7 replies to this topic

[Spinning Burr]

I ran across an interesting article concerning CryEngine 3 and OpenGL compatibility:

http://linuxgamenews...oming-to-linux/

The article even mentions Mechwarrior Online! How cool is that? Apparently the current technical hurdle (not talking licenses here) is your client side application which is DirectX only for now. The servers running CryEngine 3 games can be on Unix based environments already.

OpenGL is widely regarded as superior to DirectX in head-to-head performance tests and has the backing of Steam, Google, and Apple for gaming applications, so it's not going away. I have noticed more games lately being released on OSX and Steam and branded as "Steamplay" meaning they run on PC and Mac environments and players can "cross platform" play with each other.

People who claim that PC is superior for gaming performance are spilling hogwash. It's just the industry standard with proprietary Windows based DirectX monopoly. But this is changing largely because Microsoft can no longer bully either Google (who are working on Chrome browser enabled gaming and android OS enabled gaming via OpenGL) nor Apple who will want more gaming on OSX and on iOS.

Those of you flexing your PC muscles and calling yourselves PC gaming purists, don't tell it to me. Tell it to Id software and tell it to Valve. I'm sure you know more about gaming than those guys. Valve's in house engine called Source is OpenGL compatible by design. Unreal Engine 4 is the 800 pound gorilla of game engines and it is OpenGL compatible. MWO's main rival is Hawken and Hawken runs on Unreal engine.

Bottom line: games running on Mac OSX is already happening if you check the store shelves but it's in its infancy stages. For now I play exclusively on a 2010 Macbook Pro but on Win 7 64 via Bootcamp and I'm very happy including MWO. I used to build my own PC gaming rigs back in the day (10 years ago) but gave up on Windows and haven't looked back since buying a Mac. All computers are moving to laptops anyway, even gaming laptops. Desktops for personal use are becoming as obsolete as Palm Pilot PDA's. I also drive an FJ Cruiser 4x4 with stickshift and all my cars have only been stickshift because I am a purist. Windows is no longer the environment for purists.

Now let the bashing begin.

[verybad]

Atlas shrugged.

[Mechteric]

With Steam looking to Linux its a good idea for anyone to at least consider it, but judging from the article there's no actual statement or proof that MWO will be looking into it anytime soon it seems very speculative on the part of the "reporter" there.

[Spinning Burr]

Here is an article from Valve claiming they get better gaming performance on Linux/OpenGL than they do on Windows/DirectX for the same game:

http://www.extremete...even-on-windows

As usual, the secret behind DirectX gaming is as with all things concerning Microsoft: monopoly (just like Internet Explorer being better than Netscape. Yea, right.) Well Valve goes on open record saying they hate Windows and they hate DirectX and they are putting their money where their mouth is just like Id software did 10 years ago.

I loved the part where the Unix/OpenGL platform ran better after months of optimization, compared to over 10 years of optimization by Valve for Windows/DirectX platform.

Gentlemen, please contact Valve/Steam technical support and tell them they must be doing something wrong.

[verybad]

Actually, Valve is complaining about windows 8 because Microsoft appears to be trying to make a walled garden system similiar to apples iTunes for wWindows 8 apps. This threatens steam's profitability.

Valve is talking about making their own console, which is...a walled garden. They don't give a ratsass about performance differences, they want their chunk of the money also.

Truthfully, performance on any of the major OS's is more thean good enough to run any game out there, though flexability and ease of use goes to Windows 7.

Edited by verybad, 22 February 2013 - 11:08 AM.

[Particle Man]

I doubt microsoft would allow this game on the mac os even if it could run on it.

[silentD11]

verybad, on 22 February 2013 - 11:08 AM, said:

Actually, Valve is complaining about windows 8 because Microsoft appears to be trying to make a walled garden system similiar to apples iTunes for wWindows 8 apps. This threatens steam's profitability.

Valve is talking about making their own console, which is...a walled garden. They don't give a ratsass about performance differences, they want their chunk of the money also.

Truthfully, performance on any of the major OS's is more thean good enough to run any game out there, though flexability and ease of use goes to Windows 7.

Not entirely true. AMD, Carmack, Valve, nvidia, and many others have complained in the past about Windows being bloated and Direct X not being all that and a bag of chips. Simply put, the amount of abstraction you have to go through on Windows means you'll never see the actual performance the hardware you use is capable of delivering. It's gimping the hardware and gimping games. Windows cripples performance, end of story.

This in a nutshell, and developers being able to get much closer "to the metal" is one of the reasons they can squeeze more performance out of a console. It's also why it's totally reasonable that you could get vastly superior performance on a stripped down and optimized linux distro than you ever could on Windows.

Valve's right, as are all the other people who've pointed out the limitations Windows and Direct X imposes on hardware. This is nothing new. It's not MS fault either, as Windows is a do everything OS... and that comes with costs, one of them is gimping the hardware in it.

[Metafox]

PGI has said many times that they only have the rights to develop the game for PC. I was hearing that one of the reasons why PGI couldn't make Mechwarrior 5 was that Microsoft owned the rights and they wouldn't allow the franchise on the PS3. Publishers wouldn't take on a Mechwarrior game without PS3 support, and the project shrunk into a semi-low budget F2P PC game. I really doubt that Microsoft will have a change of heart.

Edited by Metafox, 22 February 2013 - 11:19 AM.