Of of course, user experience is the main reason I'm here. I really like it, and can't stand going back to Windows anymore, and it's not even been 2 years.
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OS X Mac Gaming is Awesome!
- Thread starter Dirtyharry50
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Of of course, user experience is the main reason I'm here. I really like it, and can't stand going back to Windows anymore, and it's not even been 2 years.
I just got into mac gaming & love it, been playing Tomb Raider & deus ex lately & having a blast on my 27" iMac, i m just confused as to why when i look at system requirements for games on steam i see the PC counterparts need less beefier components then us for example on PC if the game says min 2gb ram the Mac version says 4gb & even the graphic card has to have more vram, can i ask why? sorry if this question has been asked before i m knew to mac gaming as i m coming from consoles. If this is the case won't the games run better & faster if we mac users play the games on windows with the help of boot camp? sorry abit lost here..
Thanks..
for example on PC if the game says min 2gb ram the Mac version says 4gb & even the graphic card has to have more vram, can i ask why? sorry if this question has been asked before i m knew to mac gaming as i m coming from consoles. If this is the case won't the games run better & faster if we mac users play the games on windows with the help of boot camp? sorry abit lost here..Thanks..
If you read more of the thread you'll see people talking about that. Yes, often times it takes more to do the same job with a game in OS X. That's because often times the game is made for Windows first and then converted to Mac later.
However, some of us prefer Mac and want to play our games without resorting to using Windows. So we can put up with the tradeoffs that can result.
The same could be said about console vs PC. Sometimes games are made console first and then converted to the PC and often times having to run games on top of a fatter OS with arms length APIs cause PC games to require beefier hardware than what is on the consoles. Especially since PC gamers tend to expect more out of their games and want to run with higher settings and resolution than is available on consoles. This is because on consoles not only do they have optimizations due to fixed hardware but because they choose for the gamers there the settings they run their games at such as resolution and turn it down when necessary to hit their performance target.
However, some of us prefer Mac and want to play our games without resorting to using Windows. So we can put up with the tradeoffs that can result.
The same could be said about console vs PC. Sometimes games are made console first and then converted to the PC and often times having to run games on top of a fatter OS with arms length APIs cause PC games to require beefier hardware than what is on the consoles. Especially since PC gamers tend to expect more out of their games and want to run with higher settings and resolution than is available on consoles. This is because on consoles not only do they have optimizations due to fixed hardware but because they choose for the gamers there the settings they run their games at such as resolution and turn it down when necessary to hit their performance target.
Thanks for clearing things up, off course would be awesome to run games on native OSX, who like booting up on windows, wish more games & latest ones game on mac though
Well, games like Tomb Raider and Deus Ex ARE native for all intents and purposes. They might employ a piece of software to do on the fly conversion of Direct3D to OpenGL but that's not emulation. Most of the other software the game uses is substituted by Mac native versions. They don't use anything like Wine or Cider.
Actually, neither is stuff like Wine like the acronym states.. Wine Is Not Emulation. However, the more layers you put in between your game and the hardware there's always at least some degree of performance penalty. However, Wine is doing things to improve their perfomance like CSMT (Command Stream Multithreading) which makes their D3D implementation more multithreaded and benefits some games.
I've seen indication that Wine is outperforming ports from companies like say.... Virtual Programming who use their own proprietary wrapping tech that forces games to be single threaded. This is even affecting Linux.
http://www.insidemacgames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=44310&#entry428401
Actually, neither is stuff like Wine like the acronym states.. Wine Is Not Emulation. However, the more layers you put in between your game and the hardware there's always at least some degree of performance penalty. However, Wine is doing things to improve their perfomance like CSMT (Command Stream Multithreading) which makes their D3D implementation more multithreaded and benefits some games.
I've seen indication that Wine is outperforming ports from companies like say.... Virtual Programming who use their own proprietary wrapping tech that forces games to be single threaded. This is even affecting Linux.
http://www.insidemacgames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=44310&#entry428401
Of of course, user experience is the main reason I'm here. I really like it, and can't stand going back to Windows anymore, and it's not even been 2 years.
I agree. I switched to mac two christmases ago, and every time I use my old PC I am so discontent. But I'm sure it's not the highest quality thing available.
Mac is ok for gaming, but it's not developer support that's the problem.
Plenty of AAA titles and other great games to go around.
The real problem is that Apple just doesn't care about gaming that much. There is pretty big delay in the display server and OpenGL is extremely slow compared to Linux and Windows. Mavericks improved things a lot but it's still far from as good as it needs to be.
Furthermore, there are no Macs other than the Mac Pro that has a decent graphics card for gaming, and the Mac Pro is far too expensive for gamers.
Plenty of AAA titles and other great games to go around.
The real problem is that Apple just doesn't care about gaming that much. There is pretty big delay in the display server and OpenGL is extremely slow compared to Linux and Windows. Mavericks improved things a lot but it's still far from as good as it needs to be.
Furthermore, there are no Macs other than the Mac Pro that has a decent graphics card for gaming, and the Mac Pro is far too expensive for gamers.
The GeForce GTX 775M and 780M that are available in the iMac are perfectly suited for gaming. The latter is one of the most powerful mobile GPUs you can buy and more than competes with many mid- to high-end desktop units. The cards in the Mac Pro are not designed for this purpose.
