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Game Devs Express New Fears Over Future of Mac Gaming as Apple Deprecates OpenGL and OpenCL in macOS Mojave

What's the problem guys?

Just build a PC for gaming and then use the, officially rejected by Apple, Steam Link app to stream your Steam PC games to your Apple TV!

Thanks Tim!
Sa-weet!
 
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OldSchoolMacGuy said:
Why do some think old technology should be supported forever? At some point you have to cut it loose. If you require it, then don't upgrade. Sorry kids. This is how the world works. Even Honda doesn't support your '84 Civic with new parts like fenders anymore.
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A '84 Civic and a 2018 civic both still support regular unleaded gasoline.
 
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jecowa said:
iOS gaming is on the rise to the detriment of Windows gaming. For years Microsoft had leveraged its DirectX API to keep Windows the king of gaming. Now Apple is becoming ina position to do similarly for the Mac.

I don't really like Windows, but I don't think I want Apple to be king of gaming when the are continuously finding ways to break old apps. They are breaking 32-bit apps and will likely be doing the same for OpenGL in a few years. These aren't the first times either. Before this it was the PPC to Intel switch, before that it was classic to OS X. After Apple drops OpenGL, the next move will be breaking all x86 apps in a move to ARM :/

I just want all my apps to work forever and don't want to have to worry about how long it will be until Apple breaks them.
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FYI
The Lion King for Windows 3.1 led to the creation of DirectX.
 
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jecowa said:
I don't really like Windows, but I don't think I want Apple to be king of gaming when the are continuously finding ways to break old apps. They are breaking 32-bit apps and will likely be doing the same for OpenGL in a few years. These aren't the first times either. Before this it was the PPC to Intel switch, before that it was classic to OS X.
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And before that, it was 680X0 → PPC
 
That's a bummer. I game on my Mac nearly every day. I'm sure this will result in some game developers abandoning the Mac (and I'm not talking about iOS games/developers. Those things are a joke in my opinion), unless Apple can come up with some incentive for them to use Metal?

Perhaps MoltenVK will be of some comfort moving forward?
 
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Omg... next thing you know Apple will get rid of 20 year old USB-A ports. Wah...

Time to move on. That’s what I like about Apple.
 
I haven't paid much attention to gaming hardware or games in years now. But when I actually did care, and built PCs around it. It was pretty much common knowledge that you don't get a Mac if your intention is gaming. As the article said, it'll be much easier for devs to just ignore Macs when developing now
 
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lilrush said:
You ever tried running a blizzard game in metal? Starcraft is the worst of the bunch. Nearly unplayable with graphical glitches. I went back to OpenGL after seeing how bad metal was. The game devs don't support it the same.
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yeah blizz removed metal support a while back, i am hoping they are taking a fresh crack at it with metal 2.
 
EdT said:
Unless Apple is willing to develop or fund game companies to use Metal then all they are doing is further restricting the game providers who do release Mac versions without growing Metal’s use at all. Too small of a base and too schizophrenic with support. Even if you could prove that software would run better and be cheaper to develop most game companies won’t care. Metal is Apple only where any other graphic engine isn’t. This will be seen as further proof that Apple isn’t serious about Mac games.
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I'm not saying its a good thing, but its obvious Apple wants to get developers onto Metal, rather than using OpenGL/CL. Its definitely going to impact the Mac, as porting games from PC to Mac is going to be as easy.
 
Certainly Apple doesn’t cease to make it more and more difficult to continue buying their products.

It’s like if they are dropping one by one all the reasons why I chose Apple decades ago.

Deprecating OpenGL wouldn’t be worrying if Vulkan was supported. But pushing their custom APIs (like Metal in this case) means they really want to penalize establishing standards. Apple against their most loyal Mac user base. Again and again.
 
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need to reiterate what others have said, OpenGL isn't "old". yes it has been around for a while but apple stopped supporting updates YEARS ago. long before metal. I think that, along with lackluster dGPUs, was a big reason some devs stopped creating games for mac. hopefully metal is at a place where its compelling enough for devs to create games fully in metal. apple should have continued to support updated versions of OpenGL while working on metal behind the scenes. there was too big of a gap between that caused studios to move away from it.
 
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napabar said:
You guys are forgetting that Apple is creating a unified program for developing apps on the iOS and macOS. There are many metal games on the iOS that can now easily come over to the Mac.

You've just got to abandon the old school way of thinking how Mac games are made.
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Yay because I want to play mobile games on a desktop.... Seriously what kind of mindset is that??
 
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"particularly how it affects the future of gaming on Mac"

What future? I own 3 Mac's and one PC. That Windows 10 PC is a glorified gaming console. I rip out all of the junk from Windows 10, and install only games and Chrome on that computer. Gaming on Mac's has never been good. The quote from the developer was dead on, most dev's overlook the Mac now so this change means nothing really.

Even if it takes off with Metal you will need a iMac Pro or the coming Pro to run them like a PC and at 3-4 times the cost of a powerful gaming PC.

I think the big thing not mentioned here is that if iOS apps get ported you will have a lot of games coming over that will use Metal and probably work well on Intel GPU based Mac's.
 
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cube said:
Who cares about iOS games for the Mac?
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???? Some are quite good and from a Graphics standpoint very well done. The biggest issue is playing them on a smartphone/tablet. If they get ported to the Mac they use better input methods.
 
macfacts said:
A '84 Civic and a 2018 civic both still support regular unleaded gasoline.
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Your computer will continue to function and use electricity if you don't upgrade to Mojave. You'll still be able to play those old games if you don't upgrade. No one is forcing anyone to do so.
 
bigtomato said:
Typical apple fashion take the walled garden approach, simply not worth being on a Mac any longer. Innovation cannot come from just one company people.
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Because you were on a Mac for gaming reasons?????? That was a costly mistake.
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redheeler said:
The problem with Safari is the absurd paywall put up to develop third-party extensions. Until Apple fixes this, Chrome will continue to have many times more useful extensions available.
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I only use AD blockers of which there are plenty for Safari. I will gladly take Safari with a lack of extensions over Chrome and its lack of any kind of privacy, 8 days a week.
 
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