Greaser From Bahamas, joined Jan 2004, 1081 posts, RR: 4 Posted (7 years 4 months 6 days 17 hours ago) and read 3198 times:
I have a Mac, used to have a PC, and just wondered whether, if i have VirtualPC/Windows, which is an emulator, could it effectively and smoothly run FS9/10??? it's an imac, so its modest on power, but could it?
JamieD From UK - England, joined Apr 2002, 613 posts, RR: 10 Reply 2, posted (7 years 4 months 6 days 17 hours ago) and read 3188 times:
Quoting Greaser (Thread starter): could it effectively and smoothly run FS9/10??? it's an imac, so its modest on power, but could it?
Granted I've never used VirtualPC on a Mac, but as Flight Simulator is a power-hungry application as it is, I would hazard a guess that performance within an emulator would be terrible, especially considering the fact that you're low on power as it is. Although if you're willing to give it a try, let us know how it goes.
Greaser From Bahamas, joined Jan 2004, 1081 posts, RR: 4 Reply 4, posted (7 years 4 months 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 3164 times:
Quoting JamieD (Reply 2): Although if you're willing to give it a try, let us know how it goes.
Haha well I don't know, it would be nice if someone else here knew what the outcome would be, coz i wouldnt want to buy FS for nothing, if you know what I mean. People I've talked to say just get X-plane 8, and i did, but man, its like driving a german car. Once you've tried that, you never want to drive anything else...the xplane just isn't up to par in terms of graphics, model handling, and realism. I still have my wireless joystick, but i dont know whether im desperate enough to buy FS just to see what happens.....btw is FS10 gonna be for mac as well ? thanks for the replies!
JohnKrist From Sweden, joined Jan 2005, 1340 posts, RR: 5 Reply 5, posted (7 years 4 months 6 days 9 hours ago) and read 3156 times:
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Quoting Greaser (Reply 4): btw is FS10 gonna be for mac as well ?
FSX will be for both Windows and OSX, but it will demand more power than an iMac can deliver. Don't know if it will be 2 separate editions or one that can run on both. I hope for 2 separate as there is a lot of junk code when you adapt one product to run on 2 platforms, and it will eat system resources.
Also, my guess is that it might only run on Mac with Intel processors.
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RichardPrice From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 6, posted (7 years 4 months 6 days 8 hours ago) and read 3153 times:
Quoting JohnKrist (Reply 5):
FSX will be for both Windows and OSX, but it will demand more power than an iMac can deliver. Don't know if it will be 2 separate editions or one that can run on both. I hope for 2 separate as there is a lot of junk code when you adapt one product to run on 2 platforms, and it will eat system resources.
Also, my guess is that it might only run on Mac with Intel processors.
THe 'junk code' is easily disposed of at compile time, its a simple matter of using #ifdef WINDOWS of #ifdef OSX. Conditional preparser code blocks like this wont even make it to compile stage, it gets removed from the actual code if the correct thing isnt defined.
And the hard part of porting from Windows to OSX is the 'Windows to OSX' part, not the 'Intel to PPC' part, although since the Endians are different on the two processors, its not as trivial as it could be, but if you wrote the code with this in mind, a simple recompile will solve all these issues.
Chances are, the Xbox360 may have a port underway or planned, and the Xenon processor in the 360 is 95% the same as a PPC in a Mac, so do a port for one of the two machines and you are looking at a lower cost to do it for the other, increasing the market potential.
Maintaining two seperate products is not cost effective.
Nighthawk From UK - Scotland, joined Sep 2001, 4992 posts, RR: 38 Reply 9, posted (7 years 4 months 1 day 9 hours ago) and read 3061 times:
Quoting RichardPrice (Reply 6): THe 'junk code' is easily disposed of at compile time, its a simple matter of using #ifdef WINDOWS of #ifdef OSX. Conditional preparser code blocks like this wont even make it to compile stage, it gets removed from the actual code if the correct thing isnt defined.
I think what JohnKrist was meaning was a single CD edition that would work under Vista or MacOSX, thereby having code libraries for both built into it. WHat you have described is still 2 seperate editions, based off a single code base.
Quoting RichardPrice (Reply 6): And the hard part of porting from Windows to OSX is the 'Windows to OSX' part, not the 'Intel to PPC' part, although since the Endians are different on the two processors, its not as trivial as it could be, but if you wrote the code with this in mind, a simple recompile will solve all these issues.
I presume you are aware that Macs now use Intel based chips...? As FSX is not due to ship until the end of the year, it can be assumed it will target the current generation of Macs rather than the discontinued line....
EDIT: Better add my 2 cents to the original topic:
Ive never tried running games through an emulator like VirtualPC, but I would strongly advise against it. Flight Sim struggles on anything but the highest spec pcs, most users need to shut down as many windows processes as possible to get it running smoothly.
Through an emulator you are going to have 2 operating systems and the emulator all taking up memory and processor time, also remember that you are emulating a machine through software, so its going to be slower than running natively.
So unless you have a machine with specs double the recommended, your going to be stuck with a slideshow...
RichardPrice From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 10, posted (7 years 4 months 1 day 4 hours ago) and read 3049 times:
Quoting Nighthawk (Reply 9): I presume you are aware that Macs now use Intel based chips...? As FSX is not due to ship until the end of the year, it can be assumed it will target the current generation of Macs rather than the discontinued line....
Yes, but its going to be a looooooooong time until the installed userbase switches over to being predominently intel based. Certainly any releases this year will *have* to be targetted to the PPC version of the Mac, since a release for just the Intel version would be targetting a userbase that is simply too small currently.
And as I said before, the hardest part is the Windows -> OSX part with the library calls and such forth. The actually processors targetted is pretty easy to overcome.
Quoting Nighthawk (Reply 9):
I think what JohnKrist was meaning was a single CD edition that would work under Vista or MacOSX, thereby having code libraries for both built into it. WHat you have described is still 2 seperate editions, based off a single code base.
Take a look at whats on the CDs, 99% of it is data that both versions can use. The actual binaries run are going to come in as a very small percentage of whats actually shipped.
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