Answers from the Devs 15/10/15

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phfeenikz

P
First off, I have to say that I'm in total admiration of what the Devs at Frontier are creating with ED. After 34+ years of gaming, ED is the only game that actually caused me to speak the words, "I've waiting my entire life to play this"! That being said, I have a bit of a dilemma and I was hoping one of the Frontier Devs could nudge me in the right direction.

The scenario:

So I recently learned that a bunch of my friends are playing the PC version of ED which means I'm currently all by my lonesome on the Xbone. While I could plead with them all to get Xbone's, I know that just isn't going to happen. Besides, I have been mulling over getting this for my laptop so that I would have the option of a HOTUS and/or VR goggles. This could be enough of a tipping point to pry me away from Xbone, but I don't feel I have enough information to make that call yet.

The dilemma:

I switched to all Macs and got rid of all my MS machines a few years ago because I couldn't stand Win 8, so my trusty MBP is now my only option outside of Xbone for playing ED. I have a late 2013 MBP with a 2.6 GHz Core i7 CPU, 16 GB RAM, and an Nvidia Geforce 750M GT video card. With Horizons on... well... the immediate horizon, I have some questions that I haven't been able to find satisfactory answers for. So without further ado.

Questions:

1.) I did find mention that the 750M is not up to snuff and won't be able to run ED at the recommended settings. Is this true? If not, then questions 2, 3, and 4 become much more relevant.

2.) With regards to Horizons, should I bite the bullet and setup Win 10 in Bootcamp or should I cross my fingers and get the OS X version of ED? Obviously the optimal scenario is to have the OS X version of ED as I don't want to be stuck with the PC version if/when Apple decides to support compute shaders in OS X.

3.) Can I run ED without any issues on Win 10/Bootcamp? I don't want to make any assumptions before I buy a copy of Win 10, or the PC version of ED for that matter. If performance is degraded in any way with Win 10/Bootcamp, I'd rather gamble on Horizons getting support in OS X eventually.

4.) Which is likely to happen first; OS X support for compute shaders or cross platform support online? While Xbone doesn't currently have or support a HOTUS, nor even the hint of a rumor regarding VR, I may still decide to keep my money in the bank and hold out for cross platform support to join my PC buddies online.

Any help with this decision would be much appreciated.
 

CaptainKremmen

CaptainKremmen
Zac Antonaci said:
Every aspect of Elite Dangerous will be continually iterated on and improved…
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Furry little Trumbles CONFIRMED!

trumbles.gif
 
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Cody

Cody
phfeenikz said:
... or the PC version of ED for that matter. If performance is degraded in any way with Win 10/Bootcamp, I'd rather gamble on Horizons getting support in OS X eventually.
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As I understood it, an ED account would work on both Mac and Windows - am I wrong, or has something changed?
 

Asp Explorer

Asp Explorer
Cody said:
As I understood it, an ED account would work on both Mac and Windows - am I wrong, or has something changed?
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It does indeed Cody. If I log on my backers account, it's the same login on both PC and dedicated Mac clients. If I use a Steam account, it works on both PC and Mac Steam clients.
 

Flin

F
Zac,

Can you check whether it can be confirmed now whethet Keelback or other shilps are being design for underwater capabilities?
 

Poy

Poy
Q: any news on SJA, aka the mistress of the minions ?

It's been pretty silent since her comeback tweet and I miss seeing her on the forums jubilating from our demise.
 
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Quineloe

Quineloe
Zac Antonaci said:
Not to be a tease but you might need to wait a little while to find out more...

"Remember, these are just the ship names, and we’ll be revealing loads of exciting details about them in the coming weeks. "
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If it is not a trade ship, traders have not received a single new ship in the entire course of 1.0 to 1.5...
 

VerneAsimov

V
I think the Keelback will be Lakon's first combat ship.

