Anyone curious about Cider???

Question

Hello All,
Yes, I do love games, and I probably spend (waste) way too much time on them.
With that out of the way, is anyone curious about how Cider, and the new EA games that use Cider technology, seems to work?
All I can say is: WOW!
Actually, it's quite an interesting twist, and very clever. First, let me say that Cider does seem to deliver all that it promised, and these new games do work very well. I am currently working my way through Command & Conquer 3, and no problems so far. Admittedly, this is a real time strategy title, and as such it isn't an ultimate test of this technology (a first person shooter will be), but the game does feel as if there is plenty of "overhead." We'll get a real test when one of the FPS titles gets the Cider treatment.
But, I am excited about this technology. You see, Cider approaches the problem of "porting" a game to OS X in a completely new and innovative way. If I properly understand how it works, Cider completely side-steps the difficulty in coding a game for OS X and OpenGL, and it takes advantage of the gaming strengths of Direct-X, by simply wrapping the Windows version of the game in a WIN-32 API "box." Simple, and brilliant.
While I was skeptical about the utter simplicity of this solution when I first read of it, it has been born out since I installed the game and did a bit of digging. By viewing the "package contents," I was able to dig down through the nested levels of associated directories, and I eventually found the "CNC3" binary. Yep, it's a .exe file!!
Obviously, the ability to "wrap" any PC game in a Cider box and distribute it for OS X is exciting news for anyone like me who is nuts about games. However, many of you who couldn't care less about games are probably thinking, "So what?"
Well, if this can be done for games, think about the possibilities for other Windows-only software titles. If we can run Windows titles in their own "pre-packaged" and custom-tailored Windows environment, there is no need for either "virtualization" software or Bootcamp.
Scott

Answer 1

Hello Mandy,
Yes, Cider is a direct descendant of the Linux wrapper, according to the information on Transgaming's website.
As I mention in my original post, we won't really know how well these wrapped games compare with their counterparts running natively in Windows until a FPS title is released, and frame rate "stress" becomes apparent.
However, it looks really good so far, from what I can tell. Keep in mind that the game, itself, really is running natively, and the only thing that must be "translated" (according to the information I have been able to find) are the calls to the GPU. As I understand it, the DirectX calls are simply being translated into OS X-speak (perhaps directly to Quartz?? That's what it feels like; not OpenGL), and this shouldn't represent that much of an overhead.
What I can say so far is that the game does take a long time to launch, probably due to the need to "start" a Windows environment. Once the game loads, however, everything is quite smooth and "snappy." In fact, it feels better than any game I have played in a long time, including the titles from id.
I am running the game at my display's native resolution (1680 X 1050), and I have most of the values at their highest setting. In other words, I am demanding a lot. And, the game seems to be delivering. There are certainly no lags in response from the in-game GUI. Only once have I noticed things actually slow down, and that was associated with action from a flame tank. I'm going to keep an eye on this one (I have only encountered that single flame tank at this point in the game); this could have been a fluke, it could be a hole in the graphics translation (which would potentially get fixed), or it could be an inherent problem. This last I think is the least likely, since it just doesn't fit with the rest of the experience I'm having.
Again, I have to say that the "feel" of this game's elements is just much smoother than what I am used to. From the moment the EA splash animation begins, there is a sense of "rightness" about it all that has been absent from any other game I've seen (and I've played many ports of EA titles). Keep in mind that I'm running this game on a Core Duo MBP, not a Core 2 Duo.
It will be interesting to see how this all pans out, as more games are released and the "kinks" get worked out.
Scott