BTS MadMatt et al a simple question:

[kmead]

Yes in a sense this is a double post. I have added to it and attempted to directly address it those who we would rather have respond.

So, OSX is now out. 9.1 as classic and OSX will soon be the only choice on new Macs. Happily CMBO runs on 9.1 quite nicely.

Could we get a date for when CMBO will run under OSX? In a similar vein, will CM Barbarrosa to Berlin (CM2) run under OSX or Classic?

I know that this software was developed on a Mac and presume that development is continuing for Macs even though MSWin is likely the primary sales platform. I will soon be transitioning to OSX at work and will likely change over my machine at home so I can continue to work at home on my machine. So, it would be nice to have CMBO and the next highly anticipated installment available in both places.

I know several early adopters have already made the attempt and given the Rave and nonCarbon nature of the current release it is not possible.

In my case, I really enjoy the current game and hope to be able to be able to use it for a very long time. Eventually OSX and its future children will completely supplant the Classic interface, especially as new hardware comes along (over the next year or two). Given this reality and that I will be upgrading hardware again once we get to the next big leap of multiple processors and so on I am very concerned not so much about my investment (my enjoyment hours to cost is somewhere in the millicents and dropping), but in my future enjoyment.

BTS, the company line is what I am looking for, and I know it will be straight. I respect your candor and your position, and I don't expect a reply today but soon would be good.

Repectfully;

Karl Mead

karlmead@hotmail.com

Would it be possible to have only BTS respond to this please? Do not post here until after BTS has responded. I will TTT this to the top until it has been answered. Many thanks to all posters and of course to our fine hosts.

Oh and by the by, I have searched and been unable to ascertain a statement of actual intent.

Thanks;

Karl Mead

[This message has been edited by kmead (edited 04-03-2001).]

[M. Bates]

If BTS wanted to respond openly on the forum re OSX, I think that they would have done so by now

[Commissar]

All's Quiet on the Eastern Front

[kmead]

ttt

[27ray]

:cool:

Humm i am intrested in this issue, I would be willing to beta an OS X update for CMBO. I am using OS X on my main mac at home (PB 400 firewire)

[kmead]

ttt

[kmead]

Well we ahve gotten a reply to this question once and for all. Madmatt replied in the Tech Forum in this thread: http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=8&t=001486

The text is as follows:

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> Combat Mission - Beyond Overlord is done. Finished. No more work being done on it. That means no OS X native support. We are also not planning on making CMBB (CM2) native either. We will have native OS X support when we recode the CM engine.

I would just add here that making CM native to OS X is *not* a simple thing. It requires that we fully strip out EVERY BIT of the 3D engine, which currently runs under RAVE (which *cannot* be native under OS X),

and recode it to OpenGL. This will be done eventually with the engine rewrite, but it's no trivial task.

People can thank Apple for not giving developers advance notice that they

planned to switch to OpenGL (back in 1998 or 1999, whenever it was). They kept it secret for so long that we were already too far committed to RAVE to make the switch.

As has been said before (and above) if you wish to play CM with OS X you will need to run in Classic Mode and this may also require removal of the "Classic Rave" Extension from the Extensions Folder.

Please direct people with similar questions about Mac OS X support to this thread in the future if you would.

Thanks!

Madmatt

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

And my reply:

Thanks for the heads up on this subject finally. We do appreciate BTS officially clarifying this issue for us.

I am saddened that we will be waiting 2-3 years given the timetable for the future updates to CM engine 1. It does appear that in time I and others will be abandoning CM due to its incompatibility. I agree that Apple failed to give enough notice to developers to make the switch from the RAVE API to Open GL. I know other developers have had enough time, but in all likelyhood their Mac sales are much larger than BTS's as are their budgets/staffing and so on.

Sadly, the news will likely cause the future of CMBO and its immediate children CMBB and so on to have little market penetration relative new Mac sales which will ship with OSX as standard. Most Mac users are unlikely to disable RAVE and suffer the massive performance hit.

I will continue to have a Mac for the forseeable future with 9.04 to 9.1 for my childrens educational legacy software. It will be my lesser horesepower and the one I use least. I will soon be retiring my Win machine and do not intend to acquire another so I guess by my own choice I will forrego the immediate future of CM.

Thanks for the information, and if you have more to add, I would appreciate your comments.

[MikeyD]

Horray! Fight the powers that be! No OSX! I'm tired of finding myself falling into premature obsolescence with these random system upgrades. I've come to the conclusion that most o these mac /PC system upgrades are done just to force us to buy all new software over and over again :mad:

[Maximus]

Isn't Steve Jobs just lovely? He makes a new operating system that makes every former piece of software that's not written in OpenGL obsolete. That's like coming out with a new form of auto fuel (while discontinuing the old one) that only 2002 cars will run on. So all your older vehicles will require a new powertrain to work. Result: Forced upgrade.

So kmead, you mean to tell me that you would abandon your favorite game, just because BTS won't do a 3D engine recode until the CMII engine rewrite? I got a solution for ya. Buy a PC, they're cheaper. So now people should realize that Apple is the greatest company in the world. NOT!

Some experts say that with the release of MacOS X, that Apple has finally committed its biggest blunder. They say that because of this, that Apple will slowly die off in the near future. Therefore the age ol' slogan of BTS saying that they won't be abandoning the Mac, might not be so true anymore. Because if this new revelation is true and if it will keep prospective new customers from buying CM, then why continue Mac support? I'm just following your logic kmead, so don't get your panties all in a bunch.

Like I've always said, "What's a Mac again?" That's the glory of buying into a monopoly that Apple is. You are at their mercy at every step of the way. BTW, if I understand correctly, OSX finally supports the ability to change system sounds, right? Whoopideedoo. Windows users have been able to change system sounds since Windows 3.0, 10 years ago.

[kmead]

Dave, grow up. Go talk about something you actually have some knowledge of. This is not a thread about what is better or anything else, it was merely to inform other Mac users of post by BTS which we had been asking for.

I added my comments (however ill informed) which is my right just as you have added your ill informed and inflammatory comments as is your right. Now kindly move along. This is not a subject you should get your membership revoked over.