Re:^^^ Until the above is done we lose out
on
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I fear that you'll find this coming down to economics. It's very much like the Flight Simulator field. No "game" flight sim (like MSFS) can afford to be as realistic as an FAA-approved flight simulator. Because: 1) Most people want something "simple" rather than "real"; and 2) The time and effort (read cost) of producing realistic simulations is something that 14 year old Bobby next door can't afford.
You'll notice that Flight Gear is giving it a good shot; but Flight Gear, being Free Software, sidesteps the cost issue by being volunteer work (and having some absolutely mind-boggling volunteers on the project). Plus, I doubt you'll ever see Flight Gear being viewed by anyone as a game.
Maybe... if you put in a newer generation 3DLabs Permedia card.. maybe.
Yeah. The processor isn't the big deal here. But his P60 mobo has sucky memory capacity and bandwidth (and bus bandwidth too) which is a seriously limiting factor. I hate playing RTCW on my old P2-450/128MB (with a GeForce 3, no less) because the maps take forever to load and it's incredibly laggy even with all the detail and graphic settings turned all the way down (at 800x600). I can stick that same GeForce 3 in my 1.4 GHz Athlon w/512 MB of DDR and turn everything all the way up to max and the big maps load in probably about 20 seconds. And it's smooth as silk--even at high resolutions.
You beat me to the punch. I was about to say that we'll probably see 2300 posts about "how much more realistic can render engines go before there's nowhere left?" A hell of a lot more realistic, that's what. I enjoy RTCW as much as the next addict, but it's *not* fooling me. When I get a holodeck and crap in my pants after actually feeling the heat from the Panzer that just hit 100 feet away, *then* we'll talk about nowhere left to go.
Unfortunately, that's not the real problem. We need some real get-the-companies-out-of-politics kind of capmaign finance reform.
Unfortunately, *that's* not the real problem either. The real problem is that most of our population is so ignorant of and apathetic about their civic duties that they fail to properly watchdog the government.
Until Disney, the **AAs and normal industry turn our government back over to us, we're going to keep having these outrages shoved down our throats.
Man, how I wish that were the situation. The sad fact is that we have *given* our government to them by not being active. Everyone goes around mumbling about how getting involved in government doesn't have any impact or isn't important. So who's left? That's right, the people who realize that getting involved in government *does* have an impact--the business community.
You get the majority of our population in their local representatives' offices arguing philosophy of government and law, then we'll talk about "taking back the government for the people."
I agree with your assessment. But there is one nitpick: the movie and recording industries aren't technically a monopoly. I think the term cartel is probably more accurate since there are quite a number of competing firms but they simply get together to set prices and keep the barrier to entry high. Still not good, of course. There was a big sting operation a few years ago with the vitamin supplement companies who were all getting together to screw the customers. I doubt that this will happen to the entertainment industry however.
I was rather thinking of something where people could specialize. People like different things. Some people just can't get enough FPS, while others will give anything to fly a P-51. I was thinking that those who love strategy (and are good at it) could become Generals and direct the placement of all the action nuts. You would need a *lot* of maps simulating different locations. Plus, you would need some way of maintaining a persistent state. If you lose 3 armored personnel carriers in one battle, your company has to march to their next location, thus causing them to lose some of their stamina (which would translate into not being able to move as fast in the heat of battle, losing accuracy in your aim, and so on).
That's a pretty difficult thing to do, I imagine, but that's what makes this stuff fun.
Your post was so full of misunderstanding that you are either woefully ignorant, or trolling, or both in all likelyhood. But in the interest of truth, I'll go ahead and deal with your points.
if there's such a nice API and software development tools, why was nothing ever developed with it.
Because plenty of stuff *has* been developed with it. You're just ignorant of them. For example, it has been heavily used in the intelligence industry and on Wall Street. And I'm sure you've probably heard of Mac OS X, right? Guess what the primary development platform is. You should check out Softrak and the peanuts FTP archive some time too. And maybe the OMNI Group and some others. Is there as much software as there is for Windows? No. Is that because MFC is a superior development platform? Pffffft. It's because Microsoft has the marketing muscle and lock-in advantage (and an awful lot of luck thrown in for good measure).
And why is every application that was developed as part of it so primitive and un-user friendly.
You've never used any of this stuff, have you? There are some quite attractive and usable applications out there. GNUmail is very nice, for instance, and was developed primarily by one author in a very short period of time. Are there poorly designed UIs as well? Of course. But that's the fault of those who design. And that happens everywhere--UNIX, Windows, Mac OS, BeOS, etc.
Is it just a coincidence that it was a brilliant platformed developed by people with no design sense.