The 750M available in the rMBP is decent, too, though it requires a steep initial outlay to get it.
If you want to game, I think the best thing to do is to buy a tv console. Those are meant for nothing other than gaming.
that trend is changing, look at the xbox one its trying to become a pc/mac
Hahha yeah really. I still use 360, but i use my gamecube more than anything else. Best games ever.
that trend is changing, look at the xbox one its trying to become a pc/mac
At the moment Macs and Windows machines get better and more games than both new Consoles combined.
I find it funny that so called 'AAA' games, are never of AAA quality.
I've looked all over the web and can't find mention of the Cryengine being made OSX-native.
Help?
Crytek are working with Warhorse Studios; the folks behind Kingdom Deliverance to Port the engine
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1294225970/kingdom-come-deliverance
It's going to be Windows, Mac, Linux, and then extra work for Xboxone and ps4.
I don't even like this type of game, but I will certainly reward the developer with my money, should the Mac version make it to market!
Don't you mean they're "Crytek" not "Unreal"?
I'm here all week (try the fish)
*mega cringe*
It's one of the few kickstarted games I've backed. I hope it pans out.
*mega cringe*
It's one of the few kickstarted games I've backed. I hope it pans out.
Yeah, it looks pretty sweet.
I think I know where you're coming from, but I'd disagree with your point that only the Mac Pro has a decent gaming card (the nMP card is a pro commercial-level card, not a consumer card, and although it can do gaming competently, it's not what it was designed and engineered for). The iMacs now have "decent" gaming GPUs. Are they leaders in their class? Yes, for all-in-ones. No for dedicated PCI-E GPUs that go into traditional mATX or ATX cases. With that said, if you want traditional gaming options on your OSX Mac, then buy an older MP and update the GPU with a current Kepler nVidia card. You can get performance that buries the nMP in gaming from a 2GB Geforce GTX 660 card for less than $200 now. If you want current architecture, make that a 2GB 760 card for $100 more.
If you're handy, build a Hackintosh with an i5 processor, slap an SSD in there, 16GB of RAM, that Geforce 760 card mentioned above, and you'll have a beast that you can get the most performance out of your Mac for gaming, for less than $1400.
Apple may not have the install base to implement their own 3D API (not that that's all directx does), but they have so much resource to push khronos in the right direction.
Valve have been such utter superstars the last couple of years, I really wish apple would join in and help *everyone*.
Some interesting points raised :
http://www.joshbarczak.com/blog/?p=154
Valve have been such utter superstars the last couple of years, I really wish apple would join in and help *everyone*.
Some interesting points raised :
http://www.joshbarczak.com/blog/?p=154
I hate gaming on the Mac. Even with the best hardware it is always a compromise vs just booting into windows and running at higher settings and smoother frame rates. I just recently downloaded the Mac version of all my steam games and only Civ 5, Borderlands 2 and F1 2013 ran nicely.
The irony is that iOS games run great even though Mac OS and iOS share the same under pinnings to s certain extent.
For people that can tolerate poor frame rates, I am happy for you. As a long time gamer I am super sensitive to frame rates and anything less than 60fps makes me barf (literally).
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Apple simply does not care about gaming on the Mac. They've had the biggest names in the games industry (Carmack, Newell) try to help them but Apple simply are not interested.
The irony is that iOS games run great even though Mac OS and iOS share the same under pinnings to s certain extent.
For people that can tolerate poor frame rates, I am happy for you. As a long time gamer I am super sensitive to frame rates and anything less than 60fps makes me barf (literally).
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Apple simply does not care about gaming on the Mac. They've had the biggest names in the games industry (Carmack, Newell) try to help them but Apple simply are not interested.
I'm perfectly happy gaming in OSX on both my iMac and Macbook Pro. OSX is a much better operating system in my opinion, I've used Bootcamp for years but in the end I still hated windows and I finally deleted Bootcamp of both of my macs. I really don't mind a slight decrease in performance on OSX. Gaming on my mac has been much quieter and cooler than running it in windows
Here's a response to the "OpenGL is broken" article:
http://aras-p.info/blog/2014/05/31/rant-about-rants-about-opengl/
"OpenGL Has Issues, But Potential"
"Aras Pranckevičius, the Lithuanian developer responsible for the Unity engine's renderer, shared his views on OpenGL and it can be summed up that OpenGL has problems but still holds potential. He views the biggest issue with OpenGL as not a technical issue but a political problem that Windows by default ships with a Direct3D driver but not an OpenGL driver and real-world people "do not update their drivers." "
Yeah, also... there are groups of people on the Mac who refuse to update their OS to newer versions while at the same time complaining about OpenGL.
http://aras-p.info/blog/2014/05/31/rant-about-rants-about-opengl/
"OpenGL Has Issues, But Potential"
"Aras Pranckevičius, the Lithuanian developer responsible for the Unity engine's renderer, shared his views on OpenGL and it can be summed up that OpenGL has problems but still holds potential. He views the biggest issue with OpenGL as not a technical issue but a political problem that Windows by default ships with a Direct3D driver but not an OpenGL driver and real-world people "do not update their drivers." "
Yeah, also... there are groups of people on the Mac who refuse to update their OS to newer versions while at the same time complaining about OpenGL.