Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Metal only run efficiently on AMD hardware now, so any metal test on nvidia or amd pre gcn is useless
 
AMD pre-GCN doesn't support Metal at all. As for nVidia, there may be bugs in Metal drivers, but when it works it works well. The improvements brought by Metal in GFXBench, WoW or War thunder on nVidia hardware are in the same range as on AMD.
 
  • Like
Reactions: koyoot
I dont understand why they would do this. Maybe they will have changed their minds now with all the changes that have happened with macos and mac graphics?
 
I'm not sure it will happen. Blizzard is owned by Activision so it's not your old Blizzard.
They were already associated with Activision when they decided to port SC2 and Diablo 3 to the Mac, and to port some of their games to Metal. Plus, there are many other games published by Activision that have Mac ports.
For EA or Ubisoft, it's another story.
 
They were already associated with Activision when they decided to port SC2 and Diablo 3 to the Mac, and to port some of their games to Metal. Plus, there are many other games published by Activision that have Mac ports.
For EA or Ubisoft, it's another story.

You are talking about some development from existing games / engines that were already available for OS X from Blizzard before Activision.

Overwatch is a completely new game / engine.
 
You are talking about some development from existing games / engines that were already available for OS X from Blizzard before Activision.
Nonsense. StarCraft II and Diablo III both were developed after the merger with Activision and use (at that time) completely new engines.

In addition, Blizzard is completely autonomous within Activision Blizzard and even has its own corporate leadership – including its own president and CEO, which happen to be one of the founders of Blizzard. Activision's leadership has no say in Blizzard.
 
Last edited:
The merger between Activision and Blizzard was made in 2008, way before the release of SC2.
Anyway, Blizzard said it was a technical issue, not a political one.
 
It is irrational to believe that software can cause hardware problems, or expose them. Want to know why? Stuttering is problem with software scheduling. Not hardware. I suggest reading more analysis of game reviews on this matter of stuttering.

Really?

In the 90's a math error in the Pentium line of CPU's was discovered by doing a math problem in software. You could open Excel, perform a specific calculation, and discover a discrepancy. Windows was unaffected, but spreadsheet programs doing specific functions could be.

You are wrong. Period.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_FDIV_bug?wprov=sfsi1

And if you don't think software can destroy hardware, read up on stuxnet. Or on malware that destroyed hard drives...
 
Last edited:
And if you don't think software can destroy hardware, read up on stuxnet. Or on malware that destroyed hard drives...
It has nothing to do with situation you quote. It is your belief that Stuttering is caused by hardware problems.

It is not. Deal with it.
 
I'm lost. Is some nVidia hardware issue supposed to cause the frame rate issue, or is it the other way around? :confused:
This nonsense has to stop, and is off topic anyway.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Irishman and koyoot
Seems more expensive than a game, don't you think? Not counting the cost of the TV set.
 
And some may not want to buy/boot Windows. These arguments have been addressed countless times already. We know there are several ways to play a game...

At this point I'm going to question Blizzard's commitment to making Metal games. We have WoW and that's it. They're taking ages to port the SC2 engine. It's been 10 months since the first Beta and there are still bugs. Some smaller companies have ported their engine in much less time.
No sign that Diablo III will be ported, no sign of overwatch.
I tend to believe that, when Apple contacted them about Metal (Blizzard were listed among partners at WWDC), there was something they didn't like (maybe they expected Vulkan/OpenGL 4.X) or they were already in the move to drop Mac support. Apple would have negotiated the support of some existed games, but couldn't obtain more. I hope I'm wrong, but I fear this is all we're going to get from Blizzard.

EDIT: looking at SC2's Mac support forum. There's a ridiculous bug preventing using the game on Metal (the minimap cannot be clicked). Support says it may take months to fix. Yeah right. Blizzard is just slowly dropping the Mac.
 
Last edited:
I agree jeanlain. If Blizzard were truly supporting Mac we’d have fully developed Metal Overwatch, D3 and SC2 by now. I don’t expect any further Mac development for any Blizzard games
 
I agree jeanlain. If Blizzard were truly supporting Mac we’d have fully developed Metal Overwatch, D3 and SC2 by now. I don’t expect any further Mac development for any Blizzard games


That’s a bit silly. I’m all for dissing Blizz, when they deserve it but, they’re one of the few game developers who do actively support Macs. So they haven’t released an Overwatch client for Macs. That doesn’t mean they’re not actively supporting Macs. ;P

Also, SC2 (and HotS) does have Metal support. They added it earlier this year. D3 will eventually go that route as well. It wouldn’t add much plus, pretty sure they’re planning to release another xpac. Maybe then. Nobody knows except Blizzard.
 
Despite the anecdotal evidence suggesting otherwise, Blizzards Mac team is the biggest its ever been right now. Outside of the Overwatch absence, the biggest support burden is going to be trying to support both a rapidly evolving API like Metal and Apples deprecated and broken OpenGL implementation.
 
Now I highly doubt Overwatch will come to Mac anytime soon...But I really hope it does. I have never been the type to be fond of "exclusives", as they segregate people from really fun games. With that being said, if this game does come to Mac, I would hope Apple will start giving a **** about its users. The whole idea of eGPU's or having to spend so much on hardware, that is laughable at best when it comes to driving today's AAA games.

Even if Apple can somehow jump into the gaming market overnight, it would be almost impossible to persuade PC users to spend over 3x the amount of money, for comparable hardware that they already had. And from the look of their future lineup, it doesn't seem like they really want to have performance or even replaceable GPU's.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Despite the anecdotal evidence suggesting otherwise, Blizzards Mac team is the biggest its ever been right now. Outside of the Overwatch absence, the biggest support burden is going to be trying to support both a rapidly evolving API like Metal and Apples deprecated and broken OpenGL implementation.
Currently, only WoW works on Metal. SC2 has been broken since septembre and support appears very poor if you read the forum. They don't fell like fixing the game apparently.
And the reason raised for not porting overwatch is very dubious. They say the Mac technology isn't adequate. Even now with Metal 2 and the latest Macs? What's so special with Overwatch that makes it impossible on the Mac, considering the games works on consoles and several advanced game engines now run on Metal? This looks like a cop-out. :rolleyes:
 
  • Like
Reactions: Irishman
Currently, only WoW works on Metal. SC2 has been broken since septembre and support appears very poor if you read the forum. They don't fell like fixing the game apparently.
And the reason raised for not porting overwatch is very dubious. They say the Mac technology isn't adequate. Even now with Metal 2 and the latest Macs? What's so special with Overwatch that makes it impossible on the Mac, considering the games works on consoles and several advanced game engines now run on Metal? This looks like a cop-out. :rolleyes:
My point exactly. Blizzard is in fact not devoting much, if any, resources to Mac development anymore. Broken SC2 for months, no D3 at all, lame excuses re: Overwatch. I just hope they still provide a Mac client for the next WoW expansion
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.