ATI Releases DirectX 9 to OpenGL "Converter" for OS X

ATI are cool.

Wow, just wow. This is a step toward making DirectX useless or at least not such a big issue. Games can be converted quicker and such to Mac.

Don't believe it will run as fast as it runs on Windows (it's still another form of emulation right?) but it will be a huge improvement. I would definetly migrate to Mac OS X (or even to a real Mac Pro ).

it convert only shaders.

time will tell. hoping for a solution to bring pc games to mac osx.

(playing gothic3 atm and i hate to switch to windows every time i want to play )

Don't believe it will run as fast as it runs on Windows (it's still another form of emulation right?)

This has nothing whatsoever to do with emulation. [Mod edit for kindness]

used by programmers to convert DirectX 9 API based graphics code into OpenGL API compatibile graphics code

This has nothing whatsoever to do with emulation.

bluedragon1971 is correct. This is not emulation [interpretation/dynamic recompilation] of code on the fly; this is converting between equivalent shader instructions. Also, remember that this is not a one step tool to turn Windows games into Mac games. Other aspects of a game itself need to be recoded/recompiled for a game to work. The point here is that this takes care of the most nitty gritty aspect of the porting process.

What about Transgaming's Cider??

What about Transgaming's Cider??

Hmm. Now I'm thinking that IS emulation right?

Wow, just wow. This is a step toward making DirectX useless or at least not such a big issue. Games can be converted quicker and such to Mac.

I seriously doubt it.

It's just a step in my prediction that Microsoft will eventually divert all gaming towards XBox and eventually write-off DirectX in generic PC's.

I'm convinced that 2 scenarios excists to accomplish this.

My prediction is that in the short and middlelong term generic PC's (from Windows OS point of view) will be more targetted to generic computing tasks, network communication and multimedia handling as a center hub in the living room and less as gaming machines. M$ is already persuing this scenario by aquiring gaming companies and making sure that new releases come out first on XBox and last on Windows PC's. In this scenario PC's will live alongside gaming consoles and even interchange data. E.g. the console can offload data to the generic PC's harddrive or use the generic PC's printing abilities over a LAN etc.

The second scenario is a long term scenario which solely depends on the success of XBox. Provided that XBox is succesfull enough M$ will further develop XBox as the sole Media and gaming hub in the living room. Essentially replacing generic PC's in general homes. The end result is for M$ that they will have the entire market with their own propriarity hard- and software. More or less like Apple's situation now. It's clear that M$ is jealous on Apple's grip on both hardware platform and accompaining OS.

For now these steps from ATI are welcome. They give the illusion that they care about standards while in reallality they want to shield their market. They know that when Windows PC's stop becoming the gaming entity, the market for high end (read: high profit) gaming video cards will crash.

Anyway. These are just my ideas. Just remember my words in 3 or 5 years from now.

Regards,

EPDM

I thought that M$ wanted to make Vista a gaming platform.

I dont think they will only focus on the Xbox

EPDM ideas seems logical and they have some sense.

I wondered too about this, if you take a look at the games released to the PC platform years ago they were quality titles about almost everything. Nowadays the PC gaming focus mainly on FPS and MMORPG games, because the main limitation of porting these games to a console is you are really dependant of the mouse and the keyboard. But with a keyboard/mouse add-on for the xbox they would supply that lack without problem.

Dunno if most of you like FPS gaming, on my case I just don't like them, my favorites are RPG's and Square seems will never release a Final Fantasy for the PC again (besides the online one, but that's pay per play), and "fun" games like mario party, smash bros and such things are only on consoles. And if we look at the future titles for PlayStation 3, Xbox and Wii we're seeing the games are firstly released for consoles and after they do a port for the PC, or at least they're released at the same time. PC is losing they "gaming" capabilities, and that's a fact.

Windows Vista doesn't seem created for gaming. Instead, looks created for general purpose operating system (i.e. working with office, chatting, surf the web), and a multimedia center (that's why MCE was vastly improved and lots of new features focus on media playing and sharing).

That's why now I just buy a mid-range or low-end graphics card, because playing on Windows is kinda useless and boring. And as soon as I earn enough money I'm going either for a Wii or a Xbox360

About graphic processors companies (AMD's ATI division.. dah, sounds weird.. and nVIDIA), I don't think it will be the end for em, just take a look to the Wii, PS3 and Xbox360 GPU's.. yeah, ATI and nVIDIA are there. They just need to focus more on those markets, if Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo sells more consoles, they will continue earning profits. And the most profitable market for them is the value and mainstream. Their high end cards is just to show themselves as the "most powerful graphic card you've ever seen", or "nVIDIA: My e-{censored} is bigger than ATI's", or just a marketing thing, of course they sell em too, but the profit they get from em is far less than the profit of mainstream and value sectors.

That's why Intel has a great market share on GPU's, not because they're powerful or something like that, just because computers with integrated graphics are the most sold.

thats a good point Arcanis.but the market of graphic cards its becoming more solid with Windows new toy,

yeh DirectX10 so i beliebe they (Nvidia,Ati) will be in the fight of the next-gen because of new directx10 games so meanwhile they focused on the consoles because the release was early than vista (microsoft is taking to long with that !)

i WWWWWaNNNNt a 360! now! ...........you could send me a Wii too !

I think the pc gaming market is dying... but I doubt it will ever disappear... If Microsoft abandons it then it would just make it easier for people to switch to os x... Which is something I'm sure the big m is afraid of.

Hmm. Now I'm thinking that IS emulation right?

No, Cider just creates a Windows API just like CrossOver does.

Cider is a sophisticated portability engine that allows Windows games to be run on Intel Macs without any modifications 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 simply wrapped up in the Cider engine and they work on the Mac.

Where does "wrapping" end, and "emulation" begin?