4 ms·

GPT is barely two months old, I wouldn't expect any impact it has to be very visible yet.

_cenw 3y ago
That's not the point. GPT will never be easily accessible to consumers. As stated in this thread, Linux thrives as a platform for games by running Windows binaries very well, and macOS would do well to do the same. That Apple made GPT but then ignores this obvious route, instead thinking it will somehow mobilize game developers to port their games natively to their bespoke low-level graphics API is ridiculous - "you see, they just didn't know about the graphics capabilities of Apple Silicon before!". Yeah, right. Lots of game developers can barely be convinced to release usable Windows binaries, see also the mess of badly performing DX12 games (which is more like a low-level console API that needs optimization to perform) vs yeet the pixels out DX11.
- babypuncher 3y ago
  The point of GPT is that game developers don't have to target Metal, they can stick with DirectX or Vulkan and let Apple's translation layer do the rest.
  - _cenw 3y ago
    Apple has been pretty clear that GPT is there so you can get an idea of how well your game would run on macOS, not to actually ship games with it. The license doesn't allow for that.
- olliej 3y ago
  > Linux thrives as a platform for games by running Windows binaries very well, and macOS would do well to do the same. No. Linux gaming thrives because Valve embedded Wine directly, branded as Proton, into the Steam launcher. GPT is the same, only for the Mac target of wine rather than Linux, and obviously Apple can't integrate it into Steam. In terms of compatibility I've been using Whisky (a wine UI wrapper) + GPT for a few weeks now and window steam loads fine (albeit slowly), and all the windows games I play work fine (certainly far better than wine - GPT). Of course the problem here is that it's not cleanly integrated into native Steam, so it's (1) requires a separate launcher installed, (2) requires a separate steam install, and (3) if the game ever does get ported you'd need to migrate your saves from the windows container wine uses. This ignores all the attendant performance thrown away by shader translation (that linux also suffers) and cpu translation (that any non-intel code suffers, but in practice that's just Mac)
  - _cenw 3y ago
    Let me restate: Apple does not consider GPT a consumer-facing product. It's meant to entice game developers do "see the power of metal". Proton being well embedded and all sure helps, but it's not the basic prerequisite, which Apple is withholding from being integrated by anyone but themselves, and it doesn't look like they have much interest in it beyond being a cool demo.

That's not the point. GPT will never be easily accessible to consumers. As stated in this thread, Linux thrives as a platform for games by running Windows binaries very well, and macOS would do well to do the same. That Apple made GPT but then ignores this obvious route, instead thinking it will somehow mobilize game developers to port their games natively to their bespoke low-level graphics API is ridiculous - "you see, they just didn't know about the graphics capabilities of Apple Silicon before!". Yeah, right. Lots of game developers can barely be convinced to release usable Windows binaries, see also the mess of badly performing DX12 games (which is more like a low-level console API that needs optimization to perform) vs yeet the pixels out DX11.

babypuncher 3y ago
The point of GPT is that game developers don't have to target Metal, they can stick with DirectX or Vulkan and let Apple's translation layer do the rest.
- _cenw 3y ago
  Apple has been pretty clear that GPT is there so you can get an idea of how well your game would run on macOS, not to actually ship games with it. The license doesn't allow for that.
olliej 3y ago
> Linux thrives as a platform for games by running Windows binaries very well, and macOS would do well to do the same. No. Linux gaming thrives because Valve embedded Wine directly, branded as Proton, into the Steam launcher. GPT is the same, only for the Mac target of wine rather than Linux, and obviously Apple can't integrate it into Steam. In terms of compatibility I've been using Whisky (a wine UI wrapper) + GPT for a few weeks now and window steam loads fine (albeit slowly), and all the windows games I play work fine (certainly far better than wine - GPT). Of course the problem here is that it's not cleanly integrated into native Steam, so it's (1) requires a separate launcher installed, (2) requires a separate steam install, and (3) if the game ever does get ported you'd need to migrate your saves from the windows container wine uses. This ignores all the attendant performance thrown away by shader translation (that linux also suffers) and cpu translation (that any non-intel code suffers, but in practice that's just Mac)
- _cenw 3y ago
  Let me restate: Apple does not consider GPT a consumer-facing product. It's meant to entice game developers do "see the power of metal". Proton being well embedded and all sure helps, but it's not the basic prerequisite, which Apple is withholding from being integrated by anyone but themselves, and it doesn't look like they have much interest in it beyond being a cool demo.