How do Macs run games?

[twocows]

Just as an update, apparently Valve is porting over Steam to OS X. Yes, Steam.

The apocalypse is coming.

This doesn't mean all Steam games will be ported, though. You'll be lucky if all the source games even get ported, tbh.

 

[Gerri Shin]

currently the only confirmed game from steam for mac has been Portal 2. we'll have to see if they are really working on their entire line up.

 

[Calder]

It doesn't hahahaha but seriously it only plays like 10 year old games

 

[Bianca Paragon]

Source has been confirmed, twocows. Not only Orange Box, but L4D also :P

 

[wakachamo]

This doesn't mean all Steam games will be ported, though. You'll be lucky if all the source games even get ported, tbh.

currently the only confirmed game from steam for mac has been Portal 2. we'll have to see if they are really working on their entire line up.

If Portal 2 is being ported to the Mac, then that means they had to port the Source engine. If they ported the Source engine, that means that it should be a relatively simple task to port all games that are based on the Source engine.

Common sense, guys. It's not that hard to find it.

 

[twocows]

Source has been confirmed, twocows. Not only Orange Box, but L4D also :P

Oh, I hadn't heard that. I hope they port more, tbh; more OpenGL adoption is a good thing.

 

[wakachamo]

IMO it's too early to say they're adopting OpenGL; for all we know they could just be Cider-porting everything.

EDIT: Nevermind, they're using OpenGL - https://www.appleinsider.com/articl...am_for_mac_will_allow_mac_pc_online_play.html

 

[Misaka Shiori]

If Audiosurf manages to port themselves with Cider after Steam comes out on the Mac, than I think there is one less reason to boot into Windows 7 since that the only game I play at the moment besides Visual Novels, which I play in VMWare Fusion since it doesn't use 3D graphics.

 

[TheAppleFreak]

Well, according to MacNN, we currently have several games coming over to OS X:
L4D
Portal 2
Team Fortress 2
Counter-Strike
Portal
The entire Half-Life series

 

[twocows]

Well, according to MacNN, we currently have several games coming over to OS X:
L4D
Portal 2
Team Fortress 2
Counter-Strike
Portal
The entire Half-Life series

This include pre-HL2? If so, it means they're porting GoldSrc, which opens up a lot of mods as well.

 

[TheAppleFreak]

This include pre-HL2? If so, it means they're porting GoldSrc, which opens up a lot of mods as well.

That's what MacNN and MacWorld say. Regardless, WE'RE ACTUALLY GETTING GAMES. Furthermore, we're also getting updates and (presumably) new games in tandem with Windows (not sure about the second point, but I'm assuming that given the wording of the post).

EDIT: From Steam's website:

Valve announced today it will bring Steam, Valve's gaming service, and Source, Valve's gaming engine, to the Mac.

Steam and Valve's library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April.

"As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services."

"Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients, are very excited about adding support for the Mac," said Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve. "Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play."

"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."

Portal 2 will be Valve's first simultaneous release for Mac and Windows. "Checking in code produces a PC build and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step," said Josh Weier, Portal 2 Project Lead. "We're always playing a native version on the Mac right alongside the PC. This makes it very easy for us and for anyone using Source to do game development for the Mac."

 

[Kombo Studio]

I'd say that a Macbook runs games just fine like most of the laptops from this generation.
Although I would not buy a Macbook for gaming.

The news that Source is being ported to OSX (and maybe Linux) is certainly exciting news.

 

[Bianca Paragon]

...being ported to OSX (and maybe Linux)...

No sign of any word from Valve about Linux *at all*. Sounds like wishful thinking ~ if anybody uses Linux they deserve to never have nice things ♥

 

[TheAppleFreak]

Well, this is sort of a bump, so...
*BUMP*

Valve is now asking for beta testers for their new Mac software. I applied :)

The link