I would say that Zork has them beat by quite a few years on VM design. Now I agree that you could say that it wasn't a general VM but it obviously is prior art.
So, they replaced a C#/.NET infrastructure with C++/Linux and apparently didn’t test it? Now, I’m not the systems engineer involved with this, but I have a hard time believing that something like this didn’t come up in testing.
At least now they have the ultimate answer, now they just need to work on the ultimate question.
I'm currently working on a multiplatform game myself, so here's what I've done:
1) Primary codebase is C# targeted against the.NET 4.0 framework 2) Using ProjectLinkler in VS 2010, I Sync the game logic, and a fair amount of the UI code from #1 to Silverlight for Web and Silverlight for WP7 3) Using "CSharp to Java" coverter tool, I sync #1 to Java (game logic only) 4) Branch #3 into Blackberry and Android codebases 5) iOS has Monotouch which is a Mono implementation for it.
This process is Long winded I admit, but it works to keep the game logic in sync for bug fixes/features added. Now the GUI part is another beast in itself, just due to the vastly different ways each platform handles UI/events. If I can get 60%+ of my code to be take care of by processes instead of manually, to me thats a win.
I admit I haven't worked with Monotouch yet, as I want to be closer to finished before I invest the money into Apple's dev kit (Ie, a Mac)
I haven't spent anytime trying to port it to consoles just due to the nature of the game (Word puzzle). But since I did the codebase in C#, I can port it pretty easily to the 360, and with the PS3's signing key in the open, I guess I could look at porting it to the PS3 as well.
When Microsoft released Service Pack 6 for WinNT 4.0 it broke Lotus Notes. They ended up re-releasing it as SP6a shortly thereafter. The problem was that people became gun-shy of installing either one of them on their systems. Now how many corporate systems were left unpatched due to that?
When you have to worry about not only the 1,000's of software titles your own company releases but as well as about every major software title out there might be broken by a change/fix, it can take a while. How many people were wanting to storm the gates at MS over Notes being broken? How many people accused them of intentionally breaking Notes to help sales of Exchange? I know of a few titles that only run on NT4 and the readme's that went with them always said use SP5.
You should check into licensing before you post comments. RDP (Remote Desktop) when used on a client PC (XP/Vista) is part of the cost of the OS. You do have to license use on a Terminal Server, but that is not something a home user would deal with.
There's a book called Freakonomics by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner that has a very good explanation over this.
I lent the book to a friend, so I can't explain the principle very well, but i would highly recommend it. At the very least, you can easily get though a chapter while drinking a coffee at the local Barnes & Noble.
But on the same token, very few games have needed more then a single DVD.
My primary point of it was, even today, with DVD's available, games are still being made on CD's for modern consoles. Take a look at collection of PS2 games, and you will find some are the blue backed discs. These are CDs.
Having worked around game developers in the past (PC games) they never talked about the limits of the storage medium. Why? The PC's they are targeting have 10x the capacity of the medium.
If the size of the disc had any real importance to PC game developers, why were games still being released on 1.44mb floppies when CD's were decently commonplace? Why were (and are) games still released on CD's when DVD's are commonplace? Why will games still be on DVD's when HD/Blu-Ray are out?
The basic reason is cost. Until they really needed the storage, the cost benefit was not there.
With modern processors, it is actually faster to compress the data more, and decompress it then to wait for uncompressed data from a disc. Modern computers are so much faster then physical medium data reads.
Take it as you will, but I don't think in a 4 year lifetime that either the 360 or PS3 will have games that require more then 18GBof data (2 DVD's). It's not the same as games of past where you had to swap disks constantly (Kings Quest anyone?)
I would guess that the drive would be for movie playback. I, for one, will still purchase a seperate player for whatever format wins. I personally think using a game system for movie playback is dumb, but there is a % of people who will use it for that. I really can't see people buying either a 360 or PS3 just to watch movies on.
The drive itself won't be for games, as really, the need is not here yet. How many games, besides FF style games need multiple discs? Even newer games, like NBA Live 2k5 are CD-style on the PS2 (Blue discs), so I would agree that, for the time being, a DVD is plenty of space. For a few select games, there will be some disc-swapping going on, but really, I don't remember the uproar about FF needing 4 discs and to be swapped durring the game.
On a PC, thats a little diffrent story. With 200+ GB drives becoming standard, software developers will grow to fill the space quicker then on the console. Thinking offhand, it would be nice to have a single disc for things like encyclopedias, maps, and MSDN. Even today, its rare to find a game that requires more then a single DVD (minus games like Command & Conquer that use multiple discs to allow game play on multiple machines)
I guess at this point, its way to early to claim either side has won, buts its funny to hear the FUD being thrown around (Sony, I am looking at you about the whole 1080p "True HDTV" thing)
The other work-around is to enable DEP on everything, not just key system services
To open System Properties, click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click System. Click the Advanced tab and, under Performance, click Settings. Click the Data Execution Prevention tab.
