Another gaming on macOS

[ginofresh]

so with apple talking about a better metal and ML (i belive it was called) do you guys think gaming on the new Mac OS,macbook pro and Imac will be better and get more support?

 

[netnewswireuser]

no

 

[leman]

Most games nowadays use a middleware such as Unity, which support Metal. So yes, we will see more and more good performing games. As to performance itself: I briefly looked at the changes to Metal and the API seems quite complete now. It gained explicit synchronization which puts it on par with DX12 and Vulcan. I dont think it will affect the performance of existing titles though.

 

[asoksevil]

I am actually surprised they showcased Fortnite as a prime example of a crossover game that works on both iOS and Metal. As far as I know, the Mac version of Fortnite is pretty bad, game lags constantly and it is nowhere close to performance compared to the Windows one.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FortNiteBR..._can_we_please_get_a_better_port_of_the_game/

https://www.reddit.com/r/FortNiteBR/comments/8nliui/mac_user_here_experimenting_a_lot_of_errors/

https://www.reddit.com/r/FortNiteBR...pic_going_to_fix_the_game_for_mac_players_or/

https://www.reddit.com/r/FortNiteBR...dnt_people_on_macs_be_enjoying_the_game_that/

https://www.reddit.com/r/FortNiteBR/comments/8np01c/mac_optimization/

https://www.reddit.com/r/FortNiteBR/comments/81x29b/fortnites_mac_recommended_specs_are_flawed/

Is this the "metal" integration Apple is referring to? Because it seems like a lousy and half-baked product.

 

[Merode]

There are two major concerns:

1. Metal won't be adopted by every developer and even if it will, it won't be top priority due to low marketshare. Look at Blizzard - they always played nice with Apple and supported every crazy tech they've come up with. Now try to play StarCraft 2 with OpenGL renderer and then Metal renderer (it's available in options). Not only is Metal renderer buggy (often drawing stuff incorrectly) but it also runs muuuuch slower.
2. At least 50% of poor gaming performance comes from really weak (gaming-wise) GPUs across all Apple products. The top of the line iMac GPU (not iMac Pro!) would be considered reasonable for gaming in late 2016 (aka, able to play most new games at high presets at 1080p with 40 to 60 FPS on Windows). That iMac costs 2300$ in 2018 and every lower specced machine (rMBPs) have much weaker GPUs. That's the reason why they showed all gaming demos running on eGPUs which cost about 230$ for enclosure + cost of GPU. The one from aforementioned iMac costs about 300$. That's 530$ on top of your pricey Mac.

 

[leman]

1. Metal won't be adopted by every developer and even if it will, it won't be top priority due to low marketshare. Look at Blizzard - they always played nice with Apple and supported every crazy tech they come up with. Now try to play StarCraft 2 with OpenGL renderer and then Metal renderer (it's available in options). Not only is Metal renderer buggy (often drawing stuff incorrectly) but it also runs muuuuch slower.

This is why middleware plays such an important role. And alas, the performance issues are often due to Apple's attitude... there were plenty of bugs and missing features in Metal and Apple was not very forthcoming in fixing those issues. Looking at 10.14 APIs, I have to say that I have hope that they started to take things more serious — changes to Metal look very solid.

1. At least 50% of poor gaming performance comes from really weak (gaming-wise) GPUs across all Apple products.

This is very much true. I don't think that macOS will become a prime target for AAA games, exactly of that reason. Still, the GPUs are more then sufficient for the majority of games out there, and close to metal APIs allow for much more efficient utilisation of the GPU. In the end, the games I play these days (mostly strategy, simulators and an occasional RPG) don't need a GPU any faster than what you find in an iPad... just that the coding is sometimes suboptimal.

 

[homohurre123]

There are two major concerns:

1. Metal won't be adopted by every developer and even if it will, it won't be top priority due to low marketshare. Look at Blizzard - they always played nice with Apple and supported every crazy tech they come up with. Now try to play StarCraft 2 with OpenGL renderer and then Metal renderer (it's available in options). Not only is Metal renderer buggy (often drawing stuff incorrectly) but it also runs muuuuch slower.
2. At least 50% of poor gaming performance comes from really weak (gaming-wise) GPUs across all Apple products. The top of the line iMac GPU (not iMac Pro!) would be considered reasonable for gaming in late 2016 (aka, able to play most new games at high presets at 1080p with 40 to 60 FPS on Windows). That iMac costs 2300$ in 2018 and every lower specced machine (rMBPs) have much weaker GPUs. That's the reason why they showed all gaming demos running on eGPUs which cost about 230$ + cost of GPU. The one from aforementioned iMac costs about 300$. That's 530$ on top of your pricey Mac.

Who knows If apple does well with those kind of "universal Programms" we might see developer start to get more interested in Apple and the Mac especially. Imagine having the possibility to bring your Game to the iPhone iPad Apple TV and the Mac without having to create different versions for them.

Apple Tv might be strong enough in the next generation to compete with something like the Switch. Ipad Pro and Iphone will get insanely fast. If apple would make sure to create some good gaming peripherals for all of those Platforms Metal might be a strong possibility for the major Game developers.

Also Sony would look pretty badly if this happens. Microsoft has Xbox and Windows (Tablet, PC and Console) Apple would have IOS TV OS and Mac OS ((Tablet,Phone, PC and Console) and Sony would rest with their one platform which has to compete with Nintendo and Microsoft.

Maybe Apple might start to take this market more serious if some other game developers start to show interest. I dont think apple would ever see the Mac as a gaming machine. But the Apple TV might be a Plattform they would want to push in this direction. If this happens I'm pretty Sure the mac would highly profit from this.