Most beans

dr.zeissler, on 08 April 2021 - 01:20 PM, said:

Unpossible!

Also: thanks guys!

Best Mac Computer for Gaming 2015
This article will focus on providing readers with the best Mac (both desktop and laptop) for gaming at various price points. The contents of the article are as follows:

• Gaming on a Mac? Is This a Joke? - I will discuss why the Mac is a valid gaming platform and give links to some places you can find Mac games.
  
• Understanding Computer Components in Relation to Gaming - I will explain the 3 main components (CPU, graphics card and RAM) and how they relate to gaming.
  
• Best Mac Laptop for Gaming - I will go through the best pricepoints for Mac laptops in relation to gaming performance.
  
• Best Mac Desktop for Gaming - I will go through the best pricepoints for Mac desktops in relation to gaming performance.

Read on to learn more!


Gaming on a Mac? Is This a Joke?
No. Mac's are very capable of running a lot of great gaming titles these days, and Mac gaming has never been better then it is right now. There have never been so many current, big name titles on the Mac, then there is today. That being said... the Mac is not a platform that Apple has designed necessarily for gaming, and as such you'll have to pay a lot more for a decently powerful Mac that you would have to if you bought a dedicated gaming PC running Windows. Also, there are many big-name titles that still haven't made it over to the Mac.

Mac gaming is a small but growing community that is started to gain serious traction in the computer gaming world. Here are a few places to find games for your Mac:

• Mac Game Store
  
• Steam: Mac Library

Understanding Computer Components in Relation to Gaming

Graphics Processing Unit (GPU): The Most Important Factor
The primary factor of any gaming computer is the strength of the video card. No amount of RAM or CPU power can compensate for a weak video card (also known as a GPU - graphics processing unit). This means that a fast i7 chip will struggle with games if it is not paired with at least a semi-capable GPU. Mac's come equipped with GPU's from three different vendors:

• Intel Graphics: Not to be confused with Intel CPU's, Intel has a wide range of integrated GPU's that come coupled with their CPU's. Intel's processing units are power efficient and capable of light gaming but they fall far behind in performance compared to a discrete GPU from Nvidia or AMD. Intel's integrated graphics are featured in all Mac computers, with the exception of the Mac Pro.
  
• Nvidia Graphics: Nvidia is the largest GPU manufacturer on the planet with GPU's ranging from tiny Android devices all the way up to massive workstation computing units. Nvidia currently has GPUs in the mid range iMac models in the form of the 750M and 755M.
  
• AMD Graphics: AMD manufacturers a wide range of products, including GPU's, and are the second largest GPU manufacturer in the world. Apple has selected AMD as the current provider of high-end graphics options for the Mac. The iMac 5K, 15" Retina Macbook Pro and Mac Pro all utilize AMD graphics as the best configurable graphics option.

When comparing Intel, Nvidia and AMD graphics it should be a general rule of thumb that AMD and Nvidia will always be superior to Intel in terms or graphics (and therefore gaming) performance. Currently Apple does not offer any high end options from Nvidia, and as such AMD graphics are the most powerful option available to Mac computers.

Central Processing Unit (CPU): Important Up to a Certain Level
The CPU is responsible for processing a wide range of different computer functions, including many parts of a game such as the AI, physics, game logic and more. It is important the a CPU achieves a base level of performance in order to not bottleneck the GPU when it comes to a game's total performance. To keep things simple I am going to say that any i5 or i7 CPU that is faster then 2.5 GHz is "good enough" for gaming on a Mac. Faster speeds will benefit, but once the CPU is at the 2.5 GHz or faster level, it is better to spend money on a faster GPU instead of a faster CPU.

RAM: Just Make Sure You Have Enough
RAM (Random Access Memory) is where your computer loads the game files for quick access when you are playing a game. 8 GB is the recommended amount of RAM for most modern games. Many games are even playable on 4 GB's of RAM. Your computer requires a certain amount of RAM in order to load the game files into, and once it has enough it does not (and cannot) use anymore. 16 GB of RAM will give you zero performance benefit over 8 GB in 99% of gaming situations.

