EA games for Mac announced at WWDC not native
Thursday 14th June 2007, 12:12:00 PM, written by Rys
Or so ExtremeTech argue. Instead, they say that the games promised by
EA will use TransGaming Cider technology to get the games running on OS
X.
Cider effectively wraps a Windows binary under OS X, linking it to version of the APIs they'd use under Windows, on the Mac. ExtremeTech argue correctly that performance is a concern under that model of execution, and further take issue with the hardware configuration of most Macs, especially the fixed-GPU iMac and MacBook ranges, where the GPUs installed might not be up to the job.
Fair enough on the MacBook, since the same issue exists with non-Apple notebooks (for the most part anyway), but ET have a point with the current iMac where the graphics hardware isn't always matched to the display resolution in terms of modern full-screen gaming. But then you can game in a window, right?
Regardless, the use of Cider wasn't mentioned at WWDC, and ExtremeTech wonder if that's on purpose. It remains to see how the games run via Cider, and with Macs now running Windows, testing the difference becomes a reality. We wait and see.
Cider effectively wraps a Windows binary under OS X, linking it to version of the APIs they'd use under Windows, on the Mac. ExtremeTech argue correctly that performance is a concern under that model of execution, and further take issue with the hardware configuration of most Macs, especially the fixed-GPU iMac and MacBook ranges, where the GPUs installed might not be up to the job.
Fair enough on the MacBook, since the same issue exists with non-Apple notebooks (for the most part anyway), but ET have a point with the current iMac where the graphics hardware isn't always matched to the display resolution in terms of modern full-screen gaming. But then you can game in a window, right?
Regardless, the use of Cider wasn't mentioned at WWDC, and ExtremeTech wonder if that's on purpose. It remains to see how the games run via Cider, and with Macs now running Windows, testing the difference becomes a reality. We wait and see.
Tagging
apple ± gaming, transgaming, cider, extremetech, wwdc
Related apple News
3G iPhone using same 90nm Application Processor as 2G iPhone?
iPhone 3.5G to support 1080p H.264 High-Profile Dual-Stream Decoding?
Apple acquires PA Semi; Press proves lack of understanding. [UPDATED]
Apple picks AMD Radeon HD GPUs for iMac
NVIDIA and Intel power the Apple TV
iPhone 3.5G to support 1080p H.264 High-Profile Dual-Stream Decoding?
Apple acquires PA Semi; Press proves lack of understanding. [UPDATED]
Apple picks AMD Radeon HD GPUs for iMac
NVIDIA and Intel power the Apple TV
