Major gaming news at WWDC: Metal and New games

[Homy]

Machinika Museum for Mac is free on Steam.

Machinika: Museum on Steam

Welcome to the Museum! Machinika Museum is a mystery game where you discover beautiful and mysterious machines of extra-terrestrial origins in an atmospheric galaxy-spanning 3D puzzle game. Will you be able to understand their stories and discover what happened to their previous owner?

store.steampowered.com

 

[Homy]

VMware Fusion Pro is now free for personal use. It supports OpenGL 4.2 on Apple Silicon Macs so I'll try some OpenGL games like Wolfenstein series to see if/how it runs. Crossover can't run newer OpenGL than 2.1.

VMware Fusion Pro 13 Now Freely Available for Personal Use

VMware has announced that its Fusion Pro and Workstation Pro virtualization software is now free for personal use. For those unfamiliar with Fusion, it is designed to allow Mac users to operate virtual machines to run non-macOS operating systems like Windows 11. The decision to make the...

forums.macrumors.com

VMware Desktop Hypervisors for Windows, Linux, and Mac

Run Windows, Linux, and other virtual machines with Workstation Pro for Windows and Linux or Fusion for Mac, the industry-standard desktop hypervisors.

www.vmware.com

 

[Homy]

We didn't get Mirage but we're getting Assassin's Creed Shadows on MAS on Nov 15. It requires Sonoma.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Coming to Apple Silicon Macs in November

Ubisoft today announced plans to release Assassin's Creed Shadows, the next game in the Assassin's Creed franchise, on November 15. It will be available on Macs with Apple silicon through the Mac App Store, as well as Windows PCs, the Xbox Series X or Series S, and the PlayStation 5...

forums.macrumors.com

‎Assassin’s Creed Shadows

‎Experience an epic historical action-adventure story set in feudal Japan! Become a lethal shinobi Assassin and a powerful legendary samurai as you explore a beautiful open world in a time of chaos. Switch seamlessly between two unlikely allies as you discover their common destiny. Master...

apps.apple.com

 

[diamond.g]

We didn't get Mirage but we're getting Assassin's Creed Shadows on MAS on Nov 15. It requires Sonoma.

View attachment 2378680

Assassin's Creed Shadows Coming to Apple Silicon Macs in November

Ubisoft today announced plans to release Assassin's Creed Shadows, the next game in the Assassin's Creed franchise, on November 15. It will be available on Macs with Apple silicon through the Mac App Store, as well as Windows PCs, the Xbox Series X or Series S, and the PlayStation 5...

forums.macrumors.com

‎Assassin’s Creed Shadows

‎Experience an epic historical action-adventure story set in feudal Japan! Become a lethal shinobi Assassin and a powerful legendary samurai as you explore a beautiful open world in a time of chaos. Switch seamlessly between two unlikely allies as you discover their common destiny. Master...

apps.apple.com

No gameplay shown for a game launching in 6/7 months?
I wonder why it needs 14.4.

 

[Homy]

No gameplay shown for a game launching in 6/7 months?
I wonder why it needs 14.4.

Maybe we’ll see some at WWDC. Regarding 14.4 maybe that’s simply the latest version they had when they tested the game and haven’t tested it on older versions? I don’t know, it sounds strange.

 

[bousozoku]

Maybe we’ll see some at WWDC. Regarding 14.4 maybe that’s simply the latest version they had when they tested the game and haven’t tested it on older versions? I don’t know, it sounds strange.

They haven't invested in Macs until recently, for iOS and, reluctantly, macOS game development.

I'm trying to remember if they put Rayman on Mac back in the 1990s when I had it on Atari Jaguar.

 

[diamond.g]

They haven't invested in Macs until recently, for iOS and, reluctantly, macOS game development.

I'm trying to remember if they put Rayman on Mac back in the 1990s when I had it on Atari Jaguar.

Nah, Ubisoft has made iOS games for a while. It looks like the last macOS game was from 2016 though. Either way still not sure why they are requiring such a new version of macOS.

