Valve opens up to Macs

[ARTgames]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6253127.html

They just need to start putting better video cards in macs and it guess you could do sum nice gaming.

[Pat]

PS3s are built for GAMING, Macs are built for being gay.

[ARTgames]

Ok, I'm sorry for even taking it that way. This is not a mac vs ps3 thing.

[Torch]

Macs are completely able to handle PC games, it just often isn't worth it for developers to develop for Mac, since 99% of the PC gaming market is using Windows.

[Seifer]

The problem is that Macs do not support Direct X. Since 99% of games are developed using that, we have an issue.

[ARTgames]

Well it is possible to take Direct X calls and send them with open gl or anything else like on wine. But its slow.

Now they did say steam coming to mac. But i think what they are really saying is valve games are coming to mac and anyone else can come also. Valve said they are building there games from the ground up for the mac windows and xbox. If steam gets a lot of people on mac maybe some pc game makers will make there game for mac also. Who knows. It looks like macs are growing and its a really good choice by them.

But for the games in the store now and past that are non valve i don't think you'll see them on mac because of Direct X. But i don't mind seeing Direct X going or getting washed out more.

[Lingus]

They just need to start putting better video cards in macs and it guess you could do sum nice gaming.

From my knowledge, most valve games (such as HL2) have very low graphics requirements. It seems like they are optimised in such a way that they look good, but don't require much. As well, they have really awesome art direction which makes a game look better than the technical graphics allow.

[ARTgames]

They just need to start putting better video cards in macs and it guess you could do sum nice gaming.

From my knowledge, most valve games (such as HL2) have very low graphics requirements. It seems like they are optimised in such a way that they look good, but don't require much. As well, they have really awesome art direction which makes a game look better than the technical graphics allow.

yeah there older stuff will run just fine on just about anything you can pick up at the store. HL2 is 6 years old. But what about portal 2 or the next half life etc? Or since steam is a platform for selling games what if other game devs want to goto mac?

I mean it never hurts to have a better graphics cards and for the price your paying for one of those pcs.

Take a look here:
http://www.apple.com/macpro/features/graphics.html

The best they offer is a "TI Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5". That's not much for the fastest pc they sell. (graphics wise, when it comes to cpu and ram there just fine) It will run all there older games on max but new stuff its going to downfall some. Simple things like higher rez game textures and shadows at high rez with AA are going to get to this card fast.

[Lingus]

Yea, I didn't realize you were talking about Steam. I thought you just meant Valve. But you're right though. Either way, I think Valve's games when they're new still don't require very high end systems to run them.

[Pat]

People build a new PC every few years, why can't Mac owners just build a gaming PC? Theres a wider range of games available and you can upgrade your system at any time.

[Seifer]

People build a new PC every few years, why can't Mac owners just build a gaming PC? Theirs a wider range of games available and you can upgrade your system at any time.

Actually building/buying a new PC every few years is no longer necessary. We've basically reached the peak of what we can accomplish. I mean shit, I can run Crysis just fine. If they make a game that somehow looks better, well darn, my eyes aren't good enough even to notice the difference. At this point, unless we get like real 3d projections or some crazy thing, I reckon it's safe to say the life span of computers is pretty long.

Oh, and I hate this by the way. MAC does not deserve games. Keep the games for PC.

[Lingus]

Mostly what they are doing is not higher resolutions. It's to do with other things like anti-aliasing, shadows and miscellaneous effects like smoke, etc. There's still quite a ways to go with that kind of thing. They will always be making graphics better. Always.

[Chaos]

Not to mention having the graphics, processing power, and RAM to run ever more complex artificial intelligence on more NPCs with more and smoother animation, etc.  I think we have plenty more room to expand, yet.

[ARTgames]

Yep graphics are alway improving.

I mean shit, I can run Crysis just fine. If they make a game that somehow looks better, well darn, my eyes aren't good enough even to notice the difference.

see an eye doctor. game graphics are no ware near real life.

Oh, and I hate this by the way. MAC does not deserve games. Keep the games for PC.

A mac is a pc.

[Lingus]

A mac is a pc.

Lol true. But still they aren't built for gaming necessarily.