Major gaming news at WWDC: Metal and New games

[goro123]

Where do you get the base game's files? GOG?

And Steam. I got the Doom3 files from steam which came with the extension as well as Doom 1 and 2. I had this unextinguished frustration of never having played the Doom 3 extension. And now it work on Mac (thanks to the Mac Source Port). But it's not really good 🙃.

As for unreal… I found Unreal Gold "somewhere".

 

[goro123]

Palworld is coming to Mac on Nov 26 on Mac App Store.

‎Palworld

‎Q. What kind of game is this? A. In this game, you can peacefully live alongside mysterious creatures known as Pals or risk your life to drive off a ruthless poaching syndicate. Pals can be used to fight and breed, or they can be made to work on farms or factories. You can even sell them or eat t…

apps.apple.com

I heard on radio (yeah I listen to that) they were being sued by Nintendo.
The game looks amazing… but I am not sure how I feel about destroying such cute creatures. Seems easier for me to rip apart zombies in RE games.

Does this plays like a Zelda game (open world map) ?

 

[diamond.g]

I heard on radio (yeah I listen to that) they were being sued by Nintendo.
The game looks amazing… but I am not sure how I feel about destroying such cute creatures. Seems easier for me to rip apart zombies in RE games.

Does this plays like a Zelda game (open world map) ?

It has an open world map, but I'm not sure I'd say it plays like Zelda. You collect Pals. They can do stuff (like make potions and equipment, or grow food) and they can help you fight other Pals and "bad guys". There are dungeon instances (I haven't tried them yet).

@Homy do you know if this is going to be on Steam too or is it also App Store Exclusive?

 

[salamanderjuice]

I heard on radio (yeah I listen to that) they were being sued by Nintendo.
The game looks amazing… but I am not sure how I feel about destroying such cute creatures. Seems easier for me to rip apart zombies in RE games.

Does this plays like a Zelda game (open world map) ?

No. Nothing like Zelda. More like Ark or those other "survival" games. Heavy emphasis on crafting. I gave it a couple hour spin on Gamepass. Not my cup of tea.

 

[diamond.g]

No. Nothing like Zelda. More like Ark or those other "survival" games. Heavy emphasis on crafting. I gave it a couple hour spin on Gamepass. Not my cup of tea.

I think it is much easier to get into than Ark, but yeah it plays more like "Ark with Pokemon" than anything else.

 

[Homy]

I heard on radio (yeah I listen to that) they were being sued by Nintendo.
The game looks amazing… but I am not sure how I feel about destroying such cute creatures. Seems easier for me to rip apart zombies in RE games.

Does this plays like a Zelda game (open world map) ?

You'll get used to it. It was like when I started to play Rise of the Tomb Raider and had to kill animals to progress my crafting. It's just a game.

 

[Homy]

@Homy do you know if this is going to be on Steam too or is it also App Store Exclusive?

Haven't read anything about a release on Steam but anything could happen, like when Lies of P was released on Steam just after two? days on MAS.

 

[diamond.g]

Haven't read anything about a release on Steam but anything could happen, like when Lies of P was released on Steam just after two? days on MAS.

Ah. It is a self serving question since I already bought on Steam. Not sure if I want to buy it again. Haha.

 

[goro123]

Saw on redit that Myst and Firmament now support ray-tracing.

It's available on the Mac App Store, here's an excerpt for the release notes.

Firmament now comes with better platform stability, AND support for hardware-accelerated ray traced reflections, now available on Macs with the powerful M3 family of chips.


We've upgraded Firmament from using Unreal Engine 4.27+ to Unreal Engine 5.3.2. Doing this has resolved a WIDE number of stability issues related to the game


running on various platforms.


Please note that enabling ray tracing will have a performance impact on your machine based on your screen's resolution and hardware capabilities.

Isn't this the first raytracing game on Mac?

 

[Homy]

Saw on redit that Myst and Firmament now support ray-tracing.

It's available on the Mac App Store, here's an excerpt for the release notes.


Isn't this the first raytracing game on Mac?

From MAS:

Firmament now comes with better platform stability, AND support for hardware-accelerated ray traced reflections, now available on Macs with the powerful M3 family of chips.

We’ve upgraded Firmament from using Unreal Engine 4.27+ to Unreal Engine 5.3.2. Doing this has resolved a WIDE number of stability issues related to the game running on various platforms.

