Elysian Shadows

I'm not sure how many people here play any games on steam, but; from this April Valve are porting all their games to Mac OS-X. I think this is a damn good day for interoperability and cross platform games.

I don't even own a Mac but I do like the idea of being able to play my games on different platforms and even have your save-games sync! (Even if your save-games are stored on some server elsewhere...)

http://store.steampowered.com/news/3569/

Why mac? Why not Linux, i know the linux guys has been wanting it very much, including me.
I hope they eventually port it to linux after the mac ports.. or else

most steam games have been playable on mac for quite some time. (crossover)
but it is good to see that there is now going to be a native port.

if they make a native osx port a nix port should be on the horizon(same arch for all intense purposes), in sight, but it might be
a decision that valve wont make.

Zer0XoL wrote:Why mac? Why not Linux, i know the linux guys has been wanting it very much, including me.
I hope they eventually port it to linux after the mac ports.. or else

I assume that most companies don't bother making a port to linux because it's linux. Linux is about free and open software (after all, it is a free unix); so why would a nice big company want their software distributed on to a platform that has it's consumers custom from the fact that software should be free?

Porting to Mac makes perfect sense. The whole Mac-thing is about having a "premium" experience, with nice shiny hardware and a pretty OS. Selling a service, especially an IP service such as music, games, movies, makes for good business. (Hense iTunes, and this silly App-store has taken off).

I know linux does have it's usages in business, but they're more centered around it's power and flexibility (with the added price of being free), rather than content creation/the consumer market. So, alas, I doubt we'll see a Linux port, ever.

(By no way was this a pro-Mac or pro-Window post, I personally despise Mac; they seem like shiny lumps of plastic for people with too much money. App-store? the stuff they sell is trivial crap.)

flump wrote:

Zer0XoL wrote:Why mac? Why not Linux, i know the linux guys has been wanting it very much, including me.
I hope they eventually port it to linux after the mac ports.. or else

I assume that most companies don't bother making a port to linux because it's linux. Linux is about free and open software (after all, it is a free unix); so why would a nice big company want their software distributed on to a platform that has it's consumers custom from the fact that software should be free?

Porting to Mac makes perfect sense. The whole Mac-thing is about having a "premium" experience, with nice shiny hardware and a pretty OS. Selling a service, especially an IP service such as music, games, movies, makes for good business. (Hense iTunes, and this silly App-store has taken off).

I know linux does have it's usages in business, but they're more centered around it's power and flexibility (with the added price of being free), rather than content creation/the consumer market. So, alas, I doubt we'll see a Linux port, ever.

(By no way was this a pro-Mac or pro-Window post, I personally despise Mac; they seem like shiny lumps of plastic for people with too much money. App-store? the stuff they sell is trivial crap.)

I dont know if there is some kind of wine for linux to emulate macs, if there is ill hope its faster than emulating window games, i mean it is going to be OpenGL on mac right?

Mac uses OpenGL entirely.

Zer0XoL wrote:
I dont know if there is some kind of wine for linux to emulate macs, if there is ill hope its faster than emulating window games, i mean it is going to be OpenGL on mac right?

Yeah, I do believe they're porting their Source engine to OpenGL. Quite exciting I think... I'm not sure if there is a wine to emulate Mac OS-X...

flump wrote:

Zer0XoL wrote:
I dont know if there is some kind of wine for linux to emulate macs, if there is ill hope its faster than emulating window games, i mean it is going to be OpenGL on mac right?

Yeah, I do believe they're porting their Source engine to OpenGL. Quite exciting I think... I'm not sure if there is a wine to emulate Mac OS-X...

If it's being ported to OpenGL (which is what I assume they'd be doing) then Linux should also get a port, no?

How many non-indie games are made for the linux though? A lot more for mac then linux, that's for sure!

LeonBlade wrote:

flump wrote:

Zer0XoL wrote:
I dont know if there is some kind of wine for linux to emulate macs, if there is ill hope its faster than emulating window games, i mean it is going to be OpenGL on mac right?

Yeah, I do believe they're porting their Source engine to OpenGL. Quite exciting I think... I'm not sure if there is a wine to emulate Mac OS-X...

If it's being ported to OpenGL (which is what I assume they'd be doing) then Linux should also get a port, no?

No one builds games for Linux because it's just not economical. Most people run Linux because they want everything for free. So why bother making an AAA game for a target audience that wouldn't want buy it?

On that merit; why would an indie game developer make a game for a dead platform? If no self-confessed 'gamer' would run Linux, you're killing your chances of a successful game from the start. Games are a premium product to be bought and played on a premium service (X-Box, Playstation, Nintendo Wii/Gamecube/DS/Gameboy, Dreamcast, PSP, etc...) or OS (Windows, Mac).

*sits and waits for the slaughter*

Nice call avansc.

It's simple. Not all indie games are for money.
Alot of them DO port to linux.
Alot of people in linux don't mind PAYING to get things. They already had to pay for hardware anyway.
Hence, linux isn't a "free ride". It costs the same as any other platform, just the OS is free.

i was referring to the "dead platform" comment, in reference to linux.