Has anyone run any tests? I'm wondering how it's running. There were also DX12 optimizations for Windows 10.
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WoW 8.1 patch has Metal optimizations
- Thread starter Yaboze
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It’s night and day.
On my ancient imac with a 680mx I was getting 35-40 FPS in Boralus at custom settings/native resolution (1440) with 8.0.
Now a locked 60fps there as well as in raids. It’s amazing.
Multithreading/Metal is absolutely shining now.
On my ancient imac with a 680mx I was getting 35-40 FPS in Boralus at custom settings/native resolution (1440) with 8.0.
Now a locked 60fps there as well as in raids. It’s amazing.
Multithreading/Metal is absolutely shining now.
Good to hear. OTOH, it makes you wonder why things went so bad with HoTS that Blizzard dropped Metal support. (And also why they say Macs aren't suitable for Overwatch. 
)
In general, it shows that simply porting to Metal (i.e., converting DX11 code to Metal) is only the first step. Designing the engine around modern APIs makes all the difference. This is why, for instance, UE4 has room for progression.
)In general, it shows that simply porting to Metal (i.e., converting DX11 code to Metal) is only the first step. Designing the engine around modern APIs makes all the difference. This is why, for instance, UE4 has room for progression.
Good to hear. OTOH, it makes you wonder why things went so bad with HoTS that Blizzard dropped Metal support. (And also why they say Macs aren't suitable for Overwatch.
In general, it shows that simply porting to Metal (i.e., converting DX11 code to Metal) is only the first step. Designing the engine around modern APIs makes all the difference. This is why, for instance, UE4 has room for progression.
Given the news which came out a couple of days ago that they're abandoning the competitive HOTS scene and moving devs over to other projects, it doesn't surprise me that they've been reluctant to spend extra development resources on the project for a while. I think the cash cow they expected "Blizzard DOTA" to be did not eventuate.
Regarding Overwatch, it does not have DX12 support. Renderer operation is likely firmly built around the DX11 way of doing things, and building a new low-level renderer for a tiny portion of the user base probably isn't worth their resources. WoW got Metal support out of necessity, and the MVP over on the WoW Mac forums seems pretty insistent that building the Metal renderer ultimately paved the way for DX12 and the advancements we're seeing now.
So, if Overwatch ever gets a DX12 renderer, I'd say let's talk about this again.
But it’s always the user base. If Macs made up a more sizeable portion, it would be financially viable to invest resources in overcoming the technological challenges of building a Metal renderer.
You have to remember that at the time Overwatch came out, OpenGL was too slow to run it well, and Metal was too immature feature wise to support the game.
This has obviously changed now. If they decide to bring overwatch to the switch, they'll probably do macOS at the same time, or vice versa.
More recently, when there was a rumour about Overwatch on the Mac (following some findings of some configuration file mentioning a Mac client), Blizzard reiterated the Mac wasn't technologically adequate. That was after Metal 2 came out.
The quote was.
"There are several technology decisions that Apple has made that has made it a little difficult for us to release Overwatch in the way we want it to be consumed, and that is why we haven't pursued it."
Reading between the lines, it seems at the time it was difficult... Even though it's absolutely possible NOW. Metal2 had only JUST come out, and there were still plenty of bugs. It wasn't until 10.13 that things were mostly ironed out.
The window of opportunity passed, so they didn't revisit it. Maybe they will agin if the release it on switch.
Probably, but the gains are unlikely to be anywhere near as dramatic and they can't all be realised solely in the platform specific code. Good on Blizzard with their work as I know how hard this will have been.