Major gaming news at WWDC: Metal and New games

[Paulyboy]

Some Mac gaming news from Summer Game Fest:

Amazon Games and NCSOFT bring Throne and Liberty, a free South Korean MMORPG to Mac later this year.

🔆 Summer Game Fest 2023: Mortal Kombat 1, Nicolas Cage, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Fortnite Wilds

See what's next in video games with #SummerGameFest, hosted by Geoff Keighley live from YouTube Theater in Los Angeles.The show features the world gameplay p...

www.youtube.com

THRONE AND LIBERTY on Steam

THRONE AND LIBERTY captures the essence of classic MMORPGs while introducing new gameplay elements, depth and excitement at every turn. Gather your guild, prepare for battle, and set forth for throne... and liberty!

store.steampowered.com

REMEDIUM is coming in Q3 2023.

REMEDIUM on Steam

The fast-paced twin-stick shooter game in the grim post-apocalyptic Renaissance setting. It had been more than a hundred years since the terrible plague devoured the whole continent and turned almost everyone there in the maddened mutants.

store.steampowered.com

Airborne Empire Early Access in 2024.

Save 30% on Airborne Empire on Steam

Build your sky city while exploring a vast landscape in this Open World RPG City Builder. Combining the methodical construction and management of a city builder; the unique lift, balance, and propulsion needed for a flying city; and the compelling characters, dangers, and adventures of an RPG!

store.steampowered.com

The same Airborne Empire publisher is also releasing Earth of Oryn for the Mac.

Earth of Oryn on Steam

Earth of Oryn is an indie city-builder/strategy game set in a medieval world filled with story and heart. Starting from nothing, shape your kingdom according to your vision while managing the needs and wants of your people.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Random_Matt]

I'll look forward to Death Standing, never played it and do not own a playstation. Really wish some developer remaster neverwinter nights 2 though.

 

[Homy]

Saw a couple of interesting games on Steam Summer Fest. Demonic Supremacy looks like a Doom clone and Cyber Knights: Flashpoint looks like a XCOM clone. Both have Mac demos.

Demonic Supremacy on Steam

Demonic Supremacy is an old school 3D shooter with a certain nostalgic flavour and few gamer-friendly features. It offers several hours of hurricane gameplay rocking through memorable levels with the explosive heavy metal soundtrack!

store.steampowered.com

Cyber Knights: Flashpoint on Steam

Cyberpunk mercenaries RPG! Turn-based squad tactics with unique heist-planning strategy. Build your crew wisely; their stories will become interwoven with your own. Pull off heists with powerful cyberware, faction connections, multiclassing, weapon modding, stealth, hacking, and more!

store.steampowered.com

Also saw what appears to be a System Shock clone but with a different twist. 😆

 

[Irishman]

I wonder if UE 5.3 would make a differenece. They're using 5.1.1.

Is 5.3 out for Mac?

 

[Irishman]

That seems a little off. Fabric launcher + Sodium with Minecraft Java gets about 142 fps on M1 MBA and 1200 fps on cheapo SFF PC.
View attachment 2219040

Which el cheapo SFF PC, exactly?

 

[Nugat Trailers]

Going by the screenshot, the el cheapo SFF PC is a AMD Ryzen 9 5950X with a Radeon RX 6800, with a 3840x2160 resolution.

I see on Amazon that that CPU and GPU go for $697 AUD, and $728 AUD?
...And isn't the M1 Air roughly $1500 AUD?

 

[Homy]

Is 5.3 out for Mac?

5.2 is. Thought 5.3 was too but it will come.

 

[diamond.g]

Going by the screenshot, the el cheapo SFF PC is a AMD Ryzen 9 5950X with a Radeon RX 6800, with a 3840x2160 resolution.

I see on Amazon that that CPU and GPU go for $697 AUD, and $728 AUD?
...And isn't the M1 Air roughly $1500 AUD?

I feel like the irony is 1200fps is cpu limited (gpu was sitting at 92% utilization). But yeah that isn't a cheapo build (per se).

 

[mi7chy]

Found a cool ray tracing shaderpack for Minecraft (works with 1.20.1) but it destroys frame rate on M1 along with shadow and distant graphical glitches. SFF is 57x faster and laptop 21x faster. Laptop pulling 90'ish watt total system power from wall is the fps per watt efficiency king with the SFF right behind and M1 out of the race due to glitches and unplayable fps.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/45141775

M1

El cheapo laptop

El cheapo SFF

 

[mi7chy]

But yeah that isn't a cheapo build (per se).

Did you forget the /s again?

For gaming I'd substitute with the 5800x3d which is $140 less but better gaming performance so $1277.92 total or $1417.92 with 5950x. Either way it's less than $1999 M1 MBA with equivalent 16GB RAM 2TB storage.

 

[Nugat Trailers]

Did you forget the /s again?

For gaming I'd substitute with the 5800x3d which is $140 less but better gaming performance so $1277.92 total or $1417.92 with 5950x. Either way it's less than $1999 M1 MBA with equivalent 16GB RAM 2TB storage.

View attachment 2221203

And the monitor? The laptop has a monitor included, after all.

Also I'm really not sure why you'd want a 2 TB SSD, and not, say a 1 TB SSD and 1 TB external drive?
You pick the most bizarre hills to die on, it's somewhat perverse.

 

[quarkysg]

And the monitor? The laptop has a monitor included, after all.

Extremely expensive to get a 1000Hz refresh rate monitor tho. Hahahaha ....

 

[mi7chy]

Nobody is going to go blind gaming on the built-in 60Hz 13.3". They normally use an external display and most households have a TV which are commonly 120Hz. If no TV then this with $6.99 Minecraft app minus mods.

 

[Pet3rK]

Did you forget the /s again?

