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Port DirectX Games to the Mac
tassii writes "MacCentral reports that Coderus' MacDX provides PC game developers with a way of moving that DirectX code to the Mac without having to rewrite it from scratch. Coderus claims that most code which uses DirectX can simply be recompiled and linked to the MacDX libraries. Maybe I can finally play the full Command and Conquer series."
The DirectX api is cumbersome and very proprietary. This just gives more developers reason to stick with DirectX. I would much rather see work put into expanding the featureset of OpenGL to include some of the more advanced features that have to be implemented as hacks. Even though the OpenGL featureset is a bit behind directx, it is a pleasure to work with, and so I hate to see anything that undermines the reasons for adopting it.
But there is another kind of evil that we must fear most... and that is the indifference of good men.
This will undermine the potential for games on linux. If the Mac market can be addressed using DirectX, there's less reason to develop opengl apps, which are portable to linux.
But there is another kind of evil that we must fear most... and that is the indifference of good men.
I hate going to the software store and seeing a Mac game for 49.95, then seeing the same title in PC format in the 9.99 sale bin.
I went to college for this?...
... if they don't include support for DirectPlay. There are already a lot of good games for the Mac, but most of them lack network support for mixed win/mac network games.
The latest example: The PTW addon for Civ3. It's not yet decided if there will be a port for the mac, because the main problem is the DirectPlay based network of the windows version.
And since network gaming seems to be the place, the gaming industry is heading, imho there is a need for an free network-api, which is designed for gaming, like directplay.
There's OpenGL, OpenML, now who will create OpenNL for OpenNetwerkLibrary ?
since i didnt see anyone else replied/posted with this mandatory link i did, whoring an' all. the recent starcon2 port uses sdl as well, and thus wa s quickly available on very many platforms instantly.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Perhaps this is a necessary Evil, perhaps it's a poison pill. The jury is still out on Wine and its various ilk, but for OS/2 it was clearly a poison pill.
What's needed is a way to walk the knife-edge down the middle. Perhaps a *good* WINE is just what we don't want. Perhaps a WINE that can be tweaked to do just a few critical things really is living on that knife edge.
Maybe WinOS2 was just too good at running Win3.1 apps, or at least the perception was too good.
As long as WINE isn't perceived as good enough, it will be viewed as only a crutch. WinOS2 was perceived as 'good enough' to neglect a native version, even if enough market was anticipated.
It also remains to be seen how MacDX will be perceived. Hopefully only as a crutch, and a reason to then consider OpenGL and SDL as better solutions.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
This is pure genius folks... it's like using Microsoft's own stuff against them.
I know at least ten Mac users who have said that they keep a Winblows box around to "play games."
VirtualPC is handy, but it just plain sucks when it comes to doing high-end graphics (or, better said, just plain doesn't do high-end graphics).
Everyone is saying its endorsing a Microsoft "standard," but if you think about it it could take people off the Windows desktop, which is really our goal anyway.
So Microsoft gets to license a high-speed graphics library. So it sorta endorses the XBox. Who cares... they don't have monopolies in these areas.
All opinions presented here aren't mine.
If DirecX becomes the only modern graphics library available, we have lost much from our freedom. If all popular computer entertainment would use DirectX, think about the power Microsoft would have.
As long as people keep making good OpenGL games - such as the recent uDevGames contest winner - were safe.
*lbtr
while this seems like it has the potential to slow adoption of opengl, i doubt that all the big-name mac porting companies will suddenly go out of business. there are often multiple versions of games, and it is quite conceivable that these repackaged 'deluxe' editions will be full opengl ports as opposed to just recompiling directx code. this just means we'll see more simultaneous releases, and also that many directx developers will get a taste of opengl... they'll have to keep a mac around to test it on you know ;)
i think it will work more for opengls benefit. it in effect extends mac-pc compatibility in a very striking way.
Directx is Satan spawn. I would hate for this to be the primary graphic base for games on my mac
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
If windows developers were using something more portable than directx, you'd be getting your games anyways...and they'd be on linux...and the programmers would have a more elegant, and less restricted API. Some choices are easy and beneficial in the short run, but damaging in the long run. Do we really want to give Microsoft control over the API's that all game developers use?
But there is another kind of evil that we must fear most... and that is the indifference of good men.
I've read posts from some major Mac game programmers/porters on this topic. This won't have a major effect on their work, as Westlake and Contraband and other Mac porting houses have their own methods of converting from DirectX already. What this will do is help some PC-centric game developers make a Mac version in-house. Whether or not they'll do a good job isn't a given, of course. Personally, I doubt this will have a major effect on Mac game publishing.
"Common Sense Ain't" -Unknown
When it came time to pick an API to develop our new game my project team picked SDL + OpenGL hands-down. We never even considered DirectX. Now that there's a company offering a DirectX-compatible library our answer is the same: No thanks, DirectX! We like SDL. We love OpenGL. We like sharing our work.
But for existing games that were written to the DirectX APIs this should be a great boon. I'd definitely like to see Mac OS X versions of all those games that would otherwise never appear on the Mac.
Incidentally, there's an SDL version of Abuse out there. Has anyone been able to get it to compile and run on Mac OS X yet??
-- thinkyhead software and media
Mac game developers/porters already have similar code. With the exception of DirectPlay, "emulating" DirectX with GameSprockets and OpenGL has been a quite successful strategy for years now. Developers who target Mac along side PC, and porting houses who are hired by developers who just farm it out, already have their Win32/DirectX compatibility libraries, or a neutral library that maps to DirectX and GameSprockets/OpenGL.
The market for this product is pretty much new developers who are not going to farm out the port.
[Apologies for the accidental AC post]