I don't know how many of you are familiar with my browser capabilities
detection tool Brocap_D. A summary is below for those who are not.
I have updated Brocap_D to discern Intel Macs. My question is whether
Intel Macs should be seen as a different class of computers or if they
can be handled in the same class as other OSX machines?
Might as well...
What will
determine an answer to this is whether Intel Macs are significantly
different than OSX Macs in relation with the display of VR, i.e.
- is there a clear cut break in graphic cards capabilities (e.g.
can all
Intel Mac handle properly Shockwave, while older Macs had sometimes
weak
graphic cards who could not) that changes the situation for one
technology (in this case for Shockwave, that has GPU requirements)?
No, there are Intel Macs with integrated video all the way up to high-
end cards. All can, from what I've seen, handle OpenGL just fine - I
know my Macbook does, so I presume all other Intel Macs with better
video systems can too.
- are there / will there be VR display technology available on
Intel Mac
that is not available on PPC OSX Macs?
Not yet, but one never knows.
Are there any plans to develop
QuickTime VR features specific to Intel Macs?
I don't see this happening for a number of years - at least until the
last PPC machines are phased out of support.
Brocap defines for each machine class a plugin pecking order
(customizable by the website owner) so that VRs are displayed with the
first available plugin in that pecking order. The intention is to
avoid
a plugin download and to adapt the display to the specific situation
without bothering the user. Only if no plugin is available, the
user is
directed to a download page.
Well as you know, on Macs we always have Quicktime available.
Currently the following machines classes are defined:
* modern Windows: anything after Windows 2000
* legacy Windows: all other Windows boxes
* modern Mac: OS X (and currently also Intel Macs)
Not this is a pretty wide berth... a lot of machines can run OSX that
are miserable for some things. I think it's better to classify Modern
OSX and then everything else - personally I'd probably distinguish
between 10.3 and later, and all other versions.
* legacy Mac: all other Mac systems
Ouch...
* unix/linux boxes and others
Also as a simplification, in the current reference implementation as
well as on the websites using Brocap_D known to me, modern and legacy
Windows are handled in the same way, because I was not yet able to
discern graphic cards on modern Windows boxes and some of them can not
handle Shockwave/SPi-V decently.
By the same token, you can't tell from a browser user agent or even
OS version whether a machine will handle Shockwave well or not. Too
many variables besides OS and browser...
As a simplified example, the pecking order for Windows class machines
can be (1.Java/ptviewer 2. Shockwave/SPi-V 3. DevalVR, 4.
QuickTime) and
for Mac class machines it can be (1. QuickTime 2.Shockwave/SPi-V 3.
PangeaVR 4. Java/ptviewer). The user is presented with a VR in the
first
available technology on the pecking order list applicable to his
situation. The user can override this, though experience shows that
the
vast majority of users do not bother to change from default
settings and
do not have the knowledge to discern what technology is best for their
specific situation.
Why use Brocap at all for Macs then if you'll default to Quicktime,
which everyone has? When would a Mac user ever see PangeaVR or a Java
player in this case?
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