Well, nice idea in theory. The reality is however the 360 has a power PC architecture: the byte ordering in all of the assets needs to be reversed; the code that's been split to run over 6 threads has to be reduced to run on dual/quad core; The hand crafted maths routines using the altivec instruction set (with 128registers) need to be ported to SSE (with 8). And the list goes on. The original xbox was similar in architecture to a PC, but the 360 is much nearer to an old G5 PowerMac.
Trust me, there is actually very little indeed that would be identical.
In fairness, they've improved it a lot for the mighty mouse 2. All you need to do for a right click, is to point your mouse at the screen, and slap your forehead with your left hand until the context menu appears.
Nope, but even if a Wii game is projected to cost 1million, you still need to raise that capital in order to develop it. That's likely to be the biggest challenge at the moment...
OpenGL is apparently more of a pain to develop for than DirectX (I've never tried DirectX so I don't know).
OpenGL is a pita because it's quite a fragmented API due to the extension mechanism. Most games however don't use either - instead they'll use the low level API's provided for the console.
In these days of consoles with built in networking and storage, you could easily make console games that allow you to use mods.
Not that easily at all. First you need to distribute the console SDK + compilers etc. Then you've got to assume that all the people using the SDK are genuine nice people, and aren't using it to either crack the Game, or hack it for cheating. You also have to realise that even armed with that SDK, there are very few people who'd actually be able to do much with it. It's one thing knowing how to write apps in C/C++ for the PC, but that's quite different from writing code for SPE's on the PS3.
Sure, it will probably soon be cheaper (if it isn't already) to build a PC that has better graphics than a PS3 for less money - though it won't have a better processor - but I'm happy with the current arrangement for now.
highlighted the relevant sections there. A midrange geforce card for example, costs less, and has more processing power than the entire PS3....
Yup. For all the MS bashing that goes on, they do actually do some things very right when it comes to programming (ignoring OOXML for a minute - which is always the counter argument....).
DX10 is a better API than OpenGL.
C#/.NET is easier to work with than Java.
The 360 is easier to program for than the PS3 and/or Wii
If they develop a highly parallel language in a similar vein to C#, chances are it will actually be pretty stable, well documented, and have a complete suite of debugging, profiling, and compiler tools. If they supply that, then there's a very good chance there'll be an army of potential developers ready to develop for it....
yes. However I'd prefer to run native 64bit software on my 64bit OS rather than relying on a 32bit emulation layer. Windows 64bit users don't really have any problems running a 32bit browser with 32bit flash with WOW; but the story is different on linux since the 32bit flash doesn't operate very well with 64bit browsers...
And bear in mind it's not just additional memory space you get with 64bit systems - It's the doubled CPU register count that I'm personally interested in....
I think it has more to do with the chicken and the egg scenario on Windows 64 at the moment. You can't get a native 64 bit version of firefox/IE at the moment, so there's no need for 64bit flash.... And since you can't get a 64bit flash player, there's no reason for firefox/IE to switch to 64bit builds.
As for printing your own newspaper/blog, doing so is free from government intervention. The only exception in recent times, was the BBCs refusal to reveal the source regarding the september dossier. I think the feeling of the majority of people i know, was that Tony Blairs government were very wrong for their actions - and by the looks of the current approval ratings, the labour government are likely to be replaced by the conservatives in the next election.
What I'm getting at is that Linux isn't any harder than Windows anymore.
That largely depends on the distro. I've been setting up various XM images of 32 & 64 bit distros over the last week, and some have proved to be a royal pita....
But Windows XP usable on only 128 MBs? and on a 500mhz Celeron? now *that* smells fishy.
I've had XP running happily on lower specs than that....
1. use nLite to generate a stripped down XP install (disable GUI and other crap)
2. Disable any other services you don't need.
3. Defrag the disks
4. Choose your virus scanner carefully (i.e. find a non bloated one)
Then you're doing something wrong - the minimum requirements for XP are a 233Mhz P2. By the wording of your post, I assume you didn't actually bother trying a clean install of XP on that machine before going ahead and installing Xubuntu.
