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Valve Confirms Mac Versions of Steam, Valve Games
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Gamasutra:
"Valve will release a version of its Steam digital distribution service for Mac next month, along with Mac-native versions of its own games, the company confirmed today after days of hints — and owners of Valve games will have access to both platform versions. The Source engine, which Valve uses to develop all its internal titles and also licenses to third-party developers, will incorporate OpenGL in addition to DirectX, to allow Mac support for all Source developers. ... 'We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform, so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360,' said Cook. 'Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with the Windows updates.'"
Part of the announcement was that, yes, you will be able to play online with PC users.
From the article:
"Checking in code produces a PC build and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step," said Portal 2 lead developer Josh Weier. "We're always playing a native version on the Mac right alongside the PC. This makes it very easy for us and for anyone using Source to do game development for the Mac."
The article also mentions that Portal2 will be a day 1 release for the Mac alongside the PC.
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
And what does this mean for us Linux users? OSX and Linux are both Unix variants
Mac OS X native apps use a different toolkit from the vast majority of apps for Linux and the free BSDs. This toolkit is called Cocoa (formerly OpenStep). GNUstep is a Free clone of parts of Cocoa, intended for source compatibility, not binary compatibility like Wine.
Unlike Ubisoft's system, Steam has an offline mode. Steam requires access to the DRM server when you install the game, not every time you play.
Just to let people know, Blizzard also allows for unlimited downloading of the Windows and OS X version of any game you have ever purchased. Even if you bought the game in a store you can still register the CD key online at battle.net and it will be available to download in the future.
Uhhh...
Steam is one of the biggest DRM lock-in distribution systems ever invented.
That doesn't make it good or bad, but are you sure you know what you're talking about here?
I own a number of Steam games.
I also own Overlord for the PC, and not the Steam version.
Which means I know very well what I'm talking about.
Yes, Steam is just another DRM platform... But I can download & install my Steam games on as many different computers as I want to. The only restriction is that I have to enter my username & password to play... Which means I can't be playing on two different computers simultaneously. Steam even lets me burn backup discs so I don't have to download everything again.
Overlord, on the other hand, only allowed a very small number of installations. After I had installed it three times it refused to work. I call technical support and they explained that it was a copy protection mechanism and there was absolutely no reason why I could possibly have needed to re-install the game that many times. Granted, it's a little unusual to re-install a game four total times in a matter of weeks... But that's what happens when you're building a brand new computer, messing around with an OS install, breaking drivers, and things like that.
Ultimately their suggestion was that I should go buy a new copy of the game. I'm sure I could have argued further and gotten through to some supervisor or something like that... I probably could have convinced someone to unlock my game... But I was just too angry to bother. I haven't tried to re-install the game since then.
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
Erm... Cocoa is for the UI layer, like toolbars, buttons etc., when did you ever see a standard toolbar in a game? Almost every game uses custom UI, so if steam games are using OpenGL(which is the only accelerated graphics API on the Mac), it should be easy to port it to Linux/BSD.
It should be easier to port to Linux (et al.) than it was before they made a Mac version, but not easy exactly.
As noted before, basically every user-facing program on OS X uses a ton of Cocoa calls. Cocoa is used for more than just the UI layer: it provides a generous standard library of data types, os calls, and other useful things. Think of cocoa as an Objective C / OS X friendly libc. Objective C itself does not easily translate from the Mac to other systems, as well. Last I checked, GNUstep didn't have a working Objective C 2.0 runtime yet.
This is not true. "Most of the rest" have dedicated GPUs - that has at least been the major trend with Macs. They may not be cutting edge, but they are not integrated IntelGMA - except for the Mac Mini and the Macbook which have an NVidia 9400M, but with shared memory, not an intel GMA. I believe one earlier iteration of the Mini had an intel gpu.
The MPB and iMac all have dedicated GPUs. The MBPs even have two!
It is true there needs to be more choice and some higher spec cards available (the best you can get on the iMac line is a Radeon 4850 with 512Mb, which is not bad but not cutting edge either).
These games don't require mega power graphic cards, just decent ones. And most any semi-modern Mac has one of those. I have a 2007 MacBook Pro and it has a 8600GT in it, not integrated Intel. Paired with it is a 2.6Ghz T7800 Core2Duo. It can run all of the games they have announced (well no idea on Portal 2 I guess) just fine. And that is a 3 year old Mac. I think the lowest end you can get anymore still isn't Intel, its a nVidia 9400 and several also just use that as a lower power integrated and have a discrete as well.
?
(i.e.: 64-bit support is required for Snow Leopard.)
I realize I'm nitpicking, but 64-bit support is not required for Snow Leopard. It runs just fine on my 2006-era 32-bit Core Duo MacBook.
I suspect a fairly substantial library of games will become available, probably fairly swiftly. Someone's already compiled a list of Steam games that already have Mac ports. There's ... quite a lot.
Probably a lot of people have already seen the lovely series of pictures that Valve released last week to hint at this announcement in advance, but in case you haven't, here's a compilation, in the correct sequence (and note the iPhone motif at the bottom of each image): ... sandwich")
image 1 (1980s Mac classic theme)
image 2 (Gordon Freeman with shiny Mac hazard suit)
image 3 (turrets)
image 4 (Team Fortress 2 -- "take a bite out of the
image 5 (Left 4 Dead -- "I hate different")
image 6 (HL2 + 1984 Mac commercial)