Would it be possible for MS to just drop Direct3D and use OpenGL instead? I mean, as 3d API's, could they be that interchangeable?
Not that that scenario seems likely, as otherwise MS would have stayed in the consortium, but I'm curious here....or is that how things work anyway, using OpenGL for the gfx and DirectX for the input (on Windows machines, anyway)? Seems doubtfull, but I'm curious...
"You can always build on top of the OpenGL foundation, and use the hardware specific, cutting edge stuff on top of that.
Erm...if you're going to do that then be done with OpenGL all together and write to the GPU and video buffers directly, no? The whole point of a general API is that it encapsulates widely used features in a vendor neutral format. Calling vendor extensions hardly qualifies and at best could be a hack."
Doesn't apply, as we're talkin cutting edge here. The basis has to be sound, but talking about a complete assembly re-write is just...uh...dumb. The top-of the line shit has to be programmed in manually...how do you think Q3 was using shaders before Directx or OpenGL had propper implementations of them? Because Carmack built em custom.
"If you like having a tattered API that changes more often than your underwear, then go with DirectX
Yes, and if you want a car that doesn't progress as often as your underwear buy a East German Trabant...still the same car it was in 1960!"
No, the proper analogy would be a rolls royce, built solidly, which still drives perfectly because of the time spent on the basics, as opposed to a lesser car, which has been re-engineered in too short a time to incorporate the latest flash.
Hehe...that's the reason Carmack actually sits in on Directx discussion conferences held by MS...just to make sure they don't make absolutely boneheaded mistakes.
I have to agree with the AC, but I'll add one more thing: you learn. It's like the same reason you start with Newtons laws and then go over to more complex ways of describing reality...it's hard to do it without the intermediate step.
Yeah, but don't forget that white culture doesn't respect intelligence either...it respects money, power and physical prowess. Not intelligence...geek is a 'white' word.
And the upshot of this is that someone who can throw a ball gets paid millions (litterally), someone who can steal and abuse an idea gets billions, someone who can sell himself gets to fleece a nation and someone who is smart (in everything but maybe marketing and/or finances) gets a comparable pittance for finding out how the universe works and translating that to something usefull (like artificial hearts, computer chips or stronger materials).
Hehe..good point. I hadn't noticed it before, but it leads me to the conclusion that the problem with the gaming industry is that the american games suck. Look at the innovation coming from Japan, China, England, Russia and the former Soviet Union (all the titles you mentioned before, those rediculous but fun Japanese titles soon to be released on budget [a mosquito sim? But it's a cool game, apparently]Operation Flashpoint, GTA, Startopia, soon to be released in the western world Paradise Cracked and the WIP which is S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and many others).
And it can't be the production method: Konami, Nintendo et al have huge teams and budgets too. Or the distribution/publisher deals. I think it's got more to do with famous moviemaker Samuel Goldwyn's quote "You can never go broke underestimating the taste of the american public".
Heh...that used to be oft quoted, because as it stands, that's a true figure. However, if you do a correct analysis, you find a fatal flaw...the US has a lot of inhabitants.
So if you where to look at the EU vs the US in terms of money spent on developing nations, you'll find that they spend roughly equal amounts (with a roughly equal amount of inhabitants).
As for that whole 'policeman of the world' thing...the US started that itself when it said it would provide (military) forces instead of paying it's UN membership fees.
I'm afraid she understand the real world. Fact is, what is said on/., metafilter and kuroshin has not a lot of bearing on the real world, outside of the tech sector. Sure, Adobe might change an option, MS might lose 0.01% of marketshare, but the fact remains that unless geeks like us (sorry for the generalisation) talk to people in the real world, those who don't check out/. et al, they won't know. Posting online is mostly preching to the choir. Talking politics to complete strangers in a bar or over dinner to non-geeks, or teaching a kid how to calculate...that equates real world change. Anything else is intellectual masterbation which doesn't achieve as much.
Do a goole for "pda translation software camera" or something like it. Eventually you'll hit upon a company which in the next couple of months will release a piece of software that enables people with a pda/camera to take a pic of a chines/japanes/whetever streetsign and have the pda OCR and translate it. Talk about an essential travel tool:)
Go to the New York Times website and search for 'US ambassador resignation' or something like it...it's a letter of resignation from the US ambassador to Greece stating why he's resigning. Because of the implications it has, it is a scary read...and something I think all americans should read, as it goes some way to an understanding of why you should think long and hard about your countries policies.
At first I thought you were talking about Bush...you know, the guy who is president of the country with the largest stockpile of nuclear, bacterialogical and chemical weapons?
Now I agree with taking out Saddam...but not for cheap oil, re-election and at the cost of stability a few large parts of the world (namely the middle east, the EU and the developing countries which are in support of Bush as long as they get money).