Please note that enabling ray tracing will have a performance impact on your machine based on your screen’s resolution and hardware capabilities.

Engine Upgrade Features

- Visual changes/stability: The newer engine has resolved a lot of flickering texture issues we saw come up on lower-end hardware especially. There should also be some slight improvements in lighting, reflections, and more.
- HDR support changes: HDR has better support on all platforms now.
- RHI support changes: Metal 3 RHI support has been added. It is only enabled when on the M3 family of chips at this time. SM5 is the default RHI for all other Macs.
- OS Requirements: We are increasing our MacOS minimum requirement from MacOS 11.5 to MacOS 14.5.

Updated Supersampling Options

- MetalFX is now the default Supersampling option on Mac.
- FSR has been removed as a Supersampling option on Mac.

Myst on MAS:

Myst now comes with better platform stability, AND support for hardware-accelerated ray traced reflections, now available on Macs with the powerful M3 family of chips.

We’ve upgraded Myst from using Unreal Engine 4.27+ to Unreal Engine 5.3.2. Doing this has resolved a WIDE number of stability issues related to the game running on various platforms.

Engine Upgrade Features

- Visual changes/stability: The newer engine has resolved a lot of flickering texture issues we saw come up on lower-end hardware especially. There should also be some slight improvements in lighting, reflections, and more.
- HDR support changes: HDR has better support on all platforms now.
- RHI support changes: Metal 3 RHI support has been added. It is only enabled when on the M3 family of chips at this time. SM5 is the default RHI for all other Macs.
- OS Requirements: We are increasing our MacOS minimum requirement from MacOS 11.5 to MacOS 14.5.

UI Refresh

We’re happy to introduce a cleaner, more usable, and much nicer looking version of the menu for everyone in Myst. For those who have played our remake of Riven, you may find some similarities between the two. Here are some of the improvements our new menu in Myst brings compared to the old one:

- New cursor options have been added, and the default cursor has been switched to be the hand cursor. The default cursor size has also been modified to accommodate this change. This will override what folks currently have set in their cursor settings as we believe it is the best default experience for folks moving forward.
- The graphics settings menu is now much clearer on which settings need to be “Applied” and which ones will Apply automatically.
- Updated naming for “Gameplay Context Subtitles” to “Sound Context Subtitles” for clarity
- There’s a “Help” sub-menu now, and you can find the game’s version number there, in addition to “Teleport to Safe Spot” when you are in-game, should you need it.
- The controller/keyboard diagrams are now much clearer and scale better for a variety of screen sizes instead of being baked images. It will also properly detect the kind of controller you are using. Note that a couple of bindings may have changed – in particular the screenshot binding is now “x” instead of spacebar.
- A Gamma settings menu has been added that all users will be prompted with when they start up the game for the first time (or if they have not previously configured the setting through this menu, which should be just about everyone right now!).
- The default font used in Myst for subtitles and other in-game UI has been changed to be more readable and aligned with the general style Myst already has.
- The credits formatting has been updated to be more readable, and new folks who contributed to this patch have been added to the credits as well.

Updated Supersampling Options

- MetalFX is now the default Supersampling option on Mac.
- FSR has been removed as a Supersampling option on Mac.

 

[diamond.g]

That is wild they stopped using Unity to offer RT. They didn't mention if they are using Lumen which could have let the rest of us poors (M1 and M2 owners) have software RT.

 

[loui100]

From MAS:

Firmament now comes with better platform stability, AND support for hardware-accelerated ray traced reflections, now available on Macs with the powerful M3 family of chips.

We’ve upgraded Firmament from using Unreal Engine 4.27+ to Unreal Engine 5.3.2. Doing this has resolved a WIDE number of stability issues related to the game running on various platforms.

Please note that enabling ray tracing will have a performance impact on your machine based on your screen’s resolution and hardware capabilities.

Engine Upgrade Features

- Visual changes/stability: The newer engine has resolved a lot of flickering texture issues we saw come up on lower-end hardware especially. There should also be some slight improvements in lighting, reflections, and more.
- HDR support changes: HDR has better support on all platforms now.
- RHI support changes: Metal 3 RHI support has been added. It is only enabled when on the M3 family of chips at this time. SM5 is the default RHI for all other Macs.
- OS Requirements: We are increasing our MacOS minimum requirement from MacOS 11.5 to MacOS 14.5.

