Personally, I plan on buying both the XBOX and GC, but the XBOX ads work better for me.
In any case, I must say EA's ads for SSX Tricky (which will exist on all the major platforms, IIRC) are simple but brilliant..best videogame ads in years, IMO.
Why is this not so with software? Furthermore, if I buy a Honda, why should I expect the Honda corporation to restrict my rights to open the hood of the car, fix the engine if it breaks, etc.?
I find this analogy lacking... The right to fix your engine, open the hood etc maps most closely to the right to reverse engineer, disassemble, etc the binary of software you have purchased. I fully support that right both with cards & software.
However, Honda does not provide you with a blueprint, their CAD/CAM models of parts, detailed specifications of the entire car, etc...If they did, *that* would be like giving you the source code.
Both in cars and computer software, I fully support the end user's rights to use the software in non-standard ways, hack it, paint it purple, whatever.... In neither case do I think the company has a legal or ethical responsibility to give you the source code, or exact blueprints, used to create the product. If they do, that's wonderful... I'm not anti-Open Source, I just think it should be entirely left to the developers to make that decision on a per-project basis, and those who proclaim that there's One True Way are just as crazy as religious zealots who spout that stuff and they should be ignored as crackpots, this goes for MS and FSF (and others).
RMS's "Open Source is the One True Way and Closed Source is Evil" stand is the polar opposite of Craig Mundie's "Open Source is evil and communist and Closed Source is the American Way" but I find them equally offensive.
Both should shut the fuck up and let developers release software with whatever license they choose and let the developers (and by extension, users) decide which method wins out...or, more realistically, allow both methods to exist in parallel.
You are right that FPS is only so useful...And the major graphics chip makers agree with you, which is why most modern cards have been increasing focus on these features (AA, bump mapping, shaders, etc).
Why slow down? Its not like NVIDIA releasing faster chips makes your current card any slower...
And its not like Game Developers will stop supporting it..Hell, there's not even any PC games out now that take full advantage of GF3...
In any case, its been pretty much their standard operating procedure to release a new chip every 6 months (well...major features each year, good but incremental upgrades every 6 months).
I guess psychologically it sucks that your card is now not the "cutting edge", but 'release often' has proven to be just as good advice in 3D accelerators as it is in Open Source software..its one of the factors that helped NVIDIA knock 3dfx out of the industry...Why stop now, opening the door to ATI and others?
This complaint is valid not just for FreeCiv, but most Open Source software in general. For all the snickering the OSS crowd does when Microsoft talks about innovation, what exactly has Open Source done in the past 10 years or so that is really original?
I really do support the concepts of OSS in theory, but over the years I've come to see that the vast majority of Open Source projects are poorly implemented, perpetually three-steps-behind, clones of closed source projects.
Almost every console's dev kit looks (in size and in shape) more or less like a PC. This has nothing to do with the contents inside the actual console units.
Further, why would Microsoft care if people knew the XBOX was pretty much a PC? That's been one of their main selling points to developers. They haven't tried to make it a secret.
Why do you keep spouting off on things you seem to know nothing about?
Re:If you really want to screw microsoft...
on
MAME On Xbox
·
· Score: 1
XBOX won't read CD-Rs at all, the laser isn't capable. While it will technically read some CD-RWs, it won't boot them. It will only boot 9 GB format DVDs, with Microsoft's special encryption.
So burning such a CD is about 1000000 times more effort than you are assuming.
Re:Only running on the XDK
on
MAME On Xbox
·
· Score: 1
First, there's the technical issue. The XBOX is designed to only run game discs which are in DVD-9 (9 gb) format..There aren't consumer-level burners that can write that format.
Not only that, but the discs are encrypted, using a secret key that only Microsoft has, not even third party developers have access to it. This is a dual problem..First, technically, someone has to work around the encryption or break it. Of course, I wouldn't bet against this as history has shown that these things almost always have a weakness which someone will eventually exploit, but it opens up a legal issue..breaking the encryption is a DMCA violation, and thus Microsoft could in theory sue as the MPAA/etc did in the DeCSS case.
In the great-scheme-of-things its very useful because LOTS of laptops use winmodems, and when you're 'on the go' you don't always have access to a nice ethernet-terminated connection.
As to why it is worth $20,000 to this guy personally..I have no idea?
While I would agree that there's a lot of cruft in the x86 that isn't needed for a console, the XBOX backs the CPU up with extremely impressive coprocessors for video and sound (+ networking + a few other things).
How can you say they aren't using the 'highest end video cards available'? They are using a chip that is slightly superior to the GeForce 3 for video, plus NVidia's custom multimedia/audio solution which blows every 'consumer' level PC audio solution out of the water.
