There are ridiculous numbers of people still using Windows 9x when XP has been out for how long now?
True, but they're all running archaic software, and probably wouldn't be able to run your game, even if said person did have a SM3 card, and was able to find functioning drivers. And Vista is a less compelling upgrade than XP was.
To me and you maybe. I guess it depends on how aggressively Microsoft are going to push Vista, and how many applications and games are going to be Vista only. If Microsoft choose to turn the screws too tightly, people are only going to have 2 alternatives. Upgrade to a Mac, or upgrade to Vista - and better the devil you know. Although I suppose the incremential improvesments Microsoft products recieve over the years are more significant for end users who've missed an OS upgrade the last couple of times. the most obvious is the lack of H.264 hardware support which is needed for Vista as well
Maybe. But not for Max3D as far as I'm aware. Besides which I'll be buying a beefier desktop eventually. I don't try to have a min req of Shader 2, because my system isn't capable of shader 3. Its because something that the currently most spread ATI cards don't support.
Well that's a valid point I suppose. Never the less if the choice comes down to SM3 by Christmas or SM2 by next August, SM2 support can go jump in a lake as far as I'm concerned. Of course you realise that Mark's sig. PC only contains a Shader Model 2 Card :)
Sure. And DirectX 9.0b. Which leaves us with two options.a) Mark hasn't updated his computer in a while.
b) Mark hasn't updated his sig in a while.
Me? I'm going with b.
So I don't think Vista is going to be taking over all the desktops anytime soon.
Ofcourse not. But nobody here realisticly has a target market segment of 'all desktops'.