Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!tjs From: tjs@cs.monash.edu.au (Toby Sargeant) Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.freetalk.english Subject: Re: S*ga Dreamc*st Date: 2 Aug 1998 23:14:13 GMT Organization: PlayStation Net Yaroze (SCEE) Lines: 36 Message-ID: References: <3569980E.51FC@saqnet.co.uk> <356A77BD.596@dma-design.com> <356a4d1f.24746116@news.scea.sony.com> <356A8BBD.5DD9@dma-design.com> <35C13E1E.4A99D280@mail.datasys.net> <1dd416x.1cqaclz4vkpc1N@a1-88-110.a1.nl> <6q1g2e$fvf13@chuka.playstation.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: indy16.cs.monash.edu.au X-Newsreader: slrn (0.9.5.1 UNIX) On Sun, 2 Aug 1998 11:41:56 +0100, John Whitmore wrote: >>Windows CE in a games-console SUCK!! >> >>DEnnis... > > now where's that (Ctrl-Alt-Del) button?..... > Just to be playing devil's advocate for a bit, there are some reasonably good reasons why consoles should run windows CE, or at least export the Win32/DirectX style APIs. The fact is that the number of programmers that are familiar with those APIs means that there is more change that the console will be supported by 3rd party developers, and that the rate and quality of game releases will be higher. Of course there is a point at the end of the curve where programmers need direct hardware access to squeeze the last few cycles out of a machine, and, I would imagine, the DreamCast can be programmed in this manner too. The other thing is that being much smaller than Windows 95/NT, Windows CE is likely to be much more compact and stable. It doesn't have to try to do things like memory management and controlling 16/32 bit intel code. It also doesn't have to support a wide range of hardware configurations. For these reasons, I think it's more likely that the console will crash as a result of user code than system code. I personally would have preferred to see Posix and OpenGL APIs, or even something approximating the Amiga kernel, but then personal preference is a perverse thing. The bigger issue with the DreamCast is its rather strange choice of thes PowerVR chipset for its rendering engine. While I'm sure that this is because Sega has used it in plenty of arcade games and hence has a slew of programmers that know it, and the potential for many arcade conversions, it really doesn't change the fact that 3d technology has moved on. Toby.