#disney & A3000
8 messages in this thread
I just caught the tail end of the communication about Disney Animation
Studio. Was this perhaps asking about the fact that the Overscan and Severe
Overscan do not seem to work when you run this software package on the
A3000?
I guess that I'm starting to become somewhat disgusted about a fairly
expensive product which promised and was proclaimed by AmigaWorld as having
a high degree of backward compatibility. I have not yet found an Amiga
software product which runs on the A3000 without serious glitches.
If there is a hardware problem that CBM finds, will they make the repair?
Somehow I suspect not…. Oh well…this is what I get for buying top of
the line at too early a date…. I mean…is it too much to ask that prior
to a major release of a product such as the A3000 that those developing it
actually attempt to run one or two of the major programs that have made a
big mark on the Amiga…..
Steven:
Maybe you were not given accurate information from your dealer when you
bought your A3000. That is NOT Commodore's fault, directly, if it
happened.
Here are the facts:
At this time, the Amiga 3000 is shipped with both AmigaDOS 1.32 _and_
AmigaDOS 2.0 on disk, not on ROM. AmigaDOS 2.0 is in late gamma stage.
When all the bugs are worked out, it will be burned into ROM (and this may
happen within the next month or so), and, so I understand, you will be able
to have the final version of the OS, on ROM chips, installed in your
machine FREE OF CHARGE. Until then, if you have a glitch with the 2.0 OS,
you are able to switch to the 1.3 OS and STILL have all the advantages of
the 68030 cpu AND the 32 bit wide architecture of the 3000, AND many of the
other advantages of the hardware, ON DEMAND.
One thing you should know about the Amiga. It is an extremely flexible
platform. Unlike many other platforms, it can be upgraded intensively with
simple chip changes, software updates, and "plug 'n play" boards. And when
I say "intensively", I mean just that. I've taken my 2000 from entry level
to virtually a desktop work station that way, with none of the problems of
compatibility that plague MAC and MSDOS users.
Yes, you purchased a new, state-of-the-art platform within the first 60-90
days it was out. Yes, that means you are a bit of a guinea pig. BUT, with
an Amiga, at the end of the day, it probably won't have cost you anything
at all, AND you got the good stuff early, but with the normal glitches that
(at least in my experience) come with being FIRST on ANY new model on ANY
platform.
?|^] Ray Lewis
Steve:
Many if not most of the incompatability problems between existing
Amiga software and the 3000 were caused by programmers failing to follow
rules established by Commodore to ensure problems like this did not occur.
The Disney problem turned out to be one of the _rare_ true incompatibility
problems, and is being worked on by Commodore. Most software that was
correctly written in the first place works quite well on the 3000 under
2.0.
Clint <VRLI>
Also…. Disney shipped AFTER the A3000 shipped…they may have checked it
against the version of 2.0 that was in the early A3000's, but even if it
worked with that version there is no guarantee the later versions were
compatiable…
Lou:
Disney does not and has not claimed 2.0 compatibility. When they did a
demo here, they specifically said that they would not support 2.0 until
Commodore had finalized it. They felt that they had followed all of
Commodores guidelines, and it was up to Commodore to make sure their OS
worked to spec. As a programmer and publisher, it is impossible to do
otherwise. If they work around the OS problems, there is no guarantee that
their fixes will still work when Commodore fixes their problems. They could
disable the features that rely upon the areas of the OS in question, but
then the rest of the Amiga community would lose out.
Clint <VRLI>
I'm well aware of Disneys statements as to 2.0 compatiability, and was not
critizing them. I merely pointed out that the A3000 shipped before their
package shipped. In fairness to them, the 2.0 OS has been upgraded around
three times since the initial A3000 shipments…and will probably change
one or more times before being committed to ROM. -Lou
Sorry, I didn't mean to sound critical, I was just trying to clarify that
the people that did DAS knew what they were doing. Being a reasonably
sophistocated user, I wouldn't hesitate (if I had the $$$) to purchase a
3000 and use 2.0, and swap back to 1.3 when I needed to. Unfortunately some
less sophisticated users have purchased 3000's not knowing what they were
getting into, and are rightfully confused by the compatibility issue. 2.0
was not ready to be in the hands of novices when the 3000 was released. It
will be a very good OS shortly, and those users who are patient will find
that they have made a very good choice with the 3000 and 2.0. I made a
similar choice with the 1000 and 1.0, and I have never regretted it,
numerous early gurus notwithstanding. Sorry if I diverged a bit, but I feel
that these questions were implied in the original posting, and to let the
less sophistocated users know that by the time that they really get use to
using the 3000 and 2.0 that 2.0 will be quite solid.
Clint <VRLI>
Steven,
At the last minute, CBM added a new feature to the Copper – a chip that is
used to manage graphics movement (very greatly simplified explanation),
that is supposed to be very nice, but which did not work properly with most
of the animation packages that were written prior to the addition of this
feature. CBM is working on it.
Please remember that the operating system for the 3000 is not yet final.
Yes, you will get a free upgrade to the final OS when it is finished. And
while I cannot make promises about it, I sincerely believe that almost
everything will continue to work with 2.0 once it is finished and really
out in final form.
Betty