MacDX: DirectX for OSX - good for CM on OSX?

[Carlaz]

Just read this article about MacDX, a product that bring DirectX support to Mac OS X:

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/top_news_item.cfm?NewsID=4522

Would this revive the possibility of bringing Combat Mission 1, 2, etc. to OS X? <crossed fingers>

Cheers,

Carl

[RedOrDead]

I'd certainly agree that BYS need to upgrade the programs so they work on OS X.1. Otherwise they'll miss out on a whole new generation of Mac users (assuming, of course, that there is such a thing!)

[Schrullenhaft]

This looks somewhat promising, but it is a developer-level solution meaning that BTS would have to use it to port the DirectX code that they've written for the Windows version for the OS X-compatible Mac version. There may still be a need to make a RAVE-compatible Mac version (despite the listing of OS 9.x as being supported), especially for OS 8.x (though that is disappearing at a certain rate).

I'm curious as to how well it translates the DirectX to OpenGL code or if it is just running some sort of 'runtime' converter (which would be much slower). There would be a good chance that a version of CM transposed with these tools may be slower than the RAVE version (which doesn't run in OS X of course).

[Michael Emrys]

And is DirectX all that good anyway? I ask because I don't know. But it would seem pointless to me to saddle Mac users with another clutzy piece of MS software if there is anything else on the horizon that would do the same job better.

Michael

[Schrullenhaft]

This software is just a tool for developers. The intent behind this package is to get developers who are familiar with DirectX to quickly port their games over to the Mac without having to extensively recode their game to play it on the Mac (something many of them are loathe to do and hence will not port because of the smaller market and extra effort).

I have no idea how good the libraries/converter for DirectX will be with this development package. If attempts in the Linux community to emulate DirectX in an OpenGL environment are anything similar to this then it will take a long time before most things work as they should and there will be endless bugs, etc. It's much more complex than it may appear.

While DirectX is far from perfect it does have the lion's share of developers working with it. And while OpenGL is better in several respects (especially once it finally gets updated) graphically, it isn't 'highly geared' towards gaming development (even though a number of FPS games are developed in it).

[ April 17, 2002, 05:01 PM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]

[SpazManOught]

Why would they need to run DirectX through OpenGl? most new Macs have Geforces and Ati cards that should have hardware support for direct3D already, surely this will just be an API to get access to those hardware features? And would therefore have no more an overhead than Windows directx.

[Schrullenhaft]

You need drivers to support an API on your OS. No one writes DirectX drivers for Mac (OS 9.x or OS X). The drivers for OS 8.x/9.x support RAVE and OpenGL for 3D. On OS X the drivers support OpenGL only (with emulation for earlier versions of RAVE).

I'm not sure exactly how this company is going about supporting DirectX on the Mac. I assume that they must be converting the DirectX calls into their OpenGL equivalents (which allows the video drivers on the Mac to work with the game). Such processes are not fool proof and often have to deal with all sorts of incompatibilities and lack of feature support. I believe that package probably won't offer everything that BTS needs to get CMBO/CMBB to work with OS X. Seeing how Apple's support for RAVE emulation doesn't work for CM under OS X, I wouldn't be surprised if something similar is true of this development package.

[Gyrene]

Schrullenhaft , the solution that company came up with is basically the same thing that large Mac porting houses like MacPlay already have solved - It's all a way to translate the libraries over to something that will run on a Mac.

What is new about MacDX is that it will allow just about any publisher to quickly do the translation without requiring the proprietary libraries like MacPlay has or the huge amount of time required to write all that proprietary code.

I see this as a Very Good Thing

Gyrene

[kmead]

I too see this as a very good thing. It will be a serious drain on time for BTS.

In regards to the Direct X issue, I would assume that it will take the direct X version of the game and change all the calls to DX screen calls to OpenGL screen calls. Direct X would not need to be present on the Mac, as all of the code directed towards DX would become Mac OS X code with no Microsoft software involved after the conversion. That is the thing to keep in mind that you would be taking the MSW version of CMBO and translating it into a Mac version. This would be a native OSX conversion and not a Windows version running in emulation (which is what the Mac OS8/9 is doing under OSX today and why it is failing to run properly.)

If this could work, it would be ironic as the MSW version is a port from the Mac OS8/9 version of the game as it was never native on the PC. Note that Charles uses a MSW emulator to check basic code on his Mac for the Windows version.

Sorry if my verbose explanation was already clear to everyone, but it seemed as if some people are confused about what the finished product would be.

The biggest thing that this might do is allow BTS to graft a Open GL conversion onto the Rave based engine without having to redo the base engine. Maybe. Either way it will be a lot of work, I think it would be worth it but if the new engine for the future of the game is moved out in time that alot more potential gamers on both platforms are likely to be lost (ie the opportunity cost of each day of sales missed by not having the new engine in two years is likely a greater cost than is the small number of sales lost to MacOSX users.)

Make no mistake, I would love to have an OSX version of both CMBO and CMBB much sooner than later.