rec.autos.simulators

by AC » Fri, 04 Jul 1997 04:00:00

4 in mandarin means Death.

> Are kidding?

says...

> > >what about DX4 are they just skipping that?

> > Yes.
> > In many countries the number 4 is considered unlucky and, therefore
> MicroSoft
> > (as well as Psion with their new organiser), are missing out that
number
> and
> > going directly to '5'.

> > SteveR

by **Scott Cumming** » Fri, 04 Jul 1997 04:00:00

says...

>>what about DX4 are they just skipping that?

>Yes.
>In many countries the number 4 is considered unlucky and, therefore
MicroSoft
>(as well as Psion with their new organiser), are missing out that
number and
>going directly to '5'.

>SteveR

That explains why Windows NT4.0 is so lousy ?
And MS-Visual Basic 4 must have been just as bad ?

Come to think off it my Toyota RAV4 must be even worse (I better sell
it and get
a 5 Series BMW, just is case, you never know what lady luck could do
;-)

Scotty

by **John Walla** » Sat, 05 Jul 1997 04:00:00

Actually that's in Japanese - "shi"

Cheers!
John

by **Lee Ca** » Sat, 05 Jul 1997 04:00:00

> 4 in mandarin means Death.

Not quite. The pronounciation for "4" uses the fourth
tone while "death" uses the second tone. But they are
indeed similar and this is the reason the number "4" is
unlucky. In contrast "8" is similar to "to be come rich"
and so it's lucky.

But skipping version numbers is nothing new. Microsoft
word went from version 2.0 to 6.0. Microsoft office
went from 4.3 to 7.0.

On a side note, Microsot Win95 disk version comes on
13 floppy disks. Bill Gates & company must have toiled
over that one...

--

Lee Cao - http://www.glue.umd.edu/~ligeng

Amendment IX: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain
rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others
retained by the people.
Amendment X: The powers not delegated to the United States by
the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

by **Lee Ca** » Sat, 05 Jul 1997 04:00:00

> >4 in mandarin means Death.

> Actually that's in Japanese - "shi"

Actually it's in both Chinese and Japanese. And I suspect that
it is the same for possible other asian languages. Most chinese
people aren't superstitious but they avoid the number "4" if
they can help it.

Note, this "4"-phenomenon is more important to the Japanese,
whom I was told will not buy domestic products in sets of
4... just a rumor. I was also told that they are partial
to odd numbers...

--

Lee Cao - http://www.glue.umd.edu/~ligeng

Amendment IX: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain
rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others
retained by the people.
Amendment X: The powers not delegated to the United States by
the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

by **Steve H. Ri** » Sat, 05 Jul 1997 04:00:00

No.

SteveR

by **Kenny H** » Sat, 05 Jul 1997 04:00:00

> >4 in mandarin means Death.

> Actually that's in Japanese - "shi"

> Cheers!
> John

Not only in Japanese, it works in Cantonese also - "say"

by **Randall Bagwel** » Sun, 06 Jul 1997 04:00:00

> On Wed, 02 Jul 1997 17:31:52 -0500, Randall Bagwell

> >Hmmm. So you can play one demo and form an accurate opinion about an
> >entire API?

> Of course not. I've been there, fighting to get DirectX games to
> work with an older graphics card without full DirectX compatibility.
> But as DirectX improves and the card manufacturers keep up with new
> drivers (only with their newest cards of course) DirectX has gotten
> and will get a lot better.

True. This doesn't make Direct3D better than OpenGL as API, though.

The problem with using OpenGL for *** is not that there are no
drivers, but that most current cards aren't fast enough to run GLQuake
and derivatives at a decent frame rate, anyway. Most of the new cards
that will be released by the end of the year should have the power and
the drivers to accelerate OpenGL. This will take away the only
advantage that D3D has at the moment. I agree that D3D is currently the
safe bet, but I think that the upcoming OpenGL driver support plus
OpenGL being a better API will mean good competition for D3D by the end
of the year. DirectX5 may turn out to be too little, too late since it
won't be released for a few more weeks. I am sure it will be better,
though.

DOS games also run well under OS/2 but to be realistic, DOS is dead for
***.

Direct3D is the least of them at the moment. It is the newest and
seemingly the buggiest component of the DirectX family.

> Mikael K Karlsson

> http://www.racesimcentral.net/
> UIN: 1688686

Randall Bagwell

by s » Sun, 06 Jul 1997 04:00:00

:says...
:>
:>>
:>> 4 in mandarin means Death.
:>>
:>
:>Not quite. The pronounciation for "4" uses the fourth
:>tone while "death" uses the second tone. But they are
:>indeed similar and this is the reason the number "4" is
:>unlucky. In contrast "8" is similar to "to be come rich"
:>and so it's lucky.
:>

No no no.
The pronounciation for "death" uses the third tone,
not the second.

--
--------------------------------
To reply by e-mail,remove NOSPAM
from my e-mail address
--------------------------------

by Jo » Mon, 07 Jul 1997 04:00:00

Will DX5 improve games that use DX3, and will my Mystique still support
it. Thanks.
-Jon

> Um, I wouldn't use lazy and id in the same sentence.

> --

> http://www.racesimcentral.net/

> .