Cost Has Nothing to Do With Power
A common misconception with a lot of computer buyers is that more expensive equals better performance. Spending more money can be more powerful, but it's extremely important that you look at the components that make up a computer and decide whether or not it makes sense for you. For example, the new Macbook that Apple released (the super-thin one) costs around $1500 and is TERRIBLE at gaming, and that's okay. It is not a gaming machine and should not be used as one. The $700 Mac Mini (see below) destroys it in terms of power.

Best Mac Gaming Laptop for the Budget (Macbook, Macbook Air, Macbook Pro)
This section will focus on providing the best budget points for getting a Mac laptop for gaming. If gaming is your primary focus I don't recommend spending in between these price points, as there is no real gaming performance gain in between them.

Best Laptop for $1300: 13" Retina Macbook Pro with 2.7 GHz i5 CPU and Intel Iris Graphics 6100: Apple Store Link
This Mac is really the minimum of what it takes to run modern games at somewhat acceptable settings. The Intel Iris 6100 graphics are considerably faster then the previous generation Iris graphics (found in the Mac Mini).

Expect to play modern games at low-medium settings at 1080p resolution.

Best Laptop for $2500: 15" Retina Macbook Pro with 2.5 GHz i7 CPU and AMD Radeon R9 M370X: Apple Store Link
This is the only Mac laptop with a dedicated GPU. It will perform much faster then the Intel Iris Graphics 6100 and is the most powerful Mac laptop you can buy. When compared with desktop Mac computers (see below) this will perform roughly identical to the $1800 iMac.

Expect to play modern games at medium-high settings at 1080p resolution.

Best Mac Gaming Desktop for the Budget (Mac Mini, iMac, iMac 5K, Mac Pro)
This section will focus on providing the best budget points for getting a Mac desktop for gaming. If gaming is your primary focus I don't recommend spending in between these price points, as there is no real gaming performance gain in between them.

Best Desktop for $700: Mac Mini with 2.6 GHz i5 CPU and Intel Iris Graphics: Apple Store Link
This is the cheapest price point that has a capable CPU and somewhat capable graphics. The 2.6 GHz CPU coupled with the the Intel Iris graphics will offer a playable performance from most modern games (the most demanding titles will struggle to run, even at low settings). Note: you will have to purchase a monitor, keyboard and mouse in order to use the Mac Mini

Expect to play games at low settings at 1080p resolution.

Best Desktop for $1500: iMac with 2.9 GHz i5 CPU and Nvidia GeForce GT 750M: Apple Store Link
This is the first Mac desktop that contains a dedicated graphics card and will perform much faster then both the Mac Mini and the 13" Macbook Pro.

Expect to play games at medium-high settings at 1080p resolution.

Best Desktop for $2000: iMac 5K with 3.3 GHz i5 CPU and AMD Radeon R9 M290: Apple Store Link
This iMac will perform considerably faster then the $1500 version and surpass the 15" Retina Macbook Pro in performance. The M290 will be able to power nearly all modern games with decent graphics settings.

Expect to play games at high settings at 1080p resolution.

Best Desktop for $2550: iMac 5K with 3.5 GHz i5 CPU and AMD Radeon R9 M295X: Apple Store Link
This iMac is the most powerful gaming iMac having roughly 15% more graphics power then the $2000 iMac. Paying extra for the faster CPU is not recommended as it will be of no benefit in virtually all games. Note:the M295X graphics card must be specifically selected during the configuration process.

Expect to play games at high-ultra settings at 1080p resolution.

Best Desktop for $3000+: None (Honorable Mention: Mac Pro with 3.3 GHz Xeon CPU and Dual AMD FirePro D700)
The step up from the iMac line is the Mac Pro. The problem with the Mac Pro for gaming is that it is meant as a productivity machine and not a gaming machine. The CPU and GPU in the Mac Pro are certainly powerful, but they are both extremely expensive parts that aren't really designed for gaming. The $4000 Mac Pro with 3.3 GHz Xeon CPU and D700 graphics (fastest available) is only slightly faster then the top end iMac in gaming, while costing $1500 more and not coming with a beautiful 27" display.

