rec.autos.simulators

I wonder at which point some of the software developers feel that they
need to develop simulations for MACs.  Then of course,  would MAC users
and PC users be able to compete against one another online??

Just a question that I have no idea about since I know very little about
Apples.
I havent used an Apple since the Apple IIC in Elementary or Junior
High.  ROFL

Scott
PA-Scott

scott:
High.  ROFL

hey, scott- i had a c-64 and then an amiga right through 2nd yr. of
college..... only 4 yrs. ago. now *that* seems funny in retrospect... i had
bill elliott's nascar challenge. had to buy extra ram for it, too. all the
way up to 1 Meg RAM. and it was still pretty bad....

mark

Jon   Van Ginneken

"I try to do my best every day. If, at the end of the day
I know I did the best job I could do, I am satisfied."

                                  --Alex Zanardi

Sure, to uniformed buyers.  Slick marketing campaign, crappy computer.  And
what the hell is with the colors?  Btw, you can get different colors for
your computer once you buy it, but of course those panels cost dough.  Who
sales them? Only Apple of course.

Yes., they can.  Take a close look at Quake3, it will debut on Linux, Mac
and PC at the same time and through the magic, ehm, of communication
protocols, such as TCP/IP which the internet runs on, it wont matter what OS
you are running.

My first "PC" was a Coleco ADAM.  LOL

Scott
PA-Scott

--
Scott B. Husted
PA-Scott on TEN
G.T.S. Racing - http://www.GTS-Racing.com
High Gear "The View" Editor - http://www.simracingnews.com
http://home.earthlink.net/~sbhusted
ICQ# 4395450

There are unfortunately only ICR2 and NASCAR for Mac. And you can buy a T2
(ACT Labs is preparing its wheel for USB/Mac). There are also a few
offline leagues on the net. Well, there are also Carmageddon I/II and the
Star Wars racing game is coming but to be honest, the mac is seriously
lacking a decent modern racing game like GPL. Even the "bring racing to
mac" campaign that was started two years ago didn't help.

Since all Macs nowadays come with 3d acceleration and OpenGL is available
there is no excuse to not port racing games for mac. The market is there
but the game developers are blind or they fear the unknown.

There are very good examples how game developers should do this. Look at
the products of Bungie (Marathon series, Myth series, Oni). They say that
90% of the code is identical and the machine dependant stuff is in a
library they reuse. These games are indistinguishable on both platforms
and PC users can play against Mac users transparently without problem. In
fact almost all modern network games on Mac use TCP/IP and you can compete
cross-platform (Warcraft, Starcraft, Myth, Unreal, Quake and so on ...)

Herwig

Of course its my personal opinion.  Who else's would it be?  But you are
right in one respect, there are too many PC vs Mac debates already, but
thats the only point I concede.

Most USB devices should work fine with a Mac provided they have the
appropriate drivers for them.

Sure, they come with it.  An ATI based Rage Fury which is now yesterday's
technology and yes, FINALLY they got OpenGL.  However, there are lots of
excuses not to port racing games or games to mac.  Generally because it
takes time and money to do so, the margins are low, etc.  There are some
developers, like id and Bungie, that develop projects in such a way they can
be more easily converted to different platforms, however the majority of the
*** industry doesn't.  Why?  Because the margins are too low for the
larger headaches.

Why should they care?  There isn't a) much of a demand, b) the margins are
even lower than they are on PCs, c) a lot of developers (not saying Papy
does) are starting to rely more and more on DirectX to do a lot of the work
for them (even in games with OpenGL 3D engines) which makes the task of
porting even more difficult, etc.

As for ActLabs, I doubt they are making a seperate special wheel for the Mac
(unless they are color coding them. :?) as they have a USB part, which will
work just fine on a Mac given the right drivers.  If you have to make two
completely different parts then it sorta defeats the purpose of implementing
the same hardware standard on two different platforms, no? :)

Why do you think Quake III Arena was done on the Mac first?

--

Jon   Van Ginneken

"I try to do my best every day. If, at the end of the day
I know I did the best job I could do, I am satisfied."

                                  --Alex Zanardi

Of course marginal costs are lower when you port sim (with ideas and most of
code aleady done), but I don't get why you bring this up...it ruins your
arguement, unless you mean returns?  Which is true, but if a business can make a
profit they should make it.  It's been a while since Papy has tested the Mac
waters so I don't think it's fair to look at the stats of N1 Mac which was
released the same time as N2.  Anyway, who in their right mind wants to buy a
product which is 3 or 4 years old when someone else is getting their brand new
toy?
When I owned a Mac I didn't buy that sim until a year after it's release, yet I
did buy ICR2 Mac the first day Mac/PC Zone recieved it and I also bought GPL the
day Best Buy got it in stock.  Old products don't impress me, like this ever
expanding N2 series.  Ha!  It looks like PC users (including me) are being
played by Papy/Sierra as chumps with money burning holes in their pocket, the
same way they did it to the Mac guys with N1.

For sound and input?  If you do 1 racing game for a Mac I'm sure you can port
most the code for sound and input.

There aren't any drivers on a Mac.

Why would they have to make 2 different?  The point is if they are willing to
make a wheel that does work on a Mac, which means they are gonna need to write a
program for Calibration and the extension(s)...you know what that tells me?  Act
Labs believes there is enough demand to make a profit, if there is enough demand
for a new wheel there will definitely be enough demand

Oh yeah, the PC has really been showing great sales with racing sims of late
SportsCar GT and GPL to my knowledge were pretty poor sellers...you know what
that tells me?  These companies should program with portability in mind, say a
few years down the line Windows may not the #1 OS anymore, this bright idea of
Windows only support would really shoot some companies in the foot....better
hope it's not Y2k! :-)

--

Jon   Van Ginneken

"I try to do my best every day. If, at the end of the day
I know I did the best job I could do, I am satisfied."

                                  --Alex Zanardi