Re: [MLUG] Compiz (was "Parallels vs. VMware Fusion for the Mac?")

[ryan woodsmall <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

To get the best performance and any sort of "integration" under OS X,  
which is apparently important to non-technical Mac users, you have to  
utilize their frameworks which are built on top of OpenGL, OpenAL and  
other standards.  A port from Mac OS X to Linux would probably  
require almost as much code as porting from Windows to Mac or Windows  
to Linux.

A game company would probably be better off porting from Windows to  
Linux using SDL and OpenGL,  then porting straight from the Linux  
codebase to OS X while sticking with SDL, then finally replacing the  
SDL bits with OS X-specific functionality to keep the rabid Mac folks  
happy.  With winelib and products like Cedega's Cider, if the code is  
anywhere near decent a recompile might be good enough.

Cross-platform game development is easy if you plan for it from the  
beginning.  The problem is that most companies don't even bother, and  
just ignorantly act like it's still 1999.  Linux (as well as the  
BSDs) and OS X have come a *long* way since then, and the only reason  
they're not considered triple-A platforms is apathy and stubbornness

I know there's a trade-off of developer resources and that a cost/ 
profit balance has to be struck, but cross-platform coding leads to  
much better, more maintainable code if you do it right.  That's  
always been my experience, anyway...

  ryan woodsmall
    EMAIL:PROTECTED


"Be well, do good work, and keep in touch." - Garrison Keillor




On Nov 6, 2007, at 3:15 PM, Hargus, Diana wrote:

> True, but if you are playing an mmorpg and need to do quests, it is  
> very handy to have a browser on one screen and the game on another  :)
>
> Diana
>
> ps one would think if a game designer ported a game to OS X that  
> they would port it to linux /sigh...

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