e740, ATI, XScale, Varium, etc

[sponge]

[ADMIN EDIT]
These posts were removed from the e740 GAPI blit thread in the Developers' forum.[/ADMIN EDIT]

Tha would be interesting, specifically not allowing the e740 will work, and I wouldn't blame you for wanting it. Games are very much art, and some people just don't want their art to be seen at such inferior performance. Ignorant people will blame it on the game, and as such will make it their life that everyone knows about it.

Personally, have the message say something like "due to speed concerns, Varium will not run on the e740. Contact Toshiba, and let them know about the poor performance of your device."

I think if Varium becomes a huge PPC game like it seems to be as of now, enough people will complain. Sure it'll result ina few OMGWTGF GAYYYY NO E740 SUPPORT!!11 reviews on Handango, but this might be the catalyst that gets the e740 fixed. Or convince others to drop support as a statement.

Movements like this need one big leader, and you don't get much bigger than everyone in Varium, with PM behind them too.

[James S]

I'm both for and against not supporting the e740. I think it would be a great catalystic move to force ATI and Toshiba into the open or lose future market share and the very little they have now. The idea of a game being a work of art is very interesting and I like it.
Leonardo didn't paint his frescos on alley walls just so more people could see it.
This is a very bold move, a calculated move, and very justified and fortified from every direction.

On the other hand, the few but vocal will lambast Varium for not supporting their oh so beloved device because they have chosen to place themselves in ignorance regarding the true speed and functionality of their device.

... screw them, I like my Leonardo metaphor

[pacomac]

[Hosed]

[randall]

Varium doesn't run at 15 FPS on the e740. If that was the case, there wouldn't be a problem.

it runs at 7 fps.

Thats far too low, and acts more like a slideshow in this high action game. Aiming is more of an art in tedium, than fun. Certainly, they'll get their asses kicked in multiplayer- and thats unfortunate because the e740 is one of the few devices that has built-in WiFi.

I still stand by my words that we just drop e740 support, unless we can at least double the framerate. The negative backlash that we would get for having a game that is a slideshow is far worse than backlash that their devices are not supported. Mips devices outnumber e740s, and we aren't bothering to support Mips, even though the framerate will be roughly the same. The Varium engine is far too important in future ventures to be hinged on a single device.

[sponge]

[Dan East]

[Dan East]

[Robotbeat]

How about just putting up disclaimers (on website, product description, setup program, and actual Pocket PC program) saying that "Due to Toshiba and ATI's lack of intelligence in the area of developer support and product integration, the game will be suckily slow on the e740.". That would be a good idea. I mean, the e740 is pretty popular, and I do think that a lot of users might not believe that the e740 is that slow, but would rather see for themselves. Seriously. It's probably more work trying to make it unavailable at all to e740 users than to just say that it will be really slow. Besides, you will have fewer people mad at you. ATI and Toshiba will probably get more response from e740 users if you do that because they'll see that the game is really cool and awesome looking, but really slow, and they'll be mad at Toshiba/ATI even more. That way it puts all of the blame on Toshiba/ATI instead of splitting the difference of blame between you and Toshiba (like Microsoft not "optomizing" PPC2k2 for XScale and instead just saying that it's Intel's fault, when they could have optimized the OS and SHOWN people that it was Intel's fault and not related to the OS.).

Besides that, I want to try out the game, and I have an 3635 ipaq, Casio e115 (131 MHz, baby! I'd overclock it for Varium, if MIPS was supported), and (soon) my e740. My iPAQ is broken, so I would still like to try the game, no matter what the performance. I would try it on my e115, if MIPS were supported. (BTW, I still want my e740 even after knowing all about the crappy ATI chip thingy.)

Please, just release the DEMO for the e740, at least! Come on! Please?

I encourage Dan to keep e740 support in the back of his mind, in case ATI or whatever releases something or someone has a GAPI breakthrough, or whatever. Please?

[Annoying Snails Master]

[randall]

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