If the Mac user is running bootcamp the dual GPU's can be combined to nearly double graphics performance, but if the user is willing to utilize Windows for gaming, then why spend $4000 on a Mac Pro? Get a gaming PC for $1000 instead that will have equal gaming performance.

The Mac Pro is a similar to a powerful Clydesdale horse, while a gaming computer is like a race horse. Both types of horses are fast/powerful in their own way, but they have completely different strengths and uses.



Leave a comment below with any questions or thoughts you might have!

'Twas the night after Christmas, when all through the site
Not a poster was typing, not even a Snake
the Battle Cat was stuffed by the misses with hair
In hopes that his hairballs would soon bring gasps for air
The posters were nestled snug in their chairs
While dreams of Mac Games danced ‘neath their hairs
And DaveyJJ with his maple leaf and Frost with his star,
Wished each other Merry Birthmas, knowing more fun was not far
When on Frost's keyboard there arose such a clatter
After he sprung from his bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the Moderator's Window he flew like a flash
clicked Warn and Flag Spammer and a Russian's hopes were soon dashed
The monitor on his half-rested face did glow,
Brightened the sneer over another spammer laid low.
When, what to his startled eyes should appear
But an army of WoW Gold sellers, who DDoSed him and cheered.
What hairball flew by that was so fuzzy and fat
They knew in a moment it must be the Battle Cat.
More rapid than Frigidman and Tuncer he came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called the Moderators by name:
“Now! Whaleman, now! Brixton, now! Tesseract and Eric,
“On! Davey, on! Frost, on! macdude and Janich!”
To the top of the page! To the top left bar!
Now ban away! Ban away! Ban away all!
As dead sprites before the RAM buffer vanish
The copper of the army’s fat pipes did tarnish
So back ‘cross the ocean the spammers flew
Each conspicuously named for a country– even the Vatican too.
And then in a twinkling, Tuncer appeared with a spark
To open the Mac Game Store with sales before dark!
As the earliest posters began to arise
Cheap Mac Games tempted them and danced ‘fore their eyes!
With Aspyr, and Feral, and Virtual Programming too
Soon hard drives were filling with gaming so true!
He laughed as he sold them in spite of Steam
But his servers were taxed and lo they did scream.
With a wink of an eye and a twist of his head
Frigidman let Tuncer know there was nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
Then kicked IPB with a neat little smirk.
And laying a finger on his enter key
He deployed a quick fix for all to see.
With the servers humming and forum safe
the Battle Cat swallowed the hairballs he had used to strafe.
He sprung to his cat tree, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew, like the down of a thistle!
But I heard Frost exclaim, ere he turned out his lights –
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

DoubleTap, on 29 April 2021 - 10:33 PM, said:

Thanks for letting us know. Your IMG account will deactivate in 30 days. Sorry to do that, but there's a long waiting list of Mac gamers wanting to join the IMG forums as soon as a good username frees up. And "Doubletap" is one of our most requested.

LONG LIST of Mac gamers, I say!

.. Tell you what, you're a gamer who likes Macs, and that's good enough for me. I'll fudge the books, let you hang around for another decade. Maybe the rest of the AS lineup will kick butt and Blizzard will relent and Feral will announce their 2022 releases and you'll change your mind over the next 4 years. (Or maybe you'll fall in love with hidden object games.)

It's marketing. Why would they draw attention to the fact that they actually aren't returning the game to all its old platforms? It's still disappointing, but I can't say I am surprised.

Just for you guys, though, I corrected history with the best internet tool known to man, the YouTube comment.

Matt Diamond, on 15 August 2020 - 12:09 PM, said:

I don't know and, to be honest, I don't really care. It's three multi-billion companies quarreling about who gets to make not just ridiculous amounts of money, but ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD!!! My sympathy for any of the involved sides is very limited.

