12 replies to this topic

[IMG News]

TransGaming, the company behind the Cider portability engine and NVIDIA today announced a deal they hope will lead to the release of more top-tier games to the Mac. TransGaming’s Cider portability engine technology eliminates the time and expense of porting Windows games to the Mac.

The collaboration will allow TransGaming's Cider to run high-level shaders created for Microsoft’s Direct3D platform using the NVIDIA CgFX framework. To accomplish this, TransGaming and NVIDIA have worked together to improve Cg in several areas, ranging from Effect (.fx) file compatibility through to performance, resulting in the ability to release more high-end games on the Mac with Cider.

”The collaboration between TransGaming and NVIDIA is an important step for Mac gaming. Our collaborative efforts with Cg provide a sophisticated alternative implementation of Direct3D compatible high level shaders on the Mac; this is important because Microsoft restricts the distribution of Direct3D on non-Microsoft platforms. We look forward to releasing many blockbuster titles this year with Cg”, stated Vikas Gupta, CEO & President of TransGaming.

NVIDIA’s work with TransGaming has greatly accelerated the development of the CgFX graphics system. TransGaming’s cross platform experience has allowed us to make CgFX more compatible with developer’s existing shader systems, and opens the door to a consistent developer model for deploying shader effects in different environments. The combination of Cider and Cg will give Mac gamers the best gaming experience possible and we’re pleased to be working with TransGaming to change the Mac gaming landscape”, said Roy Taylor, VP of Content Engagement for NVIDIA.

TransGaming's Cider is currently being used to bring titles such as Heroes of Might & Magic V and Myst Online: Uru Live to the Mac.

For more on Cider, follow the link below.

Return to Full Article - InsideMacGames News

[Janichsan]

Hmmm... this could actually help to make Cider more suitable than it is now (well - apart that royalty business). But I guess, we won't see anything of that before yet another six months have passed.

[hambone]

and this means what exactly for those of us with ATi hardware in our macs?

[PeopleLikeFrank]

hambone, on February 6th 2007, 11:23 AM, said:

and this means what exactly for those of us with ATi hardware in our macs?

Not much - Cg compiles to standard OpenGL extensions, so it will work with whatever hardware is in the system.

[Matt Diamond]

nobody, on February 6th 2007, 11:38 AM, said:

Not much - Cg compiles to standard OpenGL extensions, so it will work with whatever hardware is in the system.

Yeah. It sounds like maybe the two companies have developed a working relationship. TransGaming reports incompatibilities they find between PC & Mac Cg, and possibly makes suggestions for future versions of Cg to improve matters. They probably get prerelease versions from nVidia to test with. That sort of thing.

It's good stuff, but not deserving of a big press release in my humble opinion. Unfortunately it reinforces the impression I'd gotten that TransGaming's press releases contain a lot of hyperbole.

[pofox]

nobody, on February 7th 2007, 01:38 AM, said:

Not much - Cg compiles to standard OpenGL extensions, so it will work with whatever hardware is in the system.

Correct me if I'm wrong, my understanding is that the original PC Direct3D code is translated to the equivalent OpenGL functions, and the contribution of NVidia is to improve the features supported in that translation? And what additional benefits does Cider have over the porting libraries that Aspyr and co. have already accumulated?

[Smoke_Tetsu]

pofox, on February 6th 2007, 05:11 PM, said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, my understanding is that the original PC Direct3D code is translated to the equivalent OpenGL functions, and the contribution of NVidia is to improve the features supported in that translation? And what additional benefits does Cider have over the porting libraries that Aspyr and co. have already accumulated?

Not much going by what some developers who have posted here have said. It's still the same amount of work in their opinion but it seems with less low level optimization.

When I first saw this headline my first reaction was, "What would this mean for ATI users?" but if CG is compatible with any OpenGL accelerator then it should be fine. How this affects Cider and how it affects the Mac gaming market is another story however.

[lenn]

Until i see a release from these guys it's still just alot of talk.

lenn

[Douglas]

hambone, on February 6th 2007, 08:23 AM, said:

and this means what exactly for those of us with ATi hardware in our macs?

It means that we now have an alternative to ATI and for a good reason.  Hey, after the crappy support I've experienced with my "top of the line (expensive)" X1900 XT on my Mac pro I WELCOME a reason to switch to Nvidia once they release their next gen Mac card.

GO NVIDIA!!!!

Douglas

[Eric5h5]

Good luck with that...crappy support is better than no support, which is pretty much what Nvidia has done for Macs so far.  I'm not sure what part of this news release can be read as "now we have an alternative to ATI"...the situation is unchanged as far as graphics cards go.  There will probably never be a retail Nvidia Mac card if the past is any indication.

--Eric

[atari]

Eric5h5, on February 7th 2007, 04:59 AM, said:

Good luck with that...crappy support is better than no support, which is pretty much what Nvidia has done for Macs so far.  I'm not sure what part of this news release can be read as "now we have an alternative to ATI"...the situation is unchanged as far as graphics cards go.  There will probably never be a retail Nvidia Mac card if the past is any indication.

--Eric

Since Nvidia does not offer ANY cards themselves that makes sense

[ehuelga]

Eric5h5, on February 6th 2007, 10:59 PM, said:

There will probably never be a retail Nvidia Mac card if the past is any indication.

There was the GeForce 4Ti available from Apple back in '02 for around $300. Then again, it ran Halo like ass until 10.3.8 or so, when Apple finally updated the OpenGL/Nvidia drivers to actually make decent use of the card. I've certainly enjoyed it plenty over the years, but always felt that whatever terrific horsepower it truly had was hobbled by the slow development of drivers by Apple. By the time UT2004 and Halo were running well with better eye-candy, the 4Ti was pretty well obsolete.

[PeopleLikeFrank]

Reading comprehension FTW...

This will not impact the user experience at all, ATI or nVidia, and has nothing to do with either company's support of their Mac graphics cards.