NVIDIA's For Mac Games, But Where's Linux?

[phoronix]

Phoronix: NVIDIA's For Mac Games, But Where's Linux?

As many of you have likely heard, Apple's new MacBook notebooks launched last week and are using NVIDIA graphics instead of the Intel integrated graphics they had been using. With NVIDIA GPUs now appearing on more Apple products with Mac OS X, this graphics company is now encouraging game developers to bring their titles to Mac OS X...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=Njc5OA

[deanjo]

However, when will NVIDIA begin pushing game developers to support Linux?

When and if it becomes profitable to do so. Apple is enjoying the benefits of having record adoption rates by the consumer.

Once games are running on Mac OS X, it's only one more small step to bring the OpenGL game to Linux. If we get any information from NVIDIA, we'll pass it along.

OpenGL is just one piece of the puzzle. There have been hundreds (if not thousands) of openGL based games that have never been ported to linux or mac. Lack of openGL support has never really been a major reason for not porting games.

[Regenwald]

sadly, i don't think that you will get any information from them (point of view based on past events)...

[kraftman]

When and if it becomes profitable to do so. Apple is enjoying the benefits of having record adoption rates by the consumer.

What records are you talking about? XD I only heard that apple sold little more PCs with macos than some time ago... I wonder in what way it's profitable to nvidia to support macos - lack of games, tiny market share, but maybe apple paid them?

[eikenberry]

What records are you talking about? XD I only heard that apple sold little more PCs with macos than some time ago... I wonder in what way it's profitable to nvidia to support macos - lack of games, tiny market share, but maybe apple paid them?

They just made a big hardware deal. So yes, basically they paid them.

[deanjo]

What records are you talking about? XD I only heard that apple sold little more PCs with macos than some time ago... I wonder in what way it's profitable to nvidia to support macos - lack of games, tiny market share, but maybe apple paid them?

Apple is enjoying their ever growing marketshare on the consumer level. Every month you can read about Apple's increasing marketshare on the home front. Apple can provide solid measurable numbers of how many systems out there are being sold and used using their OS, which is not something that the linux community can do. As far as Apple paying them to do so, it is more likely that Nvidia wants to get a griplock on getting their chipsets being used on a market that is showing big growth numbers. Plus Nvidia with their push towards GPU computing also wants to be able to have the first real home platform that will use it extensively (OS X 10.6). They simply want to hitch a ride on the tailcoat of Apple's success.

[downhillgames]

This news just makes me a little worried about AMD.

[puelocesar]

I don't know.. Maybe it's better just buying a PS3 and a Wii for my gaming needs and forget about PC gaming...

I can't see a game like GTA 4 ported to Linux in a near future, they won't risk they money porting their games for one more platform unless they have granted payback, and I think Linux community can't give that to them..

Besides that, the gaming world is SO distant from the freedom we all enjoy in a open source OS..

Maybe initiatives like Apricot have better results then hoping that the traditional industry of gaming looks for us with a good eye

[deanjo]

I don't know.. Maybe it's better just buying a PS3 and a Wii for my gaming needs and forget about PC gaming...

Well you could at least play Force Unleashed that way I suppose.

[superppl]

At least this is one step in the right direction. Besides, look at this way: either the games are going to built against cider (aka winelib) meaning the game will work well in wine, or a native port will be made using openGL, and openGL games usually run better in wine than D3D games.
Also, it's not like Crossover doesn't exist. A gaming company could just build their game against plain winelib and getting it working in two platforms with one port.