What really pisses me off here, though, is that Epic stooped so low as to mobilise their fanbase of 10-year old impressionable kids to rouse some Twitter rabble. At the same time they paint themselves as brave underdog rebels fighting against evil oppressors, when in fact their only motivation is corporate greed.

Hello,

I'm the original developer of the old Ambrosia Software 2d exploration shooter/metroidvania game SketchFighter 4000 Alpha. Like a lot of other classic games from Ambrosia it hasn't been updated in many years, and now that they're gone it's hard to find or play these games (there are multiple threads about this her on the forum). So, after being contacted by a couple of old fans of the game I decided to revive the game to make it playable on modern macOS versions and available again to the public.

The revival project is now nearing completion, with beta testing now in progress. If you want to read more, or sign up to get notified on release you can do so here:
https://lostminds.com/sketchfighter/

Janichsan, on 08 March 2020 - 01:49 AM, said:

Exactly. id Software has always been knows for their support of Mac and Linux. All of the Wolfenstein games, Doom games, Quake games and even Rage and (although not developed by id Software themselves) Prey were all released for the Mac and Linux. That's up until Rage. After that none of their games have been released for the Mac nor Linux. All of the new Wolfenstein games, the new Doom, the new Rage, the new Prey. Support for other operating systems than Windows was completely dropped. It's such a shame, because these are my favourite games. I've always loved id Software's first-person shooters. It's just ridiculous they're now part of a company who doesn't care at all about Mac or Linux.

ipickert55, on 09 March 2020 - 08:05 PM, said:

Exactly. This is something I don't understand. In my experience most companies think reply at all is better than a reply with negative news. When they have to tell someone "No, you're out of luck." most of the time they just don't even bother answering. In my opinion it's just ridiculous and absolutely not-done to not answer someone. No matter how good or bad the reply might be, companies should always answer. I'd rather get a reply telling me "No, screw you, loser." than no reply at all. This way at least I've got an answer to my question.

Aspyr and Feral are actually perfect examples of two companies that are completely at the opposite site of the spectrum. Aspyr has never answered me or even shown any sign of still being alive. No matter what way you use to contact them, no matter the subject you're contacting them about, it all doesn't matter. It's as if all incoming communication is being redirected straight to Trash and no-one ever sees it. Contact Feral by email, on social media or whatever about any subject you want and within a few hours you'll get a reply. Even if they've got to tell you: "No, that's not going to happen. This game is too old and unknown to still put resources into porting it to the Mac." It doesn't matter if they've got to bring you bad news. They will answer. To me that's really important. As a company you've got a reputation to keep up and answering emails and messages is in my opinion very important.

I'm focused on keeping Metal support in UE4 moving forward with the rest of UE4 (it's a big team, so it keeps changing a lot!) so optimisation of the games is handled by others. As such there may well be more going on, but below I've summarised the obvious things that come to mind. I'll also note that we pay a penalty of 10-20% just for running on macOS/Metal rather than Windows/D3D11 which is often the difference between one resolution or quality level and another.

Irishman, on 16 January 2018 - 08:11 AM, said:

The lack of VRAM on that GPU is really going to hurt on macOS, we use more VRAM on macOS so we'll be paging a lot more between CPU & GPU which is bad. That's a necessary evil to avoid other inefficiencies caused by trying to map a D3D11-oriented engine on to the Metal API.

Irishman, on 16 January 2018 - 08:11 AM, said:

Behind the loading screen on macOS it will be doing a heck of a lot more shader compilation than it has to under Windows and unfortunately that is currently a highly serial single-threaded process.

