I agree with you, I'm not sure what your "not true" comment means. My post corresponds to yours. It's one more example of games not being playable anymore on macOS, which is yet another reason why developers won't bother. It's not a game-friendly environment.
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In 3 years, 50% of all computers capable of playing AAA games will be Macs
- Thread starter senttoschool
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An active fan community is free marketing for the sequel. Given that marketing is usually the biggest item in the budget of an AAA game (and certainly more expensive than software development), it's something publishers care about.
That argument has been getting old for some time. Killing 32-bit game support is perhaps more of a gamers' nightmare than developers' since most of the games aren't even being developed for 32-bit in the recent years. Just look at all the AAA games demanding 64-bit CPU and OS. Even Red Dead Redemption 2 required 64-bit back in 2019 when it was released.
You do know all of Valve's games minus CSGO, Dota, and Half Life Alyx are 32 bit right? Portal, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, and Half Life are all unplayable on Mac because of this change.
"Oh well just update those games to 64 bit"
Easier said than done. They tried to update Half Life 2 to 64 bit, and the game was absolutely unplayable that they had to cancel the beta for 64 bit and left it abandoned. Hell even the Steam client is 32 bit. The Mac client is the only version that is 64 bit and they only did that because of Catalina, and the Mac client runs like trash on 64 bit versus the more stable 32 bit client on Windows and Linux.
And that's just for Valve. What about any other dev? It's a lot of work to translate 32 bit code to 64, and no dev is gonna want to do the work for a platform that actively hates them. It's why even though Windows 11 fully killed off 32 bit support, they still have a compatibility mode so 32 bit software can still run for legacy purposes
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Yes I know, but I'm not talking about them not being playable. That's a problem mostly for players not developers. Again as I said it's been years since major developers stopped releasing 32-bit games. I've never seen anybody complain about Elden Ring, Resident Evil, RDR 2, Atomic Heart or more not being 32-bit. So the point is if developers abandoned 32-bit years ago it's not so strange that Apple also did. Sure, they may started earlier ahead of others but as I said that argument is getting old. Many developers also remake their old games anyway, like Resident Evil 4 so players get a chance again to play old classics.
You're clearly not a PC gamer with a potato then lmao. Go onto any Steam forum for a demanding game like Spider-Man or Returnal and there's complaints about how their GPU isn't strong enough.
Bare minimum just include a compatibility mode. That's all anyone wants. So many amazing iOS games got wiped out never to be seen again when iOS cut 32 bit support.
No, but I'm not talking about outdated HW, I'm talking about 32-bit vs 64-bit. You said "Apple has made game development on macOS an absolute nightmare" because of "OpenGL divested" and "killing 32 bit app support". That's not really true.
Game development on Mac is not a "nightmare" due to lack of support for 32-bit apps. Developers can still make any games they want for Mac. It's actually better when you only have to care about one version of the game, 64-bit, and don't have to work on a 32-bit version too. As already said many developers abandoned 32-bit years ago and don't have to worry about old systems.
Regarding OpenGL you could say the same thing about Microsoft. OpenGL has bad support in Win 10 and 11 and doesn't work unless you update your drivers directly from Intel, AMD or Nvidia. Microsoft also only cares about its own API DX 11 and 12. If you want Vulkan you have to again find your GPU drivers at Intel, AMD or Nvidia. Some older PC:s don't even support Vulkan. Microsoft doesn't even support OpenGL or Vulkan on ARM.
On Mac you have MoltenVK used in games like Metro Exodus so Vulkan is possible in that way and even the Vulkan community has acknowledged that Metal 3 and Vulkan are now closer to each other than ever and have almost the same functionality so it's easier to translate Vulkan to Metal.
You said yourself that Valve updated its Source games like CSGO and Dota 2 to 64-bit. So it's apparently not hard to do that since Source 2 have 64-bit support since release 2015. HL 2 was also updated to 64-bit specifically for AMD's line of Athlon 64 FX processors but it was buggy and is no longer available. It seems that Valve didn't bother to solve the issues. It's probably a matter of cost, time and user base. Instead they made HL Alyx which is 64-bit only.
Even Valve removed support for 32-bit, OpenGL, DirectX 9, XAudio, and macOS versions below 10.14 in 2021 from Source 2. So when even Valve doesn't support 32-bit and OpenGL you expect Apple to do so? Another example is Aspyr or Feral. Games like Borderlands 2 and Bioshock 1-2 were updated to 64-bit. Techland even updated Dying Light from OpenGL to Metal. Aspyr is updating its entire old Mac catalog to native ARM. So it's all about how popular the games are and can be done.