Set this to "Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select" and make sure the list is empty (unless you have an app that won't run with it on)
This basically enables the no-execute bit on memory marked as data. This can cause problems with some crappy applications, but this will prevent buffer overflow problems. Windows 2003 Server has it on for all application by default, but XP only protects the OS and services by default.
It comes standard with Small Buisness Server 2003 (Server/Exchange/ISA) and it is $548 *LESS* then Redhat Enterprise.
Ok, I know that SBS is limited in some ways compaired with the full version of Server 2003 (Things like only a single DC can be running SBS) but thats not something I would expect to see.
It also is in Windows 2000, called either CSC (client side caching) or offline folders and folder redirection. Since IE version 3 (maybe eariler) you could work "offline" allowing it to cache locally a remote website. Active Desktop also used it.
Govenors on cars are not to prevent to owner from speeding, they are based on the speed ratings of the tires. Manafacture's dont like getting sued for building a car that can go 150, but the tires are only speed rated to 120. Lot of Camaro's and Mustangs have them for this reason (Why you buy a sports car, and get junk tires is beyond me)
Would typical noise ordinance laws have any effect on the use of something like this? Also, alot of gas stations are located close to residental areas, and I could imagine the outcry from neighbors who have to listen to this all day/night.
Not to mention that alot of gas stations/fast food joints have a high % of teenagers working there.
BTW... Its not only Microsoft that has this problem. Tonight at Best-Buy I noticed at least 10 leaflets posted that report that the PS2-mini's powersuply can "overheat and melt, possibly causing a fire". The recalls on Sonys website:
Also, it doesn't say anything about placement, like don't put them on carpet or in enclosed locations. Don't have the manual anymore for it to check since I tossed the books when it became a doorstop/paperweight.
Reading through the FAQ on Sony's website, they say it can take 2-4 *weeks* to get a replacement.
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I would say that Zork has them beat by quite a few years on VM design. Now I agree that you could say that it wasn't a general VM but it obviously is prior art.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-machine
So, they replaced a C#/.NET infrastructure with C++/Linux and apparently didn’t test it? Now, I’m not the systems engineer involved with this, but I have a hard time believing that something like this didn’t come up in testing.
At least now they have the ultimate answer, now they just need to work on the ultimate question.
I'm currently working on a multiplatform game myself, so here's what I've done:
1) Primary codebase is C# targeted against the .NET 4.0 framework
2) Using ProjectLinkler in VS 2010, I Sync the game logic, and a fair amount of the UI code from #1 to Silverlight for Web and Silverlight for WP7
3) Using "CSharp to Java" coverter tool, I sync #1 to Java (game logic only)
4) Branch #3 into Blackberry and Android codebases
5) iOS has Monotouch which is a Mono implementation for it.
This process is Long winded I admit, but it works to keep the game logic in sync for bug fixes/features added. Now the GUI part is another beast in itself, just due to the vastly different ways each platform handles UI/events. If I can get 60%+ of my code to be take care of by processes instead of manually, to me thats a win.
I admit I haven't worked with Monotouch yet, as I want to be closer to finished before I invest the money into Apple's dev kit (Ie, a Mac)
I haven't spent anytime trying to port it to consoles just due to the nature of the game (Word puzzle). But since I did the codebase in C#, I can port it pretty easily to the 360, and with the PS3's signing key in the open, I guess I could look at porting it to the PS3 as well.
When Microsoft released Service Pack 6 for WinNT 4.0 it broke Lotus Notes. They ended up re-releasing it as SP6a shortly thereafter. The problem was that people became gun-shy of installing either one of them on their systems. Now how many corporate systems were left unpatched due to that? When you have to worry about not only the 1,000's of software titles your own company releases but as well as about every major software title out there might be broken by a change/fix, it can take a while. How many people were wanting to storm the gates at MS over Notes being broken? How many people accused them of intentionally breaking Notes to help sales of Exchange? I know of a few titles that only run on NT4 and the readme's that went with them always said use SP5.
Pointless argument. XP Home does not have EFS
You should check into licensing before you post comments. RDP (Remote Desktop) when used on a client PC (XP/Vista) is part of the cost of the OS. You do have to license use on a Terminal Server, but that is not something a home user would deal with.
There's a book called Freakonomics by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner that has a very good explanation over this.
I lent the book to a friend, so I can't explain the principle very well, but i would highly recommend it. At the very least, you can easily get though a chapter while drinking a coffee at the local Barnes & Noble.
If he did submit a bug and has an open case with Microsoft for it, it is free. Bugs, hotfixes and licensing cases are (and always have been) free.
