Hey Thomas,
I'm sorry it really bothers you that much. For a start, it was only a
suggestion to try and be forward, as well as backward compatible and I felt
you were biting my head off so to speak. The tone of your message there I
feel was rather harsh and judgmental, even disdainful, towards people
running earlier systems. I myself have no problems making reasonable
upgrades to my system if and when the time comes, I was merely thinking of
the community as a whole.
For a second, I was not holding anybody back from XAudio2. If you want
XAudio2, fine. If not, I don't think people should be penalised for it and
have to suffer a lack of games and the developer a lack of money because
only three out of the seven or so Windows operating systems are supported.
To give you an idea, I have a friend based over here who has written
software, and even a miniature game, that can be run on all flavours of
windows, right from Windows 95, which he runs by the way, all the way up to
Vista, if not higher. If his game were marketable, there is a possibility he
may get more custom than people who are prepared to only support the "latest
and greatest", since there are also people, quite a few of whom I am on
friendly terms with, who run systems earlier than XP, either for personal
preference, or financial problems in upgrades.
I think there should be more tolerance towards people who prefer earlier
versions of an operating system. I myself would choose XP over any of the
later systems, because that is the system that I have written, composed
music, edited audio, played games and programmed software with for the past
ten years, although I have been through the 95 and 98 phases as well. Even
if I wanted to I couldn't upgrade to a later version of Windows, since it
would mean forking out a whole lot more money just for a new licence for a
completely new copy of Windows. With my living arrangements this just isn't
affordable. So am I uncool or unworthy just because I run on an older
system?
Regards,
Damien.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Friday, March 04, 2011 10:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] XAudio2 and BGT
Hi Damien,
I'm sure you know this is coming, but I absolutely disagree with this.
For one thing it is not practical to include XAudio2 and DirectSound
in the same executable and it is going to become much harder to
support long term since Microsoft has officially dropped support for
DirectSound 8 and earlier. That means support will only remain as long
as the legacy libraries are compatible with the OS. As it is we are
already experiencing problems with DirectSound 8 and Windows 7, and
nobody knows if it will be remotely compatible with the next version
of Windows or not. Given that fact alone it is always a good idea to
adopt the new standards early on so that BGT and all the games written
for it are not only
XP compatible but are forward compatible with
Windows 7 and beyond. It is frankly downright foolish to stick with an
old API and unsupported legacy libraries when there is an easy Windows
XP web installer for the newer DirectX components. I'm frankly sick
and tired of this "if it ain't broke don't fix it" attitude I see on
this list.
Second, there are a number of key benifits to upgrading to XAudio2
rather than sticking with DirectSound besides forward compatibility.
Improved 3d audio, better custom DSP effects, better memory
management, better support for newer sound cards, etc top the list of
improvements and features. Answer me why on earth would you want to
forego these benifits and features just to stick with an out dated
technology like DirectSound
In my opinion there is absolutely nothing, no reason what so ever,
that could convince me that DirectSound is better. If you disagree
with me that's fine, but absolutely do not, I mean do not, hold us
back from XAudio2 because Windows 7 users such as myself absolutely
need it. DirectSound does not work well on Windows 7 at all and it is
high time that developers get off their collective butts and start
providing up to date technical support for the OS or I'm personally
not going to buy a single product from them again. Not now not ever.
On 3/4/11, Damien Pendleton <dam...@x-sight-interactive.net> wrote:
Hi Louis,
I don't feel that people should be forced into upgrading.
I believe there should be a check to see which library will successfully
open the audio device. Start with XAudio2. If that fails, switch to
DirectSound. That way, there is no necessity to upgrade, but those who
have
upgraded will still receive the benefits of the new system.
Regards,
Damien.
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