Hilarious.
It's a shame steam doesn't have better competition in the PC space... Because the app itself is a mess.
At least they updated the macOS app to 64bit... It's still 32bit on Windows and Linux.
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It's a shame steam doesn't have better competition in the PC space... Because the app itself is a mess.
At least they updated the macOS app to 64bit... It's still 32bit on Windows and Linux.
Did you miss the bit about the extreme hardware differences?....
Linux PCs use exactly the same hardware as Windows. The same cannot be said for Macs.
The app works pretty fine what. Even the Mac version got fixed.
I dunno Insomniac's Spider-Man ran pretty great through GPTK
And Diablo 4 runs really great too that many are using GPTK to play D4. It recently got even better with the release of GPTK 1.1, and it will only get better as time goes on.
Sure they 'run great'... But native games targeted for Apples GPUs will usually run at double the frame rate. Some games will run better than others on GPTK (depending on how they use the GPU), but it will never be anywhere near as fast (or efficient) as native. It's that simple.
If 'good enough' is fine with some people, then great. But I don't wish that for all apps/games on MacOS.
Linux native gaming is dead because of Proton... If the same were to happen to Macs, all we would have is 'good enough'... If we were lucky. Do you really want that?....
Has this been shown to be true? I remember Apple used the Medium as an example, but I don't think anyone has shown since that game released that the performance improvement was double from using GPTK.
There is GoG, Epic Games Store and Xbox games store (Ubisoft gets an honorable mention here).
Dear god, we need another thread for the compatibility layer fight.
That’s pretty much it. In short they started as a game developer but after Half-Life 2 realized they can make a lot more money from selling other developer’s games with Steam. Later they expanded it to macOS, Linux and iOS/Android. Then because Gabe didn’t like Microsoft’s and Apple’s monopoly and ”closed” systems he chose Linux which was free to use and decided to push the OS with games. That’s why they released a Steam client and dev tools for Linux. Then to make more money and promote Linux further they released Steam Machine which proved to be dead on arrival for different reasons and was discontinued less than three years later. One problem was SteamOS itself.
Steam is Valve’s cash cow. Valve had around $13 billion in total revenue in 2022 and about $10 billion of that was from the Steam store. That’s why they haven’t made major games in the past decade besides Alyx and CS 2. We all know what happened to Half-life 3. To make more money they released SteamVR and later their first own VR headset Index (HTC Vive was a result of collaboration). Half-life Alyx was made to promote Index but was released a year later so that’s the only major new game.
When Steam Machine was discontinued in 2018 they started to look for another free solution and developed and released Proton with the help of Wine for better performance and compatibility with Windows. Then when Proton was mature enough after four years they made another attempt with Steam Deck and Proton.
To lose money on new tech products like consoles is quite normal. Microsoft still loses 100-200 dollars on every Xbox S/X. Sony did the same until two years ago. Epic still loses millions on its game store with exclusive deals and free games. So Valve losing money on every Steam Deck is not unique and no, they don’t do it due to charity and high ideals. That's a naive thought. It’s simply a long-term investment for them like Microsoft and Sony. After all almost 80% of their income comes from selling games.
Most of those are also terrible. EGS is particularly bad (and bloated.. Running a full instance of UE as its store).
Steam is the default sadly... Gamers get up in arms when something isn't available there, AW2 from EGS is the most recent example.
IIRC Remedy has a deal with Epic to publish their PC games, so it wouldn't make any sense to have it show up on a competing platform (at least initially).
As was said, nobody gonna buy Mac just for gaming like people used to do with PC. If Apple wants to gain gamers base, they should release device with good price/performance ratio. Macbooks are expensive for this purpose and Airs and iPads with their passive cooling aren't right solution. Laptop or PC with Ryzen and RTX is cheaper and more powerful choice. Of course it is more power hungry, but look at handhelds with Ryzen Z1 Extreme. It is powerful as M3 Pro (in games) and TDP is the same I guess.
So far I have PS5 for games and don't want to buy anything with Windows just for gaming. I hope, that there will be more games for mac in future. I am trying some games over CrossOver but my base M1 Pro (14 GPU) is weak for that gaming and also it is pretty loud.
So far I have PS5 for games and don't want to buy anything with Windows just for gaming. I hope, that there will be more games for mac in future. I am trying some games over CrossOver but my base M1 Pro (14 GPU) is weak for that gaming and also it is pretty loud.
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That’s a double edged sword, forcing native ports may mean that a port won’t come at all.
I’m generally on board with having native ports over a compatibility layer, but we should consider the consequences.
I debunked this in another thread. Please stop repeating it.
Mac vs. PC gaming has been this way for 2 decades. LOL. I remember thinking how amazing Blizzard was because it was the only gaming company that bothered to code for Mac at the same time as Windows. Then they started dropping Mac support as well for Overwatch. Now they don't bother with even the old stuff.
The problem is that Mac doesn't really, really love game developers and do everything it can to make their life easy. Couple that with the fact that the vast majority of gamers who are Mac primary have either a console, PC, or both, and you have a recipe for neglect.
