Gaming on the OSX side

[miK.]

Hi all,

I am still in process of putting together a build, and was wondering how
well a hack works with games on the Mac side? I know lots of people
dual-boot in order to game using Windows, but I was just wondering about
native titles for Mac like COD4, etc. Do folks game on Windows because the
performance is better?

Now with announcement of the Steam app coming for Mac, things are getting
interesting. http://gizmodo.com/5488383/steam-comes- ... -of-charge

Your thoughts?

thanks!
miK.

 

[intrus22]

Hey miK.

I've tested a couple of games (Command and Conquer 3, Sims 3, Age of Empires 3, Sim City 4000) and as we know, the problem here is OpenGL.

I downloaded this tool from the nVidia website: OpenGL Extensions Viewer, take a look at the results in the screenshot i uploaded.

As you can see Core featured 3.0, 3.1, 3.2 are not fully supported by Mac. So if you ask me then ya, game performance is likely to be better in windows depending on the game.

I was able to play C&C3 maxed out graphics and resolution with no slow downs but i do admit it looked better in windows 7. Sims 3 was also smooth gameplay but graphics didnt seem as good (for example, shadows and lighting)

I hope 10.6.3 fixes some of this issues.

 

[Germac]

Steam for Mac is a big boost in Mac-Gaming, but it will be more than 3 years to get close to Windows-Gaming.

I've testet out my Steam-Games on both OSX and Win7 (same machine) and perfomance is much better on the Win7.

So for me, Gaming is the only understandable reason to dual-boot with Win7.

 

[Jarek]

The problem is Direct 3D API or rather a total lack of it on os x.
OpenGL is ok for professional applications ie Maya. But as a game standard it's not so clever, add to the mix noteworthy game developers use Directx..
I can't see how apple will ever get around this unless they sleep with the devil (m$)
So my personal opinion is os x will never be a gaming platform equal to windows unless something earthshaking happens within the game development industry or apple find a way to emulate directx requirements efficiently.

But that's ok with me, I use a win7 install for a few games everything else I do in os x.
Keeps my windows clean.

 

[marky_91]

=) I've played The Sims 3 (all eps and sps todate... 3 of each) I played it on my families iMac 21.5"... Terrible

It plays a lot better on my older Dell Vostro under Windows, I haven't tried it under bootcamp in a partition

But turning to the darkside full time and building a hackintosh Hopefully I can get Sims working fine under Mac, then I'll have NO need for Windows =)

 

[cowfodder]

I use OS X for Eve Online and Perpetuum (via crossover games) and everything works fine. I did a comparison against Win 7, and my performance in Eve is actually better in OS X. In Win 7 I max out at about 75-80 fps, and hold steady at 40 in more intense situations. In Lion, I max at 130-140 fps , with about 90 in battle. The strange thing is that Eve is a Cider port, and I should get worse performance. I guess that there's something to be said about an OS that is properly optimized with a kernel that doesn't use 25% of your system resources on its own.