I find it to be quite elegant looking. But at any rate, I was talking about the API. Y'know, stuff like Array and String classes and responder chains. Stuff you don't actually "see". How it actually looks is not set in stone. That's why Mac OS X looks completely different but is built on the same basic classes as OPENSTEP or GNUstep.
As with all computer simulations of war, there have to be concessions for the sake of balance. Of course, even in the "real world" nukes are not plausible weapons in conventional warfare anyway.
If you think so, just try marketing a bandage called "Band-Aid" - Johnson & Johnson's well-funded legal department would be on your ass directly. Similarly, Kimberly-Clark ain't gonna let you sell "Kleenex" facial tissues. Xerox won't let you market "Xerox" machines. The Thermos company will lay the legal hurt on you if you try to sell vacuum insulated bottles by that name.
All this is true. However, GETTING BACK TO THE STORY AT HAND, this guy is not a filmmaker. He isn't creating cinematic art and labeling it with a zilla ending. In other words, he's not in their market. This is why you can have Apple Computer and Apple Records and Apple Auto Sales and none of them are infringing each other.
I'll tell you what I want. I want integration of FPS, Flight Combat Sims, Strategy Sims, and Tank Sims into a complete multiplayer battlefield. It would be best if we could make enough networking advances to do it massively multiplayer.
Well I would expect so--different binaries for different architectures. But I suspect that the code base was in sync. Of course, I could be giving Microsoft too much credit. Although, to be fair, *I* wouldn't be able to manage something that big either.
Unfortunately, nobody seems to be working on that.
Nope. The GNUstep project has added a Garbage Collector. It's still experimental and will need some work, but it's there. And Apple is considering it as well. And the guy at Apple in charge of maintaining their gcc extensions is very chummy with the GNUstep crowd. There is work being done on merging the runtimes. It's just going to take a while for it to happen.
Y'know, if I were a content provider, I'd be a lot more worried about the lack of quality in my product than the likelyhood that someone will want to steal it.
I don't because a great number of our target audience (that's paying customers to you dot-bomb folks) are still using Netscape 4.x. A few are still using (shudder) Netscape 2.x or 3.x. We have no choice. And it works; but it ain't easy or fun.
The problem with that is that the dictionary is descriptive rather than prescriptive. A dictionary is just a list of the common usages of words. Therefore, when a word is used enough that editors learn of it, it goes in the dictionary.
Note that I'm not encouraging the use of "productize" and other such words; I think people who say things like that should be tortured to death right in their own marketing boardrooms.
Windows (the NT/2k/XP series, anyway) is probably already 64 bit safe. Remember that NT was available for Alpha, Sparc (and MIPS, I think) at one point?
I'm with you 100%. But I don't understand how this translates into support for IA-64. What it *does* translate into is an aching desire for Alpha to make a comeback. Or for Power 4 to become cheaply available. Because--to borrow an old campaign slogan--"It's about the floating point performance, stupid."
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Just curious why you chose your sig? I know the reference but I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.
Aye! If it's not Scottish, it's CRAP!
Star Trek is intellectual? Wow. Have you ever read any Asimov or Larry Niven?
Buddy! Dude! Homey! Dude! Buddy! Homey! Duuuuuuuude!
You'll notice that Flight Gear is giving it a good shot; but Flight Gear, being Free Software, sidesteps the cost issue by being volunteer work (and having some absolutely mind-boggling volunteers on the project). Plus, I doubt you'll ever see Flight Gear being viewed by anyone as a game.
Yeah. The processor isn't the big deal here. But his P60 mobo has sucky memory capacity and bandwidth (and bus bandwidth too) which is a seriously limiting factor. I hate playing RTCW on my old P2-450/128MB (with a GeForce 3, no less) because the maps take forever to load and it's incredibly laggy even with all the detail and graphic settings turned all the way down (at 800x600). I can stick that same GeForce 3 in my 1.4 GHz Athlon w/512 MB of DDR and turn everything all the way up to max and the big maps load in probably about 20 seconds. And it's smooth as silk--even at high resolutions.
You beat me to the punch. I was about to say that we'll probably see 2300 posts about "how much more realistic can render engines go before there's nowhere left?" A hell of a lot more realistic, that's what. I enjoy RTCW as much as the next addict, but it's *not* fooling me. When I get a holodeck and crap in my pants after actually feeling the heat from the Panzer that just hit 100 feet away, *then* we'll talk about nowhere left to go.
Unfortunately, *that's* not the real problem either. The real problem is that most of our population is so ignorant of and apathetic about their civic duties that they fail to properly watchdog the government.
Until Disney, the **AAs and normal industry turn our government back over to us, we're going to keep having these outrages shoved down our throats.