Updated Supersampling Options

- MetalFX is now the default Supersampling option on Mac.
- FSR has been removed as a Supersampling option on Mac.

Myst on MAS:

Myst now comes with better platform stability, AND support for hardware-accelerated ray traced reflections, now available on Macs with the powerful M3 family of chips.

We’ve upgraded Myst from using Unreal Engine 4.27+ to Unreal Engine 5.3.2. Doing this has resolved a WIDE number of stability issues related to the game running on various platforms.

Engine Upgrade Features

- Visual changes/stability: The newer engine has resolved a lot of flickering texture issues we saw come up on lower-end hardware especially. There should also be some slight improvements in lighting, reflections, and more.
- HDR support changes: HDR has better support on all platforms now.
- RHI support changes: Metal 3 RHI support has been added. It is only enabled when on the M3 family of chips at this time. SM5 is the default RHI for all other Macs.
- OS Requirements: We are increasing our MacOS minimum requirement from MacOS 11.5 to MacOS 14.5.

UI Refresh

We’re happy to introduce a cleaner, more usable, and much nicer looking version of the menu for everyone in Myst. For those who have played our remake of Riven, you may find some similarities between the two. Here are some of the improvements our new menu in Myst brings compared to the old one:

- New cursor options have been added, and the default cursor has been switched to be the hand cursor. The default cursor size has also been modified to accommodate this change. This will override what folks currently have set in their cursor settings as we believe it is the best default experience for folks moving forward.
- The graphics settings menu is now much clearer on which settings need to be “Applied” and which ones will Apply automatically.
- Updated naming for “Gameplay Context Subtitles” to “Sound Context Subtitles” for clarity
- There’s a “Help” sub-menu now, and you can find the game’s version number there, in addition to “Teleport to Safe Spot” when you are in-game, should you need it.
- The controller/keyboard diagrams are now much clearer and scale better for a variety of screen sizes instead of being baked images. It will also properly detect the kind of controller you are using. Note that a couple of bindings may have changed – in particular the screenshot binding is now “x” instead of spacebar.
- A Gamma settings menu has been added that all users will be prompted with when they start up the game for the first time (or if they have not previously configured the setting through this menu, which should be just about everyone right now!).
- The default font used in Myst for subtitles and other in-game UI has been changed to be more readable and aligned with the general style Myst already has.
- The credits formatting has been updated to be more readable, and new folks who contributed to this patch have been added to the credits as well.

Updated Supersampling Options

- MetalFX is now the default Supersampling option on Mac.
- FSR has been removed as a Supersampling option on Mac.

Oh wow, that's exciting. Might be tempted to buy it just to support the devs for going the extra mile for Mac

 

[M4pro]

Saw on redit that Myst and Firmament now support ray-tracing.

It's available on the Mac App Store, here's an excerpt for the release notes.


Isn't this the first raytracing game on Mac?

From what I can tell - yep, it’s the first.

The ray-traced AS port of Control Ultimate Edition is hopefully launching alongside the M4 Macs this week.

 

[Homy]

From what I can tell - yep, it’s the first.

The ray-traced AS port of Control Ultimate Edition is hopefully launching alongside the M4 Macs this week.

War Thunder mobile was the first game to include RT on iPhone 15 Pro and was shown at the Apple event last year. Not sure though if it made it to the Mac version.

War Thunder Mobile Supports Hardware-Accelerated Ray Tracing On iPhone 15 Pro And iPhone 15 Pro Max - Gaijin Entertainment

An independent video game developer

gaijinent.com

 

[M4pro]

War Thunder mobile was the first game to include RT on iPhone 15 Pro and was shown at the Apple event last year. Not sure though if it made it to the Mac version.

War Thunder Mobile Supports Hardware-Accelerated Ray Tracing On iPhone 15 Pro And iPhone 15 Pro Max - Gaijin Entertainment

An independent video game developer

gaijinent.com

Saw that, but so far no announcement of RT on the Mac version.

 

[loui100]

Andrew Tsai tested the raytracing in Firmament. Apparently it tanks to low 20s on M3 Max, even at 1080p and with MetalFX enabled lol.

 

[diamond.g]

Andrew Tsai tested the raytracing in Firmament. Apparently it tanks to low 20s on M3 Max, even at 1080p and with MetalFX enabled lol.

