[Glades7]

Ok, please don't kill me for this one. Does windows run games faster than OS X? More specifically, if I play lets say UT2004 in XP versus in OS X will I see performance benefits?

[bobbob]

http://arstechnica.c.../2006/5/16/3997

[Glades7]

So, in the specific case of Quake IV, the UB version seemed to win out over the bootcamp in term so of frame rate. Is it fair to assume that is the case for all games or is the performance in bootcamp versus UB game dependent. The reason I ask is that I am trying to decide whether to invest in XP or not.

Thanks for getting back os quickly.

[Quicksilver]

The simple answer is that games on Windows are much faster than they are in OS X. Personally, I think that that one Q4 SMP test was a fluke.

Of course, if you consider the fact that the vast majority of the games that you'll want to play have no Mac OS X support, then Windows performance is infinitely faster.

[QuantaCat]

That and, in order for a game to reach a similar speed in OS X, they need to have refined it for ages.


I just hope the performance in ETQW for OS X is similar to the one in XP.

[Quicksilver]

How can it be? Apple's spotty implementation of OpenGL (you could almost call it the third barrier) is going to make that impossible from a financial standpoint.

[QuantaCat]

Well, they're trying.

[teflon]

yes, the min spec on PC is a X1650, which is marginally more powerful than the X1600 in the Rev A and B MBPs and imacs. Seeing as thats the majority of the potential market, Aspyr obviously needed to knuckle down with Apple and get better OGL into 10.5 along with OS and hardware dependant optimisations.

I believe that they may be waiting for 10.5.2, which has new drivers (over 100mb worth), and the largest number of fixes for a point release that Apple has ever done. Apparently its around 500mb for intel and PPC...

as glenda said elsewhere, they dont want it to be as bad as the Doom 3 debacle.

[QuantaCat]

Aye aye. So like I said, I'm holding onto my hopes, even though someone said that the windows and mac serials arent intercompatible.. ugh.

[Quicksilver]

QuantaCat, on January 28th 2008, 09:34 AM, said:

Well, they're trying.

How can you say that?

[QuantaCat]

Well aspyr *seems* to be trying. Apple is playing dead as always. So yeah, whomever is making games for mac, is trying.

[Douglas]

Quicksilver, on January 28th 2008, 01:21 AM, said:

Of course, if you consider the fact that the vast majority of the games that you'll want to play have no Mac OS X support, then Windows performance is infinitely faster.

You know what is funny about this statement, I haven't found that to be entirely true. After I purchased my Mac Pro, I ran out and installed a second hard drive in it and installed Windows XP on it and then went to Software Etc to buy some Windows only games. Of course there was "Half Life 2" and "Oblivion", but I was really surprised at how many of the games available on the Windows side actually do have Mac OS X ports, or I should say I was surprised that most of the games I would want to play had Mac OS X ports. If you don't have a way to play Windows games, then you look at all the windows only boxes and get jealous, but when it comes to actually picking out something that you want to spend money on, it's amazing how many of those Windows games are total crap.

Aside from some rare Windows only gems, the Mac side isn't really missing out on too much that is worth your time.

Except "Battlefield 2"...DAMN YOU EA, I bought "Battlefield 2142" for the Mac and it isn't HALF as much fun as "Battlefield 2" is on Windows...WHY OH WHY did you have to skip porting "Battlefield 2" and jump into the last game in the series.....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooo.............

"I've played Battlefield 2....Battlefield 2 is a friend of mine....Battlefield 2142, you're NO Battlefield 2"

Douglas

[QuantaCat]

Well atleast you got ETQW. Which is in fact, really great.

[Quicksilver]

Douglas, on January 30th 2008, 12:55 AM, said:

Aside from some rare Windows only gems, the Mac side isn't really missing out on too much that is worth your time.

Spoken like someone in denial.

[Janichsan]

Quicksilver, on January 30th 2008, 05:35 PM, said:

Spoken like someone in denial.

...or someone with a pretty different taste than yours. In a similar fashion looking back at 2007's PC releases, the game that would I have really liked to have on Mac was Bioshock. Of the other "top" titles, Crysis was mainly a (admittedly spectacular) tech demo, World in Conflict and Team Fortress 2 aren't my kind of game, The Witcher didn't really interest me since I don't like action RPGs, and most others (CoD 4, UT 3, ETQW) are coming to the Mac – when they aren't console only titles.

[mattw]

Douglas, on January 30th 2008, 06:55 AM, said:

Aside from some rare Windows only gems, the Mac side isn't really missing out on too much that is worth your time.

In the main genres like shooter or strategy this seems to be relatively the case to me as well. It tends to be the more specialist games that we miss out on such as racing/sports etc. If there had been a Mac version I would have purchased Dark Forces 2, Max Payne 2, F.E.A.R, Tomb Raider Legend, F1 Challenge 99-02, Grand Prix 4 and RFactor. When I recently saw a list of the current best sellers recently most were either on the Mac or announced as coming to the Mac. Only Crysis and the Orange Box would have probably appealed. The PC these days sometimes misses out to consoles. I was surprised that the PC is a smaller market than any single console in general.

[Quicksilver]

Janichsan, on January 30th 2008, 01:21 PM, said:

...or someone with a pretty different taste than yours.

Well, then you need to mention some examples of games. Can you name anything worth playing on the Mac right now?

[PeopleLikeFrank]

Janichsan, on January 30th 2008, 02:21 PM, said:

...or someone with a pretty different taste than yours. In a similar fashion looking back at 2007's PC releases, the game that would I have really liked to have on Mac was Bioshock. Of the other "top" titles, Crysis was mainly a (admittedly spectacular) tech demo, World in Conflict and Team Fortress 2 aren't my kind of game, The Witcher didn't really interest me since I don't like action RPGs, and most others (CoD 4, UT 3, ETQW) are coming to the Mac – when they aren't console only titles.

True, but then the person making the original claim is making the same assumption. There are a lot of good quality games on the PC side that never make it over, so to say that "your not missing out on too much that's worth your time" is a bit of a stretch.

[Whaleman]

Quicksilver, on January 30th 2008, 09:13 PM, said:

Well, then you need to mention some examples of games. Can you name anything worth playing on the Mac right now?

I think most of my like 100 Mac games are still pretty worth playing... you make it sound like nothing not released the past 3 months no longer exist. The down to earth view is that every game released to mac is YET another title to an already huge library going back several years... even if several old gems are unfortunately broken by hardware and software upgrades...

...I still want to play Discworld that only works on 68k macs... damnit... and Basilisk didn't give me sound in OS X...

...so my list of games worth playing on the Mac right now is huge... dating back to the Marathons, Fallouts and Baldur's Gateses and UT99 and whatnot.

Sure I play games on my consoles as well.... but it's a wonderful thing to be able to just start up a game on my computer when I need a mental break from work and just start playing... no rebooting, no moving to the living room and boot up the consoles nothing... just start the game on my Mac and play.

[bobbob]

Whaleman, on January 30th 2008, 03:00 PM, said:

...so my list of games worth playing on the Mac right now is huge... dating back to the Marathons, Fallouts and Baldur's Gateses and UT99 and whatnot.

Indeed, but looking at many of the PC games I've bought recently, almost none have a Mac port (or functional Mac port under Leopard) and many of those are older titles. So the PC side has pretty much every good Mac game, plus tons of others, from all eras and even more genres.