Mac OS X Quicktime, OpenGL Enhancements Coming?

[ElderscrollsV]

The rapture is coming!

To keep it simple: 3D stuff, videos and Core Animation (the new feature in Leopard that enables super smooth transitions) will run better.

I wish they would use core animation for when I switch between the views (Icon, List, Column) in Finder. Imagine the items in the right column (in column view) zooming into place and morphing into the big preview icons. It's actually super easy to do with core animation, very fun to play around. If you're an ADC member, download an open source project and try to add core animation effects everywhere. Only then will you grasp the potential of that API.

mmmok I understand. I have a question though...I have a black macbook and it runs superfast...and I am sure that a "core animated" finder would run smooth as silk on my beast. BUT what about those that are stuck on g4s? Do you really think apple is going to integrate somthing like this in 10.5???

 

[Enigmac]

This sounds promising. Bring on Leopard!

 

[ogee]

can anyone explain to me what this all means????

It means if you cant understand it your getting old

 

[dartzorichalcos]

I hope that there will be Blue-ray support with these updates too.

 

[Konradx]

a lil late. Hope they do this sooner, rather than later

 

[twoodcc]

Sounds good...so when is Leopard coming out?

exactly!

but yeah, this does sound good.....hope they get quicktime in leopard

 

[ppnkg]

How much longer do you think Apple will support the PowerPC?? I realize that newer versions of OS X often INCREASE performance in older machines, but it almost seems they want to ditch the PowerPC... perhaps even more quickly than they did OS 9. I could be wrong though.

Anyone else have 2 cents to share on the issue?

-Clive

Well, they can't do that soon - there's still many of us PPC mac users out there.

 

[EagerDragon]

can anyone explain to me what this all means????

OpenGL is a graphic library that to my knowledge was developed for Unix/Linux. Since OSX is a variant of that it can also run it. It is mainly used for 3D games. Making it faster makes Mac's a better gaming choice.

 

[Mgkwho]

Mmm...ThinkSecret, I think I would rather trust my 10 year old sister...

well said

-=|Mgkwho

 

[mozmac]

Am I one of the few that's completely under-impressed with Quicktime's video performance? Don't get me wrong, Quicktime is very robust and has taken computer video to new heights. However, iTunes video performance pails in comparison to Windows Media Player. I love iTunes as a music player and I've been using it since it was SoundJam MP, but cannot say anything good about it as a movie player. I hope this rumor is true because Apple needs to build up their video performance if they are going to poise themselves as a media content provider.

 

[EagerDragon]

Well, they can't do that soon - there's still many of us PPC mac users out there.

Apple may not abandom us PPC users for a while, but the writing is on the wall, even Adobe has some intel only products, several other developers are also going to start moving toward Intel only. It will be slow at first and in a year it will be hard to find many upgraded PPC apps. Slow at first, like a train until it picks up speed.

Look at FC specs.

 

[MrCrowbar]

mmmok I understand. I have a question though...I have a black macbook and it runs superfast...and I am sure that a "core animated" finder would run smooth as silk on my beast. BUT what about those that are stuck on g4s? Do you really think apple is going to integrate somthing like this in 10.5???

I'm writing on a 500 MHz PowerMac G4 AGP (1999 or 2000) right now running OSX 10.4.9. It all works, only videos don't really cut it and there's only the old slow USB 1.1. I borrowed that machine because my Macbook is at the shop for repairs.

The Macbook does not have a dedicated graphics card, there's merely a chip that uses (up to) 64 MB of your main memory (RAM) and sucks big time on 3D stuff but works very well on anything else. Core Animation works fine on Macbooks indeed (I have a the developer releases) and should do well on recent Powerbooks and G5 Powermacs. It's already using the graphics card a lot, so it doesn't really matter if you're on a G4 ore Core 2 Duo, the graphics card counts.

As it is right now, exposé in Leopard works about twice as smooth on my 500 MHz Powermac as it does in Tiger. Expect it to get a little better with the final release. I'd say everything that says Apple on it and has more than one GHz should handle Core animation just fine.

But remember Apple is famous for dropping obsolete things very fast. They were fast to ditch the floppy drives and VGA-Connectors in favor of better technology. I assume Leopard will be the last OSX that runs on G4s. OSX 10.6 might be supported for G5s as they can do 64 bit, but don't count on it.

So my answer to your question is: I don't think Leopard will have core animation everywhere, only where it adds to the ease of use, for example when you change the sorting scheme, the items smoothly move to their new position. Windows Vista has lots of Eye Candy, and most people will agree that it actually doesn't add to the ease of use at all, it's just disturbing. Apple is all about keeping it simple yet useful.

Leopard will most probably come out on June 11th with some updated hardware and iLife. iPhone will be either a little sooner or later, but since Apple does not want small developers to make software for it, there's no reason to reveal it at WWDC in my opinion.

