Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Valve Officially Announces Steam and Game Library Coming to Mac in April

Please Bring Mass Effect Series and a few other big time games and i wont have a single complaint. oh and some of the Lucas art titles to please :D
 
BRLawyer said:
If you wrote software from the scratch using purely native technologies, APIs and the like, you have released a NATIVE piece of code, nothing else.
Click to expand...

Considering how popular all middleware tools are today in gaming, there is hardly anything that can be considered native then :)
 
mrgreen4242 said:
I'm not sure what the PS3 has to do with this announcement? Care to enlighten me?
Click to expand...

Sure...this console generation Gabe Newll over at Valve has stated over and over they have no interest in developing for the Playstation 3.

The Orange Box was ported over by EA for the pS3. Even when asked about it Valve responded (i'm paraphrasing here) "we have no idea how development is going, EA is doing all the work we are only working on the PC/Xbox360 version"

This is why Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 are not on the PS3. Also I don't think EA got a great return on investment for porting the PS3 version of Half Life so there hasn't been any talk of any other Valve games making their way to the console.


Yet, here is Valve converting their library of games over to the Mac platform....before willing to work on the PS3 platform.


Crazy stuff.
 
DougB541 said:
Sure...this console generation Gabe Newll over at Valve has stated over and over they have no interest in developing for the Playstation 3.

The Orange Box was ported over by EA for the pS3. Even when asked about it Valve responded (i'm paraphrasing here) "we have no idea how development is going, EA is doing all the work we are only working on the PC/Xbox360 version"

This is why Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 are not on the PS3. Also I don't think EA got a great return on investment for porting the PS3 version of Half Life so there hasn't been any talk of any other Valve games making their way to the console.


Yet, here is Valve converting their library of games over to the Mac platform....before willing to work on the PS3 platform.


Crazy stuff.
Click to expand...
About two years ago they also said Apple doesn't get gaming. Valve is expanding and it looks like they might change their PS3 stance soon too
 
macfan881 said:
Please Bring Mass Effect Series and a few other big time games and i wont have a single complaint. oh and some of the Lucas art titles to please :D
Click to expand...

Thats up to the developers of those series.

As I said in a previous post, this is most def. a litmus test for gaming on the Mac Platform. I know that much of the current Unreal Engine (engine behind Mass Effect) makes a lot of use of Direct X specific programming it would be a bit tougher porting that engine over.


I mean not for nothing, the Source engine is 7 years old. Its not exactly cutting edge technology. (but some how they are able to add enough to it to keep it looking good.)

AdrianWerner said:
About two years ago they also said Apple doesn't get gaming. Valve is expanding and it looks like they might change their PS3 stance soon too
Click to expand...

Yeah I saw that story as well. But seeing their response:

"We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation," said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. "The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360. Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with the Windows updates. Furthermore, Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, sharing servers, lobbies, and so forth. We fully support a heterogeneous mix of servers and clients. The first Mac Steam client will be the new generation currently in beta testing on Windows."
Click to expand...

No mention of PS3 there. Just seems like they are still not 100% committed here.

EDIT: Oh to add, Apple honestly didn't get gaming 2 years ago. It sounds now they worked hand and hand with Apple on this...so it sounds like they are "getting gaming" now ha.
 
DougB541 said:
No mention of PS3 there. Just seems like they are still not 100% committed here.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but they are starting to mention PS3 more and more. I imagine that it's likely to happen in next two years or so.
It doesn't surprise me Valve is going for Mac first. I mean..hardware wise modern Macs are bassicaly exactly the same as PCs, while PS3 is alien architecture that most devs have problems with. Plus Steam is Valve's cash cow and it will work on Mac (even if it will support only fraction of games from pc catalogue), while the service is impossible to implement on PS3
 
BRLawyer said:
It's fine, I accept your definition...I am more picky about the terminology used, though.

In my view, "porting" is not simply linked to the fact that a game existed before in a different platform, it HAS to use programming elements from the previous version...so in the definition I am using, the term "native port" would be a contradiction in itself. If you wrote software from the scratch using purely native technologies, APIs and the like, you have released a NATIVE piece of code, nothing else.

Porting would then be used for wrapping, emulating and partial/total code pasting, not on-the-metal/assembly native coding (I must concede that this concept was clearer in the times of multiple, totally incompatible platforms like in the 80s)...
Click to expand...

I've never heard of a game that is a native port and is built from the ground up... Well, unless the engine isn't using a cross-platform language.

To make a native port, all you have to do is make changes to the base SDK (the code of the Source engine). You can keep 99% of the code, since it goes through an abstraction layer, but all the math, physics, level design, scripting (even though Source doesn't use a scripting engine) does not even need to be touched. Download the source code of both Mac and PC of a free game engine such as OGRE. Everything is run the same except the calls to the APIs.
 
The General said:
oh man, this whole conversation is a train wreck. it's like reading posts on the skull candy forums about sound quality. my favorite part so far is "transcodes the pc files".

please, continue.
Click to expand...

