Hey HMX:: RBN - no Mac love???

[godAWFUL]

While skimming through the CreatorsWiki I noticed this

Magma is a PC tool that we are creating to allow authors to build Rock Band Network song packages.
Now I all of my songs and all the bands I've mixed down the masters for I've used ProTools or Logic Pro on my iMac...am I going to need to drop these files into a PC just to make the RBN files work? I mean I understand Microsoft is helping out a lot with this...but, please make something equivalent for us Mac heads.

Also, any word on what kind of audio files are going to be used? i.e. High Quality WAV/AIFF converted to OGG, or (ewwww) MP3s. I'd hate to have the masters sound like poop just because of some lossy compression.

[Oscar-Rio]

good point. Hopefully with any luck there will be a version for OSX in the future, but i'm going to guess there won't be one available out of the gate.

[petesobs]

how about buy a PC?

why did you waste your money (paying for apples advertising) on a less compatible system in the first place.

[ShadowChaosControl]

how about buy a PC?

why did you waste your money (paying for apples advertising) on a less compatible system in the first place.
this

[HMXEnosity]

Magma is PC only. Mac users will be able to run Magma through something like VMware.

[Gamedismantler]

Agreed. I'm a mac user and looking forward to RBN. But I don't really want to buy more software just because I'm on a mac or a entire PC.

[RetroMonster]

While skimming through the CreatorsWiki I noticed this

Now I all of my songs and all the bands I've mixed down the masters for I've used ProTools or Logic Pro on my iMac...am I going to need to drop these files into a PC just to make the RBN files work? I mean I understand Microsoft is helping out a lot with this...but, please make something equivalent for us Mac heads.

Also, any word on what kind of audio files are going to be used? i.e. High Quality WAV/AIFF converted to OGG, or (ewwww) MP3s. I'd hate to have the masters sound like poop just because of some lossy compression.

Errm What?

[Flan26]

Errm What?

What's so confusing about the original post? It's clear as a bell to me.

[Avatar_Ko]

It's bad enough that we have console wars but now we have OS wars too!

Heh I was going to suggest VMWare or Parallels (or even boot camp) but HMXEnosity ninja'd me.

[HMXEnosity]

There shouldn't an OS war here. There's a simple fact that currently keeps Magma off the Mac OS.... The Mac OS can not communicate with a XBOX 360.

[Avatar_Ko]

There shouldn't an OS war here. There's a simple fact that currently keeps Magma off the Mac OS.... The Mac OS can not communicate with a XBOX 360.

Yup, I could see that being a problem. Just a little.

[princeofcups]

There shouldn't an OS war here. There's a simple fact that currently keeps Magma off the Mac OS.... The Mac OS can not communicate with a XBOX 360.

I'd expect a less biased statement from an HMX developer. The use of the word communicate is a bit erroneous. Can a Mac user develop for XBox? Yes.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Xbox_360/Xbox_Development_on_the_Mac

I'm trying to find specifics of Magma, but google pulls up all kinds of things that don't seem to relate. Does anyone have any specifics on it?

Anyway, the answer is simple. When you buy into the Xbox way of doing things, you get locked into Microsoft's tools and libraries, which are not going to be supported on anything but their OS.

Of course the Mac can "communicate" with the Xbox. That's not the issue.

I just remembered something not really related. The PS3 was first demoed as software running on a PowerPC Mac. When you start up PS3, you are actually booting up the Linux OS. When you start an XBox, you are booting up a stripped down version of Windows. Just kinda funny.

[Knucklesdude]

That wasn't biased at all. The XNA Framework was developed on Windows and uses Windows libraries.

http://forums.xna.com/forums/p/3694/66936.aspx

A general rule of thumb is that you can only develop with XNA and Xbox 360 if your Mac can run Windows.

[princeofcups]

That wasn't biased at all. The XNA Framework was developed on Windows and uses Windows libraries.

http://forums.xna.com/forums/p/3694/66936.aspx

A general rule of thumb is that you can only develop with XNA and Xbox 360 if your Mac can run Windows.

That's what I said, in a long winded kind of way. What's biased is this:
"The Mac OS can not communicate with a XBOX 360." What he means to say is "The development environment does not run on OSX, only Windows." Very different statements.

[Knucklesdude]

That's not biased because it's not an opinion, it's a statement. What he was most likely referring to was the transfer of songs from the computer to the Xbox 360. Whilst running a Mac OS you cannot communicate with the Xbox 360 using Magma and whatnot to transfer the songs.

[vsTerminus]

Hopefully it runs under WINE in Linux.

[godAWFUL]

how about buy a PC?

Why did you waste your money (paying for apples advertising) on a less compatible system in the first place.

I've used a PC for over 10 years...used to completely swear off anything Mac (I still refuse to get an iPod), but I can safely say that switching to a Mac was one of the best investments I ever made.

But I appreciate your completely ignorant and bias fanboy-like suggestion, it was TOTALLY HELPFUL!


So looks like I'll be installing VMWare again...

And as far as the Mac no talky with Xbox360 comments...I don't have any problems streaming off my Mac to my 360. But it does make sense that Microsoft tools would make Microsoft game add-ons.

[elfreako]

It's a Microsoft Windows based tool, you can't be too surprised. VMWare Fusion is a charm to use anyway. I run it full screen using Spaces and flip from OSX to Winblows by simply hitting ctrl-arrow.

[acidicthought8]

And as far as the Mac no talky with Xbox360 comments...I don't have any problems streaming off my Mac to my 360. But it does make sense that Microsoft tools would make Microsoft game add-ons.

Streaming media is not the same as your computer reading the 360's XFAT partition and putting files onto it's harddrive. (Yes I'm aware that there are XFAT readers available, but I was using that as a basic example.)

[HMXEnosity]

That's what I said, in a long winded kind of way. What's biased is this: "The Mac OS can not communicate with a XBOX 360." What he means to say is "The development environment does not run on OSX, only Windows." Very different statements.

ugh, you people. I'm sorry if that came out wrong but I was talking in terms of XNA Framework. That's what we're using and that's why they can't communicate.

I actually quite like macs and have one at home.

[hmxhenry]

ugh, you people.

What do you mean "you people"?!

Regardless, I think we've established a reasonable workaround for Mac folk in this thread. If anything else comes up feel free to redirect it to the main discussion thread or PM HMXenosity or myself about it directly for more info. Thanks!