Sims for Apple computers?
 

Anyone know of any sims for the apple computer?

Thanks,

John

RE: Sims for Apple computers?
 

Hi John,

I don't think there are any R/C Sim's for MAC's. If you search the forums you will see X-Plane mentioned a lot this is a good flight simulator. Which i believe, with a bit of tweaking you can get it to look like an R/C sim, using tower view etc.

I wish somebody would port one of the R/C Sim's over!

BTW, don't bother trying to run one through Virtual PC, it's to slow.

Matt.

RE: Sims for Apple computers?
 

Thanks for the info Matt. Running G2 through virtual pc was my next question, so if its going to be too slow I'll skip it. I wish they wouldn't forget about us non-Windows users when designing this stuff!
[:@]

RE: Sims for Apple computers?
 

It dosent really pay for developers to write software for the apple platform, To write and test out a version for a apple machine has to just about double the expense of production... and they probably wont even turn a profit on the apple version of the software... i really doubt there is much demand for RC flight sim by apple users.

RE: Sims for Apple computers?
 

Well, I agree about there not being a very large market, but I don't think that it would double develop time. In fact, on most of the development projects I've worked on that were multi-platform, developing for *nix-based systems, such as Linux or Apple OS X, took much less time than then design, development and testing for Windows software. If you were to take Linux out of the equation, developing for Apple computers is much easier - the development tools and graphics libraries are much more mature and stable, and Apple has the advantage of the operating system and hardware all being meant to specifically work together as one unit. That's a big contrast to Windows pc's, where the operating system is made by Microsoft, but the hardware is from many different vendors. Developing and testing Windows PC's is a much more lengthy process, at least with the projects I've been a part of.

That being said, this is an RC Sim forum, not a software development forum, so I'll let go (can you tell this is one of my favorite topics!:D). With the graphics performance and wide-screen on this new Apple computer I purchased, it would make for one heck of a flight sim! Hopefully someday we can get there!

RE: Sims for Apple computers?
 

<<i really doubt there is much demand for RC flight sim by apple users.>> I'm guessin your not a Mac user.

MTAKHR is right. The cost is probably about double for a company to make an RC sim for a second platform like Mac and the Mac does have a smaller market share. From my experience, the current crop of PC sims are just starting to mature into quality commercial applications, compared to programs that are developed for the general consumer markets. I'm sure that it is hard for a small niche company to develop a good quality product even for just one platform. I'm not sure you'll see one for Mac anytime soon, but I am sure there are lots of modelers who are Mac users and would purchase one if it were available. I suspect the additional market may be too small at this point to justify the effort, but that's changing with growing Mac market share, especially in the U.S.A.

I'm a Mac diehard for nearly 20 years, but finally went out and bought an eMachines just for Realflight G2 a few years ago. I have recently updated to a new Dell. I'm considering G3 or Reflex XTR and had the chance to fly both at the AMA show last month. If you have a Mac and you want a flight sim, the best thing you can do for yourself is just go out and pick up a PC and get the sim. I invested about $600 in the Dell (I had already purchased G2 + Addons), but it screams and real flight runs well on it. Your flying will improve immensely as a result and you will probably crash less often, repaying yourself for the investiment in no time. Windows XP is actually very Mac like and you would find it not to be too difficult to switch bak and forth.

I have consisitently had problems with G2 forgetting that I have expansion disks and their support site has always been marginal at best. Their copy protection is absolutely the biggest pain in the ass I have ever had with ANY application I have ever purchased. And this is the cream of the crop I would imagine. G3 looks better in some ways, but frankly the new Reflex XTR LOOKS much better on screen. I haven't decided yet...I may buy both if I can come up with the $$$.

Whatever you choose to do, Xplane is a complete waste of time by comparison to an honest to goodness RC sim, and making the decision to go to gives you an excuse to go out and buy a new computer. Keep you Mac on hand so you have something to do while your flying buddies, friends and family are tying up your sim. :)

RE: Sims for Apple computers?
 

