Im sorry but how many of us users have XP? How many will have vista on release? Lets rememebr most early adopters will not equal the market share of XP for a while. Also Vista will have its early launch bugs and such. So why are you forcing me to buy a game just to play on a specific OS? What happened to all your Halo fans on XP? Progression is Vista. Not alienating your consumers and fans. That to my knowledge is not progression.madmatt said:Terrahertz, your rant doesn't make sense to me. You are an IT staffer of some sort and you mention progression is what keeps IT going (very true).
On the other hand, you are balking at Microsoft for only releasing Halo 2 for Vista (and not XP). Wouldn't that be progression?
Steevo said:By drawing a line in the sand.
NetRyder said:Well, to be fair, that's a slightly different situation. In the case of the Xbox and the 360, there's a big difference in the hardware specs. Most of the games built for the 360 wouldn't even run, or would look like utter garbage on the Xbox, even if all the software and APIs necessary were magically ported to the original Xbox, simply because the hardware wouldn't be able to keep up.
But again, the role of software and APIs is as important to the functioning of a game as the hardware is. You could have the finest wood on the planet, but you wouldn't be able to build a ship without the glue.
It could run 32-bit apps, if that's what you're asking.gonaads said:Isn't Win 95 16 bit?
Terrahertz said:Im sorry but how many of us users have XP? How many will have vista on release? Lets rememebr most early adopters will not equal the market share of XP for a while. Also Vista will have its early launch bugs and such. So why are you forcing me to buy a game just to play on a specific OS? What happened to all your Halo fans on XP? Progression is Vista. Not alienating your consumers and fans. That to my knowledge is not progression.
So basically what you're saying is, you got the point I was trying to make but just feel like complaining nonetheless.gonaads said:Ahhhhaaaa, hardware. Yeah yeah I know that it has to do mainly with DirectX and OpenGL APIs and such. Just frustrating that once ya get comfortable with yer OS and ya have it tweaked just the way you want it and all is stable within the OS universe ya gotta go and throw a new OS on top and wait 'n see what goes tits up. And then ya start from scratch all over again and go through the same ritual of tweaking and getting everything just so. And then the next "new and improved" OS comes out. And then...
Rant rant... blah blah.
madmatt said:I don't know the numbers. I can only speak for myself. I was in line at midnight when XP came out. But that's just me.
And last I knew, the original Halo isn't even available for PC/XP. Are you balking at Microsoft for that? Now they decide to release the new Halo for PC and you're mad because it's not going to be available for a five year old OS. And by the time Vista comes out Halo 2 will be a year old and it will be time for Halo 3.
Could they develop Halo 2 for the PC so that it runs on XP and Vista? Sure. But that would mean two things - they can't take advantage of DX10 capabilities, and it would require additional time, money and manpower to go through the QA process separately for two different systems. People think Microsoft has an infinite amount of resources, but that's simply not true. Spending time and money on old stuff means less time and money for new stuff, which translates to product ship delays, features getting cut and all the stuff that nobody wants either. So take your pick.Terrahertz said:Im sorry but your talking about PC apps that are part of the OS. Just so we all know win 98 all the way to Xp is still supported. June is the deadline for Win98 but guess what PEOPLE still use them. Its not like we get a grant each 5cycles to buy a new OS and pray everything works on day one. Halo 2 is a game that will not reach the mass audience until sometime because of this move. Whats wrong with running it on XP and vista? Have the Dx9 and Dx10 hooks in software. This is not about progression in the usual tech sense. This is Microsoft forcing you to buy an OS because they know the mass love of Halo. Its that simple. Im not hating against vista. I will get it eventually. But why force me?
You have that analogy completely backwards, actually. What you describe is akin to Microsoft releasing a brand new OS which will only run the latest games and none of your old ones, which is obviously not what's happening here.Nvidia and Ati should release a new card and tell all of us only the games coming out now will run on them. So fork over the $600 and shutup. Thats exactly what were getting here.
No. DirectX 10 is, as of this time, supposed to be a Vista-only. However, it includes a compatibility layer that allows DX9-based apps to run on it. That part wasn't included in the December CTP release, but it's coming. So DX9 games should have no problems running with the DX10 runtimes installed.gonaads said:O.K. so Halo 2 will only run on Vista especially since it will need DX 10 But it has been said that DX 10 is not going to be backwards compatible unless DX 10 has DX 9 shipped with it. And DX 10 will not run on XP. So all the games that you are playing now such as Battlefield 2, Far Cry, ect. would not run on DX 10 if DX 9 isn't included with DX 10. And so would not runn on Vista. Unless DX 9 is included or emulated. Yes/No?
NetRyder said:Could they develop Halo 2 for the PC so that it runs on XP and Vista? Sure. But that would mean two things - they can't take advantage of DX10 capabilities...
NetRyder said:No. DirectX 10 is, as of this time, supposed to be a Vista-only. However, it includes a compatibility layer that allows DX9-based apps to run on it. That part wasn't included in the December CTP release, but it's coming. So DX9 games should have no problems running with the DX10 runtimes installed.
What's keeping them from doing DX10 for XP?gonaads said:O.K. fine, but what's to keep them from doing DX 10 for XP? It won't sell, that's what. Vista will sell. As was said, Vista will run 32 and 64 bit. But DX 10 has been written specifically for the Vista OS. To have DX 10 for XP is not profitable.
NetRyder said:If Microsoft went ahead and back-ported everything to XP, guess what? XP just became Vista! Only difference is, you'd get it for free...
Things don't work that way in Windows and the Macintosh land. Microsoft and Apple are corporations with responsibilities towards their shareholders....
I hope each one of you was aware of that fact when you consciously decided to buy your very first copy of Windows. If not, here, I'm telling you now.