AmigaOne X1000, Amiga OS 4.1.x, & Gaming

[Kesa]

Anyone using these NG systems for any professional work are few and far between, you could likely count them with fingers in our one hand (no office suite or support for modern file formats kind of kills the whole idea). Gaming is probably limited to retro action, such as mame and friends (and to be honest you can run mame on pretty much any box, it doesn't have to be $1000-$3000 one). For serious gaming (modern titles) you'll just use a PC, Mac or a console.

Hobby.. that's the ticket.

amigasociety, I sincerely do hope you did consider these issues before buying your $3000 computer.

Me thinks Piru might be jealous that he doesn't own his own x1000.

[amigasociety]

Piru, what may I ask do you use MorphOS for?

Do you develop for MorphOS?

I take it professionally you use Linux or Windows based systems daily but use MorphOS for hobby only?

tj

[Karlos]

Piru, what may I ask do you use MorphOS for?

Do you develop for MorphOS?

Well, you could say that. Dropping the word "for" might get you even closer

[Iggy]

Well MorphOS at least has 3D  support for a large number of the cards that it supports.
And while we don't have DirectX, we do have some OpenGL compatibility.

AROS also has soon 3D support and Hyperion has announced that they would also like the support OpenGL (eventually).

So, yes all NG systems are hobbyist system. Many of the games available are ports from other OS'. But the fun is in seeing what new capabilities you can gain while still maintaining some legacy compatibility in a next generation development of a system we all hold dear.

It may just be hobbyist, but its developed far better then I ever thought it would.

[actung_bab]

Curious about gaming on the Amiga platform.

Now that the AmigaOne X1000 is shipping, and Amiga OS is up to 4.1u5, I wonder if this newer more powerful NG Amiga would make a killer gaming platform also.

My guess the AmigaOne X1000 was designed for more professional use but now that it is the most powerful system to run Amiga OS 4.x, will it attract any from the outside work on the gaming capability of the Amiga platform.

Is gaming relying on strictly high GHz power to propel the 3D nature of gaming or does the respondent OS have anything to do with gaming?

Obviously most games 3D games these days are running on Windows based platform with gaming computers, high overclocked CPUs, water cooling, and all that.

But, is it that they need all this speed because of the bogged down Windows it runs on?

Can a speedy X1000 running Amiga OS make some killer gaming because of how fast the Amiga OS is?

Or again is it all about power power power?

tj

its not just the cpu graphics card and ram just as important

The two brothers have done pc-amiga ports and thertes nothing to stop anyone porting
Open source Pc games ie old pc games

What windows uses is direct x software which is built into windows os
uses this for the sound and graphics interface so you can use many diffrent cards

There working on gaming interface for the amiga os 4 x not yet ready
So id say this is big road block to anyone being able to program decent games for amiga
X1000 , that and doesint support other cpu yet either , its a work in progress

You cant expect one small team to do everthing though easy sit on you butt and complain
be negitvie

[Karlos]

You cant expect one small team to do everthing though easy sit on you butt and complain be negitvie

It didn't sound like he was complaining to me, just asking.

The X1000 has the potential to play reasonably modern games if it's hardware resources could be fully utilised.

[amigasociety]

Well, you could say that. Dropping the word "for" might get you even closer

Even though I have only been on the Amiga forums for a couple years now, I have read enough that I know Piru is pro MorphOS and I figured he either develops for it, or is one of the main folks helping make it happen.  No reason for me to study one persons background over another.

But, curious to know now since he has participated in this thread I started what he uses MorphOS for.  Is it strictly hobby?  Does he use it professionally or everyday computing? Does he instead use Linux or Windows (or something else) for everyday use?

What drove me to buy into a number of the Amiga "based" platforms could very well be why Piru and many others support their favorite platform.

For me, I love the speediness of Amiga OS user experience.  I was also blown away with MorphOS and how speedy its user experience is.  Being a professional Mac person, I love what MorphOS has done for the G4 Apple systems.  I could see me equally using my Mac Mini G4 1.5GHz system for some professional or everyday computing.

TJ

[klx300r]

Well, you could say that. Dropping the word "for" might get you even closer

heck with all the interest he has in AmigaOS4.x threads here I'd of guessed he had shares in Hyperion! of course along with shares in recycling old Apple products

@ amigasociety

I guess you're starting to figure out why you don't find many AmigaOS4.x users here lately eh :razz:

[Iggy]

@ amigasociety

I guess you're starting to figure out why you don't find many AmigaOS4.x users here lately eh :razz:

Uh, because there aren't that many in total?

Or maybe its because they get tired of hearing that their OS doesn't compare well to the alternatives?

When your rendering figures with Radeon HD graphics compare poorly to a Radeon 9200 based system you know there's something wrong.

[itix]

@amigasociety

Amiga has not been gaming platform since 1994 but there are few excellent open source games ported from Linux. Battle for Wesnoth and OpenTTD for example, they are one of my favorite games on MorphOS. I know they were ported to OS4 so maybe you want to take a look.

