Will Blackmesa run on a mac?

Technology and Gaming
#41

One thing I would like to bring up here. This ENTIRE valve games on mac is based ONE thing. In the source code for the new steam beta they found a few, images that pointed to the possibility of steam coming to mac. People seem to forget that steam doesn’t equal valve. They are made buy the same company but in order to make game publishers more comfortable about the steam distribution platform valve has distanced themselves from it. So even tho they are made by the same company,[COLOR=‘DimGray’] (from my understanding)[/SIZE] they a built by two compleatly separate teams. Another point I would like to bring up is that there are already games available on steam that are compatible with mac. Games like dragon age, Force unleashed, Bioshock, civ 4, and several more. I imagine this push could be coming from the 3rd party game developers, and not valve, to support their already existing games.

With all that said there could be a mac version of source engine in the works, BUT [COLOR=‘DimGray’](this argument isn’t the best but i’ll make it anyways) [/SIZE] rember how long it took to port the engine to the 360? Sure it’s a game counsel and not a computer so they have other problems like memory management but the xbox is practically a computer. (It runs dirrectX for crying out loud) So unless EP3 was completely on the back burner while they sorted out the mac conversion stuff [COLOR=‘DimGray’](shutters at that idea) [/SIZE], I don’t see a mac version of the source engine any time soon.

#42

You haven’t seen the promotional posters including Valve’s game characters Valve gave to various sources, have you?

#43

Well, I personally don’t mind the costy price for a slick computer that doesn’t take in half of my desk and/or floor, that runs everything I want and need, that runs everything I want and need perfectly fine and smooth and is able to run the games I want.

It can already play any Source game at maximum settings without any slowdowns or visibly bad FPS (even L4D2, which seems to be the heaviest of the source games in terms of graphics?), the biggest downside of this is that I have to endure being in Windows. If Steam/Source comes to OSX, I can finally recover that Windows partition and use it for useful stuff rather than an ugly, clunky OS.

And if you haven’t noticed yet, I’m not a hardcore gamer. There’s only a handful of games I play often (L4D(2), HL2-franchise… and that’s about it really). I don’t need more because I only spend maybe 1-2 hours a week playing games.

The biggest deal about whole this Steam-to-Mac business (to me, at least) is that I don’t have to bootcamp Windows (and thus don’t have to endure the OS) = makes my life easier. At that point I really do not care that I can’t play Crysis or whatever graphics-bulging game people fap over these days, I only care about the fact that I can play the games I like most in the OS I like most on the computer I like most.

For €1500 I can get a computer that:

  • Has everything I need
  • Does everything I need
  • Doesn’t give me any trouble
  • Looks awesome and uniform
  • Doesn’t take in much space.
  • Runs the games I like just fine

For €800 I can get a computer that:

  • Has everything I need
  • Does everything I want
  • Gives me bullshit about anything that happens (Yes, I’m sure that I’m sure that i’m sure that I want to uninstall that program)
  • Looks horrible (and don’t give me this Alienware crap or anything like that, they’re still ugly big boxes) and is a cacophony of colors and shapes
  • Takes in half my desk
  • Can run all the games I don’t even like

I’ll gladly take the €1500 one, thank you very much.

And welcome to the party, FireTime, you’re only 3 days too late.

#44

Is it so hard to believe that there are people who don’t have a license for Windows and don’t want to pay for one or “acquire” a copy?

Alternatively, is it so hard to believe there are people who don’t like Windows and would rather run their favourite apps on their platform of choice without rebooting?

#45

Do you have an iMac or a Macbook?

#46

As long as they don’t constantly try to ‘convert’ me to their platform of choice, I’m fine with it. A platform of choice is the consumer’s decision; not mine.
But I’m probably a little guilty of trying to ‘convert’ people to Linux… :frowning:

#47

27" iMac
2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
8GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB

#48

I was under the impression those were community made. If valve did in fact make them I take that all back.