AC has been something of a twitch game when you are forced to engage in fights, I hope that they work on making sure the framerate stays high (AC Odyssey is the last one I played and 30fps felt like moving through molasses).

 

[bousozoku]

Nah, Ubisoft has made iOS games for a while. It looks like the last macOS game was from 2016 though. Either way still not sure why they are requiring such a new version of macOS.

AC has been something of a twitch game when you are forced to engage in fights, I hope that they work on making sure the framerate stays high (AC Odyssey is the last one I played and 30fps felt like moving through molasses).

I have a number of their games, but I can't find any interest in playing past the first 20 minutes.

I'm glad they are expanding, but they're a lot like the modern EA.

 

[diamond.g]

I have a number of their games, but I can't find any interest in playing past the first 20 minutes.

I'm glad they are expanding, but they're a lot like the modern EA.

All of their modern AAA titles feel like reskins of the same base game.

Grayzone Warfare is a good example of what Ghost Recon Breakpoint should have been

 

[bousozoku]

All of their modern AAA titles feel like reskins of the same base game.

Grayzone Warfare is a good example of what Ghost Recon Breakpoint should have been

They create new artwork for each location but the game doesn't change, which is probably why I'm bored with all of them.

Most games just don't have much meaning for me. That's probably why I play so many old, old titles. I've been playing a lot of Netmarble games lately, and Solo Leveling: Arise is good. Most of the games getting my attention are coming from Asia now.

 

[Homy]

Yeah they walked it back. The interesting part is the game was supposed to have that requirement from the beginning and it isn't clear why it was shipped with it disabled. Too late to put the genie back in the bottle though.

Just a side note, it was empty promises.

Helldivers 2 & Ghost of Tsushima Removed From Unsupported PSN Regions on PC

Following Sony's decision to halt sales of its PC ports in unsupported regions, the Steam page has completely vanished in these countries.

tech4gamers.com

 

[diamond.g]

Just a side note, it was empty promises.

Helldivers 2 & Ghost of Tsushima Removed From Unsupported PSN Regions on PC

Following Sony's decision to halt sales of its PC ports in unsupported regions, the Steam page has completely vanished in these countries.

tech4gamers.com

And twitter is too upset with Ubisoft to talk about this. lol


EDIT: I found a video that talked about why (cause the games won't run on the Steam Deck either). Basically some folks wanted PSN trophys and the ability to talk to PSN folk. So Sony has added the PSN overlay, and at the same time stopped selling the game in regions where PSN isn't available. I guess the fix should be to sell a version of the game in those regions without PSN overlay support.

 

[diamond.g]

Was it mentioned here that Frostpunk 2 is getting a macOS version?

 

[thenewperson]

Was it mentioned here that Frostpunk 2 is getting a macOS version?

Not yet. Nice to have another day 1

 

[Homy]

Was it mentioned here that Frostpunk 2 is getting a macOS version?

I've been looking out for some news for a long time so this is a surprise. There's almost no news about it yet besides a Reddit post. I found the tweeter post.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1791453761543585877

 

[diamond.g]

I've been looking out for some news for a long time so this is a surprise. There's a lmost no news about it yet besides a Reddit post. I found the tweeter post.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1791453761543585877

View attachment 2379654

Yeah so far it appears it will be Mac App Store only.

 

[Homy]

Endless Legend for Mac is free on Steam.

ENDLESS™ Legend on Steam

ENDLESS™ Legend is a 4X turn-based fantasy strategy game by the creators of ENDLESS™ Space and Dungeon of the ENDLESS™. Control every aspect of your civilization as you struggle to save your homeworld Auriga. Create your own Legend!

store.steampowered.com

Gift is released for Apple Silicon.

Gift on Steam

When the protagonist wakes up, he finds himself on a luxury cruise ship. The game revolves around the story of his attempts to escape from the sinking ship and a group of passengers he feels nostalgic about.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Nugat Trailers]

A brief mention on the Mac App Store seems to indicate Assassin's Creed Shadows will have raytracing as an option.

https://apps.apple.com/au/story/id1745567354 under 'Cutting edge technology', halfway down the page.

