I would write for what suits the majority of my customer base.
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Shepherds are the best beasts, but Labs are a close second.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Ward" <[email protected]>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2013 6:37 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] A Note to XP users
Hi Charles,
I do see where you are coming from, but it doesn't take into account
technical issues with trying to support an old operating system like
XP while maintaining support for newer and better operating systems
like Windows 8. Its not as simple as snapping my fingers and I can
support both. Let me give you a clear cut example of why what you
suggest is not that easy or simple to do.
Let's take audio support for example. On Windows XP the standard audio
library for games is Microsoft DirectSound 8. Its got some bugs, but
is stable enough on XP to use for games and most game developers use
it. However, when it comes to Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
DirectSound support is broken. In particular the 3d virtualization
doesn't work correctly, and because DirectSound is deprecated there
are not going to be any updates or bug fixes for DirectSound. So
assuming I write a cool game with 3d audio support using DirectSound
it will work just fine on XP, but will have problems on Vista, Windows
7, and Windows 8 all because DirectSound 8 is buggy on those
platforms. So clearly developing games for the majority of users using
XP won't be my best choice, because people running newer versions of
Windows will have bugs in their games as a result of that decision.
Since I personally use Windows 7 and Windows 8 I wouldn't want
DirectSound for such a game.
Well, there is a solution, but it favors the newer Windows users over
those running XP. I could use the new audio library XAudio2, which has
some bugs, but the 5.1 surround sound and 3d audio support on Windows
8 is excellent. The problem is while I resolve the problem for Windows
8 users by switching to XAudio2 there are not going to be any more
updates for XAudio2 on Windows XP any bugs in the version for XP that
are there will never get fixed because XP is about to get scrapped. So
I don't think XP users will like that solution either. Do you really
want a game using a new audio library that has known bugs on XP?
So I'd like to know how you personally would resolve that problem
without rewriting the game for two different Windows platforms using
two different audio libraries. Would you write a game for XP knowing
that DirectSound does not work on Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows
8, etc or would you write a game using XAudio2 knowing that it works
reasonably well on new versions of Windows, but has known bugs on XP
and will not be updated on XP?
Well, we are looking into other solutions like OpenAL instead of
DirectSound or XAudio2, but I think you get my point. There are often
technical reasons why a developer might want to drop a certain
platform or library because they are not compatible with the new
operating system, and going back to the old software isn't always the
best option long term. So that's why writing games for XP isn't always
the best thing to do no matter how many users use it.
Cheers!
On 9/11/13, Charles Rivard <[email protected]> wrote:
In that case, how about catering to the majority of your customers by
developing what they can use? Seems like you have a choice, here;
develop
what can be used by those who upgrade as you want them to do and lose the
majority of possible income, or develop for the majority of your
customers
and lose out on the minority who decide to become more up to date. It
doesn't take much thought on which way to go if money is your goal. If
70
to 80 percent of my customers use Apple equipment, I'm going to develop
Apple software to sell to them. It does not make sense to sell to the
other
20 or 30 percent in order to stay current with technology just for the
sake
of staying current.
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Shepherds are the best beasts, but Labs are a close second.
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