Ah, but no-one would question Mac support when you’re developing new software. If you can support Mac, which is certified UNIX, then the jump to supporting Linux isn’t all that much extra, and we can prove there’s a growing install base.
Started the ball rolling, and it just keeps going faster.
Games rely on more than just the OS API and even variation between Linux flavours or installed libraries on the same flavours can make compatibility difficult. My success rate at running games with a Linux native version is maybe 50% before I fall back to proton and the windows version. The consistency helps, though kudos to the developers who put in the effort to get their games working on Linux in general rather than just their particular systems.
The gpu library is a big one. There’s OpenGL, DirectX, and Vulkan (which is the successor to OpenGL) that I know of. Linux and windows support all three, in some form or manner, but afaik mac only supports OpenGL, which really holds back game development, especially with DX being the most popularly targeted one.
Though my info might be a bit dated because I dgaf about macs generally, just wanted to point out that the shared roots between mac and Linux don’t necessarily mean targeting one would make targeting the other easier in a meaningful way.
Maybe one day they’ll sell a dongle to play games (which is really just a live boot linux install).
Oh definitely. Linux should definitely be targeted before macs because people who are on it I’m sure play more games. But again not a high bar as a lot of games never get Mac versions either.
A decade ago things were looking really positive for the future of Mac gaming. It felt like more and more games were coming out supporting it. I’m not sure if their transition away from Intel has hindered it, or if it’s something else, but it definitely seems to have stalled.
Plus, the move to Apple Silicon has killed the back-up option of Bootcamp. Or I assume it has, I’ve not been a Mac user since before the transition, when my ageing MBP died and I just found I didn’t need any laptop to replace it.
It’s simple, Apple has never cared about gaming except for that 1 year you are talking about. They’ve done fuck all to get developers to target mac and it shows.
I definitely don’t remember any sort of golden era of mac gaming like that. I remember them announcing some games along with their Metal API’s and that was about the end of that .
There are some pretty good emulation layers for the M chips. If Apple set up a certification program like Steam Deck has, they’d be in pretty good shape.
Beating Mac in gaming is like beating Glass Joe in Punch Out!!
There’s only three players. It’s more like the second Piston Honda.
Ah, but no-one would question Mac support when you’re developing new software. If you can support Mac, which is certified UNIX, then the jump to supporting Linux isn’t all that much extra, and we can prove there’s a growing install base.
Started the ball rolling, and it just keeps going faster.
Games rely on more than just the OS API and even variation between Linux flavours or installed libraries on the same flavours can make compatibility difficult. My success rate at running games with a Linux native version is maybe 50% before I fall back to proton and the windows version. The consistency helps, though kudos to the developers who put in the effort to get their games working on Linux in general rather than just their particular systems.
The gpu library is a big one. There’s OpenGL, DirectX, and Vulkan (which is the successor to OpenGL) that I know of. Linux and windows support all three, in some form or manner, but afaik mac only supports OpenGL, which really holds back game development, especially with DX being the most popularly targeted one.
Though my info might be a bit dated because I dgaf about macs generally, just wanted to point out that the shared roots between mac and Linux don’t necessarily mean targeting one would make targeting the other easier in a meaningful way.
Maybe one day they’ll sell a dongle to play games (which is really just a live boot linux install).
Oh definitely. Linux should definitely be targeted before macs because people who are on it I’m sure play more games. But again not a high bar as a lot of games never get Mac versions either.
A decade ago things were looking really positive for the future of Mac gaming. It felt like more and more games were coming out supporting it. I’m not sure if their transition away from Intel has hindered it, or if it’s something else, but it definitely seems to have stalled.
Plus, the move to Apple Silicon has killed the back-up option of Bootcamp. Or I assume it has, I’ve not been a Mac user since before the transition, when my ageing MBP died and I just found I didn’t need any laptop to replace it.
It’s simple, Apple has never cared about gaming except for that 1 year you are talking about. They’ve done fuck all to get developers to target mac and it shows.
I’m talking about the whole period of like 2010 to about 2018.
I definitely don’t remember any sort of golden era of mac gaming like that. I remember them announcing some games along with their Metal API’s and that was about the end of that .
I wouldn’t have described it as a golden era. More like a constant, steady, quiet sense of improvement.
I had a friend who gamed on a Mac for a while during that period, most games did work for her.
I do think the M series chips set it back a bit because most games aren’t targeting ARM, so you have to use Rosetta to emulate reducing performance
And now Rosetta is getting deprecated in the next release too!
There are some pretty good emulation layers for the M chips. If Apple set up a certification program like Steam Deck has, they’d be in pretty good shape.
Except I’m sure they’d charge out the ass and they don’t seem to put any effort into gaming 🤷