Rejoice, Steam is coming to OSX!

[0098386]

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1157656

As an avid Steam gamer this has me quite excited. I imagine that we'll be able to sign in with our PC accounts and access universal games.
Hope they officially announce the details for all this soon!

Oh and to current Steam users. Get the UI beta. It's the most beautiful thing ever (or at least what Steam should look like in 2010. It's rather awesome).

 

[Sambo110]

Steam Mac Version Looks Likely

These were found in the new Steam beta graphics folder.

Thanks to the helpful people on the Steam forums for these three discoveries. http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1157656&Mac

I also had a poke around in steamclient.dll (also found in SteamUI.dll), there are usually some goodies strung around in there.

There are references to OSX in there, too, alongside other platforms like linux and X360.

There's also an 'osx.menu' in resource/menus, which contains definitions matching standard OS X menus. Oh man I hope there will be a Steam for Mac. Hopefully they'll make a UI that fits in slightly better with OS X...

There's a line in Steam\Public\steamui_english.txt that says:

"steam_welcomeaction_platformwrong" "%gamename% is not available on your current platform."

 

[jesterscourt]

Not sure if that is definitive proof, but I'd be very happy if that occurred. Pretty much the only reason for me to Boot Camp my two macs is Steam.

 

[robj]

That would be great news. However the most of the games in steam doesn't run in Mac either.

It would be great if we have bought the windows version of a game that works on mac, we would be allowed to the version in mac as well without any extra charge.

 

[Beric]

Interesting to be sure.

I've long since switched to Windows for games though. My gaming tastes are just to specific to settle for the thin outflow of Mac ports.

 

[rekhyt]

Hmm... Very interesting, but have you seen this though? -http://store.steampowered.com/news/3501/

Very Mac-like icons though. I'm hoping that one comes out soon, as I don't really like to use my Windows partition to game. (Especially the X, – and + icons.)

 

[Sambo110]

Plus they all have OSX in the name, so it's definitely for the Mac.

 

[Nermal]

I don't see why many of those would need to be in the app itself (instead of inheriting from the OS). Are you sure that it's not just an OS X-style graphical theme for Steam?

However, I hope that there is indeed a Mac version coming

 

[rekhyt]

Could be part of the themes thing that they are making (I think) with the new update, but...

Steam Mac = Awesome.

 

[siorai]

It would be nice, but that would be a ton of work to make all games available on Steam actually work in OSX. I guess they could do a collaboration effort with Cedega?

Although, no! Wait! I just bought Windows 7 Professional. If they make all the Steam games work in OSX I no longer need Windows installed and just wasted $150.

I guess I could live with that actually.

 

[rekhyt]

It would be nice, but that would be a ton of work to make all games available on Steam actually work in OSX. I guess they could do a collaboration effort with Cedega?

Although, no! Wait! I just bought Windows 7 Professional. If they make all the Steam games work in OSX I no longer need Windows installed and just wasted $150.

I guess I could live with that actually.

Heh. ... Well, I don't think they need to have a collaboration project with Cedega-Some developers already have ported their stuff to Mac, and most developers that do (EA, Activision, ...) usually contact Cedega (I think.) to port it.

However, I don't think all Steam games will work on Mac, especially since some do heavily rely on Microsoft Windows to run.

 

[AdamA9]

Please correct me if I'm being dumb here, but surely for the game to work, you'd need the game developer to have a Mac version? Unless Steam has it's own in-built 'conversion' top allow you to play the game, but then that would need some form of Windows behind it?

 

[rekhyt]

Please correct me if I'm being dumb here, but surely for the game to work, you'd need the game developer to have a Mac version? Unless Steam has it's own in-built 'conversion' top allow you to play the game, but then that would need some form of Windows behind it?

"... you'd need the game developer to have a Mac version?"

Yep-I think that's what's happening, IF they make Steam for Mac.

 

[imassents]

The UI is the first step. I have Peggle in my Steam (PC), however I know there is a Mac version for that too. Give it time and more games may be ported, or released as cross platform.

The games using DirectX will take the longest, or never be ported.

