Steam, now also on Mac?

[Unknown]

Originally Posted by PhatFreD

But does MacOS have DirectX? Hopefully OpenGL will become the new standard, enabling cross platform transitions more easily.

AFAIK, Mac OS X does not have native DirectX, mainly because DirectX is a Windows technology; that's not to say there isn't a native DirectX-like API around for Mac OS X (I'm not counting the Windows emulators like Wine), just that AFAIK it doesn't exist.

There once was a push to make OpenGL the cross-platform standard, but you-know-who all but quashed that by dumping native support in their OS for OpenGL and only supports DirectX.

[Drac]

Yeah, any native mac 3D game would need to be ported to use Open GL.

You can usually tell a Mac game is running an emulator if it's been touched by Transgaming or mentions the word cider:

TransGaming Inc.

Doesn't look like the Call Of Duty series use that though so they're most likely running native mac code. EA and Ubisoft are the major publishers using that horrid excuse of a product to get their games onto the Mac platform. You're better off buying the Windows version of those games and using Crossover for the same performance via OSX and keep the option to Bootcamp it for native Windows speed if needed.

Then again, I wouldn't be opposed to games using that kind of tech if it was via a service like Steam where a single purchase would entitle me to use the cider version on a Mac and the native version on Windows.

[madoldfart]

thanx again

[Unknown]

Originally Posted by Drac

Then again, I wouldn't be opposed to games using that kind of tech if it was via a service like Steam where a single purchase would entitle me to use the cider version on a Mac and the native version on Windows.

Valve's been listening - from Steam News:

Originally Posted by Valve Software

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.

[...] 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. [...]

Furthermore, Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, sharing servers, lobbies, and so forth.

[...]

Portal 2 will be Valve's first simultaneous release for Mac and Windows.

As we discussed earlier in this thread, Valve's added OpenGL support to the Source Engine (DirectX for Windows, OpenGL for Mac OS X) - this means, in theory at least, most of the porting work to get Source working on Linux should already be done - but don't expect Valve's games and Steam being released for Linux anytime soon.

[hoppy]

Gee MOF, welcome to the 21th century for games

[Drac]

"The Mac Versions of L4D1 and 2 don't run under emulation software but in native code."

From: Left 4 Dead Blog

[madoldfart]

Originally Posted by hoppy

Gee MOF, welcome to the 21th century for games

What did Hoppy say

[hoppy]

You crack me up MOF

Looks like a clip of an apple user bitching about windows again...