Again I understand the players' point of view but removing 32-bit support was not much of a "nightmare" for the developers.
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Again MoltenVK has it's limitations and is not the definitive solution. The Dolphin developers explain why here:
Temptation of the Apple: Dolphin on macOS M1
From the announcement made on November 10th, 2020, users have had high hopes for the new Apple M1 devices. With its powerful Apple Silicon processor smashing benchmarks all over the place, users and developers were both asking if a native Dolphin build would be possible. Now we have the answer...
It's not about cost. Valve just didn't want to go through the effort anymore for a platform that threw them under the bus. They're structured so anyone can work on any project they want so long as it's adding value so everyone on the 64 bit port team left to other more exciting projects, namely Valve's biggest hit yet the Steam Deck and SteamOS. And with the Steam Deck selling like hotcakes and OEMs coming to them begging them to let them license SteamOS, Valve's got bigger issues to deal with than supporting Apple.
Hell even CSGO on Mac runs like trash since the 64 bit update. The only way they're gonna fix that is when the Source 2 port finally arrives, and even then I don't know how it's gonna fair.
To be fair I believe MS stopped offering an OpenGL driver back in the Windows XP days.
No they didn't. Windows 11 still supports OpenGL. The drivers are now with the dGPU
Did you miss the part where I wrote that it's the GPU manufactors who have to keep OpenGL drivers updated and not Microsoft and the drivers delivered with Windows 10-11 are buggy and make the games crash?
I'm telling you what developers said to why they can't just use MoltenVK as the be all end all solution. Since you seem to know better than they do, tell them yourself
Your article is from almost two years ago when Metal 3 wasn't even heard of. They also only tested the base M1 8c GPU. I'm telling you what Vulkan dev community said after Metal 3 was released. Even in your article they conclude "That is a very small price to pay to get a glimpse at some really cool hardware that redefines what an ARM processor can do. There's undeniable excitement for the next generation of AArch64 hardware to see how much further that this can go."
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Actually yeah Microsoft used to include OpenGL drivers back in the OGL 1.x days. They stopped (because DirectX) and the GPU makers have been including drivers ever since then.
Valve actually enjoyed OpenGL back in the day and had better performance on Linux than the DX versions on Windows. Some of their developers talked about it at several conferences back in the day. They even had a blog about it, which unfortunately isn't available anymore. One can still find a few articles about it like these:
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/valve-finds-extra-performance-in-opengl-and-linux
https://www.pcgamesn.com/faster-zombies-valve-say-left-4-dead-2-runs-better-linux-windows
But at this point OpenGL is pretty much dead.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/valve-finds-extra-performance-in-opengl-and-linux
https://www.pcgamesn.com/faster-zombies-valve-say-left-4-dead-2-runs-better-linux-windows
But at this point OpenGL is pretty much dead.
You can actually play a lot of the older Valve games on apple silicon now, like Half Life 2 and Portal. I was playing Half Life 2 natively yesterday - there was a post on reddit about it so I followed those instructions.
Apparently the source engine was leaked a few years ago and people have been modifying it to work on Android etc... and now it also can be built for apple silicon - 64bit and arm native. There's a slight visual glitch with the flashlight, but other than that it works great (300fps). Does show that valve could probably update it themselves without too much time and effort. I'm tempted to buy Portal next.
Vavle had their whole catalog for sale for like 5 USD a month or two ago. I think the only game it didn't include was Half Life: Alyx.
Then you can get the Portal RTX and Half Life RTX mods for free (well on PC).
EDIT: Yeah the bundle for all 22 games (except Alyx) is like 7 bucks right now.
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Think I already own most of them from years ago! Portal is crazy cheap at the moment so I've just bought that. Not sure if Portal 2 is supported by the ported engine (not mentioned in the build instructions) but I'll get that too.
Shame we can't try the RTX versions.
Wonder if someone could do a DX12 -> DXVK -> MoltenVK conversion.
Do you have a source on that, because I haven't heard anyone talking about that. Not Andrew Tsai, not MrMacRight, not even Tyler McVicker and Tyler is the biggest Valve fanboy of them all reporting on any tiniest bit of Half Life news.