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I have a Windows 10 based PC at home. I use it because I like to play games, but I'm also a YouTube creator and a programmer. In Australian dollars, the build c

by movedx 9y ago

I have a Windows 10 based PC at home. I use it because I like to play games, but I'm also a YouTube creator and a programmer. In Australian dollars, the build cost me about $3,000. it's an i5 6600K, 16GB of 2333MHz RAM, a 256GB Samsung 950 Pro NVMe M.2 SSD, and an nVidia GTX 1070. I would drop this system in a heart beat if I could play all my AAA games on macOS, and I would replace it with a high end iMac Pro. Sadly two problems remain: - I can't play my AAA games on macOS because things like Vulkan aren't fully adopted and in place yet - You can't swap out the GPU in the iMac Pro This is why my next build is going to be a Hackintosh.

logiclion 9y ago
I've thought the same, have you considered the possible options of external graphics cards and bootcamping?
- movedx 9y ago
  I think external GPUs are an awesome idea. I've not looked into hem recently, actually. They would be awesome for making a 15" MBP from 2014 more useful going forward.
  - logiclion 9y ago
    unfortunately to my knowledge they work only with thunderbolt 2+ (ideally 3), not quite sure about 2014 models and their ports.
zanny 9y ago
Barely any AAA games support OSX anyway anymore. Both OSX and Linux are second class citizens for AAA publishers because all their studios drink the DX koolaid hard, even in an age where almost every game is made on Unreal / Unity / Cryengine / etc and all those engines are OS portable they still only see Windows releases.
- ryandrake 9y ago
  That’s never made much sense to me. I could see if you’re not using one of the major (portable) game engines—you might not want to spend the time developing Windows, Mac, and Linux ports. But if your underlying engine is already portable, would it kill you to hit build a few extra times to produce an “unsupported” Linux or Mac release? Unless you’re deliberately using Windows specific stuff in you non-platform-specific areas like game logic. In which case facepalm. EDIT: I know it’s not THAT simple but in general why not have a policy to be portable by default, platform dependent only when necessary?
  - zanny 9y ago
    The major cost barrier is support. If you are going to sell a product for a platform, you need to be able to have your CS staff handle support tickets involving it. Officially Steam on Linux only supports Ubuntu and SteamOS, so you can just throw out problems on other distros (albeit I'm not aware of any distro not taking responsibility for Steam breakages that work on Ubuntu and they aren't that common either). Even then, having to implement that support infrastructure is time consuming if you have never supported that platform before. It is the first game that is the hardest. That is why publishers like Paradox and 2K can just throw almost every new release on Linux nowadays since they are all made on portable engines, are going to support OSX anyway, and they already have the support infrastructure for SteamOS and Ubuntu. Its not even really an option, either. Since the games are commercial products in many (European) countries they have to by law support them in this way.
- Impossible 9y ago
  Direct3D isn't the reason why OSX and Linux are second class citizens for AAA publishers. If those platforms had higher gaming market share publishers would do the work, but as it stands Steam is at 98.3% Windows users, 1.31% Mac users and 0.25% Linux users (http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/ http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/). Linux has an extremely disproportionate amount of work involved for the user base, and Mac OS X is questionable for most titles. The Linux gaming audience is largely consists of tech people that aren't really gamers, but buy games to support Linux gaming, effectively for political reasons, this isn't a sustainable market (Humble Bundle helped indies briefly but the support has faded). Mac OS gaming is largely casual users that once again, aren't really gamers, and it has less to do with Mac's software stack (vulkan vs. metal vs. dx is irrelevant) and more with Mac hardware having underpowered GPUs for AAA games. PS4 and Switch don't support Direct3D, and plenty of big publishers port titles that make sense to mobile as well (neither major mobile platform supports Direct3D).
Synaesthesia 9y ago
You should try installing Mac OS on your current system, it will probably work. I run it on my main system, although the only game I play on OS X is Starcraft 2, and it runs poorer than on Windows. Still I prefer the Mac environment.
- movedx 9y ago
  I haven't actually. Could it be compatible, you think? Did you just put macOS 10.* on a USB pen and go with it?
  - Synaesthesia 9y ago
    Not quite you have to do some special things to it to hackintosh it. Check tonymacx86.com for details. Yes I think there’s a good chance it’s compatible. Sorry for the slow response. Hope you get this.
    - movedx 9y ago
      Got it! Yeah I'm all over the resources you can find in the Hackintosh community. I might wait until I have my studio setup and can justify a new system build so I can build a Hackintosh then.

