iOS support

[AF]

Pxtl you're making even more assumptions:

• He wants multiplayer
• That without multiplayer there would be no point
• That iOS users would be able to play against Windows and Linux players
• That even if that were possible that it would be fair or desirable

I'm sure with the right UI a singleplayer AI only version would suffice. Most RTS players never make it online. Many go out of their way to avoid it.

I can imagine iPhone vs iPhone or Galaxy S 2 vs Galaxy S 2 might be desirable, but FPU changes between different models of iPhone nevermind HTC Desire vs Galaxy Note would be a world of pain. None of it prevents singleplayer though

[Forboding Angel]

The processors in phones are not strong enough. Period.

The iPad 2 has a laughable 1ghz dual core processor and would not come close to running spring.

When processors in phones and tablets hit 2ghz you can hope, but that would be a shitty experience. When they hit 3ghz, all of a sudden it's looking more doable.

You have to look at it as running spring on those platforms in it's current state. No dev is going to bother trying to change it around to work on phones and tablets, so get your head out of the clouds and back to reality.

You can huff and puff all you like, AF. iSpecs are generally quite laughable. Case in point, iPhone 5.

[PicassoCT]

   .







5
4
3
2
1

InfoNuke!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduced_in ... hitectures

[Peet]

The iPad 2 has a laughable 1ghz dual core processor and would not come close to running spring.

When processors in phones and tablets hit 2ghz you can hope, but that would be a shitty experience. When they hit 3ghz, all of a sudden it's looking more doable.

Yup, the universal, overarching, and penultimate metric for CPU performance is clock speed, and since it is clearly a significant amount smaller than that of the processor in your desktop PC plugged into the mains, these devices are irrevocably useless by comparison. You're absolutely right.

[Forboding Angel]

Cute, but the point is that current mobile cpu speeds are not enough.

[Jools]

Yup, the universal, overarching, and penultimate metric for CPU performance is clock speed

penultimate? It means second last.

[PicassoCT]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp5cmLpSZSY

opviciously im daydreamin.. he is playing them video-thegame with us.


Come on Forb, it aint that hard, just admit it, AF is right.. its the battery life and everything that is big on power consumption(GPUS, Antenna) that limits mobile devices..

[AF]

Cute, but the point is that current mobile cpu speeds are not enough.

Amusing, you're still going off of clockspeeds, more Ghz != more performance. Would you like to pit my underclocked Ivy bridge i5 at 1.5Ghz against someones Pentium 4 at 5Ghz with liquid cooling?

Clockspeeds determines how many times a second a processor does a full cycle. It does not determine how many instructions the processor actually executes in a single cycle. Clockspeed only became a sought after metric when AMD and Intel processors executed the same number of instructions per cycle, but even Intel has changed that now.

Here are stats showing the original iPad, an iPad 3 and a Dell Mini 2012 netbook:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/app ... 932-3.html

An iPad 3 could run spring, as could any top end Android device. To run it well there would need to be some optimisation, but it's more than doable, and I'm sure people would understand reduced unit caps and player numbers purely from the perspective of coping on such a UI not to mention reducing maximum strain.


ps: Tried installing spring on Ubuntu running off of an Android phone? ;D Might need to rebuild it but let us know how you get on with it

[AF]

For reference an iPad 2 got 549.0 MFLOPS on multithreaded mandelbrot, if Forb is correct then Spring has a minimum requirement of just under 1.1Gflop.

Also Optimisations like removing full 3D physics in favour of dawn of war style projectile physics, new map formats, etc are all apparently impossible

[SinbadEV]

Also Optimisations like removing full 3D physics in favour of dawn of war style projectile physics, new map formats, etc are all apparently impossible

If you are changing the sync code, the map format, the projectile and terrain physics simulation and the UI hooks you are making an entirely new engine... yes, one that would be compatible with Spring assets, so that's awesome... but generally speaking, it's a whole new game. I think that would be great but it wouldn't be "iOS support".

[AF]

It wouldn't be a new engine, they'd be options, ones I'd fully expect to be made available the same way as a unit can be made to fly or swim, e.g. disabling projectile physics would affect gameplay and may well be highly desirable to some for reasons other than not having to simulate projectile physics. New map formats are certainly a desirable thing

[PicassoCT]

there is a third road, putting your legs on the desk, and wait a few years more, for more power to creep to the shore..

[AF]

There's enough power already for 3d RTS games. It's not a performance problem.

[PicassoCT]

I ment accumulators to improve.. i try to think that li-ion is not the end of the line for a desperate humanity.

[AF]

It isn't a battery performance problem either

[Forboding Angel]

There's enough power already for 3d RTS games. It's not a performance problem.

This just in: AF's phone is more capable of running 3d games than your desktop computer.

ZK will get a solid 150 fps on AF's phone.

[Das Bruce]

This just in: Forb being a sarcastic twat.

[Forboding Angel]

True story

[AF]

There's enough power already for 3d RTS games. It's not a performance problem.

This just in: AF's phone is more capable of running 3d games than your desktop computer.

ZK will get a solid 150 fps on AF's phone.

It does actually..

[Floris]

Phone huh? Well... he actually can get that 150 fps on a 'phone', as a desktop with 3g/modem build in. Not a mobile one tho, but even desktops can be made 'mobile'. All depends on the definition of 'phone' and 'mobile'. Trololo