Any game a Mac can run, it can run about as well as a PC can. The problem with gaming on a Mac is just that a lot of games don’t run on them at all. This is presumably due to market share, compounded by the fact that folks who want to play a lot of games are even less likely to be in the Mac demographic (it’s self-perpetuating to a degree).
I don’t think that Blizzard and the other companies who support cross-platform convert from DirectX to OpenGL; I think they just work with OpenGL right from the start, for both platforms. Which probably isn’t really any harder, as long as you’re not building off of existing DirectX-based code. Unfortunately (for consumers, at least), most games are built pretty heavily off of pre-existing code: You’ll get maybe one or two new engines per decade in any given genre, and everyone just builds off of that.
Based on ignorance? Please perform the following steps:
On both platforms, open your favorite graphics program of choice. Draw a gradient from pure blue to black across the screen.
On both platforms, take a piece of high-resolution line art. Scale said line art down by an “odd” percentage, say 37%.
Do the same thing with some text.
On both platforms, just look at the gradients around window edges, and the responsiveness of said windows on equivalent hardware (you can boot into BootCamp).
Heck, just look at the “photo book” screen savers on each platform.
In all cases, the Mac will produce noticably better results: the gradient won’t show visible banding (assuming a decent monitor), the line art will be much crisper, the text will look nicer and may be easier to read, and the graphical “clutter” in the windows will be more response on the Mac. Note that the Mac has little trouble doing all it’s transparent do-haws on hardware that Windows Aero won’t even turn on for. And that’s even before you turn on color matching, to provide systemic improvements throughout the system, available free to all apps.
This isn’t the hardware (since you can run Windows on the same hardware, using bootcamp). It’s the software: a history of demanding pre-press users, graphics jockeys, and API’s that aren’t all just implemented with the simplest scaling algorithms.
Does this affect games much? No, and there are plenty of arenas in which Windows is the superior system. – but the claim that the Mac’s rep for superior graphics is based on ignorance…is based on ignorance, and insulting to the massive numbers of graphical, animation, photographic, and pre-press professionals who are making the claim.
This is where the Wine DirectX API may come in handy, because it converts Direct3D to OpenGL. Parallels already uses it. (As does Darwine, but that should be obvious.)
Oh god what a load of BS. Look, I don’t want to start yet another platform war. A slightly simpler color calibration and font management does not make the Mac superior. Color calibration and font management can be achieved just as well on a PC. Adobe CS4 runs the same on both platforms. Get over yourself. For every graphics designer using Mac, there are 5 using Windows. Again, get over yourself.
More importantly we are talking about games here. It’s a thread about gaming on the Mac. And here again, no, Macs are not superior.
I know you think Steve Jobs jizzes in your Mac and imbues it with magical properties, but luckily not all Mac user as so delusional.
Please, everyone, take a moment and chill. We can disagree without calling names – which is what you are doing, Kinthalis.
I’m not going to issue any warnings, for now, so let’s play nice from here on out. If you feel the need to vent regarding games, Macs or this thread in particular, the Pit is available for your needs.
Keep this discussion on the issue at hand, please.
Even a 5% market is a huge market in the PC world. As I said, I wouldn’t be surprised if you see large studios targeting them along side the PC. They probably have the resources to make it worth their while.
I probably missed something upthread, but why has it taken so long for Mac users to have accessability to Steam? Was it a Mac compatibility issue or something Steam had going on that prevented Mac-friendly games from being available?
I’m sure someone will say something like “Look at post #xxx” and I’ll go :smack:
However, my Macbook laptop (brand new) simply doesn’t have the graphical muscle to handle anything beyond Portal with anything close to an enjoyable FPS.
So, in practice, this probably won’t have much effect; but I’m glad Valve is at least getting their foot in the door WRT Mac gaming.
a) People who care a lot about games and gaming are more likely to buy a PC, unless they have a really compelling reason to buy a Mac; reciprocally, people who don’t play computer games at all, or only rarely, are proportionally more likely to opt for a Mac than those who do.
b) Companies who write computer games that could be ported to the Mac look at their potential market in MacOS-land; and while there are certainly many Mac users who hop up and down with delight at the prospect of more Mac games, they’re still more thinly spread than avid gamers in the PC-owning population, for reason a. above
c) People whose computing environment is the MacOS do not get exposed to computer gaming as much because we have fewer games, and because the gaming community is so PC-centric (and quite often Mac-hostile, as one would expect from a gaming community towards an ostentatiously proud OS platform that’s not very useful for gaming). Therefore folks whose computing experience has been very Mac-centric often don’t develop much of an appetite for computer gaming.
d) People with little familiarity with computer gaming get invited to try a computer game, try it out without prior experience with computer games in general, and don’t experience it as being much fun. “Meh. Whatever. Lots of things going bang and boom followed by a sign saying that I’m dead.” Such people would be disproportionately well-represented on the Mac platform thus reinforcing a. b. and c. above.
I’m a good example. I’ve never owned a PC, I suck at computer games, I don’t find them to be much fun, and while my OS seems to suck at games as bad as I do, that doesn’t bother me in the slightest.
This part is definitely self-perpetuating. It’s also why this is good news for all PC gamers, not just Mac users. Right now, if you are a PC gamer, you’re stuck with Windows, regardless of what OS you might otherwise prefer.
If all or most games become available on Mac as well, the PC gamer will be able to choose the platform he prefers. Or, to put a finer point on it, they have the option to upgrade from Windows to OS X.
It’s more than a distribution system for games. It’s a social network and gaming hub., sort of like Xbox Live but better. It’s my preferred way to play. It has built in voice chat so you don’t have to depend on all the players getting into the same game before talking, instant messaging and status indicators that can be accessed in game as well as achievements and stats for the games that support them.
Plus, Steam has awesome sales on games, even on new ones, up to 75% off on a regular basis.
The only downside is a lack of physical media. I didn’t want to give up my discs, and downloading a full game can take hours, but they are very cool about having multiple installs on the same Steam account. You can have up to 5 (I think) but only be logged with one at any time. I’ve got Fallout 3 and Mass Effect 2 installed on my desktop and laptop, but it won’t let me run them both at the same time.
Don’t give into the hate hate hate hate haters … Steam has made my gaming life better. Give it a whirl.
I didn’t see it covered anywhere, but will PC Steam and Mac Steam play nice with each other, even if it’s just with Valve games? Be nice to have even more L4D2 players out there.
Lol, I was talking about the windows registry, not Steam. I love steam. It’s the best thing to happen to PC gaming in recent history. I’ve even re-purchased games on steam so I wouldn’t have to keep the discs around anymore. I’m done with discs.
This is exceedingly unlikely. Valve is a big developer with broad appeal and lots of money, so they can afford to try to branch out into Macs. But unless it’s a wild success, I don’t think anyone else is going to bother. You may see a few more Mac releases now with better distribution to them, but I don’t think it’ll be anything but a very small minority.
Whoops… Wrong quote button. My aim here is as good as it is on Steam. :smack: I was actually responding to the message below yours from Chronos, wanting to give a little more info about what Steam does other than distribute files.
At least this won’t make my Friendly Fire stats go up like in L4D2…
