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>> shame that Apple doesn't partner with Valve on this, although not surprising in the least. reply Please no. The Linux community, small and nerdy, is relati

>> shame that Apple doesn't partner with Valve on this, although not surprising in the least. reply Please no. The Linux community, small and nerdy, is relatively self-supporting. The vastly larger apple community want things to just work. That's what they are paying for when they buy apple products. The deluge of support requests might push valve away from the entire concept.

smoldesu 3y ago
Why? Everyone wants things to "just work", but nobody besides Windows and Xbox users can run native DirectX. Seeing as MacOS and Linux users have to cope with this individually, it makes sense that they would share a lot of the underlying work. They already do, courtesy of Codeweavers. If Apple offered hardware-level Vulkan support on their systems, gaming on Mac would "just work" like it does on Steam Deck, for the most part. Even if they didn't, Apple could still improve on Game Porting Toolkit by open-sourcing their fork, accepting contributions or (gasp) upstreaming their work. Valve does every one of those things, and their gaming experience on Linux is console-quality because of it. Apple doesn't necessarily have to work with Valve, but it sure would reduce the amount of redundant work both parties are responsible for.
- sandworm101 3y ago
  Yes, apple can do lots of things to help the process. In any partnership, it would be Valve would be fighting the uphill battle to keep customers happy. Linux users will generally try for hour/days to get a game working before submitting a support request. Apple users aren't that nerdy. Linux users want things to just work. Apple users expect it.
  - smoldesu 3y ago
    I still don't understand the conflict of interest. Valve is closer to pushbutton game compatibility than Apple, their translation kits are both based on DXVK and they both use tons of Codeweavers code. In a lot of ways, they're retreading the same path with zero tangible benefit to the user. Obviously Game Porting Toolkit is not meant to be a crutch, but it's clear there's demand for games to work on Apple hardware. As a user, why are you opposed to having more options alongside Apple's more restricted, curated offerings?
- Pesthuf 3y ago
  I don’t think apple wants us to play games with Wine and Game Porting Toolkit. Especially not games on Steam. Apple wants developers to use it to port their games to macOS (using Metal) and distribute them on the App Store (only).
  - smoldesu 3y ago
    Sure, but I don't see why adding functionality would be a bad thing. There are thousands of games that will just never be ported away from 32-bit Windows. If Apple doesn't intend to keep those running forever, they should at least equip the community with the tools to fix it themselves. It makes sense why Apple doesn't want it, but I'm surprised to see the community reject the idea too. The "set and forget" experience of the Steam Deck is fantastic, and entirely attainable with Apple's homogenized hardware pool.
kcb 3y ago
Meh. I think Valve would definitely support Proton on Linux if Mac had Vulkan support on the GPU. High performance DX 9,10,11,12 translation to Vulkan is what made Proton possible. And no MoltenVK is not enough.

smoldesu 3y ago

Why? Everyone wants things to "just work", but nobody besides Windows and Xbox users can run native DirectX. Seeing as MacOS and Linux users have to cope with this individually, it makes sense that they would share a lot of the underlying work. They already do, courtesy of Codeweavers. If Apple offered hardware-level Vulkan support on their systems, gaming on Mac would "just work" like it does on Steam Deck, for the most part. Even if they didn't, Apple could still improve on Game Porting Toolkit by open-sourcing their fork, accepting contributions or (gasp) upstreaming their work. Valve does every one of those things, and their gaming experience on Linux is console-quality because of it. Apple doesn't necessarily have to work with Valve, but it sure would reduce the amount of redundant work both parties are responsible for.

sandworm101 3y ago
Yes, apple can do lots of things to help the process. In any partnership, it would be Valve would be fighting the uphill battle to keep customers happy. Linux users will generally try for hour/days to get a game working before submitting a support request. Apple users aren't that nerdy. Linux users want things to just work. Apple users expect it.
- smoldesu 3y ago
  I still don't understand the conflict of interest. Valve is closer to pushbutton game compatibility than Apple, their translation kits are both based on DXVK and they both use tons of Codeweavers code. In a lot of ways, they're retreading the same path with zero tangible benefit to the user. Obviously Game Porting Toolkit is not meant to be a crutch, but it's clear there's demand for games to work on Apple hardware. As a user, why are you opposed to having more options alongside Apple's more restricted, curated offerings?
Pesthuf 3y ago
I don’t think apple wants us to play games with Wine and Game Porting Toolkit. Especially not games on Steam. Apple wants developers to use it to port their games to macOS (using Metal) and distribute them on the App Store (only).
- smoldesu 3y ago
  Sure, but I don't see why adding functionality would be a bad thing. There are thousands of games that will just never be ported away from 32-bit Windows. If Apple doesn't intend to keep those running forever, they should at least equip the community with the tools to fix it themselves. It makes sense why Apple doesn't want it, but I'm surprised to see the community reject the idea too. The "set and forget" experience of the Steam Deck is fantastic, and entirely attainable with Apple's homogenized hardware pool.

kcb 3y ago

Meh. I think Valve would definitely support Proton on Linux if Mac had Vulkan support on the GPU. High performance DX 9,10,11,12 translation to Vulkan is what made Proton possible. And no MoltenVK is not enough.