So have I. It’s my Mac Pro booted into Windows…. :^)
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Valve Offers Complete Game Library to 'Steam Link' Mac Customers Due to Delayed Support
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Any idea what the issue is that is causing the difference? Windows running on a Mac should be identical to Windows on a modern PC. Is it some dependance on "classic" PCs powered by BIOS still, and do the same issues show up on a fully EFI 2.0 compliant PC with backwards compatibility turned off?
For all those who are saying the Mac is not the ideal gaming platform (which it isn't), Valve is actually doing us Mac users a huge favor in the long run.
Thanks to SteamOS we'll see more and more OpenGL ports over the next few years. And if Valve really manages to gain traction with their platform, developers may even choose Vulkan (OpenGL's successor) in favor of DirectX 12 for future developments. It's a long shot, but SteamOS may have the potential to compete with Windows on the PC gaming front. And with that success, Mac success could follow.
Thanks to SteamOS we'll see more and more OpenGL ports over the next few years. And if Valve really manages to gain traction with their platform, developers may even choose Vulkan (OpenGL's successor) in favor of DirectX 12 for future developments. It's a long shot, but SteamOS may have the potential to compete with Windows on the PC gaming front. And with that success, Mac success could follow.
Nope, and our IT dept don’t care to put the effort in either. Strangely enough we have some devices that will only work when connected directly to th srial port on the computer and won’t work relaibly with any, (that we have found), USB to serial.
This means it’s a showstopper as some of the boards are fried during an interrupted or unsuccessful flashing op.
Some of our old software only works on our very old PCs too.
Apple seems to be all about Metal on OS X now. I hope we'll get Vulkan too, but sceptical that Apple will be actively supporting it. Games utilising Metal on OS X will hopefully bring on some much needed performance improvement, so I think/hope OS X as a gaming platform will still be of consideration for many developers.
And like someone said – if looking at Steam there's quite a few games that also offer OS X (and sometimes also Linux) support nowadays. Windows is of course still in a league of its own.
Two articles on the subject of OS X games and Metal:
http://blog.gameagent.com/wwdc-2015-why-metal-for-mac-os-x-is-a-big-deal-for-mac-gaming/
http://blog.gameagent.com/blizzard-games-to-adopt-metal-support/
I'm especially curios about this (from the interview in the first link):
”I am also quite excited about the potential for some of the games we bring to Mac to potentially be faster than the original graphics API, meaning Mac games may be faster than their PC counterparts. It’s incredibly advantageous for us to be able to bring over a Windows game running on a higher level API and run it on a Mac for a lower level, faster API.”
Ahh, it's a serial port dependency. Definitely seen some flakiness with some USB->Serial adapters as well. Some cause issues due to not being able to set the COM port number low enough, and legacy software has issues at times with this. Other times the adaptors in general are poor quality.
Two engineers I trust recommend either a USB->Serial adaptor with a FTDI chip, such as the FT232H. Or a Prolific PL2303 or similar. May want to pass that info onto the local IT team there. Added one of the FTDI ones to my collection a while back, to keep the ability to flash an old MP3 player from 1999.
I have a feeling that serial ports on some PCs are going to dump the legacy implementation and may switch to an onboard USB based embedded serial port. Apple dumped native serial ports before the jump to OS X, as Firewire also had the same characteristics needed for low level firmware flashing and debugging. USB3 has potentially gained these capabilities, but I'm not sure if kernel debugging or low level firmware flashing is possible over USB3 yet.
You serious?
The power of a gaming PC far exceeds the one of a game console.
Same feeling.Thanks for the laugh today. Made my day better.
Wow all current and future games for free... all for the small inconvenience of having to wait a few weeks? That's awesome!
Also to those complaining about Mac support for Steam games in general: Get Windows 10 , install it on an external hard drive (yes, you can officially do that now!), it's super easy and you can even get it for free if you had a previous version or even if you had the Tech Preview (which was also free). There you go. You can play all games ever released. Sure beats waiting for Mac support.
Also to those complaining about Mac support for Steam games in general: Get Windows 10 , install it on an external hard drive (yes, you can officially do that now!), it's super easy and you can even get it for free if you had a previous version or even if you had the Tech Preview (which was also free). There you go. You can play all games ever released. Sure beats waiting for Mac support.