Even if 'PCs aren't optimized for games', the XBOX, with its PC-like architecture and all is currently the most powerful console on the planet, and will be for the forseeable future...Any developer who isn't deluding him/herself or in some 'strategic' relationship with another console manufacturer will tell you that.
Of course, that isn't really what matters, the success of failure of the XBOX will hinge on whether developers make use of that power to create compelling games that people want to play.
What you are talking about is a different situation. The drivers that showed an 'incredible' increase in performance in Quake2 at the time did so because they allowed Quake2 to make some (though not completely optimized) use of hardware transform.
Other games and benchmarks were generally written for Direct3D (or used old-style OpenGL polygon drawing functions rather than vertex arrays) which at the time had no facilities for accessing HW T&L on a card. Since Quake2 was one of the few (and the most popular, at the time) OpenGL programs that fit this mold, it showed a rather large increase in performance.
The drivers weren't special-cased for Quake2, nor did they decrease the visual quality as is the case with ATI's drivers.
I could while away the hours
Conferrin' with the flowers
Consultin' with the rain
And my head, I'd be scratchin'
While my thoughts were busy hatchin'
If I only had a brain.
I'd unravel ev'ry riddle
For any individ'le
In trouble or in pain
With the thoughts you'd be thinkin'
You could be another Lincoln,
If you only had a brain.
Oh, I could tell you why
The ocean's near the shore,
I could think of things I never thunk before
And then I'd sit and think some more.
I would not be just a nuffin'
My head all full of stuffin'
My heart all full of pain.
I would dance and be merry
Life would be a ding-a-derry
If I only had a brain--Whoa!
Slashdot Mirror
Personally, I plan on buying both the XBOX and GC, but the XBOX ads work better for me.
In any case, I must say EA's ads for SSX Tricky (which will exist on all the major platforms, IIRC) are simple but brilliant..best videogame ads in years, IMO.
Why is this not so with software? Furthermore, if I buy a Honda, why should I expect the Honda corporation to restrict my rights to open the hood of the car, fix the engine if it breaks, etc.?
I find this analogy lacking... The right to fix your engine, open the hood etc maps most closely to the right to reverse engineer, disassemble, etc the binary of software you have purchased. I fully support that right both with cards & software.
However, Honda does not provide you with a blueprint, their CAD/CAM models of parts, detailed specifications of the entire car, etc...If they did, *that* would be like giving you the source code.
Both in cars and computer software, I fully support the end user's rights to use the software in non-standard ways, hack it, paint it purple, whatever.... In neither case do I think the company has a legal or ethical responsibility to give you the source code, or exact blueprints, used to create the product. If they do, that's wonderful... I'm not anti-Open Source, I just think it should be entirely left to the developers to make that decision on a per-project basis, and those who proclaim that there's One True Way are just as crazy as religious zealots who spout that stuff and they should be ignored as crackpots, this goes for MS and FSF (and others).
RMS's "Open Source is the One True Way and Closed Source is Evil" stand is the polar opposite of Craig Mundie's "Open Source is evil and communist and Closed Source is the American Way" but I find them equally offensive.
Both should shut the fuck up and let developers release software with whatever license they choose and let the developers (and by extension, users) decide which method wins out...or, more realistically, allow both methods to exist in parallel.
You are right that FPS is only so useful...And the major graphics chip makers agree with you, which is why most modern cards have been increasing focus on these features (AA, bump mapping, shaders, etc).
Why slow down? Its not like NVIDIA releasing faster chips makes your current card any slower...
And its not like Game Developers will stop supporting it..Hell, there's not even any PC games out now that take full advantage of GF3...
In any case, its been pretty much their standard operating procedure to release a new chip every 6 months (well...major features each year, good but incremental upgrades every 6 months).
I guess psychologically it sucks that your card is now not the "cutting edge", but 'release often' has proven to be just as good advice in 3D accelerators as it is in Open Source software..its one of the factors that helped NVIDIA knock 3dfx out of the industry...Why stop now, opening the door to ATI and others?
This complaint is valid not just for FreeCiv, but most Open Source software in general. For all the snickering the OSS crowd does when Microsoft talks about innovation, what exactly has Open Source done in the past 10 years or so that is really original?
I really do support the concepts of OSS in theory, but over the years I've come to see that the vast majority of Open Source projects are poorly implemented, perpetually three-steps-behind, clones of closed source projects.
Well, luckily George Lucas will be filling the gaps come next year!!
In May 2002, the world will finally see the dangers of cloning and the disasterous effects it could have on The Republic!!!