Just so you know, the reason it prompts you for deleting an icon off 'your' desktop is that its a shared icon under the 'All Users' profile.
Create your own, new icon, and then delete.... no prompts.
Its the fact that you need admin rights to delete something that is shared (since users should not be able to do anything to affect other users)
But on the same token, very few games have needed more then a single DVD.
My primary point of it was, even today, with DVD's available, games are still being made on CD's for modern consoles. Take a look at collection of PS2 games, and you will find some are the blue backed discs. These are CDs.
Having worked around game developers in the past (PC games) they never talked about the limits of the storage medium. Why? The PC's they are targeting have 10x the capacity of the medium.
If the size of the disc had any real importance to PC game developers, why were games still being released on 1.44mb floppies when CD's were decently commonplace? Why were (and are) games still released on CD's when DVD's are commonplace? Why will games still be on DVD's when HD/Blu-Ray are out?
The basic reason is cost. Until they really needed the storage, the cost benefit was not there.
With modern processors, it is actually faster to compress the data more, and decompress it then to wait for uncompressed data from a disc. Modern computers are so much faster then physical medium data reads.
Take it as you will, but I don't think in a 4 year lifetime that either the 360 or PS3 will have games that require more then 18GBof data (2 DVD's). It's not the same as games of past where you had to swap disks constantly (Kings Quest anyone?)
I would guess that the drive would be for movie playback. I, for one, will still purchase a seperate player for whatever format wins. I personally think using a game system for movie playback is dumb, but there is a % of people who will use it for that. I really can't see people buying either a 360 or PS3 just to watch movies on.
The drive itself won't be for games, as really, the need is not here yet. How many games, besides FF style games need multiple discs? Even newer games, like NBA Live 2k5 are CD-style on the PS2 (Blue discs), so I would agree that, for the time being, a DVD is plenty of space. For a few select games, there will be some disc-swapping going on, but really, I don't remember the uproar about FF needing 4 discs and to be swapped durring the game.
On a PC, thats a little diffrent story. With 200+ GB drives becoming standard, software developers will grow to fill the space quicker then on the console. Thinking offhand, it would be nice to have a single disc for things like encyclopedias, maps, and MSDN. Even today, its rare to find a game that requires more then a single DVD (minus games like Command & Conquer that use multiple discs to allow game play on multiple machines)
I guess at this point, its way to early to claim either side has won, buts its funny to hear the FUD being thrown around (Sony, I am looking at you about the whole 1080p "True HDTV" thing)
The other work-around is to enable DEP on everything, not just key system services
To open System Properties, click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click System.
Click the Advanced tab and, under Performance, click Settings.
Click the Data Execution Prevention tab.
Set this to "Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select" and make sure the list is empty (unless you have an app that won't run with it on)
This basically enables the no-execute bit on memory marked as data. This can cause problems with some crappy applications, but this will prevent buffer overflow problems. Windows 2003 Server has it on for all application by default, but XP only protects the OS and services by default.
I was searching around tonight, and found this:
x ?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=sc430r649&s=bsd
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.asp
It comes standard with Small Buisness Server 2003 (Server/Exchange/ISA) and it is $548 *LESS* then Redhat Enterprise.
Ok, I know that SBS is limited in some ways compaired with the full version of Server 2003 (Things like only a single DC can be running SBS) but thats not something I would expect to see.
It also is in Windows 2000, called either CSC (client side caching) or offline folders and folder redirection. Since IE version 3 (maybe eariler) you could work "offline" allowing it to cache locally a remote website. Active Desktop also used it.
Govenors on cars are not to prevent to owner from speeding, they are based on the speed ratings of the tires. Manafacture's dont like getting sued for building a car that can go 150, but the tires are only speed rated to 120. Lot of Camaro's and Mustangs have them for this reason (Why you buy a sports car, and get junk tires is beyond me)
Would typical noise ordinance laws have any effect on the use of something like this? Also, alot of gas stations are located close to residental areas, and I could imagine the outcry from neighbors who have to listen to this all day/night.
Not to mention that alot of gas stations/fast food joints have a high % of teenagers working there.
BTW... Its not only Microsoft that has this problem. Tonight at Best-Buy I noticed at least 10 leaflets posted that report that the PS2-mini's powersuply can "overheat and melt, possibly causing a fire". The recalls on Sonys website:
http://www.us.playstation.com/Adaptor/
Also, it doesn't say anything about placement, like don't put them on carpet or in enclosed locations. Don't have the manual anymore for it to check since I tossed the books when it became a doorstop/paperweight.
Reading through the FAQ on Sony's website, they say it can take 2-4 *weeks* to get a replacement.
I wonder if the same company is involved in both?