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Mac OS X: Game Developer's Playground
Mauro Notarianni writes: "In the Stepwise article, 'Mac OS X: Game Developer's Playground,' Troy Stephens writes, "Mac OS X has the potential to be a superb launching pad for doing game development.'
The author describes how 'Cocoa's developer productivity benefits, when combined with Mac OS X's strong support for technologies such as OpenGL and QuickTime, can empower game developers to create the custom production tools they often need in a fraction of the programmer hours it takes on other platforms.'"
is getting all the companies writing in DirectX to start using OpenGL more often. Get some more of those damn cool PC games ported! Especially the MMORPGs!
The article is talking about internal tools though - not the final shipping product, but all the little pre-production tools that get written along the way.
Since most of these are written on a pretty ad-hoc basis without any real design, a RAD approach does make a lot of sense.
-dair
You have to realize that the box you do your developement on and the target box for the game need not be the same architecture. Many stages of developement can be done on one machine and cross-compiled to the other. I haven't tried it yet, (probably never will because I really don't have the desire to write for windows), but it would be relatively easy to set up a developement environment in Linux that builds an executable for Windows, and to launch the program for testing over a Samba share on the Windows side. So doing the same from a Mac to Windows shouldn't be that difficult.
I'm the big fish in the big pond bitch.
Everyone seems to have forgotten DOOM. The original DOOM development was done on NEXTSTEP -- from the same NeXT later bought by Apple that now gives you Cocoa. And it sold zillions of copies on PCs. As did Quake (more NEXTSTEP development). All the tools used then have evolved.
It might be easier to make money in the Mac market. Almost all PC games are available via warez channels seconds after official release. Mac games are very hard to find, which makes you buy games more often since it's not worth the time searching for something you want.
War is one of the most horrible things a human can be exposed to. And one of the worlds largest industries.
The article is mostly talking about building games, and the ability to create the tools to do so.
That said, think about the market for the "highend" gamers. You know...the %4 of us that actually buy a GeForce 3 when they first come out? Many such gamers would love to move off of Windows, especially the 98 variants. While Win2k helps a lot, in the end it's still Windows. Many are pushing for Linux to be the next great gaming OS, so much so that more then a few major game companies have already targeted it (even if not completely successful, ala Loki). Linux however, has a long, long way to go (to be very, very kind).
If all the "hot new games" start coming out for Mac (even if they also come out for Windows and/or Linux), it suddenly makes Mac an extremely attractive system for gamers. Gamers of course, being the only people who own a computer that are likely to actually buy a new one before 2030...
Now, if building games on Mac is easier, faster, and thus results in better games to market sooner...
If building a game under Mac implies open standards such as OpenGL instead of DirectX, thus enabling the game to target Mac, Windows, Linux, etc without nearly so much trouble...
The math becomes easy. Develop under Windows and we sell to say, 90% of the market. Develop our game under Mac and we sell to 100% of the market (5% Mac lets say another %5 Linux/Other)...AND we get to market faster AND our development is cheaper... The choice is clear, IMHO.
My
You used to develop applications quickly in VB, now Cocoa has gone above and beyond, letting you build *good* applications quickly.
I agree 100%. In other news, TBL didn't use the NeXT platform to develop the WWW because NeXT had virtually no market share, and everyone's favorite game, DOOM, also wasn't developed on the NeXT because it had virtually no market share. I will be updating the history books accordingly.
</sarcasm>
Neat article, but the conclusion is badly flawed. The main thrust seems to be "Cocoa/OpenGL doesn't require you to map out your VRAM like Playstation 1 did, so that makes it easy to write games!"
Does it hell. It removes one obstacle, but it's not going to write the game for you, nor is it going to make the Mac a more attractive proposition - technically or as a market - than DirectX, either XBox or generic PC Windoze versions. Hobbyists take note, but commercial developers, don't get too excited.