For gaming I'd substitute with the 5800x3d which is $140 less but better gaming performance so $1277.92 total or $1417.92 with 5950x. Either way it's less than $1999 M1 MBA with equivalent 16GB RAM 2TB storage.

View attachment 2221203

That's for discounted price on the CPU. 5950X cost 899 and 5800X3D cost 390. It would be 2K for 5950X and 1.56K for the 5800X3D. A Mac mini M2 w/ 10C GPU, 16GB RAM cost 1.6K. Discounted price for Mac mini will go maybe 1.5K for refurbished.

These are spec to spec basis(RAM speed and SSD speed have been equalize at least).

 

[diamond.g]

Did you forget the /s again?

For gaming I'd substitute with the 5800x3d which is $140 less but better gaming performance so $1277.92 total or $1417.92 with 5950x. Either way it's less than $1999 M1 MBA with equivalent 16GB RAM 2TB storage.

View attachment 2221203

Uh I wasn't being sarcastic there, any pc over 1K USD isn't cheap. Cheap PCs are like 500-600 tops. Now I woulnd't use such an inexpensive PC because it is likely to be fraught with compromises.

And the monitor? The laptop has a monitor included, after all.

Also I'm really not sure why you'd want a 2 TB SSD, and not, say a 1 TB SSD and 1 TB external drive?
You pick the most bizarre hills to die on, it's somewhat perverse.

Depends on how fast that external drive is (and with more games requiring SSD's it isn't clear if Direct Storage works on non-fixed disks yet).

 

[Mac_fan75]

Did you forget the /s again?

For gaming I'd substitute with the 5800x3d which is $140 less but better gaming performance so $1277.92 total or $1417.92 with 5950x. Either way it's less than $1999 M1 MBA with equivalent 16GB RAM 2TB storage.

View attachment 2221203

But why would I want some junk PC hardware with windows? Yes if you purely game that is by far the better choice, but I am not and I don't want two pc's let only one like that with Windows.

 

[Nugat Trailers]

Just to touch on 'cheap PCs', I checked Logical Increments and PC Part Picker.

Prices vary, but in general, it seems that there's very cheap ($500 US and under) and cheap ($1000 US and under).

Granted, for $1k, you get a very nice rig that'll do a damn lot of gaming. But you don't see mi7chy's parts appearing for another $300-400.

 

[jmho]

The cheapest PC is the one that I don't need to buy.

Sure, anyone who is choosing a Mac over a PC for gaming is not making a good choice, but for those of us who need a Mac, having to spend an additional $1500 on an "el cheapo" PC just to game is literally just setting money on fire.

I look forward to the day I can sell my PC, and it seems like that day is getting closer and closer.

 

[mi7chy]

That's for discounted price on the CPU. 5950X cost 899 and 5800X3D cost 390. It would be 2K for 5950X and 1.56K for the 5800X3D. A Mac mini M2 w/ 10C GPU, 16GB RAM cost 1.6K. Discounted price for Mac mini will go maybe 1.5K for refurbished.

These are spec to spec basis(RAM speed and SSD speed have been equalize at least).
View attachment 2221270View attachment 2221271

That's market price and only an inexperienced consumer compares new price with refurb. The originally configured system is already overkill for Minecraft RT relative to M1 so padding it with more expensive 6800XT GPU and RAM is overkill on top of overkill. Real comparison is performance to performance so even handheld $700 ROG Ally is faster at Minecraft RT.

Even better than $4000 M2 Ultra.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

The cheapest PC is the one that I don't need to buy.

Sure, anyone who is choosing a Mac over a PC for gaming is not making a good choice, but for those of us who need a Mac, having to spend an additional $1500 on an "el cheapo" PC just to game is literally just setting money on fire.

I look forward to the day I can sell my PC, and it seems like that day is getting closer and closer.

Or you could just spend $500 on a Steam Deck instead. A lot of people are selling their towers and defaulting to Macbook Pros and Steam Decks instead since they're lighter, more portable, and more convenient.

 

[Irishman]

Found a cool ray tracing shaderpack for Minecraft (works with 1.20.1) but it destroys frame rate on M1 along with shadow and distant graphical glitches. SFF is 57x faster and laptop 21x faster. Laptop pulling 90'ish watt total system power from wall is the fps per watt efficiency king with the SFF right behind and M1 out of the race due to glitches and unplayable fps.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/45141775

M1
View attachment 2220693

El cheapo laptop
View attachment 2221174

El cheapo SFF
View attachment 2220694

By Jove, you’ve done it again, Holmes!

I guess Macs DO suck for gaming, at least according to your unattributed screenshots!

 

[Ethosik]

By Jove, you’ve done it again, Holmes!

I guess Macs DO suck for gaming, at least according to your unattributed screenshots!

I don’t know why ray tracing is the be all end all of gaming. The Switch doesn’t do it. I always turn it off because I prefer higher fps.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Man I'm so glad for the Game Porting Toolkit, as it's basically kickstarted Mac vs PC 3, only this time it's about games and I'm all for it. 🍿

 

[diamond.g]

I don’t know why ray tracing is the be all end all of gaming. The Switch doesn’t do it. I always turn it off because I prefer higher fps.

To be fair the Switch is still apart of the last console generation. So the games that do have RT tend to not be on the switch in the first place (ignoring Minecraft since none of the consoles have RT for that game).

 

[Ethosik]

To be fair the Switch is still apart of the last console generation. So the games that do have RT tend to not be on the switch in the first place (ignoring Minecraft since none of the consoles have RT for that game).

The general statements of macs don’t have RT so it sucks at gaming don’t make sense. The switch doesn’t suck at gaming. It’s still my favorite console. And it has worse hardware than any modern Mac.