I actually have RealFlight G2 running on a Windows 98 computer. Its been setup that way for about 2+ years now, and then only thing I use it for is the Simulator. I would just as soon get rid of it if there was something available for Mac. I'm hoping that some company, perhaps a new company that isn't invested in years of Windows-only source code, or maybe a european company where *nix systems are more widely used will take on this piece of the market. There are alot of us that will appreciate it when they do! Of all the systems that I would like to use a sim on, Mac would be my first choice - the screen and graphics capabilities would be awesome!

RE: Sims for Apple computers?
 

Hi,

As you probably guessed I am also a MAC user. PC's at work, MAC's at home. I have noticed over the last few years, more and more games have become available for the OS X platform. Also with the new MAC mini (£339 / $499) MAC's are now even more affordable.

I still think its only a matter of time (1 year?) before the first RC Flight Sim will be available. :D

Cheers, Matt

RE: Sims for Apple computers?
 

Another Mac user here. I was going to buy a laptop for my car software [link=http://efilive.com/]EFIlive[/link], guess I will just make sure the specs are good enough for the sim too... I use windows XP all day at work. I hate that OS so...

RE: Sims for Apple computers?
 

Hmmm.... I'm not a mac-user, but my wife has a powerbook - gotta say, that thing is awesome, I'm more of a linux user (or is that /usr??? har.) I wonder if an emulator could help you guys? Take a look at WineX, it's an emulator for windoze games to run on linux. OS-X has it's roots (or is that / 's... another har there, you OS-X guys should get those) in BSD, open -or- free-BSD I believe, and there's lots of gnu software that's being ported to OS-X because of that. If something isn't available now that can run one of the three main sims (G2/3, AFP/AFPD or Reflex) on OS-X, it's only a matter of time before something comes along that can. I'm guessing AFPD would be one of the easier sims to run on an emulator successfuly, it looks like a fairly basic install, Haven't tried it on linux myself yet, but I'm thinking about trying it soon, I too would like to drop my last reason for using anything that runs windoze.

HTH,
todd

RE: Sims for Apple computers?
 

Whats an Apple??? ;)

Seems to me that I always read about MAC users wondering why people don't make more apps for their systems. Be it games, or in this case RC Simulators, its always the same answer. Microsoft has the market cornered for home users. So just break down and buy a PC like everybody else. Unless your in the graphics industry that is.

RE: Sims for Apple computers?
 

I have used PC's for over 20 years. Bought a new VIC-20 January 1981. [:-] I have 4 older PC's at home. I have not bought another PC in 3 years.

I hate viruses, worms, and crappy software (read Microsoft). Thanks but no thanks. I will stick with Apple. Bad enough I have to use Windozes at work all day.

I just bought an old version of RealFlight G2, off eBay this morning, that should run on one of my old PC's.

RE: Sims for Apple computers?
 

"Whats an Apple???

Seems to me that I always read about MAC users wondering why people don't make more apps for their systems. Be it games, or in this case RC Simulators, its always the same answer. Microsoft has the market cornered for home users. So just break down and buy a PC like everybody else. Unless your in the graphics industry that is. "

Dig_It - With the release of the new Mac Mini I think Apple will soon break the home user market.

RE: Sims for Apple computers?
 

I remember reading about 5 or 10 years ago that the MAC platform was on about 10% of the dektops worldwide. Recently it has dropped to less than 4%, not a good trend. I think that explains why S/W developers have not spent the extra $ & effort to support the MAC platform. It just isn't cost effective.

I see this same topic hashed in other venues of my interest ... electronics design and stock market investing. In a book published around 1996, "Trading 101" the author, S. Harris, stated there were 432 financial S/W programs for the PC and only 36 for the MAC. I would surmise that today this ratio is even more lopsided today.

With PC prices so low, I suspect that sometime it is appropriate to "bite the bullet" and get a PC to run those programs that otherwise are not available on the MAC as suggested by many on this forum.