PowerPC Mac support?

[morshu9001]

Version 1.2 no longer has a PowerPC Mac binary download. What is the status on PowerPC support? Are they ever bringing it back? Is it possible for me to compile the source for a PowerPC Mac? I keep getting random errors when I try to use "make" on the source code.

[RandumKiwi]

A history to those wondering:
* Apple stopped making Power PC processor computers by August 7, 2006.
* Apple's OSX stopped supporting the Power PC on August 28, 2009 (Snow Leopard).
* Apple's OSX stopped supporting Power PC based software on July 20 2011 (Lion).
* Apple completely dropped software/hardware support for Power PC on August 7, 2013.

You can surely understand that we're unlikely to support something that even the manufacturer no longer does. For us to provide you with AssaultCube that works for an old version of Mac OSX, I believe our Mac developer needs to actually be able to have that OS at his fingertips, so that he can attempt to compile AssaultCube for that platform (and he doesn't).

At best, he can do v10.4 (Tiger). As such, that (or better) is what we officially support, see here: http://assault.cubers.net/docs/getstarted.html#minspecs

Additionally, note that the libraries that AssaultCube uses, are likely to over time not support Power PC - which limits our potential to support you even more.

TL;DR?
1) Don't buy a Mac if you want something that lasts forever. Buy a PC so you can upgrade single pieces of hardware from time-to-time. Also, you would be able to change from Windows to Linux and run an up to date system without a problem. Translation: If you really wanted to, that PC from 1995 won't be made fully redundant if it were a PC.

2) If you're really, really lucky and quite kind, there is a very unlikely possibility that our OSX developer may be able to help you make AssaultCube work on a PPC, send him a PM: http://forum.cubers.net/user-300.html

[stef]

Of course, the views of apple about their product-lifecycles are of no concern to us, so that's bullshit.

The problem is, that apparently no developer (or able user) has that configuration to compile a binary. It would be nice, if someone could manage to compile it - and make a nice package of it, so others can use it, too.

BTW: Once all devs are done migrating to linux, we also won't have windows binaries anymore :)

What "random errors" do you get?

[ExodusS]

BTW: Once all devs are done migrating to linux, we also won't have windows binaries anymore :)

hahahaha

[morshu9001]

What "random errors" do you get?

I say "random" because they're different on different computers I try. Always one thing or another missing, or a file in the source folder not found. I just tried the Xcode project in the source, and it kept saying source files, not libraries, were not found. I then tried it with the "make" command in the src folder, and then clang was reportedly missing (I thought I had it installed). So I tried using MacPorts to install clang, and it exited with code 1 without explanation after about 10 minutes of building. My brother's old Mac is so dang slow with building stuff that I gave up for the time being, but I'll try again.

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You can surely understand that we're unlikely to support something that even the manufacturer no longer does. For us to provide you with AssaultCube that works for an old version of Mac OSX, I believe our Mac developer needs to actually be able to have that OS at his fingertips, so that he can attempt to compile AssaultCube for that platform (and he doesn't).
[…]
1) Don't buy a Mac if you want something that lasts forever. Buy a PC so you can upgrade single pieces of hardware from time-to-time. Also, you would be able to change from Windows to Linux and run an up to date system without a problem. Translation: If you really wanted to, that PC from 1995 won't be made fully redundant if it were a PC.

Thanks for the explanation about the Mac developer not having a PPC computer. That makes sense. However, none of the old non-Mac computers I have are supported by the manufacturer either, and I haven't upgraded them. The only reason AssaultCube works on them is because the 32-bit Intel architecture hasn't changed, but Macs have gone from PPC to Intel. Understandably, I'd be PO'd if Apple switched architectures again. I use a supported Intel Mac, but my brother uses a G4 for some reason, and I can't convince him to dump it and spend the money on something that doesn't sound like a leaf blower.