#49

Valve made them and sent them to the (I believe) 5 biggest Mac communities and a game-dedicated website.

It came with a quote, stating something along the lines of “In anticipation of a big announcement by Valve”.

#50

I’m a Linux user and I hate OS X and Windows, but that’s kind of irrelevant. Given the choice, I would play games natively rather than through WINE or dual-booting. If there was a port of Source to Linux I would be squeeing. Whilst I hate OS X, I’m kinda squeeing about this, because it means people who don’t hate OS X but don’t want Windows aren’t being screwed.

#51

According to Doug Lombardi(I really don’t remember which article on Kotaku/Rock Paper Shotgun I read it), they are official.

It also means if it’s a re-coded native version of Source on OpenGL, it should be easier to get it running on Linux!
I’ll be squealing with delight if Source/Steam makes it onto Linux natively.

#52

Well, Chris Green was (is) still looking for Mac/Linux Engineers.

Seeing as he’s the man behind the Source technology, I’d say you have a mighty fine chance to find Steam/Source on Linux.

#53

I’ll be squealing with delight if it becomes official! :smiley:

We’ve gotten mighty off-topic here…

#54

The point that I’m getting at is that as a consumer, just because I can tolerate Windows for running games doesn’t mean I should, especially since I’m paying for the privilege unless I pirate it.

The whole “WELL YOU GUYS SHOULD JUST RUN WINDOWS” argument is getting old fast. It was mostly directed at people earlier in the thread. Dual-booting has never been ideal, merely acceptable.

EDIT:
Back on topic: Unless OS X is particularly bad at managing resources or the port of the Source engine is particularly bad, I think it’s probably likely that Black Mesa will run fine.

#55

Dude… what the fuck are you talking about.
Your first two points are right, but

  • Gives me bullshit about anything that happens (Yes, I’m sure that I’m sure that i’m sure that I want to uninstall that program) [color=red]- UAC is easily turned off/adjusted in windows 7. And this is for your security, too
  • Looks horrible (and don’t give me this Alienware crap or anything like that, they’re still ugly big boxes) and is a cacophony of colors and shapes [color=red]- I actually LOL’ed at this. How many different flavors of a mac can you get? And how many different flavors/designs of a PC can you get? Hmmmm?
  • Takes in half my desk [color=red]- This made me LMFAO. Apparantly you don’t realize that Macs have the same hardware PCs did, except Macs get it a year or more later. So size per performance ratio is better on PCs because hardware often becomes smaller as time passes.
  • Can run all the games I don’t even like [color=red]Nobody is forcing you to play those games… and if you say that there are no PC exclusive games that you’d want to play, well… you shouldn’t be on these forums, because last I checked the Half-Life series was designed for the PC. yes, Crossover games exists, and yes, Steam is coming to Macs, but there are countless other great games that mac users will never play.

Honestly… you presented 0 good points beyond the first two.

#56

I presented nothing but good points, since they applied to me, not to the general perception of what computing should be.

But it’s okay, I didn’t expect everyone on this forum to understand the meaning of personal preference.

#57

What I fail to understand, for example, is how you can say all PCs are ugly big boxes, when its just a fact that you can get a PC in any size/shape/color, while Macs are… well, Macs.

#58

Well, for starters, I hate the fact that there’s another box somewhere near my monitor. Box + monitor = ugly.

Secondly, I haven’t seen a PC case yet that looks fine and neutral. Most of them are black/gray things with an overload of LED lights and fancy rounded shapes and what not. others just don’t look pleasing enough.

And yes, I do think Mac Pros are ugly as well.

#59


HP Touchsmart. All-in-one.

And whether or not you’ve seen a better-looking PC than a Mac doesn’t give you the right to say that PCs are in general ugly big boxes. There is 1000x more variety in how PCs look than how Macs look.

#60

So because there’s variety, it makes them look better?

There’s over 1000 varieties of feces as well, but in the end they’re all still turds.

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.