apple enters the game market

Hmm, never heard of Eero before, but I'm currently just a OS X/iOS dabbler when it comes to programming. I have a pet project app I'm working on in my spare time -- but it's all a hobby to me. Interesting stuff there, though. I'm neutral on Python/Lua/etc. vs. C/JavaScript/etc. style syntax so it's not a huge deal either way for me.

I'm not sure if C# can do it as it requires some serious functionality at the runtime level, and the C# runtime is vastly different from the Objective-C runtime last I checked. C#'s runtime is more similar to Java than it is to Smalltalk/Objective C.

I agree that STL can be ugly... Too many angle brackets at time... and the compiler errors when you screw up... :P It's got great functionality, though.

I also prefer C++ style memory management (and ARC is basically akin to using smart pointers in C++, such as std::shared_ptr or boost::shared_ptr) over straight garbage collection too. Deterministic releasing of resources rocks so long as you're careful about circular references and such, as you pointed out. If nothing else, it keeps me from every worrying about forgetting to unlock a mutex. :)

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Originally Posted by Knuckle Duster

I can see developers not giving a damn and ignoring Metal just by the nature of the API being exclusive to Apple products.

Apple is going to need to spend a lot on money hatting if they want games optimized for it.

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I was thinking more about Mantle when I posted before. Metal is about fifteen years too late for apple IMO.

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Originally Posted by old man

I was thinking more about Mantle when I posted before. Metal is about fifteen years too late for apple IMO.

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On the desktop, sure. On mobile, that's possibly a different story, and mobile is where Metal is being emphasized.

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Originally Posted by Dragonmaster Lou

On the desktop, sure. On mobile, that's possibly a different story, and mobile is where Metal is being emphasized.

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I'll concede that. I don't pay much attention to iPhones, but it's good that Apple is finally paying attention to gaming. Still I think this should have been something that began with the first release of OSX. It boggles my mind how lightly companies seem to take MS DirectX and the impact that API has had on the industry and Microsoft's business. I would think that by now every major platform would have something similar.

Will be a major "to do" if an when Apple finally opens up Apple TV to app development.

Guessing this will probably be better than iOS gaming, I've seen very little so far having owned an iPad and an iPod touch (Android as well for that matter) that really makes me interested in considering iOS as one of my main game playing platform. It's broght gaming to the masses, which is good I suppose, but for the most part touch controls are shit and don't work very well in the place of buttons. Obviously they'll have controllers for this, I'm still not really interested and will stick to my PC.

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Originally Posted by 16-bit

Guessing this will probably be better than iOS gaming, I've seen very little so far having owned an iPad and an iPod touch (Android as well for that matter) that really makes me interested in considering iOS as one of my main game playing platform. It's broght gaming to the masses, which is good I suppose, but for the most part touch controls are shit and don't work very well in the place of buttons. Obviously they'll have controllers for this, I'm still not really interested and will stick to my PC.

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I will as well, but these devices (and I include the Amazon Fire TV in this category) aren't really meant to be serious gaming consoles. It's more of a trojan horse strategy where people buy them for media streaming and then maybe they'll get some games.

I guess we've reached a point where you can release something like this that is capable of playing games, but doesn't have to sink or swim with them like the dedicated consoles. They can still do well even if the gaming never takes off.