Apple Announces A New 3D API, OpenGL Competitor: Metal

[movieman]

Oh, joy! Just what the world needed - another API!

Don't worry. In another few years everyone will be saying 'you know, I've got this great idea. Why don't we all implement the same API on all our hardware, so software can easily be ported from one to another and our users won't complain that they have to buy our hardware to run Angry Pigs but it won't run Mooncraft'.

[bridgman]

... or we'll be carrying a bag of different devices around, one for each killer app

[wizard69]

after Steve Jobs dead apple loose their mine wth things, first was their maps software, now this? who next? they will put amd cpu in their mac laptops? lol

And what is wrong with AMD chips. AMD's chips would work especially well in the Mini where it has suffered for years form terrible GPU support.

Beyond that Metal is a good idea and most likely will be used by game engine builders and not the general programming public.

[wizard69]

lol, osx gaming is dead if they drop opengl support. Nobody is going to use a proprietary API to support <1% of the user base.

Actually they already have engine developers on board.

Got a good chuckle out of this with my fellow game/graphics engine dev friends. Even ios is a joke compared to android now, >90% of my game sales came from android so I stopped supporting ios devices because it's a waste of time.

yah I will believe that when I see independent research indicating that Android developers actually make a living.

Apple should have done this when they had the clear advantage over android a few years back before they became 5% market share in the mobile space.

Which is complete BS! Apple has a significant share of the market of devices that are actually capable of doing anything.

Both use OpenGL. Nvidia is heavily invested in OGL and has proven that it doesn't have the overhead AMD/Microsoft claim it has if used properly(e.g, arb_buffer_storage with persistent mapping)

You wouldn't expect Nvidia to ignore the reality of the competition getting a leg up on them would you?

[wizard69]

Apple aren't dumb. They not going to drop OpenGL support anytime soon. This API needed for iOS vendor lock-in.

There is no lock in. Game developers will simply use the accelerated gaming engine of their choosing. For the vast majority of developers, Metal wouldn't even be noticed.

[wizard69]

It's not in any of those companies interests to go after their own API. Intel especially since graphics aren't their thing. Apple on the other hand has a lot of good reasons to make their own API. And frankly, they could pull it off. Unless OpenGL 5 is such a blunder that even Linux developers begin to use Direct3D in Linux.

But more likely it's to get developers locked into iOS. Too many are jumping ship for Android. If we're lucky then they'll do more damage to themselves then any good.

Where does this nonsense about lock in come from. Are people really that ignorant?

[wizard69]

App revenue on iOS is many times larger than Android and has been since iOS began.

yep! Even Samsung is starting to withdraw from Android. Sad really, Google needs to reboot Android soon or Apples battles of the future will be against Windows again.

[wizard69]

Well I feel relieved now that the Official Apple Spokesperson has chimed in.

If you don't believe him there is always Apples web site with full details on Metal.

[wizard69]

where is data? website and study?! or you make this graph?

You can read can't you? Maybe this is the problem with the Android camp in general, independent research has constantly pointed out the fact that developers actually make money with iOS.

[wizard69]

Doesn't matter. The graph is pointless because it quotes one Apple dollar versus Android completely disregarding the fact that Android has ten times (or more) more users worldwide. The graph might be more applicable to the US, where number of ios users is close to the Android users, but nowadays nobody releases only for the US.

p.s. also note that advertising revenues (first row) are almost the same on android and ios. The vast majority of apps are have ads inside.

The vast major it of those Android users don't have hardware even capable of running the games that run on Apples hardware.