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Steam for Mac Suck?
- Thread starter SimonUK5
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Well, when I run Steam beta on Windows it also crashes once in a while... My guess is if it didn't crash, they wouldn't call it beta and would distribute as a normal version... Think about it 
I typically have to start-quit-restart it a couple of times before the Store page works. On first start, the Store page usually just shows as a black/empty window.
The library is also not quite right. For instance Supreme Commander 2 insists on showing up in my list of Mac games even though it's Windows/ Boot camp only.
Also just tried to download the Civilization V Gods and Kings demo which is supposed to be steam play (ie also for Mac), and get the message "this is not available for your platform".
All in all pretty amazing that the leading games interface is so buggy. Especially since Valve's games are so good. You would have thought they'd be able to get something as simple as a shop page to work
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Also trailer films generally don't play at all in full screen...
Why is it beta anyway? I do indeed sometimes get update messages saying something like "thank you for participating in the beta" - I never chose or agreed to participate in a beta, I just installed Steam for Mac the way it came.
Is Steam for Mac only available as a beta or is there a way to get the "regular" (ie hopefully non buggy) version?
If it's only available as a beta, is there any prospect of it coming out of beta (I must have had Steam for Mac for at least a couple of years now which seems a bit long for beta).
The library is also not quite right. For instance Supreme Commander 2 insists on showing up in my list of Mac games even though it's Windows/ Boot camp only.
Also just tried to download the Civilization V Gods and Kings demo which is supposed to be steam play (ie also for Mac), and get the message "this is not available for your platform".
All in all pretty amazing that the leading games interface is so buggy. Especially since Valve's games are so good. You would have thought they'd be able to get something as simple as a shop page to work
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Also trailer films generally don't play at all in full screen...
Why is it beta anyway? I do indeed sometimes get update messages saying something like "thank you for participating in the beta" - I never chose or agreed to participate in a beta, I just installed Steam for Mac the way it came.
Is Steam for Mac only available as a beta or is there a way to get the "regular" (ie hopefully non buggy) version?
If it's only available as a beta, is there any prospect of it coming out of beta (I must have had Steam for Mac for at least a couple of years now which seems a bit long for beta).
there is a way to go to the regular version - I don't recall atm but I'll check later and post it here for u. I know it because I CHOOSE to test the beta.
As for your games' library, it'll show all your games - including non Mac ones - regardless of you being on a Mac.
And as for the other stuff, I'll check it out later and post a reply as well.
As for your games' library, it'll show all your games - including non Mac ones - regardless of you being on a Mac.
And as for the other stuff, I'll check it out later and post a reply as well.
My Steam is...temperamental
Sometimes it works fine (shop front comes up ok, pop-up screens show up fine, games run fine) and sometimes it goes crazy and doesn't want to load any of the shop screens. I also find when playing some games (i think mainly the Valve ones, which is surprising) when i go to quit them, it generally takes a while, then cuts back to my desktop/Steam window and comes up with the 'X has quit unexpectedly' window.
I also find that, no matter what game im playing i get a fair amount of beach ball while opening the game and closing it. At the end of the day, im used to it being buggy. Im a bit irked that Valve decided to release Steam and all its games on Mac but cant seem to put the effort in to making a version of Steam that 'just works'. If you aren't prepared to put that effort in, dont do it in the first place!
Oh and in responce to Hackfix21, after i updated Steam on time a while back i noticed that all my non-Mac games were coming up in my Library. I cant remember what i did (not sure if it was a right-click option or some thing from a sub-menu) but i managed to get it to show just the Mac games. It is possible but i cant for the life of me remember how to do it atm.
Sometimes it works fine (shop front comes up ok, pop-up screens show up fine, games run fine) and sometimes it goes crazy and doesn't want to load any of the shop screens. I also find when playing some games (i think mainly the Valve ones, which is surprising) when i go to quit them, it generally takes a while, then cuts back to my desktop/Steam window and comes up with the 'X has quit unexpectedly' window.
I also find that, no matter what game im playing i get a fair amount of beach ball while opening the game and closing it. At the end of the day, im used to it being buggy. Im a bit irked that Valve decided to release Steam and all its games on Mac but cant seem to put the effort in to making a version of Steam that 'just works'. If you aren't prepared to put that effort in, dont do it in the first place!
Oh and in responce to Hackfix21, after i updated Steam on time a while back i noticed that all my non-Mac games were coming up in my Library. I cant remember what i did (not sure if it was a right-click option or some thing from a sub-menu) but i managed to get it to show just the Mac games. It is possible but i cant for the life of me remember how to do it atm.
