Valve to Deliver Steam and Source on Mac

[Wile E]

I've been trying to get that to work for ages.

Doesn't play nice with most Asus boards in my experience. Usually have to set the cpu switch to 1. Single core is no fun. It works best with Gigabyte boards.

 

[Mussels]

No offense but you really have no idea about what you are talking about most of the big titles on Steam are DirectX games + most of the upcoming games on Steam are DirectX 11 , ofc there are some hybrid games that can work on both (directX or OpenGL) but it only go for OpenGL if the hardware doesn't support DirectX or if you chose that , here is some of the biggest Steam titles :

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition -DirectX 9.0
Bioshock 2 -DirectX 9.0
The Orange Box -DirectX 9.0
Left 4 Dead 2 -DirectX 9.0
Team Fortress -DirectX 9.0
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 -DirectX 9.0

-some DirectX10 and 11 games:

Assassin's Creed II -DirectX 10.1
Mass Effect 2-DirectX 10
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat -DirectX11
DiRT 2 -DirectX 11
Battlefield Bad Company 2 -DirectX 11

ofc some of these games will run on OpenGL and older DX versions but this will be at the cost of image quality, and FYI there are many other DirectX 11 games coming soon for Steam including new versions of some current DirectX9 titles with DX11 support.

*source Steam website.

*insert generic insult here*

You see... you cant even read. i said VALVE games. not steam games. They are NOT porting steam games, they are porting valve games.. and not one single valve game is DX10 yet.

oh and btw, lost planet is DX10

 

[DanielF50]

oh yay.

now mac fanboys are going to argue that macs are better for games, even though they clearly aren't and won't ever be :/

 

[TAViX]

So basically only OpenGL games will run on Mac. I don't think you need 2 hands to count all the OPGL games available...

But Counter Strike, Half-Life 2, Fortress and the zombie game all run in OpenGL also I think...Maybe this is what they intended for Mac...

 

[btarunr]

No more pissing contests please.

 

[TAViX]

No more pissing contests please.

But mine goes longer!!!!

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Considering it's been years since Apple has used the 1 button fail mouse, I think your joke is also a little fail (and a little stale anyway).

I wonder how long that "touch-sensitive technology" will last under the abuse of an FPS game. In my experience, mice not designed for gaming tend not to last long when used for gaming. Take, for example, Call of Pripyat. I always put my guns in single-fire mode and feather the fire button for an extremely precise, rapid-fire usage. Subconciously, hearing the click the mouse confirms the shot has been made which is confirmed by the sounds of the rifle in the game...

I hope Valve adds mice to their monthly hardware/software poll because it would be interesting to see how (un)popular the "Apple Mouse" is for gaming.


Video cards were already mentioned as being a major issue on the gaming front. Just checking them out here are about all the options Apple offers across all products:
-GeForce 9400M
-GeForce 9600M
-1x GeForce GT 120 (9500 GT)
-2x GeForce GT 120 (9500 GT)
-3x GeForce GT 120 (9500 GT)
-4x GeForce GT 120 (9500 GT) -- this is the most "high end" offering by Apple on any system
-Radeon HD 4870

Those cards (not so much the 4870) are going to strain to play any of the newer Valve titles at 1920x1200 or 2560x1600 resolutions. It really doesn't matter how many GT 120s you stick in a computer, they (and the 9400M) are intended for 2D work, not 3D. The 9600M passes as barely more than mediocre and the HD 4870 is dated (by HD 58## series). Not good...

 

[Wile E]

I wonder how long that "touch-sensitive technology" will last under the abuse of an FPS game. In my experience, mice not designed for gaming tend not to last long when used for gaming. Take, for example, Call of Pripyat. I always put my guns in single-fire mode and feather the fire button for an extremely precise, rapid-fire usage. Subconciously, hearing the click the mouse confirms the shot has been made which is confirmed by the sounds of the rifle in the game...

I hope Valve adds mice to their monthly hardware/software poll because it would be interesting to see how (un)popular the "Apple Mouse" is for gaming.


Video cards were already mentioned as being a major issue on the gaming front. Just checking them out here are about all the options Apple offers across all products:
-GeForce 9400M
-GeForce 9600M
-1x GeForce GT 120 (9500 GT)
-2x GeForce GT 120 (9500 GT)
-3x GeForce GT 120 (9500 GT)
-4x GeForce GT 120 (9500 GT) -- this is the most "high end" offering by Apple on any system
-Radeon HD 4870

Those cards (not so much the 4870) are going to strain to play any of the newer Valve titles at 1920x1200 or 2560x1600 resolutions. It really doesn't matter how many GT 120s you stick in a computer, they (and the 9400M) are intended for 2D work, not 3D. The 9600M passes as barely more than mediocre and the HD 4870 is dated (by HD 58## series). Not good...

I'm not arguing that Apple is the supreme gaming platform. Just that they don't have 1 button mice. I do like the multi-touch mouse idea tho, but agree that it's place is not in gaming. Mine came with the Mighty Mouse back in the day. I hated it. It now has a Razer Salmosa on it.

And a 4870 is good enough for 1920x1200 on most Valve games.