Man, how I wish that were the situation. The sad fact is that we have *given* our government to them by not being active. Everyone goes around mumbling about how getting involved in government doesn't have any impact or isn't important. So who's left? That's right, the people who realize that getting involved in government *does* have an impact--the business community.
You get the majority of our population in their local representatives' offices arguing philosophy of government and law, then we'll talk about "taking back the government for the people."
I agree with your assessment. But there is one nitpick: the movie and recording industries aren't technically a monopoly. I think the term cartel is probably more accurate since there are quite a number of competing firms but they simply get together to set prices and keep the barrier to entry high. Still not good, of course. There was a big sting operation a few years ago with the vitamin supplement companies who were all getting together to screw the customers. I doubt that this will happen to the entertainment industry however.
That's a pretty difficult thing to do, I imagine, but that's what makes this stuff fun.
if there's such a nice API and software development tools, why was nothing ever developed with it.
Because plenty of stuff *has* been developed with it. You're just ignorant of them. For example, it has been heavily used in the intelligence industry and on Wall Street. And I'm sure you've probably heard of Mac OS X, right? Guess what the primary development platform is. You should check out Softrak and the peanuts FTP archive some time too. And maybe the OMNI Group and some others. Is there as much software as there is for Windows? No. Is that because MFC is a superior development platform? Pffffft. It's because Microsoft has the marketing muscle and lock-in advantage (and an awful lot of luck thrown in for good measure).
And why is every application that was developed as part of it so primitive and un-user friendly.
You've never used any of this stuff, have you? There are some quite attractive and usable applications out there. GNUmail is very nice, for instance, and was developed primarily by one author in a very short period of time. Are there poorly designed UIs as well? Of course. But that's the fault of those who design. And that happens everywhere--UNIX, Windows, Mac OS, BeOS, etc.
Is it just a coincidence that it was a brilliant platformed developed by people with no design sense.
I find it to be quite elegant looking. But at any rate, I was talking about the API. Y'know, stuff like Array and String classes and responder chains. Stuff you don't actually "see". How it actually looks is not set in stone. That's why Mac OS X looks completely different but is built on the same basic classes as OPENSTEP or GNUstep.
As with all computer simulations of war, there have to be concessions for the sake of balance. Of course, even in the "real world" nukes are not plausible weapons in conventional warfare anyway.
All this is true. However, GETTING BACK TO THE STORY AT HAND, this guy is not a filmmaker. He isn't creating cinematic art and labeling it with a zilla ending. In other words, he's not in their market. This is why you can have Apple Computer and Apple Records and Apple Auto Sales and none of them are infringing each other.
Ahhh, Sierra OnLine. Now you're making me all nostalgic and I think I might very well cry. :-) Those were truly the days of giants.
I'll tell you what I want. I want integration of FPS, Flight Combat Sims, Strategy Sims, and Tank Sims into a complete multiplayer battlefield. It would be best if we could make enough networking advances to do it massively multiplayer.
Well I would expect so--different binaries for different architectures. But I suspect that the code base was in sync. Of course, I could be giving Microsoft too much credit. Although, to be fair, *I* wouldn't be able to manage something that big either.
Nope. The GNUstep project has added a Garbage Collector. It's still experimental and will need some work, but it's there. And Apple is considering it as well. And the guy at Apple in charge of maintaining their gcc extensions is very chummy with the GNUstep crowd. There is work being done on merging the runtimes. It's just going to take a while for it to happen.
And rename it 'Butthead Japanese Company' instead.
Y'know, if I were a content provider, I'd be a lot more worried about the lack of quality in my product than the likelyhood that someone will want to steal it.
Actually, no. But then, I don't give my patronage to that kind of sleaze...you know, the kind of sleaze who have anything to do with AOL?
I don't because a great number of our target audience (that's paying customers to you dot-bomb folks) are still using Netscape 4.x. A few are still using (shudder) Netscape 2.x or 3.x. We have no choice. And it works; but it ain't easy or fun.
Note that I'm not encouraging the use of "productize" and other such words; I think people who say things like that should be tortured to death right in their own marketing boardrooms.
I'm confused--the two burly men weigh 300 pounds (not really all that much) or the three geeks weigh 300 pounds (just about right)?
Windows (the NT/2k/XP series, anyway) is probably already 64 bit safe. Remember that NT was available for Alpha, Sparc (and MIPS, I think) at one point?
I'm with you 100%. But I don't understand how this translates into support for IA-64. What it *does* translate into is an aching desire for Alpha to make a comeback. Or for Power 4 to become cheaply available. Because--to borrow an old campaign slogan--"It's about the floating point performance, stupid."