BTW, what does Iraq have to do with terrorists? Whatever happened to that 'war on terror'? Even the american intelligence community has published reports stating that Iraq is a non-issue, which would only pose a threat if attacked? Even if they did have NBC's (which that Iraqi defector which Bush and Ashcroft quote extensively say were destroyed in '95), they'd only use them if they had their backs against the wall...Bush, by his own course of actions, is actually making the US a less safe place to be!
That's a bit of a 'duh' statement...like saying "where would the US be if it couldn't sell to China and the EU"...of course everyone would be fscked if that where the case.
Actually, games cost a lot to produce. AAA titles now take up to a hundred people to make, and take anything from 2-4 years to produce. As for costs, they're rapidly approaching movie budgets.
ANd for your final point: to true...look at the new Matrix game coming out...it does exactly that: hell, an extra hour of Matrix moviefootage was shot (with all the actors) specifically for the game. Plus there's all these paths in the Matrix game which have bearing (and lead to insight) on the movies themselves, and visa-versa.
Oh, and all the actors of the Lord of the Rings did voice-acting for the LotR video game.
-a video game doesn't teach youhow to frie a gun. It might teach you how to aim one, and how to walk around corners, but it doesn't teach you anything about handling a gun -this is actually very much an argument for more realistic gore/violence in games/movies. That will teach that violence actually has consequences. Having no gore 'teaches' that violence has no consequence beyond the bad guy falling to the floor. Having 'real' gore teaches that if you were to shoot someone, there would be guts, death and mayor consequences. Even if one were to be desensetised by that, there is no question that the concious mind will know that fact, and would therefore refrain from violence. Therefore, I truly beleive Germany's policy on videogame-violence to be couter productive....you get people who have less of an idea of the impact and consequences of violence; and that leads them to be more inclined to follow that path.
Slashdot Mirror
Would it be possible for MS to just drop Direct3D and use OpenGL instead? I mean, as 3d API's, could they be that interchangeable?
Not that that scenario seems likely, as otherwise MS would have stayed in the consortium, but I'm curious here....or is that how things work anyway, using OpenGL for the gfx and DirectX for the input (on Windows machines, anyway)? Seems doubtfull, but I'm curious...
"You can always build on top of the OpenGL foundation, and use the hardware specific, cutting edge stuff on top of that.
...uh...dumb. The top-of the line shit has to be programmed in manually...how do you think Q3 was using shaders before Directx or OpenGL had propper implementations of them? Because Carmack built em custom.
Erm...if you're going to do that then be done with OpenGL all together and write to the GPU and video buffers directly, no? The whole point of a general API is that it encapsulates widely used features in a vendor neutral format. Calling vendor extensions hardly qualifies and at best could be a hack."
Doesn't apply, as we're talkin cutting edge here. The basis has to be sound, but talking about a complete assembly re-write is just
"If you like having a tattered API that changes more often than your underwear, then go with DirectX
Yes, and if you want a car that doesn't progress as often as your underwear buy a East German Trabant...still the same car it was in 1960!"
No, the proper analogy would be a rolls royce, built solidly, which still drives perfectly because of the time spent on the basics, as opposed to a lesser car, which has been re-engineered in too short a time to incorporate the latest flash.
Hehe...that's the reason Carmack actually sits in on Directx discussion conferences held by MS...just to make sure they don't make absolutely boneheaded mistakes.
Those articles arent there because many companies make alternate memory sticks (lexmark, for one), alternate controlers and alternate memory cards.
Ah....I get your point.
Still, it's a good busines move in the same way that what they did to Netscape and Jave was a good business move.
I have to agree with the AC, but I'll add one more thing: you learn. It's like the same reason you start with Newtons laws and then go over to more complex ways of describing reality...it's hard to do it without the intermediate step.
Yeah, but don't forget that white culture doesn't respect intelligence either...it respects money, power and physical prowess. Not intelligence...geek is a 'white' word.
And the upshot of this is that someone who can throw a ball gets paid millions (litterally), someone who can steal and abuse an idea gets billions, someone who can sell himself gets to fleece a nation and someone who is smart (in everything but maybe marketing and/or finances) gets a comparable pittance for finding out how the universe works and translating that to something usefull (like artificial hearts, computer chips or stronger materials).
Strange, isn't it.
Oh.
The end.
Hehe..good point. I hadn't noticed it before, but it leads me to the conclusion that the problem with the gaming industry is that the american games suck. Look at the innovation coming from Japan, China, England, Russia and the former Soviet Union (all the titles you mentioned before, those rediculous but fun Japanese titles soon to be released on budget [a mosquito sim? But it's a cool game, apparently]Operation Flashpoint, GTA, Startopia, soon to be released in the western world Paradise Cracked and the WIP which is S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and many others).
And it can't be the production method: Konami, Nintendo et al have huge teams and budgets too. Or the distribution/publisher deals. I think it's got more to do with famous moviemaker Samuel Goldwyn's quote "You can never go broke underestimating the taste of the american public".
