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eobet
eobet
Join Date 11/2008
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Will there be a OS X (Mac) version?

April 26, 2009 10:52:44 AM from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Yes, modern Macs are able to reboot into XP/Vista, or even run XP/Vista in a window under the OS X desktop, but the first option cuts you off from all of your Mac apps and the second option produces quite a bit of overhead (and both options makes you feel... unclean).

So, I'm wondering now if there is any chance that Elemental will see a Mac version?

Also, I'm not talking about cheating with Cider as EA does (it's so much like option two above), but rather a proper port like for example, most recently with Call of Duty 4 released by Aspyr. i5Works did the port for that game, and you can find them here:

http://www.i5works.com/info/index.html

Though perhaps, as with COD4, Elemental will get an OS X port about the time when Elemental 2 gets released...

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eobet
Philocthetes
Join Date 10/2003
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Reply #1 April 26, 2009 11:29:00 AM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

I'm pretty sure the chances of a native-Mac version are very close to zero. Stardock is a Windows-oriented shop, and their games rely on DirectX.

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eobet
eobet
Join Date 11/2008
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Reply #2 April 26, 2009 11:31:30 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Yes, and that is why you do a port and that is why I suggested they hire the i5works team.

World of Warcraft relies on DirectX in XP, but for OS X it was ported it to OpenGL, so that is not a problem.

The problem might be their Impulse online platform, though... depending on how that is constructed...

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eobet
landisaurus
Join Date 06/2008
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Reply #3 April 26, 2009 1:44:01 PM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

Quoting eobet,
reply 2
Yes, and that is why you do a port and that is why I suggested they hire the i5works team.

World of Warcraft relies on DirectX in XP, but for OS X it was ported it to OpenGL, so that is not a problem.

The problem might be their Impulse online platform, though... depending on how that is constructed...

Its a shame its so hard to emulate directX on non-windows systems.

If you're able to emulate the graphics somehow, I can't imagine that the network side of things would be that rough.   I mean, provided its all done from in game (rather than directly through impulse or something like that where a 2nd program would have to be emulated) then the TCP/IP framework is the same.

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eobet
eobet
Join Date 11/2008
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Reply #4 April 26, 2009 2:16:41 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

DirectX can easily be emulated these days, with Cider for example.

But I personally will not buy such a product (call it philosophical reasons).

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LOLCHRIST
Join Date 03/2006
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Reply #5 April 26, 2009 5:01:02 PM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

Stardock have stated elsewhere ago that they intend to develop for one platform (Windows) only, because of their earlier experiences of developing for OS/2 and nearly going bust when that fell out of use.

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Tridus
Join Date 03/2008
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Reply #6 April 28, 2009 5:58:22 AM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

Quoting eobet,
reply 4
DirectX can easily be emulated these days, with Cider for example.

But I personally will not buy such a product (call it philosophical reasons).

 

So just to be clear, you want to take a niche game and put it on a niche OS, but won't buy it if they take the most straightforward way to get it there? This seems like a strange way of encouraging them.

 

A full port is never going to happen. There simply isn't enough sales in it to make back the cost, let alone a profit.

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Lord Reliant
Join Date 03/2006
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Reply #7 April 28, 2009 11:22:12 PM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

Normally, I'd say the chances are zero, and I think at this point in the game that may be the case.  But ever since Brad returned from the Game Developers Conference, he realized that getting your game out to as many platforms as possible is a really good thing.  Now, this is likely more a case of PC vs. game consoles, but perhaps that could include OS X.  But Stardock wouldn't likely be the ones to do that since they have little expertise with OS X.  It'd have to be farmed out to someone else unless they figured out a good way to get it done, which isn't too likely.

So, unless you hear otherwise from Stardock themselves (and they're pretty much all busy working on fixing Demigod now it seems), I'd say no but perhaps there's hope for future games.

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VicenteCartas
Join Date 02/2004
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Reply #8 April 29, 2009 7:11:31 AM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

Quoting Lord Reliant,
reply 7
Normally, I'd say the chances are zero, and I think at this point in the game that may be the case.  But ever since Brad returned from the Game Developers Conference, he realized that getting your game out to as many platforms as possible is a really good thing.  Now, this is likely more a case of PC vs. game consoles, but perhaps that could include OS X.  But Stardock wouldn't likely be the ones to do that since they have little expertise with OS X.  It'd have to be farmed out to someone else unless they figured out a good way to get it done, which isn't too likely.

I think this is a little an apples to oranges comparison. If you are developing Call of Duty 6, or Final Fantasy XV, it makes sense to go multiplatform because they are very expensive games and because you can expect quite a lot of sales on every platform you release (Xbox360, PS3, PC).

But for Elemental that's not the case as sales on OS X are going to be much lower than the sales on PC, and releasing on OS X means custom support for OS X and so on, and those things will probably cost more money than the money you'll earn.

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