OpenGL is a fine API, and I'll happily accept that Cocoa is nice too, but the whole DirectX SDK really has matured into something usable. Many AAA Windows games now ship with only D3D (no OpenGL) 3D support (Max Payne, Operation:Flashpoint spring immediately to mind) and it doesn't hurt them. The big downside to using DirectX is cross platform portability (porting the app, and the DirectPlay network component), but commercialism comes into play again: it's better for a game to work really well under DirectX only than to work fairly well under DirectX and on Macs (or Linux for that matter).
If this means anything to anyone, I used to work for a company that was writing native D3D Retained Mode games, back in the DirectX 3/5 days. It was a suicidally stupid thing to do, and the games side of that company did indeed collapse under the weight of ripping the thing apart and starting over with D3DIM / OpenGL / glide support. I've no historical reason to love DirectX, or to think that apps hardwired to a specific API are a good idea. But even given that, I still think that a native DirectX 8 game makes a lot more sense, both technically and commercially, than OpenGL/Cocoa on a Mac platform.
Sorry guys, but this reads like another "I love Macs, so here comes the cognitive dissonance," article designed to get people on board the Macwagon. The only thing I can completely agree with is that developing for the Playstation 1 was like trying to teach a chimp to recite Shakespeare translated into Latin.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Yes, but the only people that care about upgradable video cards are YOU PEOPLE! The people that would buy the iMac are not the kind that sit and fret over what kind of video card they have, and what their FPS is in Quake 8. I know its been said before around here, but the iMac is not designed for you, the iMac is designed for people who want to check their e-mail, surf the web, play their MP3s, print their digital photos, (insert iApp here); all on a box that don't look like the big beige monster took a crap on their desk. (/Rant)
OK, glad I got that out of my system. Personally, I think OS X is the best thing since sliced bread (and maybe even cheese in a can!). The implementation of OpenGL is 3x what it is in Classic Mac OS. My Quake 2 (yes I'm a purist) framerates jumped 20 FPS just from switching to OS X. 60+ FPS on a 3 year old system on your Rage 128 makes me a happy little camper.
11 was a racehorse
12 was 12
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If computer costs really factor into your decision, you don't make a living coding.
My PC environment was easily over 5K when including a laptop (bought 3 months used to save $800 off the costs), a docking station at home and the office, Win2K, Off2K Pro, Visio Enterprise Edition, Text Editors that don't suck, etc.
We may switch the office over to Macs. The OS X experiment was promissing, but the platform isn't there yet. 6 Months? Hell yeah. We do PHP/Java development. The cost of the Windows machines don't even account for the hardware to have a Unix development environment to actually work in.
Alex
Sadly I must say I beleive most people posting here have not understood anything about the article. The article is not about making games for MacOSX but making the tools to make the games. Like map editors, texture encoders, character editors and other authoring... And also tools to manage the actual flow of development or help with managing ressources. The PlayStation VRAM map tool is exactly that. think of it as tool to help the team manage the VRAM on the playstation.
That doesn't mean the game is on OS X, just that OSX is nice to build support tools for game development.
It shouldn't come as a surprise. I remember Id made a map editor on NeXTSTEP a while back in the Doom days if I remember well... anyway... NeXTSTEP is one of the ancestors to OS X.
I must say prototyping is indeed much much faster on OS X. And I don't feel like I am a super pro in it yet. It pays to develop the concept on OSX before developing the actual app on whatever platform you need it on.
Hey, fogey, if we took this reasoning to its logical conclusion, we'd still be writing machine code by hand. Not assembler, mind you, machine code.
If Apple would *really* like to woo game developers, they should bring Input/GameSprockets to OS X. QuickTime and OpenGL are nice, but using a mouse/keyboard for game input is jsut plain unacceptable to most gamers.
How will I get my Money Puzzle Exchanger fix?!?!
- Brad Carps Just Another Mac Perl Hacker #!/usr/bin/l33t