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StarCraft II Mac Client Beta Available
An anonymous reader writes "Blizzard has released the Mac client of the StarCraft II multiplayer beta. If you already have an invite for the PC beta, the Mac client is available under your Battle.net account."
A recent patch also added a map editor to the StarCraft II beta, which has already led to some interesting projects.
I'm pretty sure all 6 mac gamers will be very delighted that this happened.
StarDepot.org, maps and shit.
/feels dirty
If there's a Mac version, does that mean a Linux version might ever come out ? Because that would be sweet... A few months after switching to Linux I still boot into XP from time to time so I don't feel like I wasted the cash on a decent graphics card. You'd think if they've already ported this to the Mac maybe a Linux client wouldn't be that hard. Then I could get rid of Windows forever ;p
anyone know if a macbook would be able to run it, however shittily?
I still have my original "Orcs and Humans," in fact. And yet, not only did I not get in on the beta, but no one I know did either (which means, they couldn't invite me or whatnot).
Bah.
It should be noted that the map editor is not yet available in the Mac beta.
It runs worse in OSX than Windows 7 on my Macbook pro. I'm hoping the final release runs better.
Hell, it's about time.
...Steve Jobs announced that the final product will be banned from the Apple Experience (TM) due to war being a violent business. "If you want your children to wage cruel bloody virtual war, buy a PC!". He also pointed out that Kerrigan is depicted completely naked in any promotional material he encountered.
Mod parent troll and prepare to DDos his shitty website.
Not at all. Blizzard has been supporting Mac since SC1 over 10 years ago.
Except that, over 10 years ago, Mac OS X hasn't even been anounced. The official OS for Macs was System 8 back then. i.e.: something that doesn't even remotely look like anything else on the market. So the Mac-port was targetting System 8 and as such was a completely separate port. Meaning that making a Linux port would have required even one more separate port. Which would have been worth it.
Today, the official Mac OS is Snow Leopard. An OS which heavily draws from its BSD Unix roots. Most of the API aren't weird stuff like System 8's (like QuickDraw or whatever was the Apple blessed API for graphics) but rather industry standards (like OpenGL).
So if StarCraft II has been ported to Mac OS X, that means its engine has been rewritten to support OpenGL and similar modern APIs. And so a theoretical Linux port wouldn't require such a big rewrite as for StarCraft 1.
The only questions are :
- Doesn't this port rely too heavily on Mac-only technologies ? (extensive use of Objective-C, App-Kit, etc.)
That shouldn't be the case. If anything, thanks to modern consoles, the current market is getting even more multi-platform, and it would make sense for Blizzard to make their codebase mostly rely on industry standard (OpenGL, OpenAL, etc.) making it more easy to port not only to Mac OS, but also to other consoles (anything else appart from the X-Box uses OpenGL for graphics).
- Will they spend the extra effort to do a specific Linux port ?
On one hand they might consider the market too small to be worth considering, and the culture of diversity among Linux distribution make it hard to target (although it makes them more resistant to viruses too)
On the other hand, a game doesn't require that much API beyond a few basics (OpenGL, OpenAL, SDL and basic posix IO) so diversity should be a lower problem than other software cases.
A Linux port is an excellent exercise in portability (that's why id are doing it. If it runs on Windows, Mac & Linux it can trivially be ported to anything else in the universe).
Also Linux is getting quite popular in the netbook market (and a quick round of StarCraft 2 would be an excellent time killer while commuting. And if the longevity of StarCraft 1 is any indicator, by SCII's mid-life probably even wrist watches will have enough computing power to play it).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
No LAN play and the way the company has acted over the years means I won't be buying this even though I desperately want to play it.
Let me point out something important - no LAN play means that you are dealing with a lighter form of the same DRM that Ubisoft is using. It starts with "no LAN play" and then goes to "Must always be connected to Battlenet." and ends with "My game won't play because I can't authenticate every 10 minutes."
Stand up and put your money where your mouth is or these companies will walk all over you.
"Bah!" - Dogbert
SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
Dude, your SELECT is broken. I never get any search results at all. And when I search for "good" your server seems to crash.
I guess could file a helpful bug report... But heck, I'll rather just rant about it on Slashdot instead.
I lost my sig.
Now apple needs a better desktop system to play it.
$1200 get's you a AIO with core 2 laptop cpu and 9400m on board video.
$1500 to go up to ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics with 256MB
$600 - $800 for a mini with a slower laptop cpu less ram at $600 and the same 9400m on board video.
or $2500 for mac pro with a weak base video card and less ram then the imac. NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 512MB at $2500?? add $200 for 4870 512MB?? makeing it a $350 video card?
