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IMG contacted developer Cornered Rat Software about the upcoming Mac version of their massively multiplayer war sim, World War II Online. While the game is still in an initial "shakedown" period on the PC side, the Mac version is on track for a release on July 10. We recently had a chance to exchange a quick Q&A with Russell "Hoss" Mirabelli and Stephen W. Evans of Playnet about the release:

IMG: When the PC version was declared 'Gold' back in late May, a Mac GM was hinted at as well. Has the current Mac version been updated from the original 'Gold' copy pressed at the time of the PC release?

Russell: It is indeed an updated version.

IMG: Will Mac users have to download the same 70+MB patch the PC users needed?

Russell: There will definitely be a patch needed, size unknown.

Stephen: Hopefully not, but a change in the data file due to a bugfix between when they get the Mac master would result in a large download. The problem is that our datafile is compressed and encrypted, as a result
a change anywhere in the file changes the entire file, leaving normal "compare and patch" methods useless. Thus the large updates.

IMG: Will any of the performance-related patches released so far help the Mac version as well? Or has any Mac-related optimization work been done?

Russell: Virtually all of those have been common code. There's nothing big performance-wise that's mac-specific. There are
more than a few projects underway, though.

Stephen: Yes and yes, although Altivec support still is not complete and may
not be done in time for the golden master.

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