Xbox team joins Virtual PC development

Microsoft's Xbox team has been assigned to the development of Virtual PC's native graphics card support, sources tell AppleInsider.

Feeling pressure from both Apple and G5 customers, Microsoft this summer cut several key enhancements from its Virtual PC 7.0 Windows emulation software in order to deliver a G5 compatible solution without further delays.

One of the features reportedly shelved until a future release was native graphics card support. But precisely what is delaying this feature remains a mystery to even some members of the Virtual PC team, as they are not the ones responsible for the implementation.

According to sources, Virtual PC's native graphics card support is being handled exclusively by Microsoft's Xbox team. Though not expected for several months, the feature will reportedly demand a graphics card that meets the same level of graphics sophistication required for Apple's Core Image and Video technology.

For Macintosh systems that sport a compatible ATI graphics card, future versions of Virtual PC will emulate an original Radeon with up to 32MB of virtual video memory. Likewise, for Macs equipped with a compliant Nvidia graphics card, sources said that the emulated chipset will be a Geforce 3 with up to 32MB of virtual video memory.

The performance and speed of Virtual PC's emulated graphics will depend on the speed of the host machine's graphics and the number of available processors, sources added.

In February, Microsoft released the Software Development Kit (SDK) for its forthcoming Xbox 2 video game console. Since the Xbox 2 will utilize IBM processors similar to the ones used in today's Macintosh systems, the SDK was seeded to developers on dual Apple Power Mac G5 systems running a custom Windows NT Kernel.

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15 Comments

codewarrior

said about 19 years ago

This confirms what I suspected: Xbox 2 will use tech from VPC 7 to play Xbox 1 games. I don't see any other reason for the Xbox team to be involved.

the joshmeister

said about 19 years ago

How well would this work for newer games?? It only emulates an old 32 MB Radeon card. So the PC game will think that's what's in the system, even if you have a high-end brand spankin' new Radeon in your Mac. I know there are a lot of newish PC games that run a check on your PC and show you what you still need to upgrade to be able to play it. Therefore, old games will probably run really fast, I would imagine, but newer games that require more than 32 MB VRAM may not even run because they won't detect how good your actual processor is. And all the sweet hardware features of your spankin' new card won't even be utilized because the game won't think your card supports those features.

How exactly is this "native graphics card support"?! When that term had been used so frequently, I expected something a lot better than emulating a 32 MB Radeon. Sure, it's a step up from before. (7.0 and earlier just use your PowerPC and not your GPU, right?) And a step up is well appreciated and great!! But this isn't good enough to play anything new, at least not with all the cool features of a new graphics card.

I'm not really upset with Microsoft about it (hey, who knows, it may end up different than the rumor claims it will anyway). But the rumormill should be more careful about the terminology that's thrown around. This is not at all what "native graphics card support" implies. You got our hopes up, apparently for nothing. Well, if we can believe this rumor, that is.

charless

said about 19 years ago

edit: bahleeted!

airsluf

said about 19 years ago

Kickaha and Amorph couldn't moderate themselves out of a paper bag. Abdicate responsibility and succumb to idiocy. Two years of letting a member make personal attacks against others, then stepping aside when someone won't put up with it. Not only that but go ahead and shut down my posting priviledges but not the one making the attacks. Not even the common decency to abide by their warning (afer three days of absorbing personal attacks with no mods in sight), just shut my posting down and then say it might happen later if a certian line is crossed. Bullshit flag is flying, I won't abide by lying and coddling of liars who go off-site, create accounts differing in a single letter from my handle with the express purpose to decieve and then claim here that I did it. Everyone be warned, kim kap sol is a lying, deceitful poster.

Now I guess they should have banned me rather than just shut off posting priviledges, because kickaha and Amorph definitely aren't going to like being called to task when they thought they had it all ignored *cough* *cough* I mean under control. Just a couple o' tools.

Don't worry, as soon as my work resetting my posts is done I'll disappear forever.

wizard69

said about 19 years ago

Bingo!

I think this was the only reason MS purchase VPC!

Dave

Quote:

Originally posted by CodeWarrior
This confirms what I suspected: Xbox 2 will use tech from VPC 7 to play Xbox 1 games. I don't see any other reason for the Xbox team to be involved.

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