XBOX controllers are USB, but the physical connectors have been changed from the USB spec.
So while you could, in theory, plug in your own keyboard, gamepads, mice, whatever, you'd have to seriously hack them to make them work.
Almost every console's dev kit looks (in size and in shape) more or less like a PC. This has nothing to do with the contents inside the actual console units.
Further, why would Microsoft care if people knew the XBOX was pretty much a PC? That's been one of their main selling points to developers. They haven't tried to make it a secret.
Why do you keep spouting off on things you seem to know nothing about?
XBOX won't read CD-Rs at all, the laser isn't capable. While it will technically read some CD-RWs, it won't boot them. It will only boot 9 GB format DVDs, with Microsoft's special encryption.
So burning such a CD is about 1000000 times more effort than you are assuming.
First, there's the technical issue. The XBOX is designed to only run game discs which are in DVD-9 (9 gb) format..There aren't consumer-level burners that can write that format.
Not only that, but the discs are encrypted, using a secret key that only Microsoft has, not even third party developers have access to it. This is a dual problem..First, technically, someone has to work around the encryption or break it. Of course, I wouldn't bet against this as history has shown that these things almost always have a weakness which someone will eventually exploit, but it opens up a legal issue..breaking the encryption is a DMCA violation, and thus Microsoft could in theory sue as the MPAA/etc did in the DeCSS case.
In the great-scheme-of-things its very useful because LOTS of laptops use winmodems, and when you're 'on the go' you don't always have access to a nice ethernet-terminated connection.
As to why it is worth $20,000 to this guy personally..I have no idea?
While I would agree that there's a lot of cruft in the x86 that isn't needed for a console, the XBOX backs the CPU up with extremely impressive coprocessors for video and sound (+ networking + a few other things).
How can you say they aren't using the 'highest end video cards available'? They are using a chip that is slightly superior to the GeForce 3 for video, plus NVidia's custom multimedia/audio solution which blows every 'consumer' level PC audio solution out of the water.
Even if 'PCs aren't optimized for games', the XBOX, with its PC-like architecture and all is currently the most powerful console on the planet, and will be for the forseeable future...Any developer who isn't deluding him/herself or in some 'strategic' relationship with another console manufacturer will tell you that.
Of course, that isn't really what matters, the success of failure of the XBOX will hinge on whether developers make use of that power to create compelling games that people want to play.
What you are talking about is a different situation. The drivers that showed an 'incredible' increase in performance in Quake2 at the time did so because they allowed Quake2 to make some (though not completely optimized) use of hardware transform.
Other games and benchmarks were generally written for Direct3D (or used old-style OpenGL polygon drawing functions rather than vertex arrays) which at the time had no facilities for accessing HW T&L on a card. Since Quake2 was one of the few (and the most popular, at the time) OpenGL programs that fit this mold, it showed a rather large increase in performance.
The drivers weren't special-cased for Quake2, nor did they decrease the visual quality as is the case with ATI's drivers.
Why would anyone overclock the XBox, unless they first managed to figure out how to run a standardish OS on it?
The only benefit would be extremely increased system instability on a system already known to have heating issues when not very-well ventilated....
Virtually all console games are frame-locked to 30 or 60 fps, so its not like you're going to get any performance increase out of your games.
Sounds like a waste of time.
Godzilla? FLEE! FLEE!
One of those is a trick question...because everyone has banged Heidi Wall.
Hey tonyc.com,
why don't you shut your ass face?
Hey Walter Bell,
why don't you shut your ass face?
Hey robbyjo,
why don't you shut your ass face?
Hey Krapangor,
why don't you shut your ass face?
Hey FortKnox,
Why don't you shut your ass face??
I could while away the hours
Conferrin' with the flowers
Consultin' with the rain
And my head, I'd be scratchin'
While my thoughts were busy hatchin'
If I only had a brain.
I'd unravel ev'ry riddle
For any individ'le
In trouble or in pain
With the thoughts you'd be thinkin'
You could be another Lincoln,
If you only had a brain.
Oh, I could tell you why
The ocean's near the shore,
I could think of things I never thunk before
And then I'd sit and think some more.
I would not be just a nuffin'
My head all full of stuffin'
My heart all full of pain.
I would dance and be merry
Life would be a ding-a-derry
If I only had a brain--Whoa!
How can you guys worry about Public Domain when airplanes are crashing in NYC???
Don't you know there's a war going on??? I knew you Linux users were communists, but come on!
I'm done reading Slashdot for the next few days. Please mod me down so that all of PacBell/DSL-San Diego will be IP banned with me for a while!!
Thanks for your support!!