Apple Improving Open-GL?

[MacRumors]

Apple appears to be actively recruiting individuals to improve their Mac Open-GL implementation according to a post on the Mac Open GL mailing list.

The Apple, ATI and NVIDIA OpenGL software teams are looking for a diverse set of talented engineers who would like to be a part of the fast paced world of 3D graphics. Apply your skills to help make Mac OS X the best OpenGL implementation in the industry.

Open GL is the programming interface for 2D and 3D graphics used by game programmers to provide graphics acceleration to their applications. Apple's interest in accelerating the Mac implementation may come from recent disappointing Mac Doom 3 benchmarks.

 

[BrianKonarsMac]

finally, maybe they realized all of the PC switchers were still buying PC's to game...

first post for the win!

seriously though, i'm so surprised this wasn't a top priority before, at least apple is taking some initiative.

 

[Mord]

nothing could be better for apple than haveing the best 3D performence, they loose too much on 3d apps like cinima 3, and they may lure 3d studio max if they optimize open gl enough

 

[nitriletiger]

I was thinking that....

... the mac gaming industry is needing some improvement, maybe better 3D graphics might encourage more companies to create more games? The mac game selection has gotten better over the years, but still not good enough.

-nitriletiger

 

[vollspacken]

this is good news since better Open GL perfomance should hopefully also speed up quarz extreme on older/cheaper grafics cards...

vSpacken

 

[BenRoethig]

Excuse my language, but its about damn time.

 

[supergod]

If Apple is serious about improving open GL, maybe they'll get serious about providing quality GPU options. Having only two products that ship with respectable graphics options (power macs and powerbooks) is disgaceful, especially considering that the iMac target demographic is certainly interested in gaming.

 

[combatcolin]

Maybe they will change track, of course they have to balance costs and try to provide what there target group customer expects,

BUT

For example , the old PB had an option of a 128MB Graphic card in the top range model, but why nothing similar in the 20" iMac G5?

The top range model is always going to be expensive, so why not push the boat out further?

 

[combatcolin]

Bugger me!

Just noticed i've made it to a 6502!

Cool, off to play WOW now.

 

[iKant]

Getting Defense Dollars

I suspect there's more to this than simply improving consumer game performance. Apple is making great efforts, apparently with some success, to win back the armed forces. The navy currently trains surface fleet officers and submarine officers using simulations that run openGL on windows computers. Perhaps with better performance, some of those dollars will be coming Apple's way.

 

[iris_failsafe]

finally professional graphic cards. Apple is loosing tons of sales for that

 

[weezer160]

Well, duh!

This is something I've always been pointing out; Apple should be focusing on graphics development because that was the driving force of the Macintosh in the first place! What a bunch of dorks.

 

[jared_kipe]

... the mac gaming industry is needing some improvement, maybe better 3D graphics might encourage more companies to create more games? The mac game selection has gotten better over the years, but still not good enough.

-nitriletiger

Doubtful, only thing that is going to make people start making more mac games is when we get some reasonable market share, and it is profitable to do so.

 

[d.perel]

How do they exactly improve FPS benchmarks? would that be through new hardware, or through software releases/updates?

 

[Kagetenshi]

Software.

~J

 

[scotty321]

It's the games, stupid

Someone needs to tell Apple and Steve Jobs:

It's the games, stupid!

PC users are not going to switch to the Mac with our MEASLY selection of games and POOR performance! Apple needs to be courting as many game developers as possible!!

 

[Abstract]

Doubtful, only thing that is going to make people start making more mac games is when we get some reasonable market share, and it is profitable to do so.

Or how about when Apple makes it easier for companies to make their games run well on a Mac. Its not like it was easy to get Doom 3 to run, as was said in an interview concerning Doom 3 and Apple, so maybe it'll be easier to make a particular game not suck on a Mac, which is encouraging enough.

 

[hob]

PC users are not going to switch to the Mac with our MEASLY selection of games and POOR performance! Apple needs to be courting as many game developers as possible!!

I did. I just bought an XBOX and a PSP as well. The only thing I miss out on is Half-Life 2. That alone almost made me regret it!! SUCH a good game, and no PC for me to play it on... or mac version!! Maybe companies like ID have demanded that Apple improve opengl support so they can release better games, or at least not have embarrassing minimum specs.

 

[Trekkie]

finally, maybe they realized all of the PC switchers were still buying PC's to game...

That, or Core Video in Tiger isn't as fast as they'd like too. It could be a combination of things.

 

[hob]

Or how about when Apple makes it easier for companies to make their games run well on a Mac. Its not like it was easy to get Doom 3 to run, as was said in an interview concerning Doom 3 and Apple, so maybe it'll be easier to make a particular game not suck on a Mac, which is encouraging enough.

...what he said!

 

[Trekkie]

Someone needs to tell Apple and Steve Jobs:

It's the games, stupid!

PC users are not going to switch to the Mac with our MEASLY selection of games and POOR performance! Apple needs to be courting as many game developers as possible!!

Whatever. Stop talking to your friends about what computer they'd buy, and go look at the real market. If you look at a 'normal' person who doesn't live to play games or play with their computer you're going to find them running an inexpensive, stripped down, Intel 'graphics' that use main memory system bought at Best Buy when MSN or whatever internet provider of the week offered some big rebate that actually signed them up for three years of service at more than twice the rebate they got.

There are other components of an operating system and application layers that use 3D that are Apple's core market. Like professional workstation stuff, or even video editing could be improved some by Open GL improvements. It's not only the games, not by a long shot.

 

[applekid]

I'll be happy once we see the results of any OpenGL improvements on the Mac. For now, this is all talk.

If Apple really wants gaming to catch on, they should make their games site (apple.com/games) as a tab on the front page. Then at least it would be advertising correctly.

The only "optional" thing I want Apple to do now are ditch the low-end cards (9200 and FX 5200, for examples) and get some mid-level cards for the iMac and 12" PowerBook. I don't mind seeing iBooks, Mac Mini, and eMac with the low-end cards (you seriously shouldn't think about any serious gaming with those machines in the first place), but the iMac and low-end PowerBook are the middle of desktop and laptop lines, so they deserve better.

Anyways, this might be a step in the right direction for gaming. It's quite possible CoreImage and CoreVideo and Quartz are the APIs that'll benefit, however they seem to be quite good as is. Have you tried getting a PC to draw the GUI using the graphics card? Go to nVidia's control panel on a PC, tell it to draw the windows and even make them transparent if you want. It's choppy as hell. Quartz is leaps ahead of that technology. With Longhorn, they might catch up though. Longhorn as Avalon which is Quartz's equal, pretty much. But it requires 64MB of VRAM, more than Quartz Extreme. They haven't shown too many interesting demos with it though.

But, I still think games will be reaping the benefits. It's good news for everyone really.

 

[Kagetenshi]

I don't mind seeing iBooks, Mac Mini, and eMac with the low-end cards (you seriously shouldn't think about any serious gaming with those machines in the first place)

Oh gee, no one told me. I guess I'd better stop playing UT2k4 on my iBook, then.

~J

 

[chaosbunny]

Game developers should take blizzard as an example. WoW, one box for pc and mac! Would like to see this more often...

 

[Phat_Pat]

Game developers should take blizzard as an example. WoW, one box for pc and mac! Would like to see this more often...

Yes that would rock.... although large games wouldn't have room for both platforms on 1 CD/DVD