Their scout or exploration ships all have Scout/Explorer in them. Their freighters are Type-x's. The Keelback is a new name scheme. I think it'll be a larger medium combat ship (think python size). A large one might be likely but it seems they have that niche filled with another new ship.
 

DrSpin

D
Zac Antonaci said:
[/I]
Can we get an update on the Mac version of Horizons?

Unfortunately neither Open GL nor Metal on Mac support Compute Shaders and these are vital for Elite Dangerous: Horizons. We have investigated the issue at length and found that all other options currently simply won’t allow us the performance that a game of this size and detail needs. Once Macs are able to support compute shaders, or other technical options are available, we will certainly be keen on supporting that platform.
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Hi Zac,

Can we get more clarification on the specifics, because the statement above simply is not true: Metal does support Compute Shaders. Here is a link to the chapter in the developer handbook about it: https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/MetalPerformanceShaders/Reference/MPSFrameworkReference/index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40016300. Was OpenCL considered?

Not wanting to shoot the messenger, but this is a pretty poor way to reveal something like this. I hope it will be mentioned in the the Newsletter, otherwise it feels a lot like F : D are once again burying bad news rather than openly explaining the issues (à la offline-gate). Which would be a real shame, because otherwise I've been extremely impressed at the recent improvements with how F : D interacts with the community.
 

Ian Phillips

Volunteer Moderator
Ian Phillips
DrSpin said:
Hi Zac,

Can we get more clarification on the specifics, because the statement above simply is not true: Metal does support Compute Shaders. Here is a link to the chapter in the developer handbook about it: https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/MetalPerformanceShaders/Reference/MPSFrameworkReference/index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40016300. Was OpenCL considered?

Not wanting to shoot the messenger, but this is a pretty poor way to reveal something like this. I hope it will be mentioned in the the Newsletter, otherwise it feels a lot like F : D are once again burying bad news rather than openly explaining the issues (à la offline-gate). Which would be a real shame, because otherwise I've been extremely impressed at the recent improvements with how F : D interacts with the community.
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Dr Spin...

This is at the top of the page you have linked: Emphasis is mine...
IMPORTANT

This is a preliminary document for an API or technology in development. Apple is supplying this information to help you plan for the adoption of the technologies and programming interfaces described herein for use on Apple-branded products. This information is subject to change, and software implemented according to this document should be tested with final operating system software and final documentation. Newer versions of this document may be provided with future betas of the API or technology.
Click to expand...
 

Quineloe

Quineloe
VerneAsimov said:
I think the Keelback will be Lakon's first combat ship.

Their scout or exploration ships all have Scout/Explorer in them. Their freighters are Type-x's. The Keelback is a new name scheme. I think it'll be a larger medium combat ship (think python size). A large one might be likely but it seems they have that niche filled with another new ship.
Click to expand...

with 17 out of the 30 ships already being pure combat ships, I really hope they're not making yet another one.

Every single ship released after launch except the DBX has been a pure combat ship
 

Zac Antonaci

Head of Communications
Frontier
Arubeto said:
Hi Zac,

thanks for the new "Answers by the devs". These are even more informative than the weekly dev updates IMO.

I have one suggestion, though: could you release new editions of these great threads on other weekdays than Thursdays and Fridays? Than we could look forward to three different weekdays with nice updates (every second Wednesday: "Answers by the devs", Thursdays: "dev update", Fridays: Newsletter!)

Giving us a dev update and an "answers by the devs" on the same day will only spoil us! ;)
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I'm glad we were able to spoil you.

Truth be told the answers from the devs thread kinda just comes out when it's ready. There is no set day or time to it.

Having them on seperate days is ideal and certainly something we'll think about but we didn't want to hold back the info until next week.

Also, don;t forget you still have Community spotlights on a Monday, Comms Chatter on a Tuesday, Meet the team Wednesday, Dev update Thursday and Peek of the Week and newsletter Friday.

Thanks,

Zac
 
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