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Valve Officially Announces Steam and Game Library Coming to Mac in April
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The big news for all non-MS platforms here is that they have rewritten the Source engine based on openGL. This means that it will be much easier to create PS3, and even Linux versions of games in the future.
Even bigger deal is that its a major engine, used by many 3rd party game developers, whose games can now easily run on these non-MS platforms too.
An even bigger change, IMO, is that its a huge competitive advantage for the Source engine (any developer looking for a gaming engine, cannot simply ignore the 10% or so North American mac share, which spends disproportionately higher, and is a much larger percentage of non-office computers). That may convince other developers (the UT3 guys) to also base their engines on the more portable OpenGL.
Its a shame, but.. Awfully. If things load at all. :/ I wouldnt be surprised if portal ran and halflife2 ran ok(ish) with totally crippled settings.. I'd say pretty unplayable tbh if you can get them to load. I'd be really interested to see people's attempts though. My 950 based macbook used to cry when I tried to run this sort of thing on it.
Even the next GMA up its pretty painful, and that's with forcing things to run in low frills DX7/8 modes. TF2 wouldn't run at all on my 950 Macbook.
I'll certainly welcome an upgradeable Mac mid-tower! However, being objective, even the lowest-end new Macs (with 9400M) are now better gaming-enabled computers than the vast majority of PCs in the world. Along with a growing OS X user base, all future Mac updates will only improve the viability of OS X for more game developers
You won't be able to. Modern Warfare 2 is not based on the Source Engine, it's based on Infinity Ward's IW 4.0 game engine. The only way MW2 will come to the Mac is if Infinity Ward ports their engine to the Mac as well.
Agreed! So I find it amusing, if not pathetic, that 40 so far have voted negative. Oh well, whatever floats their boat I guess.Seriously, there is nothing, NOTHING, bad about this announcement. Thank you Valve for kicking so much ass.
The previous CoD games were based on a heavily modified Quake engine, which runs on Linux, PC and Mac. I am quite surprised that MW2 has not been ported to Mac.
http://store.steampowered.com/news/3569/
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey
The other implication with OpenGL inclusion, is that I think OpenGL could be how Valve intends to take advantage of DX10 GPUs going forward even in Windows. 49% of Valve's users have DX10 capable hardware with a DX10 capable OS. A further 27% of their users have DX10 GPUs but run Windows XP which can't run the DX10 API. If Valve were to want to put the effort into fully utilizing DX10 GPUs and have the most users take advantage of it, most noticably the third of current tracked DX10 GPU owners who use Windows XP, they would implement DX10 features through OpenGL 3.x. More focus on making OpenGL 3.x the future of the Source Engine of course benefits Macs since OpenGL won't be an afterthought and will see more optimization. Of course, 10.6.3 looks to finally bring OpenGL 3.x support to Mac. Valve will probably also make an OpenGL 2.x codepath to support Leopard, which is still the most popular OS X version, as well as DX9 GPUs which are still plenty fast for most Source Engine games.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/03/08/valve_apple_worked_closely_to_bring_steam_to_mac.html
I think the most important thing about this announcement is that this isn't some port of a few games to Mac. The Source Engine and entire development tool chain has now been redeveloped with Mac support and OpenGL support in mind. So essentially the same source code is being used to support Windows, Mac, and XBox 360 in lockstep. I'm sure PS3 owners will be disappointed since they are the odd one out since the Source Engine still can't natively/directly compile to the PS3. This was my primary concern about Valve porting their games, whether it'll be individual ports or fundamental changes to make the Source Engine and developer tools able to output Mac code directly and it looks like they delivered.
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey
The other implication with OpenGL inclusion, is that I think OpenGL could be how Valve intends to take advantage of DX10 GPUs going forward even in Windows. 49% of Valve's users have DX10 capable hardware with a DX10 capable OS. A further 27% of their users have DX10 GPUs but run Windows XP which can't run the DX10 API. If Valve were to want to put the effort into fully utilizing DX10 GPUs and have the most users take advantage of it, most noticably the third of current tracked DX10 GPU owners who use Windows XP, they would implement DX10 features through OpenGL 3.x. More focus on making OpenGL 3.x the future of the Source Engine of course benefits Macs since OpenGL won't be an afterthought and will see more optimization. Of course, 10.6.3 looks to finally bring OpenGL 3.x support to Mac. Valve will probably also make an OpenGL 2.x codepath to support Leopard, which is still the most popular OS X version, as well as DX9 GPUs which are still plenty fast for most Source Engine games.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/03/08/valve_apple_worked_closely_to_bring_steam_to_mac.html
And hardware requirements really aren't a concern for Source Engine games. Valve expects them to be similar to the PC versions. Even Left 4 Dead 2, the latest Valve game only requires a SM2.0 level GPU, something with the performance level of the GeForce 6600 which is equivalent to the slowest Intel Mac GPUs the X1600, HD 2400XT, and 9400M. Older games like the original Half Life 2 were designed to accomodate DX7 level GPUs like the GeForce4 MX. As long as you have a Intel Mac with a discrete GPU you'll be fine.
I've been running CS:S from my first-gen 2.0Ghz Unibody Macbook through bootcamp with decent results. Now that it's going to be ported over to Mac, will I see quality improvements or should I expect the same graphics capability as with bootcamp?
Same, maybe (I'd say probably) a bit worse for a while until they get things ironed out.
Oh how I've missed you CSS.
Soon, we'll be together again, and this time I a'int letting go.
Ah, spoken like a true gamer, just cares about the bloody gameplay, not how pretty it is...
But can it compete with COD Modern Warfare? IMO that's the same, I'm addicted to it online on my PS3 yet I am fully aware it's not the best looking game. It just plays so fantastic, you know, it's FUN!!
I can see Crossover Games loosing some sales, maybe Crossover too as Vmware etc are now doing a very good job for apps.
Well, considering that Modern Warfare 1 is available for the Mac natively, and seeing as MW2 is just a modified if not the same games engine as used in MW1. Then I can see no reason what so ever why not. I don't think it will be long before we see it on the Mac. Although I prefer my PS3 and 32" HD telly
He is the vocal idiot who runs Valve. It's amazing to think of the man who brought HL to the world amongst others is such a flipping utter idiot. He has slated plenty of systems including the PS3, then the company magically does a U turn and suddenly supports said systems!! Just like the Mac.
Seriously, I swear Valve train governments in U turn strategy.
I reckon pretty playable on medium settings. it all depends on the quality of the port though.
Valve should really treat the 9400M as their baseline target model because it's so prevalent on their systems.
EDIT: I didn't realise the 9400M was *SO* prevalent. It's available across their whole range!
This news is a "game changer" as steve would put it. Absolutely HUGE blow to microsoft, Im sure more developers will follow. Only MS games will not be on the mac over the next couple years.
Now come on apple, give us icore and ATI in the 21.5 inch imac.
Now come on apple, give us icore and ATI in the 21.5 inch imac.
Agreed! So I find it amusing, if not pathetic, that 40 so far have voted negative. Oh well, whatever floats their boat I guess.
I agree that this is a good thing, but college economics would say their devoting resources to porting to Mac are resources that could have otherwise been devoted to making better games (or working on getting Ep. 3 out finally dammit!) Again, I agree that Source ported to Mac is a good thing. I'm just pointing out a possible reason why people could be voting it negatively.
Do you have a source for this wild guess?
The correct terminology is "hand in hand" by the way.