Questions about Mac gaming!

Technology and Gaming
#1

Alriiiigghtttt since this question is pretty general, and I’m not sure where exactly to post it anyway, I figured I’d post it here. Yes, I do own a Mac, and yes I am a gamer. I own the thing because I make films and I need a Mac to use my preferred editing software. That being said, I’d just like to say that Mac computers are actually very ideal for gaming, hardware-wise. They are built with ideal specs for running even the most costly of games very well. ANYWAY:

About a year ago I loaded a program called CrossOver Games on my MacBook. I have a DirectX9 graphics card, but when I ran steam games through that program (such as Half-Life 2 and so-on), I could only play on DX level 8 for some reason, it wouldn’t let me enable DirectX9.

I’m betting the cause for this is because of the fact that my computer was essentially trying to run two operating systems at once, which caused some trouble.

Now that Steam is being released for Mac soon and I should be able to run all the games legitimately, will I encounter that problem or should I be able to run games with DX9-level quality?

Thanks for your help and interest.:3

#2

Well, just because Steam may or may not be releasing for Mac, doesn’t mean that the entire games catalogue is being ported to Mac. However from the look of the fake ads, Valve appears to be porting Source engine to Mac as well, so I’ll let that slide. Anyways, if Source is ported to Mac it would be using OpenGL instead of DirectX, but yes, you should be able to use the latest version of OpenGL.

Also, why not just dual boot? I’m on a 2006 iMac right now, but I’m posting from Google Chrome in Windows 7 on my Windows partition. Its quick, painless, and you’re natively running Windows so everything works as it should.

#3

Does not compute.

Also this just in, macs no longer better at multimedia applications.

#4

redacted

#5

I always knew that one guy would start a controversial thread! :s nicker: j/k.

Anyway… I am rather anticipating the new stream of steam lovers, but I fear it may cause a bit of a stir at first rather than an influx of “oh hai! I am new here and lovin it!” in the steaming community. Time will tell tho.

#6

I would dual boot, but I don’t have enough hard drive space. I’m planning on getting an external for all of my macintosh applications and documents, etc. then partitioning my drive to dual boot it with windows xp.

However, my money situation being what it is, that is VERY far-off from happening. Believe me, I would have by now if I could. :frowning:

Also, to acristoff, I don’t care which is “better”. I use Mac OSX because my preferred editing software, the Final Cut Suite, is only operable with Mac.:jizz:

#7

Hilarious.

#8

i no ryte? :retard:

#9

Mac hardware is outdated hardware, same with buying prebuilt PC’s.

#10

I never got this. Do you consider running bootcamp to fire up Xp and playing games as actually playing games on a mac. Seems strange hearing the mac crowd using this as a “macs can play games too” argument. Especially nowadays, seems like when you stop using OS X your mac ceases to exist as a mac.

#11

The extent of Mac gaming is The Sims 3, DooM, Quake, and Lego games, nothing more. I own a Mac, yes, but I don’t use it for gaming. Obviously I don’t use it for gaming.

#12

You can get some pretty cool games for mac, but only with piracy, so yeah… Which doesn’t stop me. What does stop me is a sucky graphics card, but oh well.

#13

What Mac do you have?

#14

I’ve got WINE working very successfully with a lot of games (Deus Ex, Half Life, Modern Warfare 2), all of which are running DirectX 9. Post any issues if you have them.

If you’re looking for more info on gaming for Mac, Google Winebottler and go to the website. Poking around with that is good fun. The WINE website and info on that should work the same for Winebottler, so go check it out.

Also: Apparently the Source engine is coming to Mac?

#15

Late to the party much? but yeah, VALVe have given seriously strong hints.

#16

I think not. Try adding Age of Empires, America’s Army, American McGee’s Alice, Battlefield 1942/2142, Bioshock, CoD/2/4, Civ 4, C&C 3/Tiberium Wars/Generals/Red Alert 3, Dragon Age, EVE Online, Fallout 2, Guitar Heroes, Halo, Harry Potters, Homeworld 2, LotR: RotK, Need for Speed: Carbon, Myst IV/V, Neverwinter Nights/2, Knights of the Old Republic, Rome: Total War, SimCity 4, Star Wars (lots of 'em), Starcraft II, Tales of Monkey Island, Warcraft III, WoW, X2 and X3 to that list.

So yeah, there’s just nothing to play.

Also: List of Steam games with Mac ports (i.e. what we might see on the Mac Steam).

#17

The problem with gaming for the Mac is that the majority of the games listed usually aren’t carried in-stock at the local Mac Store itself (at least not MY local Mac Store). When I wanted to get The Sims 2, I had to order it online and have it specially ordered in, which they charged me extra for.

#18

Crossover Games is just an old version of Wine repackaged and sold to gullible mac users.

#19

Or ones to lazy to learn how to use Wine.

#20

Crossover = dx8
Wine = dx9 (dx10 soon)

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.