Irishman, on 16 January 2018 - 08:11 AM, said:

The varying frame-rate will stabilise somewhat if you play on the same build for long enough as the local shader cache builds up entries. The price is longer load times of course. Metal (like both D3D12 & Vulkan) exposes the developer to the reality of how shaders are actually compiled for GPUs and expects developers to optimise around this. Unfortunately most engines are built on the abstraction provided by D3D11 which inherited the D3D9 model of separate shaders with near-zero runtime compilation cost, achieved by the driver vendors investing the man-hour equivalent of tens of millions of dollars to aggressively optimise their runtime shader compilers and make their D3D-driver fully asynchronous (so games don't block when calling D3D) via substantial multi-threading. Often they optimised their shader compilers to generate code that is *trivial* to patch when render-state (like render-target or texture-formats) change or even outright replace the games shaders with their own "specially optimised" version. The new APIs force/encourage driver vendors to optimise their shader compilers to generate "perfect" GPU shader code, even if it makes shader compilation much slower as that is now the game developers problem and not directly the vendors. That is not to say the vendors don't care - merely that the APIs send you down a particular implementation route.

Another cause of fluctuating frame-rates is that D3D11's GPU resource management is also heavily abstracted away from the developer with the vendor able to do a lot of under-the-hood optimisations as they control the implementation. Metal puts that all on the game developer a bit more like Vulkan (though the API & semantics are quite different) and right now we aren't as efficient at allocating resources as D3D which can cause hitches on the CPU.

Irishman, on 16 January 2018 - 08:11 AM, said:

That'll be shader compilation or resource allocation which is more expensive on Metal than D3D. If the game plays well in-game on macOS then really that's the important part.

Irishman, on 16 January 2018 - 08:11 AM, said:

Well, yep, that'll be the engine recompiling all the shaders & shader-pipelines

Finally companies are targeting this hungry market.



http://www.adagio.co...fts/kitTEA.html

the Battle Cat, on 18 March 2016 - 08:50 AM, said:

*Featured quote*

the Battle Cat, on 25 August 2015 - 01:54 PM, said:

I know, I know. But I also have to teach her to focus on her back log, and I was playing The Witcher when she was born! It is quite evident from this forum, that back logs wasn't a problem when our parents were raising us, so we never learned about it. But now that I finished that game, I can teach her how to game properly!

I am annoyed that Apple refuses to make a tricked out desktop gaming rig with a cool case that has flaming apples on the sides and a special version of OS X where NOTHING is flat. I'd like this system to be a small tower but big enough to accommodate a full sized GPU card. The system should feature easy access for upgrades and repairs. The system specs should feature top end components selected with gaming in mind. It should come with 3 years of AppleCare standard. I would prefer it to be priced just slightly over the Mac Mini line. Apple has more money than they know what to do with. It is time that they gave back to the community, the neglected gaming community in particular.

I am a reasonable man. I only want what is fair.

This is surreal coming back to Inside Mac Games after all the years visiting the site almost EVERYDAY in high-school and college (yes, I've dated myself a bit ).

This post is a self promotion, but I hope you all find it cool!

After 6+ years in development (while also trying to work full-time), I released my first game on Steam for PC and Mac! But, what is special about it (besides all the action and explosions) is that the art direction directly resembles the old 1-Bit black and white graphics from the Macintosh computers I grew up with. As a kid, I had used 512, SE, and a Classic. I made animations and hypercard games, and decided 6 years ago to try and make one of those into a modern game. Here it is, Rogue Invader.

Webpage: rogueinvader.com
Steampage: https://store.steamp.../Rogue_Invader/

Since building the game in Unity, and on my PowerMac, there was no way I wouldn't include a Mac version.

Hope everyone has an excellent day!

Hi all!

Way back in the day, I restarted the IMG podcast, and after a few episodes, I renamed it to my own thing. This ran for 30+ episodes, ending sometime in 2016. Honestly, I never did much to promote it. But I had some fabulous co-hosts, and we had some very fun episodes. I would say the highlight was getting Edwin Smith from Feral Interactive on for one of them!

I'm looking to (re)start a Mac gaming podcast again, and I am looking for one or two (or even three) reliable co-hosts to join up! If you think you could be interested, please read on for more info.