But, what I'm hoping overall is, this move by Steam and Valve will see Apple getting more graphics hardware, and more up to date hardware. Would be nice to have a second viable gaming platform.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

But, what I'm hoping overall is, this move by Steam and Valve will see Apple getting more graphics hardware, and more up to date hardware. Would be nice to have a second viable gaming platform.

NVIDIA and AMD have to author special firmware for Apple computers which is why their support is so limited. If memory serves, they might even require extra BIOS ROM space on the cards themselves to make room for the large firmware required by the cards. Its a lot of expensive work for AMD and NVIDIA so, unless there is a huge migration from Windows to OS X, I doubt the card availability will change much.

I can't see Valve/Steam causing that sort of migration. Actually, I think Valve is taking a very big, expensive risk in doing this. Not so much for porting Steam but for porting the games to work on Mac OS X but, they have to in order to give Steam the best possible chance of surviving on Apple computers. We'll have to wait and see if it booms or goes bust.

 

[Wile E]

NVIDIA and AMD have to author special firmware for Apple computers which is why their support is so limited. If memory serves, they might even require extra BIOS ROM space on the cards themselves to make room for the large firmware required by the cards. Its a lot of expensive work for AMD and NVIDIA so, unless there is a huge migration from Windows to OS X, I doubt the card availability will change much.

I can't see Valve/Steam causing that sort of migration. Actually, I think Valve is taking a very big, expensive risk in doing this. Not so much for porting Steam but for porting the games to work on Mac OS X but, they have to in order to give Steam the best possible chance of surviving on Apple computers. We'll have to wait and see if it booms or goes bust.

No, they don't need a special BIOS these days, they just need special drivers. Apple chooses to use a different BIOS in most cards tho, unfortunately. Like I said, I'm hoping that a larger company like steam can coax them into a more gamer friendly platform. We'll have to wait it out and see tho, I suppose.

It's generally the older ADC cards that had the larger than PC BIOS on them, btw.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

No, they don't need a special BIOS these days, they just need special drivers. Apple chooses to use a different BIOS in most cards tho, unfortunately. Like I said, I'm hoping that a larger company like steam can coax them into a more gamer friendly platform. We'll have to wait it out and see tho, I suppose.

It's generally the older ADC cards that had the larger than PC BIOS on them, btw.

?
I've never heard of a PC videocard that doesn't need to flash a different BIOS in order to work in a Mac.

 

[Wile E]

?
I've never heard of a PC videocard that doesn't need to flash a different BIOS in order to work in a Mac.

Re-read my post. I said they don't need to have the special BIOS anymore, but Apple generally chooses to use one anyway. You can use a standard PC card with custom drivers, btw. Only the older ADC cards "needed" the special larger BIOS.

 

[CDdude55]

The source engine is much more CPU dependent, it doesn't put much of a strain on the GPU so much, i maxed out L4D, TF2, Portal, all Half-Life's etc on an 8600 GTS 256MB. But was backed up by a QX6700 which did most of the work load and kept my frames amazingly high. Now ya, you could say its because of my res(1440x900) i'd take more CPU power in general, but its mainly the fact that there games aren't very hard to max on a rig with a shitty video card.

Those cards (not so much the 4870) are going to strain to play any of the newer Valve titles at 1920x1200 or 2560x1600 resolutions. It really doesn't matter how many GT 120s you stick in a computer, they (and the 9400M) are intended for 2D work, not 3D. The 9600M passes as barely more than mediocre and the HD 4870 is dated (by HD 58## series). Not good...

Just because the 4 series is a year or so older doesn't automatically make it irreverent and obsolete.

 

[Mussels]

The source engine is much more CPU dependent, it doesn't put much of a strain on the GPU so much, i maxed out L4D, TF2, Portal, all Half-Life's etc on an 8600 GTS 256MB. But was back up by a QX6700 which did most of the work load and kept my frames amazingly high. Now ya, you could say its because of my res(1440x900) i'd take more CPU power in general, but its mainly the fact that there games aren't very hard to max on a rig with a shitty video card.



Just because the 4 series is a year or so older doesn't automatically make it irreverent and obsolete.

indeed. a single 4870 can max every valve game at 1080p with no struggle at all.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

Re-read my post. I said they don't need to have the special BIOS anymore, but Apple generally chooses to use one anyway. You can use a standard PC card with custom drivers, btw. Only the older ADC cards "needed" the special larger BIOS.

So it's either re-flashed BIOS or hacked drivers...

Still not that good, is it?

 

[Solaris17]

read title as something to deliver dreams. and I was like omfg people are delivering dreams this is nuts tech.

/ O/T

 

[Wile E]

So it's either re-flashed BIOS or hacked drivers...

Still not that good, is it?

You're missing the point of my posts. If this causes enough stir in the Apple community, Apple may make the platform more gamer friendly. Maybe they'll quit with the special BIOSes, or maybe they'll give us drivers to handle more cards. It's not like they actually need the special BIOSes anyway. They just choose to use them to lock us into specific hardware.

 

[tkpenalty]

now there's a reason to buy macs LOL