Lego Digital Designer on a tablet (Windows RT)

[Herman]

Hello,

I'd like to know if LDD will work on a Windows RT tablet. It seems to me the touch interface is ideal for LDD. However, I can't find any information about LDD working on Windows RT. It's not in the Market, I can see that on Windows 8.

If it doesn't work, I'll probably go for a cheaper Android tablet.

Does anyone have experience with this?

[Calabar]

The answer to your question is: NO, LDD will not work on Windows RT.

All the old Win32 software don't run on the Modern-UI, there is the need to completely rewritten that.

Maybe someday LDD will be rewritten for Modern-UI, until than you can't run it on a Windows RT tablet.

I tested LDD on an Iconia W500 tablet and it runs smootly (with the limits of a not much powerful video card, obviously), but the software is not much adequate for the touchscreen interface, there are many difficulties: the software is not thought for that.

You could wait for the Surface Pro tablets (or any equivalent one), that runs a complete version of Windows 8 on a x86 processor.

[konze]

Hi,

I'm sorry to tell you: no it isn't possible.

Windows RT is made for ARM processors (mobile phones, tablets usw.) this means you can install software for ARM processors only.

LDD is made for x86 processors (desktop computers and laptops) and it can only run on x86 platforms like Windows XP / 7 / 8.

It isn't very hard to change a piece of software to run it under a different processor (as long as the operating system stays the same). Write a message to LEGO's software department and ask if they are developing a version for Windows RT / Android / iOS.

Best regards,

konze

PS: Tell us LEGO's answer.

[Herman]

Ok thanks, I thought that anything written in DirectX would run on RT, but it looks like LDD isn't DirectX.

Android it is. There's Cuusoo entry for LDD on mobile devices: http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/141 I don't see anything coming out of this for a while though.

[Calabar]

It is not a matter of OpenGL or DirectX.

WinRT are a brand new set of API (a bit incomplete at the moment, and partially based on older Win32), and software made for Modern-UI have to be written with WinRT.

This means that that the software have to be rewritten with the new API. And, considering that the WinRT API have limits if compared with Win32, there could be some difficulties too.