Valve Announces Steam and Source for Mac

[Sebenko]

I am a wee tad concerned. As a Windows gamer, if a game runs sluggish for me, I just give my PC a new part, but what about if the game runs a bit naf on Mac?

I think gaming on a Mac would work if you could actually get the individual upgrades*, not an entire new unit.

*Yes, I am aware there are upgrades, but those are straight from Apple. They are not as cheap as they are for the PC.

One could argue that since Macs have a much smaller array of potential hardware configurations it shouldn't be a problem to make sure it works on all of them.

But wouldn't that hold back the more powerful Macs from getting great visuals? You can only optimize an engine so well.

Source isn't exactly new, now. I'm pretty sure most Macs would be able to run HL2 at the very least. Macs have graphics cards, right?

 

[Valkyira]

About time. I hate having to duel boot to play Insurgency and Team Fortress 2...

 

[MR T3D]

As a regular user of both Macs and PCs, this is fantastic news. Good riddance, Boot Camp partition. And three cheers to Valve for bringing gaming to a younger, hipper and better dressed audience!

that statement pisses me the fuck off.
that mac users are younger and better dressed than pc users.
THE FRIGGIN PC GUY IS WEARIN A SUIT.
which IS better dressed than friggin hipster shit.

 

[recoverytwo]

I normally am very anti Mac, but after Halo was ripped away from the Mac community in order to be the new Xbox console's killer app, I have felt a great deal of pity for the Mac gaming community. I am glad that Valve is looking out for them. Finally all those Mac users can get a taste of what they have been missing.

I have tasted it and it was delicious, Im ready for the full meal.

 

[sailor_960]

F.I.N.A.L.L.Y I am so sick of waiting and/or never getting a chance to play great games simply because I own a laptop whose makers are named after a fruit. Thank you Valve I love you (not gay).

 

[ars731]

I for one welcome our Mac brethren to Steam, and I hope we can put our differences aside and play Valve's games together. Now lets play L4D CO-op together as one game playing people

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

One major problem: How do you play most Steam games with a one button mouse?

 

[sirdanrhodes]

I am a wee tad concerned. As a Windows gamer, if a game runs sluggish for me, I just give my PC a new part, but what about if the game runs a bit naf on Mac?

I think gaming on a Mac would work if you could actually get the individual upgrades*, not an entire new unit.

*Yes, I am aware there are upgrades, but those are straight from Apple. They are not as cheap as they are for the PC.

One could argue that since Macs have a much smaller array of potential hardware configurations it shouldn't be a problem to make sure it works on all of them.

But wouldn't that hold back the more powerful Macs from getting great visuals? You can only optimize an engine so well.

Source isn't exactly new, now. I'm pretty sure most Macs would be able to run HL2 at the very least. Macs have graphics cards, right?

There are multiple versions of Source. There are three I think at the moment. The first engine, the 2007 engine and the new L4D engine. The first two don't need much, the newest one however, is a bit more power hungry.

 

[tk1989]

And i just re-bought the orange box for my ps3 as my mac couldnt play anything... lol. Ah well, bring on Portal 2!

 

[300lb. Samoan]

I for one welcome our new Fortress friends from Mac country. But don't expect any help diagnosing your in-game problems and bugs.

A: "My mic doesn't work."
B: "Click the speaker icon in your system tray to check your sound properties."
A: "You mean in the chooser?"
B: . . . "The what?"
A: "The Apple menu, helloooo!"
B: "Get the fuck out."

 

[Tharwen]

Well, I still have a Macbook, so no gaming for me! Oh well, I can still use the chat.

The source engine still runs fine on my MacBook, and this is one of those old ones, made before Apple developed an aluminium fetish.

 

[Thaius]

FINALLY. It's good to see that Valve really cares about this project and won't just throw together crappy emulations. Steam on Mac is a huge step toward getting games on Mac. They're fully capable of playing them:. Even a simple Macbook is a pretty good machine - I could run Crysis at medium on my Macbook Pro if I wanted to. It's just a matter of developers releasing the games for Mac, which may be happening more now that this is happening.

This is a huge step, and I'm excited to see how it all turns out.

 

[DTWolfwood]

Gratz Mac Users. Finally getting some gaming love. \o/

I guess OSX is easier to work with than Linux <.<

 

[shiajun]

Well, I think it's great the computer based gaming scene is being expanded. One of the several gripes that keeps me in the PC camp is the dearth of games on that platform and everything that comes with it (MODS,patches, etc, etc). With Steam, at least Valve games are now almost everywhere. I'm still concerned on the proper gaming though. You can download it, but can you really play it? A co-worker recently bought a Mac and we wanted to have a LAN party, so we chose some classic games, among them Unreal Tournament 2004. The game runs fine on his laptop, but it got insanely hot suprisingly fast. It happened to another co-worker who also has a mac. This is a game that's 6 years old and should no longer be considered graphically intensive. Frame rate is fine, but I don't know if the Mac architecture is designed contemplating that kind of demand on the system . Those aluminium casings with no ventilation whatsover apparently underperform in these conditions (from my experience). I don't know if Apple would consider changing around the parts inside as to contend with the heat that playing most recent games will undoubtedly generate, since it might end not looking pretty enough to be a Mac.

Also, if Mac gaming does take off, peripherals would eventually come too. Since I'm pretty sure existing gamepads, mice, headsets, etc, will not play nice with mac (or basically the other way around), propietary peripherals would have to be designed as well. If Apple makes them, I think they create an even more expensive gaming experience that the one usually found with PC gaming, and perhaps even more elitist that way.

 

[sirdanrhodes]

Well anyway, Mac users, you're a bit late, but welcome to the party.

*To self* Time to kill me some rich kids.

 

[Teh Ty]

That's awesome, My friends Jack and Anothony give me shit because of my mac and OSX.

 

[Dimbo_Sama]

Yay! now I can have steam on my Mac as well

'Why haven't you finished that mix?'

'I'm trying to rank on TF2. Just... give me another month...'

EDIT:

if Mac gaming does take off, peripherals would eventually come too. Since I'm pretty sure existing gamepads, mice, headsets, etc, will not play nice with mac (or basically the other way around), propietary peripherals would have to be designed as well.

Actually, most headsets and mice work absolutely fine with the Mac. I use a mac for work, mixing and recording songs. and I use an actual mouse. Mostly cause I'm used to it and mostly because those fucking Mac Mice piss me the fuck off.

The only differance between me playing on steam on my mac from on my PC is that my mac has a smaller screen.

 

[tkioz]

Meh don't really care about it, good on valve for expanding their userbase, but honest can apple users get more egotistical? "better dressed"? Please go back to sucking off Jobs.

 

[DustyDrB]

Eh, I think most of us who get Macs didn't get them for gaming. I got my Macbook Pro for its durability and creative software. It's a cool thing that we'll have this option, but they're going to have to build a base for it.

 

[The_Echo]

One major problem: How do you play most Steam games with a one button mouse?

The newer Macs have preferences where you can have two buttons. (And upon checking, there is even a "Button 3" setting, aside from Primary Button and Secondary Button.)

And I'm sure you could just get a third party two-button mouse anyway, as long as it's USB.