Mac and Windows, Ogre is better supported on?

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nqdev
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Mac and Windows, Ogre is better supported on?

Post by nqdev »

Another question if I may. I've only worked with Ogre on Linux, but get the feeling between Mac and Windows, Mac probably has better support when working with Ogre than Windows does.

Does anyone have thoughts on this?
Last edited by nqdev on Thu Dec 17, 2020 7:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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sercero
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Re: Mac and Windoes, Ogre is better supported on?

Post by sercero »

Hello,

What OGRE version are we talking about?

OGRE 2.x @dark_sylinc it is my understanding that he develops in both Linux and Windows so they are supported well.

OGRE 1.x @paroj seems to be developing in Linux, very likely windows as well.

https://github.com/OGRECave/ogre

If you check the CI/CD for OGRE 1.x both Windows and Linux are passing the build tests.

And in some of the issues it says "help required" for MacOS.

Besides Apple has made the unpopular decision to drop OpenGL and the replacement (Metal) is not well supported yet.

So it seems that MacOS would be the one that has the least support of the platforms.
Mac probably has better support when working with Ogre than Windows does.
In my opinion Windows is the best supported platform logically becuase most users are there.

Best regards.
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Re: Mac and Windoes, Ogre is better supported on?

Post by EricB »

Have to completely disagree with the OP. OSX support has always been atrocious with Ogre 1.x. And rightfully so with Apple constantly breaking stuff and NIH things. X, Carbon, 32-bit, OpenGL anyone? (Can't say for Ogre 2.x)

Before 1.8, OSX was absolutely unusable. There was some heavy work done between 1.8 and 1.9 for OSX (masterfalcon comes to mind). Otherwise it would probably still be completely broken on those OSs.

During that entire time, Ogre has worked well on Windows based systems, and still does today! Yes, there is a lot more interest in Linux Ogre. Ogre is FOSS after all, and most game developers focusing purely on Windows have left for premades. FOSS and Apple don't mix too well unless it's something Apple is specifically using. Even then it's hit or miss if they give anything back.


Anyway, the majority, per-capita wise, of Ogre related issues for my project has come from OSX users. Things are much much better now though compared to 1.8.


It might be a misconception that OSX gets a lot of work done to it by the Ogre team, but that's probably because Apple keeps breaking things in the name of cost savings progress! Personally, if my sales volume for OSX wasn't greater than the time I waste on Macs, I wouldn't mind ditching the entire platform.
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Re: Mac and Windoes, Ogre is better supported on?

Post by dark_sylinc »

On Ogre 2.1+ our Metal support is very good. It is not as thoroughly tested as Windows & Linux though; and our window management (and getting Ogre to compile perfectly) may be a little rough; but overall it runs very well.

Ogre 2.1 has OpenGL support and it works "ok" on macOS (certain features are unsupported due to Apple's OpenGL being frozen in version 4.1; also shader compilation is quite slow).
Ogre 2.2 & 2.3 could have the same level of OpenGL support but no one ported the window management code. There is decreasing interest in this RenderSystem on Apple ecosystem as Metal is taking over.

Our Linux support with Mesa drivers (i.e. Intel + AMD) is rock solid because that's what most of us are working on.
Our Windows D3D11 support is also rock solid.

However as noted by other users, if you plan on having macOS & iOS support, you need to be prepared for continuous maintenance. Apple releases yearly updates to their OSes and HW.
Even if Ogre isn't affected by an update, you could still be affected. For example when Apple introduced the 'notch' on the iPhone X apps had to be updated to move UI controls outside of that area.
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Re: Mac and Windows, Ogre is better supported on?

Post by nqdev »

Very helpful. Thank you all. I should have mentioned I was on 2.x.
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