How often?: Once a week. (Maybe exceptions for super special events.)
Episode length?: 30-45 minutes on average.
Format:? We would cover any exciting news, give previews/reviews or general impressions of current Mac games. It could also just be anything we are playing. I want most episodes to feature a central topic that we round table discuss, debate or comment on. This could be anything from history, the current state of affairs, hardware/technical details like API's. Game culture elements such as violence in games, the infinite game problem, etc. Industry topics as well could be neat. We could do other lighter stuff such as "have you played..?" or "Indie games you missed on steam this month" or whatever. I have my own ideas but also open to any proposals from co-hosts or even listeners.
Tone?: Fun & informative as a guideline. We can be silly or serious as the topic demands.
Requirements?: Decent microphone/quiet background. The ability to show up at agreed-upon times to record would also be lovely. Would likely take place via Discord, though other options are available.

Other details: I want to get this on Apple podcasts and maybe other places as it makes sense. I'm going to reconfigure my current Macgamecast website to be streamlined to primarily feature the podcast. But there can be some writing or blog stuff on the side. I'd likely post it here and at Macrumors forum as episodes are out and hopefully generate some comments or discussion. And/or there will Disqus comments enabled on the main website itself.

If the above perks your interest, please reply here or send me a message, and we'll get talking! I want to get this started within the week if possible. I understand you may not be sure and just want to try it out once or twice. That's also fine and I know how to work with others on that.

'Nanosaur' and 'Bugdom' have recently been re-released for modern systems by Iliyas Jorio, with permission from Pangea Software.

It would be wonderful to see 'Power Pete'/'Mighty Mike' or some of the later Pangea Games re-released as well...

jos, on 11 August 2020 - 10:39 AM, said:

We haven't sent a newsletter in a few months as we're reconsidering the format, but we may bring it back in future!

Thain Esh Kelch, on 11 August 2020 - 01:54 PM, said:

Don't worry, we're still alive and kicking!

Hi. I am one of the developers of Cosmic Frontier: Override. Happy to answer any questions posters here may have about the project.

Cougar, on 24 April 2020 - 12:28 PM, said:

We'd love to be remaking all the Escape Velocity games, and have had discussions with both Matt Burch and members of ATMOS (the makers of Nova), but for a range of reasons they were not interested in re-releasing their games at this time. However, since we intend to retain compatibility with the old resource structures, it would be a fairly straight-forward matter for them to be adapted to the new engine in the future. We will keep the door open to both Matt and ATMOS to reconsider.

Hello Mac gamers!

Trautman, on 16 November 2017 - 10:41 PM, said:

Smoke Shadows & Advanced Blending are special Windows specific features written by Intel that are not exposed on Mac OS X.

I don't recall exactly why Advanced Ambient Occlusion isn't available right now but it's either also an Intel feature like above or the it could have been causing GPU restarts / kernel panics and would have been removed for stability reasons.

jeannot, on 17 November 2017 - 12:30 PM, said:

Our application takes advantage of running in "detached mode" so that the window compositor is bypassed which should result in a smoother experience. A requirement on running in detached mode is that the application is fullscreen. As soon as you enable Windowed mode you can't use detached mode.

With regards to performance, I would be interested as to which GPU you are testing on, for AMD GPUs anything below 20% performance disparity is very unusual for us to see on any of our Metal games. Depending on the setting, if framerate is above 120fps (which is quite possible on DiRT Rally with it's engine), we are capped at 120 by the OS, irrespective of the Vsync interval or cap set by the application, which would massively skew comparisons to Windows at lower settings.

With recommended mode we run a stable and consistent capped framerate in all scenarios, and we have done this for every single supported Mac in the range, which we see as far more important that maximum framerate, when running on a 60Hz screen. By making the frame rate stable and not rendering frames you'll never see on a 60Hz screen it allows us to thermal temperatures down which in turn means you'll get consistent performance over extended gameplay. This means a cooler Mac and your batteries will last longer too if you're a laptop.

If you think you have a bug with DiRT Rally then please do contact our support with a support report attached and we'll investigate your issue.