We need a real desktop with a desktop cpu and mid-range or better video card. AT $800 - $1500.
13's mac have only core 2 and on board video at prices where you can get i3 i5 with better video cards that have there own ram with other systems.
What you want is a PC (or a Hackintosh). There's no way Apple is going to release a reasonably priced "game system".
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
...at least we know we can blame Adobe.
...Cue hordes of bitter posts bitching about how they won't play the game because it doesn't support LAN, without regard to how good or bad the game actually is.
An influx of people with one-button mice will do wonders for my ranking. :)
Actually, Apple is highly focused on gaming, as well as video editing, on their entire line. Blizzard has comitted to releasing all future games for both Mac and PC (simultaneously when possible). getting dedicated GPUs in all Mac desktop systems should happen with the next release when i5 becomes the default processor across the entire line (excluding the Mini, which should at least get the 9600M anyway assuming they keep that model, rumor is they are).
The most basic mac in each line likely won't include these options, but i see the new iMac being offered both with and without GPU as all the iMacs were 2 generations ago (no more stock-only option on the base model).
There is no contest in life for which the unprepared have the advantage.
I wouldn't hold your breath here. SC is not exactly a game that's amenable to the console, especially since none of them let you use mouse/keyboard in-game.
Well, probably you haven't been following the news in console kingdom lately, but pointing inputs are all the rage since Nintendo introduced them as a standard feature with the DS's touch screen and the Wiimote (prior they where specially purpose device bought separately)
To the point that currently, point'n'click adventure games see a lot of DS and Wii ports.
Playing StarCraft with a wiimote instead of a mouse doesn't sound that much weird. (And the console has USB ports if you really need the real stuff).
Sony seems also to be experimenting with motion-based inputs for the playstations (not withstanding the fact that the PS3 has standard USB ports), so perhaps a StarCraft II on PS3 could be doable with standard motion-controls (instead of a 3rd party keyboard and mouse plugged into USB).
XBox 360 has an USB port, and apparently it's used for keyboard and mouse in FPS. Though their future motion based input seems to be more webcam based and thus less useful for a strategy game.
And probably, once the hardware catches up, future touch-screen enabled hand-held could very well play strategy games.
BTW:
Keyboard have been available at least since Sega Mark-III and similar generation of old console/home computer hybrids.
Mouses do exist at least since MegaDrive and SNES.
DreamCast extensively supported mouse and keyboard in games (Quake III, Half-life, Phantasy star online, ...), and in fact in some regions where light guns were banned, mouse was the only decent input alternative (I have such a version of Confidential Mission).
And light guns (at least the modern ones since 16bits machines) themselves are just another form of pointing device, although with a rather curious shape.
Also the X-Box 1 controller uses standard USB protocole over a non-standard compliant connector, and thus could in theory use a keyboard and a mouse if the software did support it. Sadly only homebrew support it, as Microsoft never released an official XBox Mouse/Keyboard.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I've logged on to my EU battlenet account and the mac client option is still greyed out. Guess they are doing a staggered roll out.
(Yes, I am a mac user from Europe. I also like cappuccino, think universal healthcare is great, and am convinced global warming is caused by human activity. I fully expect a response from crazed right-wing americans)
As for those irredeemable cretins, attracted to any thread that mentions macs and games, who snark 'dont buy a mac for games' - there is a fairly simply response. I don't buy a computer of any sort for games; if you *just* want games, buy an xbox 360, rent a botnet, and go grief the other basement-dwellers on Halo 3. I got a mac because I like having a well-built laptop and an operating system that works properly so that I can get things done. I generally spend most of my day on my computer at them moment; 90% of that time is doing work or browsing the web, both of which I much prefer doing under Snow Leopard than shitty windows 7. I don't think its much to ask that when I choose to play some games at the end of the day, I don't have to reboot into an operating system I find unsuitable for most of my computer activity. And hey, Blizzard and Valve agree, and unlike forum trolls they have some influence in the real world.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
Now apple needs a better desktop system to play it.
People still buy desktops? How retro!
I'd much rather Apple came out with a homer server that I could use to run intensive applications remotely.
13's mac have only core 2 and on board video at prices where you can get i3 i5 with better video cards that have there own ram with other systems.
That's why they must be outselling them.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
Still needs good video cards!
apple still needs a NON AIO system under $1500 that is not a low end system with crap video.
They both would hafta reconcile with eachother,
because their rating might tear this world apart!