Terrible framerates for games on OS X

[Irishman]

I know.
The question I have is what happens when the two are called on both at once, i.e an Open GL game but another render requires Metal (like: a system-animation is shown "powered" by Metal, during an OpenGL "powered" game).

This is surely going to be the first time OS X has had to support two graphics APIs at the same time (I think). How does Windows do it? Do users have the choice to switch between APIs for a game that is written for both? (DirectX and OpenGL, say).

Is that even possible, say if GL is faster that DX or vice versa?

 

[MacsRgr8]

This is surely going to be the first time OS X has had to support two graphics APIs at the same time (I think). How does Windows do it? Do users have the choice to switch between APIs for a game that is written for both? (DirectX and OpenGL, say).

Is that even possible, say if GL is faster that DX or vice versa?

I'm not sure of the statement, but it feels like that is the case, at least with X-Plane 10.

 

[Exhale]

This is surely going to be the first time OS X has had to support two graphics APIs at the same time (I think). How does Windows do it? Do users have the choice to switch between APIs for a game that is written for both? (DirectX and OpenGL, say).

These days, usually in the game's configuration files - though some older games like Civ 5 asks you on startup, or had it located in the game settings.

Even without a setting, the game can check what the system supports - and thus enable features as per the capabilities of the system.

 

[Dirtyharry50]

I know.
The question I have is what happens when the two are called on both at once, i.e an Open GL game but another render requires Metal (like: a system-animation is shown "powered" by Metal, during an OpenGL "powered" game).

Being fully independent of one another nothing special is going to happen.

 

[Dirtyharry50]

This is surely going to be the first time OS X has had to support two graphics APIs at the same time (I think). How does Windows do it? Do users have the choice to switch between APIs for a game that is written for both? (DirectX and OpenGL, say).

Is that even possible, say if GL is faster that DX or vice versa?

There have been games that supported both DirectX and OpenGL at various times for a very long time now. For example, the old Valve games allowed you to choose whether you wanted to use the DirectX or OpenGL renderer for the game. I've noticed others along the way offering the same choice but I would not say it is at all a common thing.

 

[Irishman]

There have been games that supported both DirectX and OpenGL at various times for a very long time now. For example, the old Valve games allowed you to choose whether you wanted to use the DirectX or OpenGL renderer for the game. I've noticed others along the way offering the same choice but I would not say it is at all a common thing.

Now that I think about it, Tomb Raider 2013 for OS X allows you to pick the latest OpenGL version or the Legacy GL stack on launch.