[mdlug] Interesting information about Windows "7"

[Ingles, Raymond]

> From: Aaron Kulkis

> When was the last time you had to select a sound card
> or video card as the first step to starting a game?

 Well, actually, many games require particular hardware on the video card to
run. For example, Hardware T&L, or shaders, or texture compression, or
whatever.

> But the game writer doesn't know (and doesn't need
> to know) the difference between an ATI graphics
> card and an nVidea graphics card, like they did
> when games asked if you had a Hercules graphics
> adapter or not.

 Actually, modern games have multiple 'render paths' that optimize for
different graphics hardware. The Source engine (Half-Life 2 and all) has
at least three that I know of for different versions of DirectX.

> And the purpose of an operating system is to make everything
> just as predictable REGARDLESS of whether the hardware
> changes or not.

 "In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not."

 I do write portable code (for a living) and I can tell you that even with
standards and so forth, it is *not* always easy. Even if you write to a
standard, different implementations can have significant issues. I've had
to code around issues with pthreads on different platforms, and WBEM was
a horrifying nightmare. I worked on five different platforms and every
single one was not only different from the standard, but different from
every *other* implementation of the standard.

 That being said, the two key APIs for Linux gaming - the SDL and OpenGL -
are *very* well-written standards that actually *do* have a high degree of
portability. Not perfect - I've never run into a standard that covered all
the bases, ANSI C included - but refreshingly good.

 Sincerely,

 Ray Ingles                                          (313) 227-2317

 "If one is going to use standard units, one should do it right and
               use Kelvins. That way nobody is happy."
           - Linux Weekly News, on Fahrenheit vs. Celsius
The contents of this e-mail are intended for the named addressee only. It contains information that may be confidential. Unless you are the named addressee or an authorized designee, you may not copy or use it, or disclose it to anyone else. If you received it in error please notify us immediately and then destroy it.