by movedx 9y ago

logiclion 9y ago

I've thought the same, have you considered the possible options of external graphics cards and bootcamping?

movedx 9y ago
I think external GPUs are an awesome idea. I've not looked into hem recently, actually. They would be awesome for making a 15" MBP from 2014 more useful going forward.
- logiclion 9y ago
  unfortunately to my knowledge they work only with thunderbolt 2+ (ideally 3), not quite sure about 2014 models and their ports.

zanny 9y ago

Barely any AAA games support OSX anyway anymore. Both OSX and Linux are second class citizens for AAA publishers because all their studios drink the DX koolaid hard, even in an age where almost every game is made on Unreal / Unity / Cryengine / etc and all those engines are OS portable they still only see Windows releases.

ryandrake 9y ago
That’s never made much sense to me. I could see if you’re not using one of the major (portable) game engines—you might not want to spend the time developing Windows, Mac, and Linux ports. But if your underlying engine is already portable, would it kill you to hit build a few extra times to produce an “unsupported” Linux or Mac release? Unless you’re deliberately using Windows specific stuff in you non-platform-specific areas like game logic. In which case facepalm. EDIT: I know it’s not THAT simple but in general why not have a policy to be portable by default, platform dependent only when necessary?
- zanny 9y ago
  The major cost barrier is support. If you are going to sell a product for a platform, you need to be able to have your CS staff handle support tickets involving it. Officially Steam on Linux only supports Ubuntu and SteamOS, so you can just throw out problems on other distros (albeit I'm not aware of any distro not taking responsibility for Steam breakages that work on Ubuntu and they aren't that common either). Even then, having to implement that support infrastructure is time consuming if you have never supported that platform before. It is the first game that is the hardest. That is why publishers like Paradox and 2K can just throw almost every new release on Linux nowadays since they are all made on portable engines, are going to support OSX anyway, and they already have the support infrastructure for SteamOS and Ubuntu. Its not even really an option, either. Since the games are commercial products in many (European) countries they have to by law support them in this way.
Impossible 9y ago
Direct3D isn't the reason why OSX and Linux are second class citizens for AAA publishers. If those platforms had higher gaming market share publishers would do the work, but as it stands Steam is at 98.3% Windows users, 1.31% Mac users and 0.25% Linux users (http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/ http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/). Linux has an extremely disproportionate amount of work involved for the user base, and Mac OS X is questionable for most titles. The Linux gaming audience is largely consists of tech people that aren't really gamers, but buy games to support Linux gaming, effectively for political reasons, this isn't a sustainable market (Humble Bundle helped indies briefly but the support has faded). Mac OS gaming is largely casual users that once again, aren't really gamers, and it has less to do with Mac's software stack (vulkan vs. metal vs. dx is irrelevant) and more with Mac hardware having underpowered GPUs for AAA games. PS4 and Switch don't support Direct3D, and plenty of big publishers port titles that make sense to mobile as well (neither major mobile platform supports Direct3D).

Synaesthesia 9y ago

You should try installing Mac OS on your current system, it will probably work. I run it on my main system, although the only game I play on OS X is Starcraft 2, and it runs poorer than on Windows. Still I prefer the Mac environment.

movedx 9y ago
I haven't actually. Could it be compatible, you think? Did you just put macOS 10.* on a USB pen and go with it?
- Synaesthesia 9y ago
  Not quite you have to do some special things to it to hackintosh it. Check tonymacx86.com for details. Yes I think there’s a good chance it’s compatible. Sorry for the slow response. Hope you get this.
  - movedx 9y ago
    Got it! Yeah I'm all over the resources you can find in the Hackintosh community. I might wait until I have my studio setup and can justify a new system build so I can build a Hackintosh then.