 

[bousozoku]

A brief mention on the Mac App Store seems to indicate Assassin's Creed Shadows will have raytracing as an option.

https://apps.apple.com/au/story/id1745567354 under 'Cutting edge technology', halfway down the page.

Supposedly, the game works on my M1 MacBook Air. It's rare to see something not work on my MacBook Air, though, according to the Mac App Store.

It's good to see that technologies such as ray tracing have finally made it. I used to see a load of technologies when I was first programming 8-bit desktop computers and large machines. We could only hope for the day when they worked.

 

[Nugat Trailers]

Yeah. Even just during the 90s alone, computing power increased dramatically, and fell in price.

For example, the Macintosh Quadra 900 came with a Motorola 68040 CPU running at 25 MHz, with 4 MB RAM and 1 MB VRAM. That was $7,200 in 1991, or about $16,000 today.

At the end of 1999, you could get a PowerMac G4, with a PowerPC G4 CPU running at 350-400 MHz, 64 MB RAM, an ATI Rage 128 GPU with 16 MB VRAM, at $1999, or about $2900 today.

That's quite a bit of difference in under a decade, although I should note that neither of those models were sold for very long, and that those are the base specs.

 

[diamond.g]

A brief mention on the Mac App Store seems to indicate Assassin's Creed Shadows will have raytracing as an option.

https://apps.apple.com/au/story/id1745567354 under 'Cutting edge technology', halfway down the page.

Interestingly the PC store fronts (and the Ubisoft site itself) don't mention this at all. IIRC this would be the first AC game with RT. Maybe this isn't the same engine as Mirage.

 

[Homy]

Interestingly the PC store fronts (and the Ubisoft site itself) don't mention this at all. IIRC this would be the first AC game with RT. Maybe this isn't the same engine as Mirage.

AC Shadows will be the second game to use HW ray tracing on Macs after War Thunder

 

[Homy]

Capes, a turn based superhero strategy game, is coming to Mac on May 29.

Capes on Steam

Superheroes clash in this turn based strategy game. Recruit, train, and deploy your team in order to take back the city from the villains that hold it hostage.

store.steampowered.com

 

[ProQuiz]

I have a question regarding memory on Apple silicon Macs. On Windows PCs with dedicated GPUs, the OS has access to the RAM installed in the PC and the dedicated GPU has its own dedicated memory. But with Apple silicon Macs, since the memory is unified, shouldn't you buy more than what you think you need because the memory is shared between the OS *and* GPU? If a game requires a lot of VRAM for GPU tasks, wouldn't that "starve" the OS's or the rest of the game's access to available memory?

When a Windows PC game states it requires 16 GB of RAM, that doesn't include the GPU's memory as it has its own dedicated memory. So how should we "convert" Windows PC game memory requirements to Apple silicon Macs?

 

[Homy]

I have a question regarding memory on Apple silicon Macs. On Windows PCs with dedicated GPUs, the OS has access to the RAM installed in the PC and the dedicated GPU has its own dedicated memory. But with Apple silicon Macs, since the memory is unified, shouldn't you buy more than what you think you need because the memory is shared between the OS *and* GPU? If a game requires a lot of VRAM for GPU tasks, wouldn't that "starve" the OS's or the rest of the game's access to available memory?

When a Windows PC game states it requires 16 GB of RAM, that doesn't include the GPU's memory as it has its own dedicated memory. So how should we "convert" Windows PC game memory requirements to Apple silicon Macs?

macOS dedicates about 66% of the unified memory to the GPU at max so if you have 16 GB the GPU can have 10,5 GB at most. IF you don't use max resolution and settings you need less and the system can use more. It's not as easy as I describe, it's a game of give and take. For example Shadow of the Tomb Raider states my VRAM as 21 GB in my M1 Max with 32 GB.

For example Alan Wake 2 recommends 16 gb RAM and RTX 4070 which has 12-16 GB. Then in theory your Mac (if it could run it) should have 32 GB because ALan Wake can use over 17 GB VRAM with max settings.