Cider has the benefit of its compiled-in emulation layer…. so it will run much better than Cedega’s run-time emulation layer.

-Timbobsteve

I am going to try and debunk some of it:

Firstly… IT IS NOT CEDEGA. It uses the Win32 wrapper library and some of Transgamings DirectX wrapper libraries from Cedega, but thats it. This will in no way run like Cedega does on Linux computers… simple because it is NOT user space software. This is software that the Developers use before they box the software up. Basically it looks like this

(WARNING: Completely dumbed down code coming up)

1. Developer hits Compile to make the game
2. Compiler asks DirectX how to Draw a Square on the screen.
3. Cider tricks the compiler and gives it the OpenGL equivalent instructions to draw a Square on the screen.
4. Compiler+Cider continue in this fashion replacing all windows instructions with the equivalent mac instructions.
5. Compiler finishes and developer can now run the entire program without any additional software on an Intel Mac

This method of wrapping API calls is very efficient if done correctly and shouldn’t force too much extra overhead onto already top-heavy programs like games. So it will not require more RAM than its windows equivalents.

Once again… this software does not get run by the user AT ALL. The developer simply add a single line to their makefiles for building the application that says “use Cider.dll instead of Win32.dll and DX3D.dll”…. and the user is never any wiser.

The main difference between Cider (mac) and Cedega (linux), is that Cider does the conversions at compile time (so it does not chew memory when the game is run), Cedega does all this when the game is running, that is why it runs like a dog. It has to do this conversion every time it asks for instructions when the game is running… Also Cedega sometimes gets the instructions wrong and that is why games crash or don’t work. With Cider the developer will be able to MAKE sure that it all happens as planned before they ship it.

This is a great step forward for mac users. I am a recent PC->Mac convert and the one thing I do miss is games.

I guess the benefit is that developers who don’t want to learn coccoa/opengl combo to make games for OS X, can now continue using Win32 and DirectX to make their games like normal and still make a little extra money from the mac users.

Please, no more comparisons to Cedega. It just isn’t clever to compare the two. They do the same thing… but they do it differently!

-Timbobsteve

I realize “emulate” is a bad word choice since people associate it with emulators, but it does best describe what the code framework does. As you stated, it implements Win32 API’s with Mac specific ones. Emulators do this at the CPU level (i.e. they implement CPU instructions with the native ones), and emulation frameworks, like Cider, emulate at the API level (i.e. they implement Win32 API’s with the native one). The fact that its compiled in does not change the fact they are emulating one API with another.

What this DOES mean, is that all PC gamers will have to go out and PAY for the new MAC versions of their games, because the software isn’t an emulator that the user runs… infact the user NEVER sees Cider at all. It is a compile-time thing.

Anyways… just thought I would fill in your blanks.

Please see :
http://curmudgeongamer.com/article.php?story=20030806192631961
http://curmudgeongamer.com/2006/08/transgaming-forsakes-gnulinux-gamers.html

For more info on just how well Cedega works in reality!

You can’t say you weren’t warned about there shady practices…..

I know it’s shoddly to point people at wikipedia but take a gander here for more details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedega