Hi Charles, though I'm not Thomas I will say that this is part of the issue. He doesn't completely have a choice in this matter. If he were to develop for the majority of users who will not update for whatever reason, then he will be in fact, putting himself in the exact same situation of needing to run dead-end systems and technologies.
This also then brings up the issue of Thomas then needing to purchase extra systems so that he can have a working current system for his own use. If someone were paying him to work on these projects and providing him with appropriate systems, software etc for him to develop on, then this would be a different story but this is simply not the case. I do not hear of benefactors stepping up to offer him systems on which to do this work. So this becomes a case of Thomas needing to spend a bunch more money to make up for the masses who will not update. Does this make sense and is this something you would do? Thanks, Cara :) --- View my Online Portfolio at: http://www.onemodelplace.com/CaraQuinn Follow me on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ModelCara On Sep 11, 2013, at 4:04 PM, Charles Rivard <[email protected]> wrote: In that case, how about catering to the majority of your customers by developing what they can use? Seems like you have a choice, here; develop what can be used by those who upgrade as you want them to do and lose the majority of possible income, or develop for the majority of your customers and lose out on the minority who decide to become more up to date. It doesn't take much thought on which way to go if money is your goal. If 70 to 80 percent of my customers use Apple equipment, I'm going to develop Apple software to sell to them. It does not make sense to sell to the other 20 or 30 percent in order to stay current with technology just for the sake of staying current. --- Shepherds are the best beasts, but Labs are a close second. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Ward" <[email protected]> To: "Gamers Discussion list" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2013 3:38 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] A Note to XP users > Hi Dark, > > Well, as you pointed out there is no need for us to dreg up the why > upgrade debate because we have been down that road before, and there > isn't anything new I can really say that hasn't already been said > before. Plus while I personally feel XP users are doing themselves a > disservice in the long run by not upgrading there isn't anything I can > say to convince them of that if they are dead set against it. A person > convinced against their will is of the same opinion still so there is > little point in trying. > > All I will say is there are advantages in upgrading weather a user > such as yourself think they are worthwhile or not. There are features > I as a game developer could use that would come in handy on say > Windows 8 that isn't available on Windows XP which would come in handy > for games and is one reason I might decide against supporting XP for > certain titles. > > For example, one feature available in SAPI 5.3, 5.4, and SAPI 5.5 is > SFML tags. These are little special tags that allows me to control the > pitch, volume, pauses, and over all tone of the SAPI voice while > speaking. The new SAPI 5.5 voices are very expressive when these SFML > tags are used, and those tags could be imbedded into a game using SAPI > to show excitement when a player scores or can speak in a low ominous > voice when a player dies. SAPI 5.1 and the voices like Mike, Mary, and > Sam for XP doesn't have this feature and are rather robotic when > speaking. Although, there aren't any SAPI games that use this SFML > tagging feature new games could certainly do so if the developer is > willing to scrap the notion of supporting XP. So that is where I get a > bit frustrated as a developer. > > So Microsoft has added this tagging feature in newer versions of SAPI, > but a huge percentage of the blind can not use it because they are > running XP. Therefore if I add that feature and release the game for > Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 I lose money because most of my > potential customers don't have the system requirements needed to run > my game. If I leave the feature out to remain backwards compatible > with XP I lose out on the feature even though I have everything up to > date. So by pandering to people who don't want to upgrade I can not > use newer Windows components and features simply because this > community for one reason or another won't upgrade and get with the > program. Kind of creating an impass as no matter what the developer > does someone looses out on features. > > Cheers! > > > On 9/11/13, dark <[email protected]> wrote: >> I'm quite aware sapi 5.5, advanced net framework etc aren't available for >> xp, but I've still! not been convinced that there really is any reason to >> upgrade since practically speaking it seems all I get is a more irritating >> interface and less compatibility with a good few games, and though these >> components don't work, does anything good actually use them? >> >> If microsoft want to sell me a new operating system, give me a reason why! I >> >> should use one, something it does better than xp, and no, having flashy >> ribbons and the like isn't, indeed to me that's a negative (I still think >> microsoft should've had the option for an xp like interface). >> >> If lots of developers use these new components to create better games and >> such, well maybe that would be a reason to upgrade, but that's not happened >> >> yet and I don't really see why i should say goodbye to 32 bit compatibility, >> >> and! stagger around a more stupid interface until that reason is there. >> >> i don't doubt that will happen at some point in the future, but it certainly >> >> hasn't yet, and especially not from microsoft. >> >> I don't want to start this debate again, since I think everything has been >> said that can be said, however I'm just pointing out there are perfectly >> good reasons to stick with xp, and bigger numbers and newer versions of >> components that most people only use to run other software aren't! a reason >> >> to upgrade if they're not used for anything good, which up to now they >> haven't been. >> >> Beware the grue! >> >> Dark. >> > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to [email protected]. --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected]. --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
