So hows that mac port going?

[Brianmj]

Microsoft would help in terms of say direct X support etc.. apple OS most likely will use open GL which has no input from apple, the apis needed to operate with, apple dont bother, microsoft has control over direct x so its part of their job in that sense. SE are the ones that have to figure out and continue to figure out in each patch cycle apple go through, as you own a apple product, apple dont see their platform as a gaming system to begin with, you can tell where they put their money in it.

Apple is part of the Khronos group, the governing body that decides the direction of OpenGL https://www.khronos.org/members/promoters. Apple does use OpenGL to draw the OS x desktop - if you're working on anything 3d, you have to use OpenGL on mac os https://developer.apple.com/opengl/. Apple's lackluster support comes from not supporting the latest version of OpenGL. Just 2 weeks ago, OpenGL 4.5 was released http://www.slideshare.net/Mark_Kilga...or-nvidia-gpus while with Mac OS X Yosemite, Apple is still using version 4.1 http://www.reddit.com/r/apple/commen...ing_opengl_41/. Mac OS is 4 versions behind in its OpenGL implementation. But OpenGL 4.1 is equivalent to Direct3D 11.1, so its not that bad. 4.1 just doesn't have compute shaders, which I love to try out on OSX.

[Iriadysa]

Apple is part of the Khronos group, the governing body that decides the direction of OpenGL https://www.khronos.org/members/promoters. Apple does use OpenGL to draw the OS x desktop - if you're working on anything 3d, you have to use OpenGL on mac os https://developer.apple.com/opengl/. Apple's lackluster support comes from not supporting the latest version of OpenGL. Just 2 weeks ago, OpenGL 4.5 was released http://www.slideshare.net/Mark_Kilga...or-nvidia-gpus while with Mac OS X Yosemite, Apple is still using version 4.1 http://www.reddit.com/r/apple/commen...ing_opengl_41/. Mac OS is 4 versions behind in its OpenGL implementation. But OpenGL 4.1 is equivalent to Direct3D 11.1, so its not that bad. 4.1 just doesn't have compute shaders, which I love to try out on OSX.

On the topic of GL in Mac OSX:

Compute shaders are core in 4.3 although, as with anything OpenGL, it could be implemented as a stand alone extension and work on 4.1. The beauty of GL. Not like apple will anyways. Intel drivers for Windows are stuck at GL4.0, but they implement several of the more interesting extensions of 4.3, so it's not that horrible to develop for Intel GPUs today; however, compute shaders are not in there either.

The main problem with Apple and OSX is Apple's driver architecture choice. Long story short, it's apple themselves who partially implement the driver for the OS (in a similar fashion to how DX versioning works with Microsoft), which limits the fast cycles of constant improvement GPU manufacturers can provide with their drivers. The state of GL on windows is, basically, that manufactures do everything. This lead to poor support from some of them (notoriously Intel) but recent explosion on GL usage (most likely due to the efforts of the Khronos group to modernize the API and Valve's Steam backing it up) has lead to bleeding edge support from both leading GPU manufacturers on those platforms that are not locked up.

Mac OSX is locked up. Ahh, Apple.

It was not until recently that Apple simply didn't want to update their GL implementation beyond 3.2, which exposes about the equivalent of something between DX9 and DX10. In fact, while the current release of the OS supports 4.1, it still limits the implementation to part of the complete GL4.1 spec (it's fully GL4.1 complaint, but doesn't implement an alternative called "compatibility profile". It's a long story).

So you guys understand what this all means, we've had DX11-class hardware running inside Macintosh PCs for their whole effective life without ever being able to access the DX11-class features, because the OS did not bother to support it. It's no wonder gaming support on OSX was almost non existent.

[Brianmj]

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Mac OSX is locked up. Ahh, Apple.
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I agree with everything you've said. Apple has been lackluster in their support when it comes to supporting innovative new graphic techniques. OS X users just can't go to their GPU manufacturer's site and download drivers; Apple does write the front end, and they choose what is exposed. However, there is nothing about Apple's current implementation of OpenGL that makes it prohibitive to port most games from from Windows, or in our case FF14. If Square needs "compute" for all the particle effects on the OS X port, they're more than likely using OpenCL. OS X users do have access to DX11 class features - its just exposed differently.