 

[ricksbrain]

Mmm...ThinkSecret, I think I would rather trust my 10 year old sister...

So what does she have to say?

 

[MrCrowbar]

Am I one of the few that's completely under-impressed with Quicktime's video performance? Don't get me wrong, Quicktime is very robust and has taken computer video to new heights. However, iTunes video performance pails in comparison to Windows Media Player. I love iTunes as a music player and I've been using it since it was SoundJam MP, but cannot say anything good about it as a movie player. I hope this rumor is true because Apple needs to build up their video performance if they are going to poise themselves as a media content provider.

Yea, iTunes sucks big time for video, even small podcasts look like crap. Do the right-click, reveal in finder and open the same thing with quicktime or through front row and you'll have smoother video than VLC can offer, especially on high def stuff.

 

[iJon]

VLC and QTFS

I know this, plus I own QTPro so no problem there. What I want to do is to be able to double click a video in Safari and it goes to full screen, simple as that and just like Windows does it. It didn't seem like that software did it.

There is this new piece of software out called BoPeepers. The software didn't work the first time I tried it so I haven't messed with it since.

jon

 

[Rocketman]

It's not up to Apple to have 10.5 support DirectX. Microsoft would have to implement it, or at least license it, and the chances of that approach 0%.
--Eric

Macintosh Business Unit. Every Parallels install (on average) sells or utilizes 1.2 Microsoft licenses. Earth to Microsoft.

Rocketman

 

[nuckinfutz]

Apple is replacing the older legacy Quicktime frameworks for the new QTKit which is 64-bit.

OpenGL in Leopard is the newest 2.1 version which will be threaded even better than today's 10.4.x

 

[Eric5h5]

OpenGL is a graphic library that to my knowledge was developed for Unix/Linux. Since OSX is a variant of that it can also run it. It is mainly used for 3D games. Making it faster makes Mac's a better gaming choice.

OpenGL was developed by SGI as a successor to their IRIS GL. It's an open standard, which is why Apple uses it. It's a 3D graphics API, which you can implement on any OS...Apple first used it in OS 8, which of course has nothing to do with Unix.

--Eric

 

[GeeYouEye]

Apple is replacing the older legacy Quicktime frameworks for the new QTKit which is 64-bit.

OpenGL in Leopard is the newest 2.1 version which will be threaded even better than today's 10.4.x

This is correct, though it's worth noting that QTKit exists in Tiger (in what's likely a more limited form than we'll seen in Leopard) already.

 

[Fukui]

Am I one of the few that's completely under-impressed with Quicktime's video performance? Don't get me wrong, Quicktime is very robust and has taken computer video to new heights. However, iTunes video performance pails in comparison to Windows Media Player. I love iTunes as a music player and I've been using it since it was SoundJam MP, but cannot say anything good about it as a movie player. I hope this rumor is true because Apple needs to build up their video performance if they are going to poise themselves as a media content provider.

Hence all of the fixes/re-writing that are being done.

 

[nuckinfutz]

This is correct, though it's worth noting that QTKit exists in Tiger (in what's likely a more limited form than we'll seen in Leopard) already.

Indeed ..I'm wondering just 'how' extensive of an update the Leopard QTKit is. I heard developers state that Tiger's QTKit was pretty basic. I'm hoping for a bit more "beef" with the Leopard version.

 

[SiliconAddict]

Sounds good...so when is Leopard coming out?

Who cares. Seriously. Anyone who is so anxious about getting the OS launched isn’t interested in stability. They just want teh shiny. Personally stability comes over features however features comes over stagnation.

 

[landis]

As to what everyone is saying about dropping ppc support, i do not think that will occur anytime soon. there is still a large mac base using ppc and they do not want to risk loosing them by making their hardware obsolete.

i would think the apples as well as other developers straregy would be to make apps more processor intensive until G4s cannot run them, only the higher powered G5s.

once they have i would estimate around 80-90% of users on intel, then they may drop support completely. although i do not see this happening until 10.7

in the past apple has received lots of criticism for dropping obsolete technology even as recently as putting an express card instead of a pc card slot in the macbookpro.

i am still on a rev A imac with tiger and can see this conputer working easily for another three years, although i am getting my new macbookpro in the summer once all major problems have been fixed.

 

[Catfish_Man]

I love how people somehow think this is new stuff that isn't in the developer seeds... iirc it's all in the publicly available WWDC session videos.

 

[RedDragon870503]

I don't see PPC being dropped anytime soon.

The very high end G4's (Dual 1.42's, 1.67, and the after market chips pushing 1.8) and most G5's are still very capable chips that run Tiger amazingly well. To completely phase them out in 1 or 2 major system updates would be crazy.

(Plus, I just got my lovely "iSight" iMac and I do not want to see it obsolete!)