When EVE Online introduction on the Mac political program in the coming week , it will be thanks to technologies like Python and Cider , the massively multiplayer game ’s developer told attendees at an yearly gather of gaming enthusiast .
In a roundtable discussion at this week’sEVE OnlineFanfest in Reykjavik , Iceland , the developers and quality assurance faculty responsible for for bringing the biz to the Mac and Linux platform discussed some of the issues involved bring the game to fresh platforms .
EVE Online is a new massively multiplayer online game come to the Mac within the next couple of weeks . Set in outer infinite , it enable gamers to fly starship as they mine , salvage , build industriousness , train huge fleets and ultimately go to warfare with each other in a huge , share on-line universe . It ’s developed a cell of very hardcore enthusiasts numbering about 150,000 worldwide .
Mac version transparency
“ Very little of the code al-Qaeda is Windows - specific , ” explained Shay McAulay of CCP Games , whose QA team is responsible for vet the Mac version of EVE Online . “ Most of our code depends on Python . ”
Python is a gamy - story scripting language that is chopine - agnostical . As a resolution , the spiritual rebirth of EVE Online to platform other than Windows has been fairly straightforward .
To manage the actual transition work , CCP recruitedTransGaming Technologies , developer of the Cider applied science that EA has used to convey its games to the Macintosh . Cider enable Intel - based Macs to die hard Windows applications without needing Windows installed . Essentially , it ’s a translation layer that runs on Mac OS X , explained Lucas Smithen , TransGaming ’s product manager for Cider .
“ It takes the incumbrance off the plot developer to have to maintain dissimilar branches of code for different platforms , ” he explained .
“ The plot is still running the same center instruction set , disregardless of platform , ” aver Sean Langley , TransGaming ’s producer for EVE Online . “ We ’re just providing an environment for the Windows product to break away in . There ’s no translation of code . ”
“ In fact , we ’ve institute that in some cases , such as role model loading , the Mac adaptation actually runs a bit quicker than the Windows version , because of efficiency in the Mac file organisation , ” said McAuley .
To that end , the Cider translation layer takes Windows - specific instructions for rendering artwork , strait and other information and supply a Mac eq . Windows - specific DirectX graphics , for example , are rendered as OpenGL objects . ( OpenGL is the 3 - D diligence Programming Interface ( API ) that Macs use to display nontextual matter . ) Windows DirectSound audio is translated to Core Audio , the engineering Macs role to produce audio effects .
There are some drawbacks to this approach . For one matter , it specify the biz to working only on Intel - ground Macs . PowerPC - establish systems , which still number in the millions , are leave alone out of the loop . There ’s also a tenuous execution penalty , but TransGaming essay to keep that within a 15 pct or less deviation with the Windows clients . That means that a Mac running Boot Camp may be able to run at about 100 frames per s , while the same Mac run EVE Online in Cider will run at 85 frames per secondly — still plenty fast enough for the fair EVE Online drug user , said Langley .
Distribution same as Windows interpretation
EVE Online is distributed as a download available from the EVE Online Web site . It will be the same for Mac and Linux users . And Mac and Linux substance abuser will be able-bodied to toy in the same persistent online macrocosm — called “ Tranquility”—as Windows user . That think of that EVE Online players all participate in the same area , disregarding of political program .
Mac and Linux users will have access to all of the same areas in the biz as their PC counterparts . CCP Games has been touting an upgrade to their computer graphic engine , call in “ Holy Trinity 2 , ” and that also will be come to the Mac and Linux — though it will put behind bars behind the PC liberation . As a result , Mac users will be play EVE Online “ Classic ” at first . The “ Premium ” release , containing the raw Trinity 2 engine , is tentatively ask for vent on the Mac and Linux some metre in the first poop of 2008 .
CCP Games is also overhauling other aspects of the secret plan , such as its mesh layer — a big blessing to players who complain of web lag when taking on large armadas of opposing forces . Most of those changes will be available to both Classic and Premium users going onward .