 

[Sambo110]

Looking at the Steam Updating OSX I thought crap, maybe it is just a theme, but that could just go up the top right, to show it is updating/downloading, pretty cool idea. I can't wait for Steam Mac, I was just thinking last night they should release it

 

[rekhyt]

Looking at the Steam Updating OSX I thought crap, maybe it is just a theme, but that could just go up the top right, to show it is updating/downloading, pretty cool idea. I can't wait for Steam Mac, I was just thinking last night they should release it

Yeah, there have been some news reports from some sites where Valve/Steam is looking for hiring Linux/Mac programmers/developers. Maybe it's for this thing?

Also, the Steam icon is probably something that won't really appear in Windows-It just doesn't fit it.

 

[Sambo110]

There's also an 'osx.menu' in resource/menus, which contains definitions matching standard OS X menus. Oh man I hope there will be a Steam for Mac. Hopefully they'll make a UI that fits in slightly better with OS X...

There's a line in Steam\Public\steamui_english.txt that says:

"steam_welcomeaction_platformwrong" "%gamename% is not available on your current platform."

All signs seem to point to Steam Mac coming out

 

[AdamA9]

The UI is the first step. I have Peggle in my Steam (PC), however I know there is a Mac version for that too. Give it time and more games may be ported, or released as cross platform.

The games using DirectX will take the longest, or never be ported.

How? FM10 uses DirectX but has a Mac version - it's actually the same disk for PC and Mac.

 

[Sambo110]

It probably uses Cider though? Hopefully Valve port over Source, natively, that would be so awesome.

 

[rekhyt]

There's also an 'osx.menu' in resource/menus, which contains definitions matching standard OS X menus. Oh man I hope there will be a Steam for Mac. Hopefully they'll make a UI that fits in slightly better with OS X...

There's a line in Steam\Public\steamui_english.txt that says:

"steam_welcomeaction_platformwrong" "%gamename% is not available on your current platform."
All signs seem to point to Steam Mac coming out

That is very interesting indeed. They wouldn't have that warning if the Mac version isn't coming out, as Steam is currently only on Windows, therefore games on Steam would have to be available to make sense.

Nice find.

 

[Sambo110]

Updated first post with evidence of Mac version, and will keep updating it with new things, so keep checking it . Really excited about this, it could completely change Mac gaming.

 

[ltldrummerboy]

I was just about to post this.

I'm trying to downplay this so my hopes aren't dashed later on. If (big if) they release a Mac version of Steam I'm betting that only a very few games will be Mac compatible and that if you already own the Windows version (Braid for example) there will be a fee to get the Mac version.

 

[rekhyt]

All signs seem to point to Steam Mac coming out

Updated first post with evidence of Mac version, and will keep updating it with new things, so keep checking it . Really excited about this, it could completely change Mac gaming.

Heh. Mac gaming has already changed if you count the iPhone and the iPod Touch. (They kinda do run OS X-A lite version (Cocoa Touch), but still.)

I was just about to post this.

I'm trying to downplay this so my hopes aren't dashed later on. If (big if) they release a Mac version of Steam I'm betting that only a very few games will be Mac compatible and that if you already own the Windows version (Braid for example) there will be a fee to get the Mac version.

I'm quite sure Valve would've gotten some, if not a lot of devs on board on this project. It would look really stupid of them to just come out with few games and little features.

 

[Nano2k]

I'm quite sure Valve would've gotten some, if not a lot of devs on board on this project. It would look really stupid of them to just come out with few games and little features.

Yeah as if game developers are going to invest millions for making games for OSX and OpenGL... Windows barely gets any decent games anymore, all console ports. So very doubtful of seeing OSX gaming being an interesting investment considering the small amount of potential customers.

Steam and Valve games in OSX would be great though.

 

[Bolteh]

I wouldn't expect the entire Steam catalog to be ported to Mac.

However, following a few indications, like this impending release for Steam on Mac (or at least "expected release") and -especially- the LinkedIn post of Chris Green's begging for OSX/Linux engineers, I can safely assume that the Source engine is heading to Macs near us.

Chris Green is pretty much the man behind the Source engine and its technologies. The fact that he's the one asking for OSX engineers + this Steam for Mac "leak" makes me believe that Valve is porting over Source to OSX.

Also, apparently there's a few hints and leads in the files of Steam that point to Transgaming (known for their Cider software).