   DirectX and Macs
  Hey,I am interested in learning more about game development, need to upgrade my system, using an old Win98 machine.  I am just starting to learn c++ and I am thinking about some courses at Game Institute.  I have been lusting for a new MAC laptop, love the design- can I use a Mac and Virtual PC to code in Microsoft Visual C++ and DirectX-is that a completely stupid question?  If not what does anyone recommend.  I don''t think I have the space for another desktop is it realistic to get enough power in a laptop to develop with?recommendations for a system for someone  who is starting out but wants something that they can ''grow with''?Thanks. 
  i dont know about directx, but you can develop in opengl, wich is far easier on begginner 3d programmers...that way you can also develop crss-platform apps between win32 and mac  [Hugo Ferreira][Positronic Dreams][Colibri 3D Engine][Entropy HL2 MOD]    [Yann  L.][Enginuity]  [Penny Arcade]  [MSDN][VS  RoadMap][Humus][BSPs][UGP][NeHe]"I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It''s the only way to be sure." ;  Ultimately I would love to be able to develope games for xbox and live, I know that they keep their code pretty tight-need the dev kit etc can you develop games for xbox with OGL?  I suppose that is what ''cross platform'' means but being a real beginner I want to know for sure.  I also like the idea of eventually learning both but I would like to get a good cross between capability and ease of learning I hear that DirectX is tough. ;  You should be able to use virtual-pc to run any dx apps you create but they wouldn''t run particularly fast.  Using something like OpenGL and SDL would probably be your best plan for the mac.As for developing for the XBox MS only sells dev-kits to professional game developers with good reputations.  So it''s basically impossible to get hold of one legally.  I believe people are working on creating their own versions of the XBox dev-kit so anyone can give XBox dev a go, I''m not sure if this is entirely legal though, but you probably would be using DX with one of those dev-kits (and definetely with the offical one). ;  Virtual PC doesn''t emulate a 3D card, so you can''t run any programs that require hardware acceleration. If the program will run in software mode then it should run in Virtual PC, but it definitely won''t be fast. There''s a DirectX wrapper lib for the Mac, but it''s designed for companies porting their Windows-only code to the Mac. Plus, it costs money.Codewarrior lets you cross-compile Windows/Mac apps, but you''d still need to write DirectX code for the Windows side and OpenGL code for the Mac side. Unless of course you went with OpenGL for Windows as well. ;  While technically possible on some levels, for modern and practicle purposes you cannot run DirectX games on a Mac, even with VirtualPC. As a side note, I would be careful in choosing your Mac laptop and do as much research as possible before hand (including visiting Mac message boards to see what other owners experence was). As with Apples R&D and beta testing, which Jobs slashed upon his return, engineering and quality control have fallen a lot in the last few years, especially with the Powerbook and iBook lines. In the last 2 years there have been numerous basic design flaws in both lines that caused the same parts to fail again and again in large quantities (some people reporting that they had to have their logic boards replaced up to 3 times by AppleCare before they got one that worked for more than a few weeks). For instance when Macworld reviewed the 15" G4 PowerBook they had to return 3 of 6 the units they purchased because of hardware faults.  