Text 18703, 87 rader
Skriven 2007-06-12 16:23:32 av Rich Gauszka (1:379/45)
Ärende: Did Apple lie to Mac gamers at the WWDC?
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From: "Rich Gauszka" <gauszka@dontspamhotmail.com>



http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2145462,00.asp

One of the most intriguing announcements made at this week's WWDC 2007 keynote
address was the return to the Mac by Electronic Arts. EA is a huge powerhouse
within the gaming industry and its presence on stage with Steve Jobs should not
be taken lightly by anyone interested in Mac gaming.

But was the announcement of EA's return to the Mac market at WWDC 2007 all it
was cracked up to be? Did Apple intentionally mislead its customer base by not
divulging the details of how EA's games would be made to run on the Mac?

...

Cider? What the Heck is Cider?

When I first heard the announcement at WWDC from EA, I assumed immediately EA
was going to be releasing native ports for OS X. That, unfortunately, is not
true but it was never mentioned at WWDC by Jobs or the EA executive that spoke.
The crowd at the show and those who watched the video via the internet, were
never made aware and probably never suspected that EA would be going a
different route to get its games running on Mac OS X. So how does EA plan to
get its games to run on Macs?

EA will be using a program called Cider. Cider is a product created by
TransGaming.

TransGaming is famous for (or infamous, depending on how you look at it) for
getting Windows games to run on Linux. In the world of Linux gaming,
TransGaming is viewed with love and with loathing. Those who simply wish to run
Windows games on their favorite Linux distribution love TransGaming for letting
them do so. Those who loathe TransGaming tend to be either Linux purists who
want native Linux games only or are sometimes those who've tried TransGaming's
Linux gaming product and had a bad experience. Either way, you tend to either
love TransGaming or hate them.

How does Cider work? Here's the information from the TransGaming site:

    "Cider is a sophisticated portability engine that allows Windows games
to be run on Intel Macs without any modi.cations to the original game source
code. Cider works by directly loading a Windows program into memory on an
Intel-Mac and linking it to an optimized version of the Win32 APIs. Games are
.wrapped. with the Cider engine and they simply run on the Mac. This means
developers have only one code base to maintain while enjoying the .exibility of
targeting multiple platforms and, therefore, multiple revenue streams. Cider
powered games use the same copy protection, lobbies, game matching and
connectivity as the original Windows game. All this means less effort and lower
costs. Cider is targeted to game developers and publishers."

So, in a nutshell, the games that use Cider will not be running natively in Mac
OS X. Why is this significant? Well there may be potential performance hits
compared to running the same game under Windows (which is obviously now
possible on a Mac given Boot Camp). How big a potential performance hit might
we be looking at? There's no way to know at this point. It could be terrible or
it could be small enough so it's not even noticeable.

..

Cider: Death for Native Mac Gaming?

There's another aspect of Cider that needs to be considered. What will be the
ramifications of it for those still hoping for native Mac OS X games? If
company's like EA can quickly and easily use Cider then why should anybody
bother to create native Mac OS X games?

In the past companies like Aspyr ported Windows games to run natively on the
Mac. What kind of future does Aspyr or similar companies have in the face of
the onslaught of Cider-based games headed for the Mac? Will there be any room
left for native Mac game developers? Or will Cider wreak havoc and destroy any
hope for native Mac OS X games?

I wish I knew the answer to these questions. I suspect we'll find out in the
years ahead and the end result might be a bloodbath for native Mac game
developers and porters. Not a pretty picture to be sure.

And what happens if Aspyr and the other companies that port games to Mac are
run out of business and then EA and other Cider-based gaming houses decide to
drop the Mac again? Where will the Mac get any kind of games at that point?
Cider has the potential to be either a very positive force for Mac gamers or it
could be something far more sinister and evil...the death knell for all gaming
on the Mac.

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