mac

ShadowOnTheSunShadowOnTheSun Join Date: 2009-04-10 Member: 67122Members
in NS2 General Discussion
i remember reading about plans to port ns2 to mac. now i wonder how soon after release this is likely to be done, and particularily if there's a chance to see the spark editor running on mac anytime soon.

on a sidenote in case some dev takes a look at this thread: have you guys thought about introducing pitch black shadows for lighting values below a dark shadow so that gamma hacking becomes useless? as far as i know the developers of the project stealth mod have considered this, if you want me to i can ask about their experienc with that approach.

keep up the good work, you guys rock!
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  • BiglinesBiglines Join Date: 2003-12-07 Member: 24094Members, Constellation
    don't know enough about graphics engines to be definitive, but wouldn't that require taking over a lot of the rendering away from the graphics processor which does the lighting mostly for the engine? dunno for sure but seems to me that way

    as for the mac thing, at the moment the largest demographic is still pc based (mostly old hl1 players), so mac compilation/optimization will probably not be much of a priority
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  • livindedlivinded Join Date: 2007-10-23 Member: 62706Members
    Why would running on a mac cause the rendering to not be done by a graphics processor? Macs have graphics cards too, and in the case of the Macbook Pro, iMac, and Mac Pro fairly decent ones. They use almost identical video cards to the upper middle/lower high end nvidia and ati cards. The main difference in getting the engine to run on OS X is that the rendering and audio code will have to be written to use OpenGL and OpenAL rather than DirectX which will need to be be done if they plan to support OS X and/or Linux. LUA is cross platform and unless there have been any significant changes made to the vanilla LUA distribution there will be little else that should need to be ported than the audio and video libraries.
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  • BiglinesBiglines Join Date: 2003-12-07 Member: 24094Members, Constellation
    edited December 2009
    thank you for a very big post, but it is a bit beside the point, please reread the op, my reply was to the sidenote, on rendering black areas

    and afaik lua isnt even crossplatform, but something that can be implemented in anything (as in, it doesn't run on anything by default, it's part of someone's apps)
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  • ScytheScythe Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 46NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation, Reinforced - Silver
    In all likelihood, if there's going to be a linux port there'll be a mac osx port.

    That said, it's still a maybe as to whether there'll be non-windows support, and almost certainly not for the first release.

    --Scythe--
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  • ctdctd Join Date: 2009-06-01 Member: 67611Members
    I'd imagine a mac port would be at the bottom of the todo list. Mac users would be better off installing windows if they are that keen on NS2. Also another thing to consider - you can't even get steam on OSX yet.

    And seriously, how many people who have pre-ordered were actually planning on running NS2 primarily on mac software?
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  • noncomposmentisnoncomposmentis Join Date: 2004-11-13 Member: 32773Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1744648:date=Dec 22 2009, 01:37 PM:name=Biglines)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Biglines @ Dec 22 2009, 01:37 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1744648"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->and afaik lua isnt even crossplatform, but something that can be implemented in anything (as in, it doesn't run on anything by default, it's part of someone's apps)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    That's pretty much the definition of crossplatform ;).
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  • ShadowOnTheSunShadowOnTheSun Join Date: 2009-04-10 Member: 67122Members
    ggnore :D

    actually i was hoping for a rugh estimation of when the mac port for the tools/game will happen (by some dev team member, no offence guys).
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  • HarimauHarimau Join Date: 2007-12-24 Member: 63250Members
    no offense, but it hasn't even been confirmed (i.e. part of the schedule) that there will be a mac port, so of course there wouldn't be a release date.
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  • BiglinesBiglines Join Date: 2003-12-07 Member: 24094Members, Constellation
    <!--quoteo(post=1744666:date=Dec 22 2009, 05:36 PM:name=noncomposmentis)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (noncomposmentis @ Dec 22 2009, 05:36 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1744666"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->That's pretty much the definition of crossplatform ;).<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    if that is so, any application is crossplatform, seeing as apps that allow certain platform specific stuff to run exist in abundance (virtual pc, wine, emulators), all the things run by those apps are therefore crossplatform? in my opinion crossplatform means being able to run something on more than one platform without external tools or effort, but nvm, useless discussion anyway ;)
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  • livindedlivinded Join Date: 2007-10-23 Member: 62706Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1744716:date=Dec 23 2009, 09:47 AM:name=Biglines)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Biglines @ Dec 23 2009, 09:47 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1744716"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->if that is so, any application is crossplatform, seeing as apps that allow certain platform specific stuff to run exist in abundance (virtual pc, wine, emulators), all the things run by those apps are therefore crossplatform? in my opinion crossplatform means being able to run something on more than one platform without external tools or effort, but nvm, useless discussion anyway ;)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    Cross platform doesn't just mean that it's able to run on another platform, cross platform means that it runs native on another platform and doesn't require some sort of emulation. Making something cross platform means you are using libraries and technology that isn't locked down to a specific platform (eg. DirectX) and instead use libraries that are available on multiple systems (eg. OpenGL). Running in emulation isn't a solution, it's a temporary fix.
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  • FortuneFortune Join Date: 2009-04-27 Member: 67290Members, Constellation
    The above posts are speculation and rightly so because we really don't know.

    This is all we have on the subject, and it's not been updated in a while.
    <!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Right now it runs on Windows but we also plan on fully supporting OS X, Linux and Xbox 360.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Taken from the engine overview, <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/engine/" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/engine/</a>

    Also note it's the <b>engine</b> overview, not the NS2 overview. UWE are trying to market Spark to other companies/indie devs who may want to develop on other platforms it seems, as can be seen here <a href="http://www.moddb.com/engines/spark" target="_blank">http://www.moddb.com/engines/spark</a>.

    I think the moddb page is pretty recent, as in a couple of months, it also states support for 'PC, Linux and Mac'.

    It seems clear they want Spark to work on different platforms and since the editor and game are the same thing, it's reasonable to expect NS2 to have multiplatform support, but it's not clear. Big question we don't know is how close to reality that goal is, we just don't know.
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  • EnjoyEnjoy Join Date: 2009-11-23 Member: 69487Members
    First I would like to ask if you enjoy gaming WHY would you buy a mac in the first place, sencond why don't you just use VirtualPC, BootCamp, CrossOver, ex... I wanted to play this game this year but that don't look like its goin to happen, let them worry about these matter after they release it, I want to play this game...
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  • AsranielAsraniel Join Date: 2002-06-03 Member: 724Members, Playtest Lead, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester, Retired Community Developer
    looking forward to the linux version.

    and i want a linux version for the same reason people want a mac version, if you have all your application (mail, chat etc) in one enviroment, you don't want to reboot all the time just to play a game.
    And if the mac version is done, a linux version is trivial (or the other way around)
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  • WestwoodWestwood Join Date: 2004-07-23 Member: 30057Members
    above: [x]agreed :-)

    Looking forward to a Linux Version.
    Booting Windows just for a Game sucks.

    Bye
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  • bassportbassport Join Date: 2004-01-24 Member: 25656Members, Constellation
    <!--quoteo(post=1745021:date=Dec 28 2009, 03:16 PM:name=Westwood)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Westwood @ Dec 28 2009, 03:16 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1745021"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Booting Windows just for a Game sucks.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    I'd be definitely interested in a Mac version since I'm primarily using a Mac nowadays (which just runs better).
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