OS X Steam, TF2, MBAir, HD3000

[pedro_martins]

Hello, fellow Mac gamers.

So, I know everything I need to know about OS X. I know why I bought my computer (advantages and disadvantages) and I also know what the HD3000 can/can't do in OS X, and that it is very different of what it can do under Windows.

I just don't feel that Windows is worth the SSD space it requires. I learned everything about OS X before purchasing my Mac, and it has been my main machine since then. I don't think I will ever buy a non-Apple computer again.

So, enter Steam... I installed Steam for the Orange pack, and I got a gazillion games. The HD3000 handle the games that I wanted well enough for me to have a lot of fun, and that was what really mattered. Since the beginning, I was realizing how much the steam client sucks, but since I really enjoy HL and want PC multiplayer compatibility, there's no other choice.

It looks and works so bad on Yosemite. Looks like a Windows XP era app. Shouldn't valve lose time with it?

So, enter TF2. What an amazing, addictive game. The only game I ever played that isn't single player. I also became really good at it, and for the last 2 years (since I finished the HL series. Where's 3, BTW?) it has been my default time waster. I have over 600h on it. How addicted to a game can someone be, right? I thought about dumping my GF and my Masters in Mechanical Engineering to train with swords, drink some run and practice with explosives on a near city, in order to become a better demoman, but Valve didn't let me do it. Why? Because the latest updates ruined OS X performance and took all the joy from the game.

I tried to read some documentation and the obvious steam fora about the subject, but the knowledge level is low there, and it seems Valve doesn't give a f*** about them. Also, members always have a Windows centric POV.

So, I would like to know if someone is on a similar situation, and what they think/do/want about it. First off, on OS X, textures are limited to medium, and the TF2 engine has a stupid bug on OS X where lower graphic details/textures means LESS performance. Higher settings are blocked by valve (try and put textures on high or very high, press ok, play a match and then take a look at the settings... Textures are on medium, no matter what you do). Then, sometimes the steam overlay does not respond (check activity monitor), and it takes another hit in performance. The gun metal update and latest steam updates really ****ed things up.

Can someone help me? No matter what I do, I can't have a smooth framerate (30 fps). I never have less than 60Mbit/s during the day, and the ping during the game is never above 45 over wireless. Still, in most maps, it is very difficult to go over 25 fps.

Lower resolution has almost 0 impact on framerate, but it makes the game look bad. Shadows are already on minimum, and so on. Settings are always at recommend or below that, but it feels that there's no difference in FPS anyway. So yeah, the game is full of bugs on the mac side of things.

Anyone with the same hardware play it on Windows? How is it right now?
Mac Users, what do you think about steam? Their games? TF2 on the Mac?

 

[Nunyabinez]

The Mac philosophy is "the right tool for the right job." However, many, many Mac users still really want multi-purpose machines but buy netbooks. I know that MBA owners might be offended by calling the MBA a netbook, but it is clearly not a desktop replacement laptop.

An MBA is not a machine for gaming. No machine for gaming is going to do a decent job with integrated graphics. With an MBP you could do some reasonable gaming and a high-end iMac you can play some games at high settings. Here is my advice for you.

1. If you want decent performance from a Mac for gaming, the only viable option is boot camp. Yes, I know there are games that are ported to OS X, but they never run as well as their Windows counterparts.

2. Choose the right games for the graphics capability that you have, rather than try to force games onto cards that can't handle it. There are lots of fun games that aren't as graphically demanding (I love Terraria for example).

3. If you are serious about gaming build a gaming PC. Steam rocks and the games you mentioned look great on my gaming machine (taking into account when they were made and the state of gaming at that time). I have a machine with a GTX 970 and I run The Witcher 3 on mostly maxed out settings and get 60 fps and it is ridiculously beautiful. But, I paid $350 just for the card.

I also have a new Mac Book. I love it. It rocks because I use it for what it was made for. To me, even as loyal a Mac owner as I am, I think gaming and OS X are oxymorons. And graphics wise most Macs are underpowered. Sorry I can't be more positive about Mac gaming, but I seriously doubt that you're ever going to get much of a gaming experience out of your MBA unless you carefully choose what you want to play.

 

[pedro_martins]

Thanks for trying to help, but you should at least read the post.

You helped 0. Again, the game was great for me, on my machine. Updates ruined performance on OSX.

If you played tf2 with everything max, you will realize that your performance dropped a lot since the latest update and you can't even max out the game, on any hardware, because of bugs.

Tf2 is full of bugs at least on OSX, and the steam client is crap as well. It's all because of bugs and poor software quality By VALVE.

Nothing to do with the hardware.

BTW, my MacBook is faster than 90 per cent of all machines on the market, and does everything I (an advanced user) need, so yeah, desktop replacement it is for ALMOST everyone.

 

[twinturbo777]

The problem with gaming on a Mac is that people often blame issues on the Mac user for having a Mac in the first place. However, even though a Mac is not ideal or "meant" for gaming, there are games out there that are available for Mac. When a developer makes a game available for Mac, they should devote the same amount of effort into the Mac version as they do for the PC version. Otherwise, why make a game available for Mac at all? If developers lure Mac users into buying a game that they advertised as Mac-compatible, only to neglect the Mac version, you can't blame the Mac users. Everyone knows that PCs are better for gaming, but it's still possible to game on a Mac, and Mac users have a right to expect quality from games that are advertised as Mac-compatible. It's not like we're buying games that are Windows-only and then complaining that our machines can't run them. Plus, TF2 has extremely simple hardware requirements.

That being said, I'm experiencing the same issue as the OP. I have a 2012 MBP with Intel Quad Core i7 and NVidia 650M dedicated graphics. Before the Gun Mettle update, I ran TF2 on max settings just fine. After the update, I get terrible framerate no matter what settings I use. So it's clearly Valve rather than my hardware that's causing the problem. And for me at least, the framerate issue seems isolated to multiplayer. When I play single player training, I don't experience any issues, even on maps that would normally be choppy in multiplayer. And my ping is always below 50, so it can't be internet lag. Basically, Valve needs to recognize that their latest update has caused significant issues for the Mac version. I don't want to bash them too much, since they have maintained a great game for PC and Mac for so many years, but hopefully they don't let the Mac version waste away.

 

[Huntn]

Thanks for trying to help, but you should at least read the post.

You helped 0. Again, the game was great for me, on my machine. Updates ruined performance on OSX.

If you played tf2 with everything max, you will realize that your performance dropped a lot since the latest update and you can't even max out the game, on any hardware, because of bugs.

Tf2 is full of bugs at least on OSX, and the steam client is crap as well. It's all because of bugs and poor software quality By VALVE.

Nothing to do with the hardware.

BTW, my MacBook is faster than 90 per cent of all machines on the market, and does everything I (an advanced user) need, so yeah, desktop replacement it is for ALMOST everyone.

I realize you may takes this as a "duh" statement, but I'll say it anyway...
It may be if the goal is to play TF2 in its current state, if the right tweak can't be found, a decision might have to be made regarding Bootcamp/Windows on an external drive. Very rarely do I game on OSX these days due to restricted titles, update issues, lack of mod support ( some cases), less than 100% cross platform compatibility (some cases), and lesser performance.

... And I do hope you discover the right tweak to make OSX work for you.