So hows that mac port going?

[Brianmj]

The 2012 MacBook Pro Retina.



The 2.6 GHz model with 16 GB of RAM.
http://support.apple.com/kb/SP653?viewlocale=en_US

My bootcamp had driver issues so I would always get problems with the framerate tanking after being a stable (capped) 30 FPS and uncapped 50-60 like you, so I gave up trying to run it on my machine. A native build would fix these problems, so it's something that I'm looking forward to, but nothing I'm expecting of course.

Did you download drivers from nVidia. Before I install windows the first thing I do is download the latest bootcamp drivers from Apple and copy it to a usb. Then I install windows, then install the bootcamp drivers. Then I do the full series of windows updates until there are no more (takes like 4 hours). Then I install nVidia's graphic drivers. I've never had problems.

[Brianmj]

One of the reasons for this is that the game is not optimized to work with the Mac OS X. Bad optimization, or no optimization at all, can turn any game into a nightmare to run, no matter what your machine (HI GUILD WARS 2!!!). You should see significant gains when an actual OS X version is released and properly optimized.

*Flips out of his chair*
We're running the game through bootcamp (although this probably isn't the proper lingo. bootcamp just partitions the drive). Only Windows is loaded. We're not using Parallels or anything to run Windows from within OS X. My problem was that the fans were not kicking in on windows. The heat wasn't dispelled properly and so the CPU/GPU (not sure which) would be throttled. I've since downloaded a 3rd party fan controller and the game works fine now. This might be LeonBlade's problem. Do you remember hearing the fans kicking in?

[Brianmj]

...
Mac OSX is locked up. Ahh, Apple.
....

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.

[Iriadysa]

^Aye, 4.1 (with the 420 shader pack extension which is very likely to be implemented anyway - I haven't checked) maps well enough to DX11. I doubt SE is being bold enough to do this, but one thing they could've tried instead of going for a DX11 client like they've been talking about for a while is simply do a GL4+ client and call that the "DX11 client", potentially reusing work on the OSX version.

While the current state of GL in OSX is more than acceptable for game development (though obviously not ideal), the late adoption of anything over 3.2 likely stalled its expansion as a gaming platform.

I don't know the full story, but Apple's implementation of GL4+ came at a similar time as Intel's implementation for their HD3000/4000/Iris integrated GPUs. I'm willing to bet these two are somehow related.

[BooskiBoo]

Q45: Kasuga, I mainly play on a Mac. Do you have any plans on introducing a Mac version?

A45: There are still some minor bugs, but we did get the game to run on Mac. We are at the point where we are deciding if it will actually be a wise business move or not.

Do please pass along the message that: "Yes, it will be a wise business move."

[Teirshin]

Do please pass along the message that: "Yes, it will be a wise business move."

Just because a handful of players want it, doesnt make it so unfortunately.

[Naberrie]

We’ll let you know should we receive additional information.

I would buy it, so, yes, it would be a good business move.

You should also do an FFXI MAC port, too, already, but that's another matter.

[Titor]

People play commercial games on mac computers? I thought mac computers were for browsing facebook and playing candycrush.

I bought a Mac due to its unix connections and terminal. It is much easier to dev on a linux machine or a unix based OS such as Mac than to try to develop on Windows. My mac was for my career choice not for wanting to have any kind of status symbol.

A lot of people at my college for computer science and electrical engineering had macs too for this same reason.

If they would release a mac client I would be really happy, though, since right now I use my laptop for travelling and run FFXIV in boot camp or vmware, neither of which run it in any good method (SO MUCH ARTIFACTING. literally the chocobo's heads look like they are exploded and I tried so many things to fix it)

[AkashiXI]

I bought a Mac due to its unix connections and terminal. It is much easier to dev on a linux machine or a unix based OS such as Mac than to try to develop on Windows. My mac was for my career choice not for wanting to have any kind of status symbol.

A lot of people at my college for computer science and electrical engineering had macs too for this same reason.

If they would release a mac client I would be really happy, though, since right now I use my laptop for travelling and run FFXIV in boot camp or vmware, neither of which run it in any good method (SO MUCH ARTIFACTING. literally the chocobo's heads look like they are exploded and I tried so many things to fix it)

can you post a picture please? You know, for science reasons...

[Brianmj]

^Aye, 4.1 (with the 420 shader pack extension which is very likely to be implemented anyway - I haven't checked) maps well enough to DX11.

While the current state of GL in OSX is more than acceptable for game development (though obviously not ideal), the late adoption of anything over 3.2 likely stalled its expansion as a gaming platform. .

Apple really let an opportunity slip by when they did nothing after Valve announced its mac/linux gaming initiative. Every few or so years Apple makes a big splash about gaming, then totally forgets it. They may nurture iOS gaming, but when it comes to OS X, nothing. Apple's OpenGL implementation is frozen. They haven't added any new extensions in Yosemite http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1740539 420 extension pack isn't in there. Maybe the OS after Yosemite will get an update. Apple seems to be on a two year cadence.