You know... I don't know exactly how Cider works, I just know that it doesn't work "well". Also, I know that it's just a Mac OS X app package that has a PC Programs folder in it with the regular PC version of the game. So I'm guessing that there is translation going on in real time when you play the game. Also, Cider doesn't run nearly as well as the PC version running natively in Windows because the game was not optimized for the Mac platform. Am I wrong?

I'm not a developer and I don't know what Cider is doing behind the scenes but, I do know that it doesn't do much because Cider games are just CRAP. This is probably why Apple helped Valve port Steam to the Mac. People are now going to have ANOTHER reason to switch to Mac and Apple will most likely embrace that. I can see them (Apple) running commercials about it.
 
So crap in fact that it plays games!

BRLawyer said:
Excellent news. This ALSO means that one of the last reasons for people to keep (unwillingly) their inferior PCs is practically vaporized now.

MS IS DEAD. AND SO IS DELL.
Click to expand...

They are so inferior that EVEN YOU associate PCs with gaming?

YOUR ARGUMENT IS DEAD. STOP SAYING IT, IT DOESN'T MAKE IT HAPPEN!


BRLawyer said:
It's fine, I accept your definition...I am more picky about the terminology used, though.
Click to expand...

Of course, it's all about being articulate!
 
AdrianWerner said:
Yeah, but they are starting to mention PS3 more and more. I imagine that it's likely to happen in next two years or so.
It doesn't surprise me Valve is going for Mac first. I mean..hardware wise modern Macs are bassicaly exactly the same as PCs, while PS3 is alien architecture that most devs have problems with. Plus Steam is Valve's cash cow and it will work on Mac (even if it will support only fraction of games from pc catalogue), while the service is impossible to implement on PS3
Click to expand...

Good point. Steam may be the bigger thing here then just the games they brought over.
 
kernkraft said:
They are so inferior that EVEN YOU associate PCs with gaming?

YOUR ARGUMENT IS DEAD. STOP SAYING IT, IT DOESN'T MAKE IT HAPPEN!
Click to expand...

haha.

my question why is only Dell dead in his mind? What about HP, Asus, Lenovo, etc. etc.?

GUILTIE said:
Will cross platform gaming (PC and Mac) be possible?
Click to expand...

Not only possible, but already confirmed.

I smell PC vs. Mac servers haha.
 
Oh how this throws egg right in the face of some people on this forum who stated this would never happen, would be a waste of time, would not be a direct port, you would have to pay again for your PC version sof games, and that we would not see any new Valve games released on the Mac!

hahahahahahahahaha in your face suckers!!!!

I'm glad Apple has actually at long last done something for games on the Mac, Left4Dead 2 is one I want!!! And it gives an easy way for other devs to sell Mac versions.
 
Excuse my naiveté - I've read this whole thread but am none the wiser...

I have been using Macs for 8 or 9 years now, during which time all my gaming has been done on consoles. I have never tried to run a game on any of my Macs and haven't kept up with PC gaming at all. Whenever I have bought a new Mac, I haven't worried too much about the graphics card because I knew it would be fine for the sort of stuff I would be using the computer for...

This announcement, however, could change things. What I would like to know is whether my current Mac is capable of gaming to what I would consider a reasonable standard.

It's only a few days old: 27" i5 iMac 4GB ATI Radeon HD 4850 (512MB). What sort of performance might I be able to get from this? Could I rival Xbox 360/PS3? Original Xbox? PS2?

Any ideas?

Steve.
 
DougB541 said:
I mean not for nothing, the Source engine is 7 years old. Its not exactly cutting edge technology. (but some how they are able to add enough to it to keep it looking good.)
Click to expand...

The source engine is constantly updated and refurbished to make use of all the newer technology. The newer DX technologies are implemented all the time (although now it looks like they're switching to the faster OpenGL 3.x).
 
Rumor is that UT2007 and Gears of War are waiting on Steam for launch.

The UT2007 engine on Mac would also open the way for Mass Effect.
 
Neotyguy40 said:
The source engine is constantly updated and refurbished to make use of all the newer technology. The newer DX technologies are implemented all the time (although now it looks like they're switching to the faster OpenGL 3.x).
Click to expand...

there's no way they will switch to OpenGL, they might support both it and DX, but they won't switch to it completely because of Xbox 360.
 
Yea I just thought of something, DX is definitely a huge part of these games, I use launch options like dxlevel-95 etc.
Are they actually going to change up the game for openGL... something or just interpret dxlevel commands into openGL equivalents.

hmmm
 
TheSpaz said:
He means that if they "port" it to the Mac, he wants a "native" application instead of just a Cider wrapper on the PC version of the game. There's porting the "real way" and re-writing the code to optimize it for the Mac and then there's the Cider way of just sticking the PC game files in a wrapper that transcodes the PC files. Cider games run like dog crap.
Click to expand...

Knowing Valve, I doubt they'd do something like that as it would damage their reputation.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back