#OS/2 vs. Win NT
4 messages in this thread
I am looking for some clarification. It is my understanding that ACAD
12 for DOS and 3DS 3.0 for DOS will run under OS/2. I also
understand that ADESK is putting there efforts and money into Win NT,
but neither of the above 2 programs will run under WinNT at this
time. This seems a little confusing. If anyone could help me
understand what is going on I would appreciate it. I suppose it is
also possible that I have been misinformed.
Stephen
Well Stephen both of those programs will run on 386/16 mhz machines
but it probably isn't the best idea in the world to spend alot of
effort doing it.
I can't speak for Adesk, but the logical port to NT probably has alot
to do with the multi-platform, multiprocessing approach of NT as
opposed to multitasking under OS/2. The seemingly immenent inclusion
of Open GL into the NT environment is also an extremely good reason.
While there are no doubt some people who enjoy running 3D Studio
under OS2 while they balance their checkbook or play a game, there is
a phenomenal market of professional animators out there with
multiplatform networks who really want to run 3D Studio on DEC Alphas
or R4400 based machines.
The logical move would be up the ladder not down it or to the side.
I for one can't wait to run Studio on one of the latest 200Mhz R4400 units. And
for some strange reason I just haven't been impressed with the way OS/2 runs on
the other higher end platforms.
I agree, 3DSR4 will probably be for NT, and I hope it supports OpenGL and that
there will be binaries for R4400, Alpha, PPC, etc. But that is the future.
For the meantime, I'll take 3DSR3 running under OS/2 on an Intel CPU. OS/2 SMP
will be out soon, and since you can run multiple render slaves under OS/2, you
could have a multiprocessor machine serving as a single machine mini render
farm, with a CPU for each process. NT could do this now, if only it could run
3DS at all.
I'm also wondering how NT will react to a dos app like 3DS that insists on
doing graphics output even when running in slave or batch mode and how it will
deal with a dos app like 3DS that uses the enhanced mode of the graphics chip
(S3, ATI, Weitek P9K, etc.). I don't think Microsoft has made NT as robust as
OS/2 with respect to graphical dos apps.
Bailey
Stephen,
I'm currently running 3DSR3 under OS/2 and am 100% pleased with the
way it runs. I'm also pleased with the way I can run Photoshop and
CorelDraw at the same time, and render in the background. The
productivity gain for me has been astounding. It much more than
makes up with the hassle of switching to OS/2. There is no CPU
overhead from OS/2 when 3DS is rendering in the foreground, and very
minimal overhead when it is rendering in the background.
I think ADESK is probably going to move into the NT direction with their
products, but for now 3DS is still an extended dos app. that, for some stupid
reason which I am sure has to be Microsoft's fault, will not run under WinNT (I
say it is MS's fault because there is no problem running it under OS/2).
WinNT will probably offer a 3D API that will be supported by 3D hardware before
any other PC OS has this capability. Also, since NT is available for the more
popular RISC processors, it would be nice if ADESK did non-Intel versions
(you'll never come out ahead running Intel binaries in emulation mode on a risc
cpu, no matter how fast the risc cpu is).
Bailey