3 ms·

Perhaps Overwatch seemed too graphically demanding for most Macs to be worth porting?

overcast 9y ago
Nah, Overwatch plays on a wide variety of hardware. It's not very graphically demanding, and you definitely don't need a powerful machine for it. Blizzard's stance has always been to get their games on as many machines as possible.
SilverHawk 9y ago
Do not underestimate modern intel iGPUs! Even games like Fallout 4 can be made to run on these as long as you can accept lower graphical fidelity, resolution and 30 fps rather than a smooth 60+ framerate (the latter of which is common on gaming consoles, anyway). Here's a video of Fallout 4 running on a Macbook Pro : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW3A81BScMU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW3A81BScMU Running on Intel's GPU. Macs with dedicated GPUs with either NVIDIA or AMD hardware will perform much better. Overwatch has no trouble running on more recent Macs, if you install Windows through bootcamp. Compared to many other AAA games, it's quite light. Hardware is not the issue here. The biggest problem running games on Mac OS X is the terrible graphic stack. It's simply underperforming. Whether it's the drivers or something else, I can't say. However, from my personal experience having used Mac OS X, Linux and Windows on the same Mac, Windows tends to perform best, Linux a close second, and MacOS a very distant last. This stays true even for games that were "natively" ported to MacOS, such as Diablo 3. They still run better on Windows. And as for people who play windows games through Wine.. those games run better on linux than on MacOS. And that tends to be a major problem with running games on lower end macs.. for example, Dark Souls can run fine on a Mac Mini if you play it through Wine under Linux, or natively on Windows. But Wine on MacOS will perform significantly worse. Not enough to make the game unplayable, but it's a much less enjoyable experience. MacOS is just unfit for the purpose. I'm not a 'hardcore gamer' per se, and do not chase the treadmill of latest and greatest with the best possible graphics, but I still enjoy playing games from time to time and I ended up nuking MacOS from the mini I use as a media center connected to the TV. The next time I buy a tiny computer to put next to the tv, it will be an Intel NUC.
- TazeTSchnitzel 9y ago
  > Do not underestimate modern intel iGPUs! I'm not! It doesn't run very well on my 2013 MacBook Air at lowest settings.

Nah, Overwatch plays on a wide variety of hardware. It's not very graphically demanding, and you definitely don't need a powerful machine for it. Blizzard's stance has always been to get their games on as many machines as possible.

SilverHawk 9y ago

Do not underestimate modern intel iGPUs! Even games like Fallout 4 can be made to run on these as long as you can accept lower graphical fidelity, resolution and 30 fps rather than a smooth 60+ framerate (the latter of which is common on gaming consoles, anyway). Here's a video of Fallout 4 running on a Macbook Pro : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW3A81BScMU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW3A81BScMU Running on Intel's GPU. Macs with dedicated GPUs with either NVIDIA or AMD hardware will perform much better. Overwatch has no trouble running on more recent Macs, if you install Windows through bootcamp. Compared to many other AAA games, it's quite light. Hardware is not the issue here. The biggest problem running games on Mac OS X is the terrible graphic stack. It's simply underperforming. Whether it's the drivers or something else, I can't say. However, from my personal experience having used Mac OS X, Linux and Windows on the same Mac, Windows tends to perform best, Linux a close second, and MacOS a very distant last. This stays true even for games that were "natively" ported to MacOS, such as Diablo 3. They still run better on Windows. And as for people who play windows games through Wine.. those games run better on linux than on MacOS. And that tends to be a major problem with running games on lower end macs.. for example, Dark Souls can run fine on a Mac Mini if you play it through Wine under Linux, or natively on Windows. But Wine on MacOS will perform significantly worse. Not enough to make the game unplayable, but it's a much less enjoyable experience. MacOS is just unfit for the purpose. I'm not a 'hardcore gamer' per se, and do not chase the treadmill of latest and greatest with the best possible graphics, but I still enjoy playing games from time to time and I ended up nuking MacOS from the mini I use as a media center connected to the TV. The next time I buy a tiny computer to put next to the tv, it will be an Intel NUC.

TazeTSchnitzel 9y ago
> Do not underestimate modern intel iGPUs! I'm not! It doesn't run very well on my 2013 MacBook Air at lowest settings.