You are referring to Linux, then, as the ideal platform.
I’ve been through the Prolifics already. I know about the dependency too and always use COM1, (except on a MOXA which won’t let me choose any port at all), where possible. I think I’ve seen FTDI before too but will have to check again.
That’s one issue, sometimes it’s repeated crashing. You know what though, after a while of trying to help them you give up.
They're not getting the linked Complete Pack thats on their store page. They're getting a special pack that isn't available to purchase that grants people their entire game library, past and present.
Years ago at an expo when I was exhibiting my first game, I was in a queue to buy an energy drink. Out of nowhere a man just walked right up to the front and asked for some drinks for their booth. He was from Valve. As he walked past I asked him "How'd you do that?!". He replied "you don't ask you don't get!". It worked! Later I found him and asked him for one of the (at the time) legendary get-all-of-Valve's-games codes. He laughed, I gave him my card, and later that day he emailed me a code over. The end!
Edit: Oh! But I think it's worrying that they're giving these codes out to a lot of people. Maybe the writing is on the wall for Valve and they're simply going to support their old titles and manage Steam from here on.
Years ago at an expo when I was exhibiting my first game, I was in a queue to buy an energy drink. Out of nowhere a man just walked right up to the front and asked for some drinks for their booth. He was from Valve. As he walked past I asked him "How'd you do that?!". He replied "you don't ask you don't get!". It worked! Later I found him and asked him for one of the (at the time) legendary get-all-of-Valve's-games codes. He laughed, I gave him my card, and later that day he emailed me a code over. The end!
Edit: Oh! But I think it's worrying that they're giving these codes out to a lot of people. Maybe the writing is on the wall for Valve and they're simply going to support their old titles and manage Steam from here on.
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Dumb. PC gaming has much higher quality options than console gaming. Literally the only advantage consoles have are exclusives of some popular games (Naughty Dog, for example).
If you want higher resolution, greater framerates, compatibility with literally ANY input device, and others, PC gaming is clearly a better option.
Mac isn't even in the equation.
Angry Birds isn't exactly quality gaming.While everyone argues Windows vs Mac vs Console, I sit here quietly awaiting the release of the Apple TV 4. There will be enough games there to keep me happy.
Valve are a fantastic company.
Regarding OS X, it's objectively better than Windows.
But if you're gaming, yeah might want to go build a PC. Anyone who says the current gen consoles are worth buying is delusional.
Regarding OS X, it's objectively better than Windows.
But if you're gaming, yeah might want to go build a PC. Anyone who says the current gen consoles are worth buying is delusional.
As of now, it's not all mac users, only those that bought direct from valve rather than retail. Which as a retail customer, is a bit narking.
No. Actual pre-orders won't ship until November 10th and they plan to have it fixed before then. (Email referenced says "a few weeks")
Back in early June they opened up special pre-orders for the hardware where those who managed to order before they hit an unannounced limit would receive the hardware before release date. The people affected were the small subset of people who had early pre-orders and also happened to use their accounts primarily on a Mac.
The Steam controller actually works fine on OS X with some of their games, such as Portal 2. It just doesn't work with third-party games that support controllers yet. The controller has the ability to switch between simulating a keyboard and mouse or being an actual controller, and that 2nd part doesn't work on OS X yet. On Windows, it will switch into a mode that simulates an XBOX controller when launching a game that supports those.
Steam link is their hardware that hooks up to a TV and lets you stream computer games to it, similar to how AirPlay lets you stream movies to an Apple TV. That isn't working on OS X at the moment.
Closed-source and limited compared to what, Windows? That's so incorrect.
I mean, you took something very easy to argue and messed it up. Macs are obviously bad for gaming-only purposes because you can't upgrade the GPUs in most cases, the hardware costs more, and Windows can run most games (more games than OS X) anyway. It's a waste of a Mac to use it as a game machine, and Windows is actually better just for compatibility reasons. But, of course, many of us use our computers for non-gaming purposes and play games kinda rarely, so we use Macs and maybe boot into Windows for certain games... or just only play Mac games; there are plenty of good ones.
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