Pretty sure its talking about beta for various games notoriously team fortress, so you wil get invited to beta and it will auto download the beta without you actually noticing you had access to a beta until its over.
Steam itself very rarely crashes except on quit. But I don't care about crashes on quit because i was quitting anyway.
If its been running for a few days, store, news, update news will show as black. But if I click on on update news at least it will link to a browser so i can see what the black screen meant and the library itself is fine.
My main issue with steam is it just randomly deciding my internet is down, but even with that I don't think i have had a problem for 3-4 months now. Perhaps its fixed.
At the end of the day a slightly buggy steam is 10x better then no steam at all.
Is it only me that has Steam Crash and be weird all the time? So Buggy and its hella anoyying
Recent update appears to have massively improved steam performance / stability for me.
Very often when I launch Steam all the pages like the store, community and news are black, and you have to restart for it to work. Other than scrolling being really jerky and slow and it not always registering mouse clicks and achievements showing on top of all windows, I have no issues
I use Steam on OSX and Windows and have issues on both platforms. I suspect being at the end of a terrible 'broadband' connection (I'm on a blistering 512 kbps connection) aggravates matters but it's slow, freezes and crashes and seems to want to update every time I open it.
I do have access to a decent internet connection at work, so this afternoon, I downloaded some games on Steam via a Windows 8 VM I have running on my 2011 MBA in Parallels. I've just copied the data across to my Windows 7 LAN rig and Shogun 2 is still wanting to update and faff about. This is on a fast rig but it seems to take a long time on OSX and Windows to do anything in Steam!
I do have access to a decent internet connection at work, so this afternoon, I downloaded some games on Steam via a Windows 8 VM I have running on my 2011 MBA in Parallels. I've just copied the data across to my Windows 7 LAN rig and Shogun 2 is still wanting to update and faff about. This is on a fast rig but it seems to take a long time on OSX and Windows to do anything in Steam!
Very often when I launch Steam all the pages like the store, community and news are black, and you have to restart for it to work. Other than scrolling being really jerky and slow and it not always registering mouse clicks and achievements showing on top of all windows, I have no issues
Yep, same here.
To participate in beta. Steam -> Preferences -> Account -> Beta participation
With regard to it showing all games, including non-mac ones. You can control that by going to the games library page, and clicking on the dropdown menu just above the list, that has "Mac Games", "All Games", "Recent Games" etc as options.
I find the steam client to do the job just fine, on both mac and windows. The mac client occasionally doesnt show the store, but like someone else said, close steam, open steam again, and it works (usually).
Only thing that bugs me about it is the fact that the GMA950 isn't supported in OSX, when it works fine in Windows.
No steam games start in OSX with Steam. You just get a blank screen. No matter what kind of tweaks you use. While the Windows Steam version works fine. You need a few tweaks of course, but Source engine based games are playable. I play CS:S and HL2 daily.
I'm told that this is because the GMA950 is $h1te in OpenGL. Mostly because Apple's dropped the 950 like a hot brick and never bothered to write proper drivers for it.
Windows however, has some modded drivers that actually moves this card from the "Utter rubbish" category, to merely "Awful".
Ah, the GMA950, a quick google and now I understand. Last used in a circa 2007 Macbook and MacMini, 5 years old. Ancient! Sorry, don't mean to rub it in.
As you know, your game playing on it will be limited. A little shocking that you can't run Steam though and get a picture.Don't confuse me for a Steam fan though. I have issues with online DRM...
Ah, the GMA950, a quick google and now I understand. Last used in a circa 2007 Macbook and MacMini, 5 years old. Ancient! Sorry, don't mean to rub it in.
Don't confuse me for a Steam fan though. I have issues with online DRM...
Six, actually. Its an early 2006 Macbook. Maxed out, but still a 2006. I've grown quite fond of this thing. I was going to buy a new mac when i go to SNDC. But I might just keep it. After I bugged my neighbor into replacing the CPU for me, of course.
Well, it does run the office package on maximum graphics.
Its a work/school machine anyway. So while its a shame, it doesn't really bother me. As long as Office, Adobe Master, and the occasional app my teacher wants me to install an then never use works, I'm fine with it.Its just sad that you loose so much of its potential in its native OS. I mean, shouldn't a mac work 100 times better in OSX than Windows? It was designed for OSX after all.
I can be argued that OSX does work 100 times better, not just for games. I spend much more time keeping Windows in good shape, practically none with OSX.