Hello all
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? 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)?
- are there / will there be VR display technology available on Intel Mac
that is not available on PPC OSX Macs? Are there any plans to develop
QuickTime VR features specific to Intel Macs?
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.
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)
* legacy Mac: all other Mac systems
* 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.
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.
An example of Brocap_D in action can be seen at
<http://www.voxcasa.com/visite.php?sia=x425000> where Mac class machines
are automatically directed to the QuickTime version of the tour while
Windows class machines are automatically directed to the Java version of
the tour.
A different implementation of Brocap_D, more QTVR centric, can be seen
at <http://www.austria-360.at/>.
The (scant) homepage of Brocap is <http://br.xenaura.com/> - the
download there is outdated.
The Birdcap implementation for Bernhard Vogl / Austria-360.at is
available for download at <http://www.dativ.at/brocap/index.html>. In
its current incarnation and after today's update, Intel Macs are handled
in the same class as OS X machines. To handle them as a different class,
minor changes to the front end implementation are required. The whole
idea of a centrally maintained detection service is to avoid such
changes in the front end implementation.
Thanks for your feedback.
Yuv
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