So in the end a dev makes a Mac game, it sells weakly due to the fact that most Mac owners don't even buy it--instead we buy it for Steam or on a console. And here we are. People like me are largely to blame. And Apple definitely makes it harder by doing their own thing all the dang time.
Apple wants games and gaming companies on the Mac, but only if you literally do everything their way. It's kind of like Nintendo really and the only reason they get away with it is so many people bought switches coupled with Nintendo IP.
And the 32-bit thing someone brought up about Steam on PC is completely hilarious. It's a launcher. Nothing else. When I buy BG3 on there, BG3 is x64 so what does the launcher matter? It does it's job well enough. And that's all it needs to do.
The problem is that Mac doesn't really, really love game developers and do everything it can to make their life easy. Couple that with the fact that the vast majority of gamers who are Mac primary have either a console, PC, or both, and you have a recipe for neglect.
So in the end a dev makes a Mac game, it sells weakly due to the fact that most Mac owners don't even buy it--instead we buy it for Steam or on a console. And here we are. People like me are largely to blame. And Apple definitely makes it harder by doing their own thing all the dang time.
Apple wants games and gaming companies on the Mac, but only if you literally do everything their way. It's kind of like Nintendo really and the only reason they get away with it is so many people bought switches coupled with Nintendo IP.
And the 32-bit thing someone brought up about Steam on PC is completely hilarious. It's a launcher. Nothing else. When I buy BG3 on there, BG3 is x64 so what does the launcher matter? It does it's job well enough. And that's all it needs to do.
Well, they released Steam as a requirement for Half-Life 2, but continued to develop games with releases going all the way into the mid 2010’s.
They had some questionable practices like mainstreaming the loot crate gambling that was formerly only in the mobile space, and “sponsoring” tournaments where they took most of the money that was “going” towards the competing teams.
Behind the scenes their dysfunctional structure (yes, their flat management structure was dysfunctional in many ways) made many projects die even deep into development. Things that come to mind: a sequel to Half-Life Opposing Force, an Adult Swim TF2 series, and Half Life Episode 3 included.
Honestly, I don’t blame him.
Microsoft is an existential threat to Valves business at a conceptual level, and have a history of anticompetitive practices and aggressive behavior. Realistically all it could take is for Microsoft to make a half decent Steam clone, strong arm some exclusives, and Steam would have no counter.
Expanding into Linux is not only a good backup plan, it’s also realistically the only avenue to combat a potentially hostile Microsoft.
Because it was half baked and “prebuilt” is a four-letter word in gaming circles.
Plus if you were even aware of GabeCubes, you likely had a PC already.
It’s not the only factor, see above.
I still think VR is in its infancy. I’m sure Valve has plans to expand upon it still.
People seem to forget Gabe Newell used to work at Microsoft so he knows how they operate.
They do. For years they've been working on a successor to the Index codenamed "Deckard." Their plans for Deckard unironically were the original plans for Apple Vision: A wireless headset that is connected wirelessly to a dedicated compute box. They recently just updated SteamVR to the long awaited SteamVR 2.0, which includes the ability to wirelessly connect a VR headset like a Quest to SteamVR through a closed 5ghz network just for that headset to keep latency as low as possible. Sometime next year we might see the Deckard finally get announced as they've been filing a lot of patents for Deckard and getting radio certification for the headset and compute box.
Interesting, I would think the wireless aspect would be a severe bottleneck to a headset but maybe I’m stuck in the past.
It is a bottleneck if done over a home wifi network due to multiple other devices and other variables being in the mix, but through SteamVR it's using a closed 5ghz hotspot like network between your PC and the headset, so it's not dependent on a wifi network and it's the only thing connected.
In fact just yesterday the Steam Link app got added to the Meta Quest Store so now Quest headsets can now connect to your PC without having to go through Meta's awful software. This also means Quests can now be used on Linux
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Yeah, I mean that's exactly what we have been seeing for too many years with too many games, no Mac port.
How does comparing a console to an operating system make any sense?
Developer ease of use. Sony tried to force everyone to do things their way on a unique exclusive architecture that everyone was unfamiliar with and it backfired in spectacular fashion. So they learned from that mistake and designed the PlayStation 4 (and later 5) to be as easy and accessible to develop on as possible, and as a result they won the entire console generation uncontested. Microsoft on the other hand tried to force a parity clause where for a game to come to Xbox it had to release day in date with Xbox One or it couldn't come at all, a move that made many developers ignore Xbox and just develop for PlayStation and PC since Xbox was (and still is due to the Series S having much lower specs and there being a parity clause with that too) a lot more difficult to work on.
If you want people to make ports on Mac, they need to be as easy and accessible as possible, which currently it is not even with GPTK due to many factors from Metal, to app notarization. I am literally telling you what you need to do in order to get developers to want to develop for Mac, as the steps to make the dream happen is everything Sony did to get developers back on board with them and make them the king of consoles again.