> >Great news. I hope that it will be easier for *** companies to
> >implement Direct3D after this. Especially with lazy ID Software in
> >mind. :-)

by **Steve Vandergrif** » Tue, 08 Jul 1997 04:00:00

> :says...
> :>

> :>>
> :>> 4 in mandarin means Death.
> :>>
> :>
> :>Not quite. The pronounciation for "4" uses the fourth
> :>tone while "death" uses the second tone. But they are
> :>indeed similar and this is the reason the number "4" is
> :>unlucky. In contrast "8" is similar to "to be come rich"
> :>and so it's lucky.
> :>

> No no no.
> The pronounciation for "death" uses the third tone,
> not the second.

> --
> --------------------------------
> To reply by e-mail,remove NOSPAM
> from my e-mail address
> --------------------------------

So, from all of this, might one deduce the reason for the dismal showing
from the Morgan/McClure camp this year? :)

God Bless,
Steve

by **krame** » Tue, 08 Jul 1997 04:00:00

say what?

> > :says...
> > :>

> > :>>
> > :>> 4 in mandarin means Death.
> > :>>
> > :>
> > :>Not quite. The pronounciation for "4" uses the fourth
> > :>tone while "death" uses the second tone. But they are
> > :>indeed similar and this is the reason the number "4" is
> > :>unlucky. In contrast "8" is similar to "to be come rich"
> > :>and so it's lucky.
> > :>

> > No no no.
> > The pronounciation for "death" uses the third tone,
> > not the second.

> > --
> > --------------------------------
> > To reply by e-mail,remove NOSPAM
> > from my e-mail address
> > --------------------------------

> So, from all of this, might one deduce the reason for the dismal showing
> from the Morgan/McClure camp this year? :)

> God Bless,
> Steve

by **Randall Bagwel** » Tue, 08 Jul 1997 04:00:00

> On Sat, 05 Jul 1997 01:18:42 -0500, Randall Bagwell

> >> But as DirectX improves and the card manufacturers keep up with new
> >> drivers (only with their newest cards of course) DirectX has gotten
> >> and will get a lot better.

> >True. This doesn't make Direct3D better than OpenGL as API, though.

> As was it neither the subject for this part of the discussion.

> >The problem with using OpenGL for *** is not that there are no
> >drivers, but that most current cards aren't fast enough to run GLQuake
> >and derivatives at a decent frame rate, anyway.

> It /is/ a big problem that there are no drivers. What you describe

It's definitely a problem that there are no drivers but if the available
games run like ***on 90% of existing hardware then it is much less a
problem.

Most cards should be able to accelerate OpenGL as well as they
accelerate D3D but because GLQuake relies heavily on fill rate it is
definitely a problem for most current cards. GLQuake and games based on
that engine will be the most visible and most popular OpenGL games if
only because they will be first to market. As I said before, this
should not be a problem when new cards start coming out in a couple of
months.

The games that are coming out for DOS seem to be of two types: games
that were too far along in development to be converted to Win95 without
signficant delay and games released for both Win95/DOS. The DOS version
of the latter type usually seems to be an afterthought and is not as
good as it would have been if the game was DOS only. What we are seeing
now is the last of the DOS *** support.

Direct3D has the potential to be the most important part of DirectX but
it is not quite there, yet. Once MS gets finished redesigning the API,
works out more of the bugs, and starts doing a better job of driver
certification, then it will be a great part of DirectX. There are just
too many problems with it right now.

I want this, also. The problem here is that MS has yet to release the
Win95 OpenGL components that will allow developers to easily create
OpenGL drivers. To get true OpenGL acceleration under Win95, OEMs have
to develop a full driver including all OpenGL functionality. Under
those circumstances, it is easy to see why few cards have OpenGL
drivers.

> Mikael K Karlsson

> http://www.racesimcentral.net/
> UIN: 1688686

Randall Bagwell

by **Dirtb** » Tue, 08 Jul 1997 04:00:00

>> :>> 4 in mandarin means Death.
>> :>>
>> :>Not quite. The pronounciation for "4" uses the fourth
>> :>tone while "death" uses the second tone. But they are
>> :>indeed similar and this is the reason the number "4" is
>> :>unlucky. In contrast "8" is similar to "to be come rich"
>> :>and so it's lucky.
>> No no no.
>> The pronounciation for "death" uses the third tone,
>> not the second.

They're jumping right to DirectX 6.
It was just discovered that 5 means "fart" in Sighisoara.

--

by **news adm** » Tue, 08 Jul 1997 04:00:00

>> > :says...
>> > :>

>> > :>>
>> > :>> 4 in mandarin means Death.
>> > :>>
>> > :>
>> > :>Not quite. The pronounciation for "4" uses the fourth
>> > :>tone while "death" uses the second tone. But they are
>> > :>indeed similar and this is the reason the number "4" is
>> > :>unlucky. In contrast "8" is similar to "to be come rich"
>> > :>and so it's lucky.
>> > :>

>> > No no no.
>> > The pronounciation for "death" uses the third tone,
>> > not the second.

>> > --
>> > --------------------------------
>> > To reply by e-mail,remove NOSPAM
>> > from my e-mail address
>> > --------------------------------

>> So, from all of this, might one deduce the reason for the dismal showing
>> from the Morgan/McClure camp this year? :)

>> God Bless,
>> Steve

What was that all about..????

just to stop Spammers ;-)