HWUB made a table of games where RT was/is transformative to the game. Of all the games tested only 3 were on the list. AW2, CP2077 and ME:EE. Since ME is already on MacOS, I wonder how much effort it would take to get the EE version running.

Firmament/Myst/Riven don't seem like games where the RT is noticeable/useful (those games didn't even make HWUB's list).

 

[loui100]

HWUB made a table of games where RT was/is transformative to the game. Of all the games tested only 3 were on the list. AW2, CP2077 and ME:EE. Since ME is already on MacOS, I wonder how much effort it would take to get the EE version running.

Firmament/Myst/Riven don't seem like games where the RT is noticeable/useful (those games didn't even make HWUB's list).

The thing with raytraced reflections, for instance, is that they are the "lazy" solution for devs. Games can utilise screen-spaced and planar reflection solutions to great visual effect, but that requires some extra effort. I'm now playing Black Ops 6 and even though the game doesn't have RT of any kind, the reflections in the game are almost RT-like. Seems like devs implemented some form of planar reflections or very high-quality cubemaps so that if you look down on a puddle, you can still see large static objects reflected in it. Amid Evil is another game where the game looks arguably better visually without raytracing. Alan Wake 2 devs basically didn't put any effort into making SS reflections attractive in the game (e.g. blurring out mirrors) so whenever you look at a mirror surface you see an absolute mess of artifacts. The game is basically broken for anyone without a raytracing-capable setup because the devs didn't put the effort to make it workable

 

[diamond.g]

The thing with raytraced reflections, for instance, is that they are the "lazy" solution for devs. Games can utilise screen-spaced and planar reflection solutions to great visual effect, but that requires some extra effort. I'm now playing Black Ops 6 and even though the game doesn't have RT of any kind, the reflections in the game are almost RT-like. Seems like devs implemented some form of planar reflections or very high-quality cubemaps so that if you look down on a puddle, you can still see large static objects reflected in it. Amid Evil is another game where the game looks arguably better visually without raytracing. Alan Wake 2 devs basically didn't put any effort into making SS reflections attractive in the game (e.g. blurring out mirrors) so whenever you look at a mirror surface you see an absolute mess of artifacts. The game is basically broken for anyone without a raytracing-capable setup because the devs didn't put the effort to make it workable

Yeah I understand your point. Remedy probably didn't want to spend the time baking in cube maps for all the reflective surfaces in the game. Shoot they had to be bullied to officially support GPU's without mesh shaders.

Playing BO6 Campaign, I have not been moved by the reflections I've seen so far.

 

[loui100]

Yeah I understand your point. Remedy probably didn't want to spend the time baking in cube maps for all the reflective surfaces in the game. Shoot they had to be bullied to officially support GPU's without mesh shaders.

Playing BO6 Campaign, I have not been moved by the reflections I've seen so far.

I wouldn't say the reflections in BO6 are remarkable, but they _work_ without any obvious eye sore and with semi-accurate environment reflection. E.g. in the palace level if you look at the reflective floor, you see the stained glass sky window reflected fairly accurately. It's not rocket science but devs have been lazy to put these little touches in, so the fact I was impressed with these I guess shows how low the standards have fallen

 

[Nugat Trailers]

Price of Persia Lost Crown available for preorder on Mac App Store, est release date 3 Dec.

Also Civ 7 got a mention in the press release and on the M4 iMac page.

 

[dmccloud]

Price of Persia Lost Crown available for preorder on Mac App Store, est release date 3 Dec.

Also Civ 7 got a mention in the press release and on the M4 iMac page.

The "event" video on the Apple website mentions and shows gameplay of Civ 7 at around the 6:22-6:26 mark.

 

[Irishman]

Saw that, but so far no announcement of RT on the Mac version.

Have you tried it just to see??

 

[Nugat Trailers]

Mac mini update, plus something mentioned.

"enable hardware-accelerated raytracing in titles like Myst, Control Ultimate Edition and Layers of Fear 2023"

 

[loui100]

Mac mini update, plus something mentioned.

"enable hardware-accelerated raytracing in titles like Myst, Control Ultimate Edition and Layers of Fear 2023"

Lol they showed Layers of Fear raytracing back at M3 announcement, and to this day the Mac version just allows Lumen. Guess maybe they will finally update it...