Heh...that used to be oft quoted, because as it stands, that's a true figure. However, if you do a correct analysis, you find a fatal flaw...the US has a lot of inhabitants.
So if you where to look at the EU vs the US in terms of money spent on developing nations, you'll find that they spend roughly equal amounts (with a roughly equal amount of inhabitants).
As for that whole 'policeman of the world' thing...the US started that itself when it said it would provide (military) forces instead of paying it's UN membership fees.
Ah...you're talking about Bush, aren't you?
Either that or put them in space...maybe they'll get the same feeling all the astronauts talk about when they see the earth from space...
Anyone else read Yukinobu Hoshimo's '2001 nights'?
By the time we got a 286, we got a top of the line 40 mb HDD to go with it...and you're saying you plugged one into a freakin' Tandy!?!? Uh-huh.
I'm afraid she understand the real world. Fact is, what is said on /., metafilter and kuroshin has not a lot of bearing on the real world, outside of the tech sector. Sure, Adobe might change an option, MS might lose 0.01% of marketshare, but the fact remains that unless geeks like us (sorry for the generalisation) talk to people in the real world, those who don't check out /. et al, they won't know. Posting online is mostly preching to the choir. Talking politics to complete strangers in a bar or over dinner to non-geeks, or teaching a kid how to calculate...that equates real world change. Anything else is intellectual masterbation which doesn't achieve as much.
That's actually quite funny...she's a Nobel prize winner, and you're talking about 'more exposure' :)
I do agree though: an eye opening account, the like of which I'd like to see a lot more of in print and on the web.
Do a goole for "pda translation software camera" or something like it. Eventually you'll hit upon a company which in the next couple of months will release a piece of software that enables people with a pda/camera to take a pic of a chines/japanes/whetever streetsign and have the pda OCR and translate it. Talk about an essential travel tool :)
Go to the New York Times website and search for 'US ambassador resignation' or something like it...it's a letter of resignation from the US ambassador to Greece stating why he's resigning. Because of the implications it has, it is a scary read...and something I think all americans should read, as it goes some way to an understanding of why you should think long and hard about your countries policies.
At first I thought you were talking about Bush...you know, the guy who is president of the country with the largest stockpile of nuclear, bacterialogical and chemical weapons?
Now I agree with taking out Saddam...but not for cheap oil, re-election and at the cost of stability a few large parts of the world (namely the middle east, the EU and the developing countries which are in support of Bush as long as they get money).
BTW, what does Iraq have to do with terrorists? Whatever happened to that 'war on terror'? Even the american intelligence community has published reports stating that Iraq is a non-issue, which would only pose a threat if attacked? Even if they did have NBC's (which that Iraqi defector which Bush and Ashcroft quote extensively say were destroyed in '95), they'd only use them if they had their backs against the wall...Bush, by his own course of actions, is actually making the US a less safe place to be!
That's a bit of a 'duh' statement...like saying "where would the US be if it couldn't sell to China and the EU"...of course everyone would be fscked if that where the case.
Nothing happens in a vacuum.
I was more interested in what those american military types where saying...something about picking off nations, and cleansing the world of evil...wtf?
/global/ economy.
Especially so when contrasted with everyone else saying that a war which lasted over 30 days would ruin the
Kinda scary...
NEVER drink the yellow snow!
Ah....
;)
Oh well, bits, bytes, what's the difference?
I think this quote sheds some scarily spooky light on the matter:
"If life immitated video games, we'd be running around in rooms, listening to repetetive music and popping pills all night".
Heh...check google for multiplayer for GTA3 (not VC!): there's group of modders who're working on making those code stubs actually working :)
Actually, games cost a lot to produce. AAA titles now take up to a hundred people to make, and take anything from 2-4 years to produce.
:)
As for costs, they're rapidly approaching movie budgets.
ANd for your final point: to true...look at the new Matrix game coming out...it does exactly that: hell, an extra hour of Matrix moviefootage was shot (with all the actors) specifically for the game. Plus there's all these paths in the Matrix game which have bearing (and lead to insight) on the movies themselves, and visa-versa.
Oh, and all the actors of the Lord of the Rings did voice-acting for the LotR video game.
Just FYI
I agree with you there...but for two things:
-a video game doesn't teach youhow to frie a gun. It might teach you how to aim one, and how to walk around corners, but it doesn't teach you anything about handling a gun
-this is actually very much an argument for more realistic gore/violence in games/movies. That will teach that violence actually has consequences. Having no gore 'teaches' that violence has no consequence beyond the bad guy falling to the floor. Having 'real' gore teaches that if you were to shoot someone, there would be guts, death and mayor consequences. Even if one were to be desensetised by that, there is no question that the concious mind will know that fact, and would therefore refrain from violence.
Therefore, I truly beleive Germany's policy on videogame-violence to be couter productive....you get people who have less of an idea of the impact and consequences of violence; and that leads them to be more inclined to follow that path.