My parents have been running XP on a 500Mhz Pentium3 for the last 4 or 5 years or so. It still does everything they need, and they've never complained about it being slow - probably because it's fine for what they need (firefox/word/bit of photo editing).
To get the most out of it, it is worth turning off all graphical effects, themes, and any unused services; but then you won't get Xubuntu running any faster on that hardware without doing a similar amount of OS tweaking...
The big problem is that there is very little competition left in the 3D industry. Maya, Max and MotionBuilder are all owned by Autodesk - unfortunately the biggest competitor to Maya, is 3ds Max, which isn't really competition at all...
XSI/modo/lightwave/cinema4D/rhino are all alternative products, but unfortunately their market share is too small to make too much difference.
Then lets talk about innovations in the 3D graphics world - since the geforce 1 was introduced, new and original research has largely been replaced with papers that put 10+ year old techniques onto the GPU. The GP has a very valid point here, there is very little research being done that actually provides new and useful improvements to the users actual workflow.
The problems mentioned by Cathoderaytube that he finds in Maya, are all present in the other packages as well. These are not 'bugs', they are mathematical flaws that need some pretty dedicated R&D to come up with new solutions. If you are about to embark on a Phd in 3D graphics, go and talk to an animator for a day, and you'll very quickly find yourself with 50+ research topics to investigate. I think it's safe to say that there wouldn't be a single GPU topic in that list.... but if you implement just 1 for your Phd, you'll have a few hundred thousand users saying thankyou.
Slashdot Mirror
The 360 is more akin to the G5 PowerMac.
Well, nice idea in theory. The reality is however the 360 has a power PC architecture: the byte ordering in all of the assets needs to be reversed; the code that's been split to run over 6 threads has to be reduced to run on dual/quad core; The hand crafted maths routines using the altivec instruction set (with 128registers) need to be ported to SSE (with 8). And the list goes on. The original xbox was similar in architecture to a PC, but the 360 is much nearer to an old G5 PowerMac.
Trust me, there is actually very little indeed that would be identical.
you've got a virus from downloading pron, this pill will help.... ?
In fairness, they've improved it a lot for the mighty mouse 2. All you need to do for a right click, is to point your mouse at the screen, and slap your forehead with your left hand until the context menu appears.
Which does make me wonder - how many of those logitech mice are now in a landfill site along with the billions of AOL CD's sent out in the nineties?
Nope, but even if a Wii game is projected to cost 1million, you still need to raise that capital in order to develop it. That's likely to be the biggest challenge at the moment...
OpenGL is apparently more of a pain to develop for than DirectX (I've never tried DirectX so I don't know).
OpenGL is a pita because it's quite a fragmented API due to the extension mechanism. Most games however don't use either - instead they'll use the low level API's provided for the console.
In these days of consoles with built in networking and storage, you could easily make console games that allow you to use mods.
Not that easily at all. First you need to distribute the console SDK + compilers etc. Then you've got to assume that all the people using the SDK are genuine nice people, and aren't using it to either crack the Game, or hack it for cheating. You also have to realise that even armed with that SDK, there are very few people who'd actually be able to do much with it. It's one thing knowing how to write apps in C/C++ for the PC, but that's quite different from writing code for SPE's on the PS3.
Sure, it will probably soon be cheaper (if it isn't already) to build a PC that has better graphics than a PS3 for less money - though it won't have a better processor - but I'm happy with the current arrangement for now.
highlighted the relevant sections there. A midrange geforce card for example, costs less, and has more processing power than the entire PS3....
Yup. For all the MS bashing that goes on, they do actually do some things very right when it comes to programming (ignoring OOXML for a minute - which is always the counter argument....).
DX10 is a better API than OpenGL.
C#/.NET is easier to work with than Java.
The 360 is easier to program for than the PS3 and/or Wii
If they develop a highly parallel language in a similar vein to C#, chances are it will actually be pretty stable, well documented, and have a complete suite of debugging, profiling, and compiler tools. If they supply that, then there's a very good chance there'll be an army of potential developers ready to develop for it....
