Steam, Source Engine Get First-Rate Love On Mac OS X

[d2kx]

This begs two questions. Will the OpenGL renderer be available for Windows? And if not, is there some kind of Wine equivalent for running OS X programs? I can't think of one off the top of my head, which I find surprising, given that it's a lot more like Linux than Windows is. Surely if FreeBSD can run Linux programs...? Or am I being naive?

No, the OpenGL renderer won't be avaible for Windows in the short-term.

[Naib]

You know what I find most interesting...
They are classifying the OSX ports as "Tier-1" so Win,Xbox and OSX releases will happen at the same time

Concidering there really is only xbox and windows (the PS3 really was a flop), why bother having a "tier" system if the 3 platforms are all graded as tier-1

unless... there is plans for linux and it is to come as "tier-2"

[mum1989]

please this petition ! (Steam for Linux) :
http://www.petitiononline.com/st4linux/petition.html

[Joe Sixpack]

You sure you actually played Valve games? They run 100% fine on my laptop and my mini-desktop.

I play Counter-Strike: Source and Team Fortress 2 several times a week. I play Left 4 Dead a little less nowadays. I also own Half-Life 2.

Dear Joe Sixpack,

With the most love, that anyone could possibly give, I was sent to tell you this: you just failed really hard.

All the best,

- d2kx

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Seriously though, Valve brings updates even for games that are years old on a regular basis, lots and lots of free content and they could, for today's standard, be considered as (nearly) bug-free.

Seriously? There are bugs still present in CS:S that competitive players complain about, and that's a 5 year old game. Then there's the dozens of people complaining about the Valve netcode and/or lag compensation. Also, every game based on the Orange Box Update (TF2, L4D, L4D2) is affected by numerous bugs, including the random stutter/sound looping bug. Some people blame it on Realtek drivers but the issue is only present in the games I mentioned. This is posted in the forums and on YouTube.

Then there's the multi-core rending problem. Even though multi-core support is listed in the options menu it works completely random. There are tons of people who upgraded to a quadcore cpu in the same system and suffered a dramatic fps drop only in source games. You have crazy workarrounds like disabling multicore support and assigning the game to one core in task manager. You can search the forums and find dozens of post about this issue. Then again no you can't, because the search feature is broken.

And don't even start that free content argument because Left 4 Dead people are still upset about being promised at least 1 more DLC but instead they got the privilege of purchasing L4D2 at $50 - which is insane because it was %25 higher than online retailers were selling it for. Other than free content for TF2 - that most original players think ruined the game - what free content are you referring to?

No my friend, they aren't even in viewing distance of bug-free. Source games are like fglrx - people who don't have issues with them think that the issues don't exist.

[V!NCENT]

Great...

Now if Valve would not actually break Source with every update or so, I don't have to fix my Wine for GoldenEye:Source every three weeks or so... Which is, BTW, is the only game I still play on a regular basis because all other games are:
A) Getting too old
B) Nothing comes close to awesome

Just to name a few problems:
1) client <-> server inconsistencies, causing glitches and crashes
3) fontsize bugs locking up everything in its path (that Counter-Strike:Source headshot image is actually part of the font and causes the lockups) so that I have to revert to non-freetype fonts in Wine.
3) Valve's built-in 'Fixes' for Wine, that always result in terrible problems with each new version of Wine (have to set hl2.exe to win98)
4) Terrible: "Hey let's implement our own compositing WM on top of the Windows WM and make it so terrible and ugly that it sometimes slow my quadcore to a crawl"
5) Dirty-ass 'community' overlay screen causing crashes
6) <shitlist of other hacks and problems surficed by mods>

Untill then, let them puhlease fix their bugs first, remove their hacks and make Half-Life^2: Episode 3 first...

[deanjo]

including the random stutter/sound looping bug. Some people blame it on Realtek drivers but the issue is only present in the games I mentioned.

Actually that bug extends far beyond just those games. It happens pretty much with any game that utilizes the NIC.

[Joe Sixpack]

Actually that bug extends far beyond just those games. It happens pretty much with any game that utilizes the NIC.

Interesting. Then why is it mostly reported for those games? I've played Killing Floor, Street Fighter IV, and even Counter-Strike Source on the same system and I've never once seen it.

Could it be possible that it really isn't a Realtek issue?

[deanjo]

Interesting. Then why is it mostly reported for those games? I've played Killing Floor, Street Fighter IV, and even Counter-Strike Source on the same system and I've never once seen it.

Could it be possible that it really isn't a Realtek issue?

WoW, NWN, C&C, Battlefield, CoD 2, EA NHL are just a few off the top of my head that have the same loop / studder experience with Realtek drivers.

[deanjo]

The reason it is probably most reported on those games is more then likely because of the popularity of them.

[xav1r]

So, does that mean that there won't be anymore "mac" versions of commercial game releases, since they will be available on the now multiplatform steam?