Mac and PC parity?

[Tom Lowe]

I rarely complain around here, but I for one would really appreciate it if PC customers were kept on the same development track as Mac customers. After all, 90% of the world's computer users are not on a Macintosh. Additionally, with Adobe making inroads among Red shooters, more and more of us will be using these ultra-powerful and affordable PCs.

Recently I was unable to update my Redmote, because the update is only available for Mac users. IMHO, it would be super nice if these updates were available for both PC and Mac shooters at the same time.

 

[Deanan]

The mac version was ready first and it didn't make sense to hold
up releasing a build to the other majority of customers that could
upgrade the redmote.

We release PC and Mac simultaneously for RCX almost always.
Bear in mind that we do our primary development on mac for RCX
so it'll always get more attention ( as it should as a majority
of our users are on mac ). One platform always has to take priority
or we have to slow down development for both.

 

[Justin O'Neill]

Tom, RED has improved the parity between Mac and PC releases HUGELY since the first days in 2007. RED Alert was actually never released for PC as far as I know and PC REDcine versions would come out many months after the Mac versions. I think it was about a year and a half ago when the first REDcine-X version was released simultaneously for Mac and PC and it was an awesome feeling not to have to wait while the Mac heads had all the fun. It's always nice when cross platform support is simultaneous but I would have to say RED is heading in the right direction big time.

PS. I am typing this from a Macbook Air hehe.

 

[paulherrin]

tom, it would be nice to have simultaneous updates all the time, but they have at least been getting better about it. it's been obvious that they always release the mac version first, as it's ready sooner, and i'm happy as long as the updates are at least close.

course, i'd still like to see what linux could do with some r3d files in rcx though... shouldn't that cross over from mac fairly easily?

i have a mac laptop so i can be cross-platform when necessary though... you kinda have to be these days. just sayin.

 

[paulherrin]

that's fine... i'd like to see rcx for linux. there's a surprising amount of studios running linux... there's just not always support for it, but it can make things a lot faster/simpler sometimes (else painfully difficult ...

only thing i ever output from rcx is sequences or trimmed r3d's, myself. mostly use it for one lights then grab the rmd's.

 

[Subhadip Sen]

Totally agreed, Paul. Linux distros have a lot of potential, and considering Mac OS X is a Unix-based OS too, I am sure a Linux port should be possible. I am just not sure there's much demand at this moment. Someone has to write a killer NLE for Linux.

I think it makes a lot of sense for Mac OS X to be the lead developmental platform, and to be fair, the Windows equivalents come a few days later, if not at the same time . While the worldwide market share may be 5.32% for Mac OS X, I am sure it's a completely different story on REDUser. However, as Tom mentions, more and more RED shooters are moving to Windows, so maybe an updated survey is in order.

On a related note, Adobe is the model of cross-platform parity. Of course, Mac OS X has some limitations (Windows benefits from better CUDA drivers, 10-bit monitoring, better performance, etc.), but apart from that, the Mac OS X and the Windows versions are identical. I think David mentioned here somewhere that with CS5.5 the last Windows exclusive feature was ported to Mac OS X.

 

[Tom Lowe]

I am also very happy to see PC gaining more parity with Mac here, and I hope it continues until there is true parity. I really found myself in a pickle with this Redmote update.