ARR and Mac

[Millerna]

I am a MBP owner hoping to see an answer from SE for the Mac version in the future.

I can understand why BOOTCAMP isn't that good and Windows 7 had to take 2GB out of my RAM but ARR is still playable. I don't see why they are against OS X since it's based on UNIX like many features you see from Linux. If SE is making the game for the PS3 with OpenGL then it would not be that much problem for a established game company to port it to OS X and Linux.

There's nothing wrong with Bootcamp, and it doesn't do anything to decrease performance in Windows. Basically, nor does it affect RAM used. All it does is emulate a BIOS so that Windows can install/boot.

As for not porting to OSX and/or Linux, it's quite simple, the potential market is too small for what it would cost to make a decent/native port. Many of the games available on OSX are Cider ports, and Cider affects performance quite a bit. The OSX clients of WAR and SWtOR for example are Cider ports, and their OSX performance is far below their Windows performance on the exact same hardware.

ARR on Windows most likely uses DX10, and they're planning on adding DX11 features after release (this has been mentioned in interviews and/or YoshiP's letters)

ARR on PS3 uses Sony's custom OpenGL version (PSGL, based on OpenGL ES 1.0), and thus isn't directly compatible with an OpenGL version in OSX/Linux (or Windows for that matter) ..

The only easy/cost-effective port (for OSX at least) would be a Cider port, but then there'd be much complaining about how performance is inferior to the Windows version.

[Laraul]

There's nothing wrong with Bootcamp, and it doesn't do anything to decrease performance in Windows. Basically, nor does it affect RAM used. All it does is emulate a BIOS so that Windows can install/boot.

No, there's no emulation of anything. Boot camp is just a tool to help assisting in creating a bootable windows partition from MacOS X. That's it. There's nothing unique about PCs that allow Windows to boot. Nor is there anything unique about Macs that prevent Windows from booting. It's like installing Linux on a PC with Windows already installed.

[Millerna]

No, there's no emulation of anything. Boot camp is just a tool to help assisting in creating a bootable windows partition from MacOS X. That's it. There's nothing unique about PCs that allow Windows to boot. Nor is there anything unique about Macs that prevent Windows from booting. It's like installing Linux on a PC with Windows already installed.

Depends on various things.. Windows prior to Vista doesn't support booting on EFI hardware, and starting with Vista supports booting on UEFI hardware. Not all Macs have the latest UEFI, but older EFI, in which case there needs to be a BIOS emulation for Windows to install.

[ArkhamNative]

The OSX clients of WAR and SWtOR for example are Cider ports, and their OSX performance is far below their Windows performance on the exact same hardware.

Typo? There is no Mac port of SWTOR. It won't even run on Wine (Linux or Mac). (Well, a few claim to have, but it involves patching and recompiling Wine and massive workarounds and still there are issues.)

But back to ARR, Cider > Wine > no Mac port. And even a native port can introduce its own bugs and performance issues, so there's no automatic win there.

For capability, it's generally Windows >= Mac > PS3. (So many Windows computers sold only have built-in graphics, if any, and Macs at least come with some graphics, so there's a little overlap. And though less powerful, all PS3s can play ARR.) For numbers of gamers, it's PS3 > Windows > Mac.

[Millerna]

Typo? There is no Mac port of SWTOR. It won't even run on Wine (Linux or Mac). (Well, a few claim to have, but it involves patching and recompiling Wine and massive workarounds and still there are issues.)

But back to ARR, Cider > Wine > no Mac port. And even a native port can introduce its own bugs and performance issues, so there's no automatic win there.

For capability, it's generally Windows >= Mac > PS3. (So many Windows computers sold only have built-in graphics, if any, and Macs at least come with some graphics, so there's a little overlap. And though less powerful, all PS3s can play ARR.) For numbers of gamers, it's PS3 > Windows > Mac.

Think I had a brain freeze there, SWtOR shouldn't be there obviously

I've tried WoW on OSX (native client) as well as WAR on OSX (Cider port), and both had bad performance compared to running them on windows though bootcamp on the same machine. In case of WoW it was doable, in case of WAR it was so bad it became unplayable during bigger pvp battles.

So, while a Cider port is better than nothing, there will also be a LOT of whining about bad performance and that the Windows/PS3 people have an advantage over the OSX people etc.