nintendo in trouble, cutting production and avoiding "complex" games

[DrSpike]

True, but I don't think a strategy of focusing on games that are complicated in relation to monopoly but not as complicated (and long) as current best sellers will pay dividends.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


The one big problem with that is game developers have no idea what hardware configurations that the games will be run on. Now, of course, the operating system is supposed to provide an identical virtual machine for all other programs to run under, but that's just in theory. Windows has never been good at that, plus DirectX is like a gigantic hole in your virtual machine. Sure, it speeds up the games by allowing direct access to hardware, but of course insulation from hardware is one of the main purposes of an operating system. Yay MS.

Well thats interesting. Its Microsoft, as much as anyone else, that has an interest in assuring additional PC sales. To the extent that making PC games more user friendly will result in more PC gamers, and thus in more people inclined to a shorter replacement cycle for their PC's, it would seem that MS would have a strong incentive to improve Windows in that regard.

I was thinking more along the following lines though - why couldnt say a big manufacturer like Dell reach an agreement with several software publishers that all standard Dells will have certain configurations - and then the publisher could test on that configuration and label it "dell certified" or something. If that is too hard, how about designating certain Dells as "gaming standard machines" and then issuing certificates relative to that standard. Im trying to think of a way that the market might move toward at least some degree of standardization, driven by market forces.

[Urban Ranger]

If you do that, don't you end up with a console of some sort? A Playstation is exactly the same as another one, so it's easier to write games for them.

[DrSpike]

Do we really need identical PC's? Sure UR is right, in practice things are a little messy, but I don't think you can make a good case for the pc gaming industry being really held back by the mishmash of standards. 99% of the time games work as they should, and the majority of the other 1% the user could fix the problem if they had a clue.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Windows has never been good at that, plus DirectX is like a gigantic hole in your virtual machine. Sure, it speeds up the games by allowing direct access to hardware, but of course insulation from hardware is one of the main purposes of an operating system. Yay MS.

Do you have any idea why DirectX is called a Hardware Abstraction Layer.
Direct access to the hardware is provided by the drivers, not DirectX.
DirectX merely acts as a uniform graphical device, then figures out all of the "direct access" stuff itself. As far as gamedevs are concerned, every DirectX device of the same DX generation is the same.

You've clearly no idea what DirectX is, or how it works, so why don't you can it?

The purpose of the OS isn't to insulate from the hardware, it's to operate the system. Hence the name.

And DirectX does insulate from the hardware -- it provides a HAL for gamedevs and uses drivers to access the hardware directly.

[Nubclear]

Is it just me, or does it seem that lately UR has been throwing an anti-microsoft temper tantrum?

[Asher]

"lately"?

[Nubclear]

Originally posted by Asher
"lately"?

Well yeah, he's always been anti-microsoft, but lately he's just been making a HUGE fit (huge even for him) against Microsot.

Its a bit disturbing actually

[DrSpike]

Interesting. So does Direct X work to do what UR wanted, act to mitigate the profusion of different hardware configurations?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Interesting. So does Direct X work to do what UR wanted, act to mitigate the profusion of different hardware configurations?

and to do what i want by the way.

I dont want console type games played with joystick or whatever, but i do think the automatic compatibility is a selling point. In addition to the console market, there are plenty of people who own PC's and dont buy games, or buy few of them, and the compatibility roulette has to be one hurdle. In that sense making the PC more console like would be a good thing.

One in a hundred? of the last 8 or so games i bought, 2 wouldnt run at all. Im no PC expert, but im not clueless either. (and both of these games did NOT challenge the specs of my PC at all)

And quite frankly, the endless improvability of the PC doesnt help me that much either. Im not interested in console games, but then im also not interested in bleeding edge FPS's either. Id like to buy my TBS and RTS games without having to worry whether they'll actually run on my namebrand PC.

[DrSpike]

Well I play a lot of games, and I don't think I've ever (Win95 onwards) found one that I couldn't get to work.

[child of Thor]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
edit.......

In addition to the console market, there are plenty of people who own PC's and dont buy games, or buy few of them,.........edit

well i think the numbers on this are rather scary, scary because it makes us look like a real minority. The numbers i've got are a bit old but something like less than 10% of pc's that are sold then have their owners go out and buy games(not including the bundled software). I guess alot of this can be attributed to pc's in the work place? I'm not sure, maybe its something more sinister like most people think playing games is naff?(they are missing out i think).

As for the nintendo situation it just sounds a little like a last gasp knee-jerk reaction to the worse than expected sales of the cube? As more complex games get released for the xbox(the HD is an advantage in this area), it will be interesting to see what Sony and Nintendo will do, and if this cry of 'simple is better' will be reflected in new console sales. For myself i would rather play games like 'Knights of the Republic' and 'Morrowind' than another streetfighter or spaceinvaiders-with-bells-on clone.
But then again maybe thats cause i'm a 'niche' gamer and like strategy games over action ones?

[Asher]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Interesting. So does Direct X work to do what UR wanted, act to mitigate the profusion of different hardware configurations?

That's precisely what it does.

DirectX existed as a way to encourage developers to switch from DOS to Windows. The bait? Instead of having to code for 5-6 different soundcards, 5-6 different videocards, they wrote to one virtual video card and one virtual soundcard, the drivers actually dealt with the hardware.

DirectX is called a Hardware Abstraction Layer for this reason.

UR is fundamentally confused about what DirectX is, yet he still rants about it.

Actually, whenever UR says anything about a Windows-related product, expect it to be nothing more than bull**** and ignorance.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Asher
Do you have any idea why DirectX is called a Hardware Abstraction Layer.

What it is called and what it does are two different things. Besides, isn't hardware abstraction one of the things that an OS should do? Or, in other words, what happens to Windows machines without DirectX, e.g. 3.x, early versions of NT, etc.? Eh, do they really access hardware directly?

Originally posted by Asher
Direct access to the hardware is provided by the drivers, not DirectX.

No, no, no. You got it wrong. You need to write your own code to directly access the hardware, bypassing the drivers.

Originally posted by Asher
DirectX merely acts as a uniform graphical device, then figures out all of the "direct access" stuff itself. As far as gamedevs are concerned, every DirectX device of the same DX generation is the same.

Oh really? So why bother having DirectX, as I pointed out above?

Originally posted by Asher
You've clearly no idea what DirectX is, or how it works, so why don't you can it?

I see you are still angry from being blown away in other threads (e.g. HTML/CSS).

Originally posted by Asher
The purpose of the OS isn't to insulate from the hardware, it's to operate the system. Hence the name.

When will you take your first OS course, Glonkie?

Originally posted by Asher
And DirectX does insulate from the hardware -- it provides a HAL for gamedevs and uses drivers to access the hardware directly.

Aren't you contradicting yourself?

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Asher
Actually, whenever UR says anything about a Windows-related product, expect it to be nothing more than bull**** and ignorance.

Prove it, or retract such utter drivel.