Author Topic: Still, how about that DX7 support? (Dumb impolite dolts do not bother to read this.)  (Read 192 times)

Offline miko2d

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 My post "WB3.0 is going to support HW T&L! HTC, pay attention." which was strictly software/hardware related got hijacked by a few sick individuals that turned it into WB slander contest, complerely ignoring my point.
 TT, -Ireg-, Curly and others, you dumb/ignorant/impolite oafs, do you know who created WB and have been working on WB untill the very recent past? None other then Hitech and Pyro themselves. The crew who took over from them did not have much time to contribute a lot of their own yet. As it stands right now, WB is still HT and Pyro's baby. So any slander on WB is slander on Pyro and HT.
 If they did such a toejamty work on it that the new people cannot fix in the last half a year, why do you expect any better from Aces High?

 WB was/is a great game. Not just the best ever, it was so much better then the second next as to be completely untoucheable by any competition. I hope that with all the experience accumulated gained while working on WB and starting with a clean slate Pyro and HT (and the rest of you, HTC crew) will amase us once more.
 I am actually pretty sure of it. An not because of the half-baked beta demo of AH we are "playing" now, but because I watched how they worked on WB for quite a while.
 Good work, guys. You can be proud of WB and of what we already see of AH! I appologise in the name of AH/WB community for the few inconsiderate dolts abusing their typing abilities.
 I also understand that the reason Pyro and HT left WB has to do with management and corporate policy, not the technical stuff. So there is no reason to believe the guys who are left there to work on WB are bad programmers. They have not proven themselves to be of Pyro and HT caliber yet. But as a programmer, I know how much time it takes to take over a big project. I am amazed that they were able to start making changes so fast. And I like those changes, especially the new ginnery. By the way it is another evidence how good HT and Pyro's team was - the code they left must have been very clean and well structured.

 Now back to my original question. It looks like in a few months (by the time AH releases) most of the AH players will own a pretty powerfull hardware. Also a lot of games, not just WB 3.0 will sport support for DX7 and hence hardware T&L on GeForce and other boards.
 It seems to me that starting a new game now, it makes a lot of sense to include support for DX7 from the very beginning. Those who do not have the hardware will still be able to run it the same way they do now - with T&L done by CPU, only through DX7. Those who own GeForce will be able to enjoy better resolution/frame rates/detail level and not feel like they just waisted money on that card. And not be tempted to go play other better-looking games.

 That is all. Purely technical.

P.S. I am currently using P2-300 64MB, TNT1

Regards,
miko--

[This message has been edited by miko2d (edited 10-29-1999).]

Tigger

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Bit confused here, is it your opion that every one should go out and buy GeForce if they already don't own one because of DX7?

Or is this because you have an expensive viedo card and there aren't any programs that support some feature this card boasts.

You gonna front the money for all of us that have a family and related expenses?


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Offline Kraut

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Well, I'm not the brightest bulp in the bunch but I had no struggles with miko2d's post. I'm not a yes person but I have to agree with what he had to say. I think, make sims with an eye towards the "future" would be good buisiness policy. This hardware is coming & when it drops in price, most of us will probably purchase it anyways.
As far as his views on WBs, I can't fault that either. That is the sim that I compare all others to in AC selection, SA, weapons & flight modeling.
Maybe I missed something here, like it's happened before. So educate me @ my perils.
FWIW,
Good Hunting!
Ps. Give me some more down elevator mit der 109. Please?  

[This message has been edited by Kraut (edited 10-28-1999).]

Offline miko2d

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Tigger,
 I am currently flying with P2-300 and TNT1.

 Pretty much bottom of the barrel according to my hardware poll. But I am pretty sure that when it is time for me to upgrade, there will be absolutely no sense in buying a card without hardware T&L. there will probably be none produced without that feature.
 Granted, the time when I upgrade and when all the cards sold have T&L is still a few months away (probably this spring), but so is the release of AH.
 DirectX 7 is the future on the PC, whether hardware T&L acceleration is used or not. Why build obsolescence into the product when the start from scratch offers unique opportunity to future-proof the design?

miko--

Tigger

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DX7 may be the future but by the time T&L becomes common and available everywhere DX8 will probably be close to release, and there will more neat new stuff.

Been on the DX beta team for quite a while, but I haven't been forced to upgrade hardware for a release yet.

A while it's nice to keep games new with more and more eye candy I know as a developer that you have to keep an eye on the bottom line, which means staying pretty close to the lowest common denominator to access as much of the customer base as possible, at least within reason. Not every one can or will go out and buy the latest and greatest hardware toy every 6/8/12 months.

Unless of course you are a company, like say Origin who in the past has been able to dictate to the customer market what hardware is required to use your product.



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I'm surrounded by idgits and mooks!

Offline Flathat

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With you, Tigger...I'm on something like a 3-4 year upgrade cycle and plan to stick to it. I bet a lot of folks are in that boat. Either that, or I'm going to limit upgrade investment to about $200/year (new processor one year, new video & more RAM next, better HD year after, etc...). This is a hobby, not an obsession.

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Flathat
'Black Dahlia'
No10 RNAS "The Black Flight"
Angel on your wing, devil on your tail