I think it's probably safe to say it'll only be available as a 512bit build.
yes. However I'd prefer to run native 64bit software on my 64bit OS rather than relying on a 32bit emulation layer. Windows 64bit users don't really have any problems running a 32bit browser with 32bit flash with WOW; but the story is different on linux since the 32bit flash doesn't operate very well with 64bit browsers...
And bear in mind it's not just additional memory space you get with 64bit systems - It's the doubled CPU register count that I'm personally interested in....
I think it has more to do with the chicken and the egg scenario on Windows 64 at the moment. You can't get a native 64 bit version of firefox/IE at the moment, so there's no need for 64bit flash.... And since you can't get a 64bit flash player, there's no reason for firefox/IE to switch to 64bit builds.
iStool
As a high earner, I pay 22% income tax for the first £34,800 (~$54800), and 40% for anything above that. Your 60% claim is false.
True we are not allowed to own guns, but neither are the murderers.... If the USA and England and Wales had the same population size, the USA would have 34 times the number of shooting homicides that the UK has.
As for printing your own newspaper/blog, doing so is free from government intervention. The only exception in recent times, was the BBCs refusal to reveal the source regarding the september dossier. I think the feeling of the majority of people i know, was that Tony Blairs government were very wrong for their actions - and by the looks of the current approval ratings, the labour government are likely to be replaced by the conservatives in the next election.
she'll be back - probably with arnie as VP for the next election.... ;)
What I'm getting at is that Linux isn't any harder than Windows anymore.
That largely depends on the distro. I've been setting up various XM images of 32 & 64 bit distros over the last week, and some have proved to be a royal pita....
But Windows XP usable on only 128 MBs? and on a 500mhz Celeron? now *that* smells fishy.
I've had XP running happily on lower specs than that....
1. use nLite to generate a stripped down XP install (disable GUI and other crap)
2. Disable any other services you don't need.
3. Defrag the disks
4. Choose your virus scanner carefully (i.e. find a non bloated one)
Then you're doing something wrong - the minimum requirements for XP are a 233Mhz P2. By the wording of your post, I assume you didn't actually bother trying a clean install of XP on that machine before going ahead and installing Xubuntu.
My parents have been running XP on a 500Mhz Pentium3 for the last 4 or 5 years or so. It still does everything they need, and they've never complained about it being slow - probably because it's fine for what they need (firefox/word/bit of photo editing).
To get the most out of it, it is worth turning off all graphical effects, themes, and any unused services; but then you won't get Xubuntu running any faster on that hardware without doing a similar amount of OS tweaking...
Until your boss walks in the room and you need to do a quick alt-tab.... ;)
I was thinking it'd be a better idea to use it on the mothers.... ;)
no, that's too memorable. Try Tesco value Scotch instead...
you'd need a new meme...
imagine a trailer park cluster of these....
or turn it into a DVD projector...
The big problem is that there is very little competition left in the 3D industry. Maya, Max and MotionBuilder are all owned by Autodesk - unfortunately the biggest competitor to Maya, is 3ds Max, which isn't really competition at all...
XSI/modo/lightwave/cinema4D/rhino are all alternative products, but unfortunately their market share is too small to make too much difference.
Then lets talk about innovations in the 3D graphics world - since the geforce 1 was introduced, new and original research has largely been replaced with papers that put 10+ year old techniques onto the GPU. The GP has a very valid point here, there is very little research being done that actually provides new and useful improvements to the users actual workflow.
The problems mentioned by Cathoderaytube that he finds in Maya, are all present in the other packages as well. These are not 'bugs', they are mathematical flaws that need some pretty dedicated R&D to come up with new solutions. If you are about to embark on a Phd in 3D graphics, go and talk to an animator for a day, and you'll very quickly find yourself with 50+ research topics to investigate. I think it's safe to say that there wouldn't be a single GPU topic in that list.... but if you implement just 1 for your Phd, you'll have a few hundred thousand users saying thankyou.
I think you mean 24 a week...
Will sarah palin get a similar fine for using Yahoo mail to conduct official business?
Secondly, would the fine and prison term be that large if it was any old persons e-mail he hacked* into.
*If you consider asking Yahoo for the password to be hacking