So this game SHOULD compile and run on a PPC Mac, only it hasn't been done, right? Why the Xcode project in the source doesn't work is beyond me. I'm going to see if I can compile it for PPC on my brother's PowerMac G4 MDD. Maybe this time it'll work if I can get clang and SDL installed.

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BTW: Once all devs are done migrating to linux, we also won't have windows binaries anymore :)

As much as I want Windows to die and be replaced by FreeBSD or Debian (as well as many of the home users to go to Mac), I wouldn't like this because it would mean that fewer people will play.

[morshu9001]

Update: I can't get clang installed no matter what I do. I tried removing the "CXX=clang++" line in the makefile, only to get thousands of errors. So I tried the Xcode project again.

When I build and run, it succeeds but produces a broken application. There's no executable inside, and it won't run. I installed SDL, but SDL_image.framework is not available for PPC Macs it seems, so that's probably why it's not building properly. Not sure why it succeeds though. I should be able to compile SDL_image for PPC, but that's the point at which I'm in over my head. I tried that and failed.

You know what, I can't even get 1.1 to compile on my Intel Mac because of two errors about ambiguous references on lines 34 and 35 of modelcache.h. This code isn't portable. Okay, I give up now.

[ExodusS]

BTW: Once all devs are done migrating to linux, we also won't have windows binaries anymore :)

As much as I want Windows to die and be replaced by FreeBSD or Debian (as well as many of the home users to go to Mac), I wouldn't like this because it would mean that fewer people will play.

Note that none of the curent AC issuess threads are on Windows, 1.2 release date was retarded by ~8 years because of the Linux issue and also, Windows pwn you all in stability. Less than 5% of cumputer users know what a browser is, so what would be the percent of users who handle Linux well? :p

[RandumKiwi]

Update: I can't get clang installed no matter what I do. I tried removing the "CXX=clang++" line in the makefile, only to get thousands of errors. So I tried the Xcode project again.

AC used to use GCC, but as a fix to some optimization errors in Linux, we moved to Clang. Feel free to change it to GCC, read this: https://github.com/assaultcube/AC/commit...1856f13c40

Then download this as a replacement Makefile: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/assaul...c/Makefile

I should be able to compile SDL_image for PPC, but that's the point at which I'm in over my head. I tried that and failed

AssaultCube has always used SDL_image (since inception) and we've supported OSX prior to intel/mac. There'll be an SDL_image for PPC out there somewhere surely.

Good luck.

[Ronald_Reagan]

GCC should work just fine. I believe the frameworks that exist in the project as of current will work for PPC as well. Just steal them from an AC application. The only dependency that may give you trouble would be curl, not sure if they have a PPC release.

[morshu9001]

GCC should work just fine. I believe the frameworks that exist in the project as of current will work for PPC as well. Just steal them from an AC application. The only dependency that may give you trouble would be curl, not sure if they have a PPC release.

Thanks for the tip. The cURL framework from AC 1.2 seems to be working. I got it compiled, then I put assaultcube.app in the launcher's gamedata folder, then I copied all the other gamedata files in from AC 1.2, and it launched… But then it crashes just after loading the map every time. I either get a BAD_ACCESS error somewhere in the SDL_image code or in the "rldecodecubes" function every time I try, which doesn't make sense. I'd expect an error relating to libcurl if anything.

I forget how I did it, but I got it to get past loading the map and go to single player mode with no map once. It had to do with copying certain parts of the AC 1.2 I compiled into the existing AC 1.1 for PPC Mac application. It was able to load the 1.2 server list too, but it crashed as soon as I joined a server. So I know cURL is working.

[Jg99]

Found this for cURL on PPC: http://pdb.finkproject.org/pdb/package.php/curl

[morshu9001]

Found this for cURL on PPC: http://pdb.finkproject.org/pdb/package.php/curl

I installed cURL with MacPorts, which does the same as the package you linked to, but the Xcode project (since I have given up on "make"ing) for some reason won't accept anything other than a libcurl.framework file. Otherwise, I get errors about curl_easy functions missing.