[amigasociety]

@amigasociety

Amiga has not been gaming platform since 1994 but there are few excellent open source games ported from Linux. Battle for Wesnoth and OpenTTD for example, they are one of my favorite games on MorphOS. I know they were ported to OS4 so maybe you want to take a look.

Thanks for the tips.  Will have to check them out. Tj

[Beast96GT]

The OS has to provide the necessary services for the games to utilize. Today that's DirectX 11.

No, that should be OpenGL.  OpenGL is a much more viable platform than ever before.  You see everything from the PS3 to the iPhone to the Android supporting OpenGL.   Only Microsoft supports DX11, yet they also support OGL.  DX11 is really only an option if you're a huge games publisher than can risk millions of dollars on a single Triple-A title.  Most of these games are failures, that's why you see most publishers in the red and most dev houses shutting down.  

It's about market size. No-one is going to bother with commercial games if the potential sales are counted in hundreds.

So you can forget any kind of commercial games.

Not at all.  While it's true that there is no company that will develop SOLELY for the Amiga looking for a profit, you do have companies that can develop cross-platform games that support the Amiga.  The other side is that hardware manufacturer's often fund game projects themselves to ignite interest in the platform.  How do you think there are launch titles?   There is also the fact that independent development has become so much more relevant--hobbyists and small studios can now market their games directly without having shelf-space at Gamestop.  

Also, I'd say it doesn't help that the actual 3D drivers are nowhere to be seen.

Now this is another matter.  If there is no graphics driver support, then the difficulty ramp raises considerably.

=Beast

[Piru]

No, that should be OpenGL.  OpenGL is a much more viable platform than ever before.  You see everything from the PS3 to the iPhone to the Android supporting OpenGL.   Only Microsoft supports DX11, yet they also support OGL.  DX11 is really only an option if you're a huge games publisher than can risk millions of dollars on a single Triple-A title.  Most of these games are failures, that's why you see most publishers in the red and most dev houses shutting down.  

OpenGL support is still quite spotty with the windows, I'm afraid. Traditionally DirectX has gotten much more attention from the driver developers. It however is nowhere near as bad as it was couple of years ago.

Not at all.  While it's true that there is no company that will develop SOLELY for the Amiga looking for a profit, you do have companies that can develop cross-platform games that support the Amiga.  The other side is that hardware manufacturer's often fund game projects themselves to ignite interest in the platform.  How do you think there are launch titles?

Which titles? I don't see any.

There is also the fact that independent development has become so much more relevant--hobbyists and small studios can now market their games directly without having shelf-space at Gamestop.

Could be, but I can count recent commercial amiga titles with one hand. None of them are nowhere near interesting for me to buy.

[spirantho]

Trust me, it's about market size.
To recoup on total costs you need to sell several hundred thousand units, or at least many tens of thousands.
Now consider the size of the Amiga market. If an Amiga model sells well it'll sell a few thousand units. On a really good return you may get a quarter of that buying your game. Launch products are made where the projected sales are at least a million these days.

As you can see, getting a game made specifically for the Amiga is suicide. Your only hope is getting a company to port from the Mac on the cheap (no DirectX), and even then you are talking tens of thousands quite possibly.

In other words, it's just not viable for a niche platform to have games written professionally.

Also, there is no proper developers environment like MSDev or even Eclipse.

Plus, the fact is that  all our hardware is very slow these days, when compared to x86 Macs and PCs.

There is no way I'm afraid you will be able to use your x1000 for gaming unless it homebrew or open source, same as every other amigaoid platform.

[SysAdmin]

Anyone using these NG systems for any professional work are few and far between, you could likely count them with fingers in our one hand (no office suite or support for modern file formats kind of kills the whole idea). Gaming is probably limited to retro action, such as mame and friends (and to be honest you can run mame on pretty much any box, it doesn't have to be $1000-$3000 one). For serious gaming (modern titles) you'll just use a PC, Mac or a console.

Hobby.. that's the ticket.

amigasociety, I sincerely do hope you did consider these issues before buying your $3000 computer.

1,000,000 happy gould's use NG Amiga's in the Bahamas.

[Beast96GT]

OpenGL support is still quite spotty with the windows, I'm afraid. Traditionally DirectX has gotten much more attention from the driver developers. It however is nowhere near as bad as it was couple of years ago.

What do you mean by spotty?  I'd argue that the Khronos group has remained active in it's support for updated technology.  It has had to. There are numerous titles that are developed with the latest OpenGL, take for instance Dark Siders.  
 

Which titles? I don't see any.

Well currently, there are none!  I'm thinking of future titles.  You have to start somewhere.

Could be, but I can count recent commercial amiga titles with one hand. None of them are nowhere near interesting for me to buy.

The X1000 just came out, correct?  I'm simply stating that the thing can grow and develop a user base.  Like I said, it would probably require some incentive to do so, e.g. money.  But it's not out of the realm of possibility.