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Mac support, which Mac?

by Tony Richards · in Torque Game Engine · 01/05/2007 (7:08 am) · 9 replies

I'm considering purchasing a Mac for building / testing a Mac game client.

Which Mac would be the best choice?

Does xcode do any cross compiling? I don't want to be limited to just Mac on Intel when I distribute the client, but I also don't want to exclude Mac on Intel for performance reasons.

Thanks in advance.
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Torque 3D Owner Tony Richards

About the author

I am the founder of IndieZen.org, a website dedicated to the Indie 2.0 Revolution where a number of Indie game development studios and individuals collaborate and share a suite of custom built open source game development tools and middleware.

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    Torque Owner asmaloney (Andy)
    Default Studio Name
    #1
    01/05/2007 (7:14 am)
    I cannot recommend a specific model since I'm still working on a PowerBook G4, however to answer your other question, Xcode does cross compile.

    The TGE Xcode project is set up to create a universal binary for the 'Release' target which will run natively on both Intel and PPC Macs.

    Torque Owner Stephan - viKKing - Bondier
    #2
    01/05/2007 (7:21 am)
    Tony, if you already have a USB mouse and keyboard and a monitor, head up for a Mac mini.
    Go for an iMac in other cases. The first one without DVD engraver is a bargain.

    Or else, ask someone from the Mac community to compile it for you. This is for the MMORPG contest, isn't it?

    STef

    Torque 3D Owner Tony Richards
    #3
    01/05/2007 (2:10 pm)
    Yes, it's for the MMORPG contest... I'm sure someone would help me out with compiling, but it's the debugging / testing that I'm more concerned about.

    Universal binary... is that fast enough to actually run a game?

    Does Torque (TGE 1.5) have any problems with the Intel GMA 950?

    Torque Owner Stephan - viKKing - Bondier
    #4
    01/05/2007 (2:14 pm)
    Universal Binary is just one Mac application with both G4 and Intel code. 2 apps in 1 thus double sized or nearly.

    I'm not aware of problems, but I have a iMac with the Radeon 9600, so I don't really know.

    STef

    Torque Owner asmaloney (Andy)
    Default Studio Name
    #5
    01/05/2007 (2:15 pm)
    Quote:Universal binary... is that fast enough to actually run a game?

    Yes. A universal binary is just an app which contins both PPC and x86 executables [apps on the Mac are bundles which are a special kind of folder]. So Mac OS X will choose the right binary depending on what processor you're running when you run the app.

    Torque 3D Owner Tony Richards
    #6
    01/05/2007 (2:44 pm)
    Ah, so probably the 17-inch iMac might be the best way for me to go then.... decent graphics, not too expensive.

    Thanks for all the info.

    Torque Owner Rob Terrell
    #7
    01/05/2007 (3:19 pm)
    A Mac Mini with a USB keyboard/mouse switch is not a bad option. That's how I run a Vista box with all my Macs, anyway ;) You can get an iMac with an ATI X1600. I get really good Torque frame rates on my MacBook Pro with the X1600.

    Torque Owner Joe O
    Average Joe Software
    #8
    01/14/2007 (8:45 am)
    The only issue that I would see is the Mac Mini not having a "real" video card. (My mini is the ol' G4 with a 32mb ATI 9200 in it). As far as doing builds you shouldn't have an issue though. Running on my MacBook Pro performance is nice though.

    Torque Owner Martin Schultz
    #9
    01/14/2007 (11:18 am)
    I own a Intel Mac Mini and TGE runs quit ok on it (smooth!). For me it's "enough" to develop and test on. Nice to have it as "target" platform and for cross compiling.