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I was a long-time "Mac gamer" who held out until the very end (where I personally define "very end" as Blizzard releasing their first non-simultaneous-platform-

I was a long-time "Mac gamer" who held out until the very end (where I personally define "very end" as Blizzard releasing their first non-simultaneous-platform-released game, Overwatch). I'm here to inform you that that ship (with some notable exceptions, such as Baldur's Gate 3 releasing on Macs today, I think, which is FANTASTIC) has more or less sailed. Tim Cook is neither a programmer, nor a gamer, nor an open-source advocate, and every move Apple makes and has made since he took the helm shows where his priorities lie, and they're not in the AAA gaming market (and additionally, they're starting to be open-source-developer-hostile, IMHO). I think macOS would have achieved a ton more success (it would have basically become a better, more user-friendly Linux) had Apple open-sourced it and simply made Mac hardware the "reference" macOS hardware (between you and me, I also think this move would have instantly garnered Gabe's support), but it's simply not going to be. Apple likes their walled garden and their 30% App Store cut and their iOS-specific lame-games and their proprietary CPU/GPU/SoC architecture that is only being pried open by extremely clever individuals like Asahi Lina https://github.com/asahilina https://github.com/asahilina and Alyssa Rosenzweig (with zero help from Apple other than "leaving the door open," essentially... Which, by the way, they can still shut at any time...) I've become more of a Linux fan over the years but only after I found NixOS- which unfortunately has kind of a steep learning curve. The reason why I couldn't use Linux as a daily driver until NixOS is that Linux's huge customizability (and my need to experiment and explore!) also lead directly to huge opportunities to brick your system or just break things in general (which happened again, and again, and again for me, across many distros such as Ubuntu, Arch, Manjaro, Pop_OS, etc.). Linux is thus like a hugely customizable sports car without brakes or safety belts. NixOS gives you both of those, so you get to fly with the sports car, enjoy all the customizability, but if anything goes wrong (which it rarely does, thanks to NixOS's architecture), you can instantly roll back to any prior version of the OS and its declaratively-installed apps and configs. It's the best of all worlds, currently, completely open-source, but the learning curve is still too steep for most. (I have hope that a NixOS-derived more-user-friendly distro like https://snowflakeos.org/ https://snowflakeos.org/ may help here, but it will take time.) In parallel with that, gaming on Linux became "viable" (modding is still tougher than on Windows, but that will eventually be easier too) thanks to Valve's Proton efforts.

smoldesu 3y ago
Hah! I had roughly the same route; I held out for things to improve on MacOS up until Catalina, then drifted around to settle on NixOS. Funny how things work out like that. Largely though, I agree with your conclusion. It speaks volumes that Apple's most significant GPU translation efforts to-date (Game Porting Toolkit) is largely based on Open Source DXVK code. Apple and Microsoft basically have the same tactic now; push a high-level GPU API across your software platforms, using your clout to force developers onto it and 'lock them in' to your ecosystem, so to speak. The bigwigs might try to tell you that this is necessary for a quality native port, but I've doubted those words since I beat Elden Ring on Linux. Apple publishing the G.P.T. is their shameful admission that a Vulkan driver would fix gaming on Mac.
- yomlica8 3y ago
  My understanding is that GPT can't actually be used to port a game to sell, ostensibly it is for proving out performance possibilities available from when you do port your game (to native metal). Has that changed? To me it sounded like there was a group within Apple that wants to create an emulation layer (and did essentially) but that leadership hates the idea and in its current state it is a compromise that it even exists at all.
  - pmarreck 3y ago
    > but that leadership hates the idea yeah, like I said. Tim Cook is neither a gamer, nor a programmer, nor an open-source advocate. Any one of these might open the door, but if you have none of them? Best of luck.
  - solardev 3y ago
    > To me it sounded like there was a group within Apple that wants to create an emulation layer (and did essentially) but that leadership hates the idea and in its current state it is a compromise that it even exists at all. Heh, I hadn't heard that, but I can totally believe it. Openness really isn't their forte.
johnnyanmac 3y ago

smoldesu 3y ago

Hah! I had roughly the same route; I held out for things to improve on MacOS up until Catalina, then drifted around to settle on NixOS. Funny how things work out like that. Largely though, I agree with your conclusion. It speaks volumes that Apple's most significant GPU translation efforts to-date (Game Porting Toolkit) is largely based on Open Source DXVK code. Apple and Microsoft basically have the same tactic now; push a high-level GPU API across your software platforms, using your clout to force developers onto it and 'lock them in' to your ecosystem, so to speak. The bigwigs might try to tell you that this is necessary for a quality native port, but I've doubted those words since I beat Elden Ring on Linux. Apple publishing the G.P.T. is their shameful admission that a Vulkan driver would fix gaming on Mac.

yomlica8 3y ago
My understanding is that GPT can't actually be used to port a game to sell, ostensibly it is for proving out performance possibilities available from when you do port your game (to native metal). Has that changed? To me it sounded like there was a group within Apple that wants to create an emulation layer (and did essentially) but that leadership hates the idea and in its current state it is a compromise that it even exists at all.
- pmarreck 3y ago
  > but that leadership hates the idea yeah, like I said. Tim Cook is neither a gamer, nor a programmer, nor an open-source advocate. Any one of these might open the door, but if you have none of them? Best of luck.
- solardev 3y ago
  > To me it sounded like there was a group within Apple that wants to create an emulation layer (and did essentially) but that leadership hates the idea and in its current state it is a compromise that it even exists at all. Heh, I hadn't heard that, but I can totally believe it. Openness really isn't their forte.

johnnyanmac 3y ago