mac, and it can be used to port over programs and games very easily to the Mac...
  • Reply 7 of 13
    badtzbadtz Posts: 949member
    how did os 9 handle 2D info?
  • Reply 8 of 13
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    [quote]Originally posted by powerdoc:

    <strong>That's not Apple say on his own site after WWDC. Quartz extreme will be supported by geforce 2 mx and radeon AGP card.</strong><hr></blockquote>The key words of my post were prior to, meaning cards that were released before the Radeon and GeForce2MX.
  • Reply 9 of 13
    pesipesi Posts: 424member
    [quote]Originally posted by Badtz:

    <strong>how did os 9 handle 2D info?</strong><hr></blockquote>

    OS9's 2D was done through the venerable QuickDraw. OSX uses the Quartz PDF based engine. I believe Quickdraw is still used in some Carbon apps. I may be wrong on that.
  • Reply 10 of 13
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    [quote]Originally posted by Jeremiah Rich:

    <strong>I do not have the link anymore, but about a month ago it was announced a company made something to the effect of direct x for the mac, and it can be used to port over programs and games very easily to the Mac...</strong><hr></blockquote>



    ...i remember hearing this...
  • Reply 11 of 13
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    So do I. Does anyone have a link, or are we just getting dimensia?
  • Reply 12 of 13
    fuzz_ballfuzz_ball Posts: 390member
    [quote]Originally posted by Aquatik:

    <strong>So do I. Does anyone have a link, or are we just getting dimensia?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    You guys (I mean that in a gender-neutral way) are thinking of one of two things:



    1) MacDX, which you can read about <a href="http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?ArticleID=5250"; target="_blank">here</a>



    or



    2) Dynamite, which you can read about <a href="http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?ArticleID=5461"; target="_blank">here</a>





    Neither is about "porting DirectX" to the Mac. The first, MacDX, is simply a "wrapper" around the DirectX calls that allow programmers to more easily port games from Windows to Mac. However, this is likely to only be beneficial to PC shops looking to expand, or brand new Mac porting shops, as the existing Mac porting shops are sure to have their own wrapper classes that they use when porting DirectX code.



    Dynamite is a little different, and admittedly I've read very little of it, but it takes the concept that has been applied to the Transmeta chips (you remember them don't you?) and twists it into a form that will potentially allow cross-platform-deployement (we've heard this before, say it all together "Java"). Whether or not Dynamite lives up to it's promise remains to be seen. I'm not trying to imply that it can't, just that I'm skeptical at this point <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />



    [ 05-31-2002: Message edited by: fuzz_ball ]</p>
  • Reply 13 of 13
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    [quote]Originally posted by starfleetX:

    <strong>The key words of my post were prior to, meaning cards that were released before the Radeon and GeForce2MX.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Opps sorry .
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