Macintosh support for SoW?

[HFC_Dolphin]

Linux support would be cool

[Blackdog_kt]

A friend has an iMac (the i5, Ati 4850, 27" screen model) and since he has configured it for dual booting (he uses MacOS and windows 7) we ran some tests using a game that has both windows and MacOS support.

We were part of the starcraft 2 multplayer beta (it's a space/sci-fi real time strategy game if you're unfamiliar with it), which for all intents and purposes is nowhere near as intensive on CPU/GPU as a flight sim. It has 3D graphics and certain AI routines, along with pretty textures and effects but it's nothing close to the amount of data that needs to be shuffled back and forth in a flight sim. In fact, a modded IL-2 with all bells and whistles turned on could be more demanding than SC2 which was only recently released.

The findings were somewhat disappointing. It was the exact same PC, exact same hardware and running the exact same game, which had native support for both operating systems, yet the game was almost unplayable with frequent stutters and freezes under MacOS as soon as we cranked up the details to the levels we used under Win7. Booting under Win7, the game run at almost maxed details without hiccups and that 27" screen boasts a somewhat massive resolution as well.

After a few weeks i heard from him that new drivers had been released and performance was improved under MacOS, but it still was inferior to running the game under Win7.

So, my suggestion is to get an external HD drive if you like Macs, load up all your documents and important stuff there and keep enough space on the primary HDD for a dual-boot configuration. Then, you can use MacOS for work and as a secure OS, while you run your games under Win7.

I was not expecting to say this, but i'm actually quite impressed with the way my PC performs under win7. I am dual-booting with WinXP Pro and Win7 64bits on my i7 920,3GB Ram, Ati 4890 1GB and there are some recent titles that cause stutters under winXP and yet, they run flawlessly under win7 64bit. The only reason i haven't made a complete migration yet is that i'm too bored to make a list of which programs and games to run under win7 and which to keep under XP and relegate it to my "legacy" configuration.

[Ernst]

Originally Posted by hfc_dolphin

linux support would be cool

+1000

[ZaltysZ]

http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManage...estingId=52375

[Flying Pencil]

Originally Posted by HFC_Dolphin

Linux support would be cool

If SoW can be made to run in Linux, then it could round in Mac under the terminal. I do not think the interface has to use the Mac OS API's.

[Ailantd]

No SOW on mac. SOW runs in DX 9 / 10 / 11. So don't expect it.
Mac is not a game platform... not a work platform... in fact is only a snob plattform.

[Azimech]

If I was a games/sim developer I would never port something to that platform.

Instead of porting SOW to any other platform, resources can be used for improving the game, which is far more important.

And yes, Apple platform is a snob platform. Plus elitist and arrogant.

[Qpassa]

first you have to be able to use track ir , freetrack , hotas and joysticks

[Flying Pencil]

Originally Posted by Qpassa

first you have to be able to use track ir , freetrack , hotas and joysticks

One of the more logical reasons I have read why porting to Mac not cost effective.

As to Mac's being snobs, same could be seen with Sony ("elitist" computers) vs other PC's.

I do not want to get into a flame war. I am a switch hitter, taking the best out of both hardware and systems.

I still am on XP because my old PC was not "Certified" to run Win7 (that is hilarious considering everyone is bashing Mac OS X for being proprietary, when Windows is just as closed).
I was also peeved on price: WinXP to Win7 update is $299, while the Mac OS 10.5 to 10.6 update is only $29.00 (1/10 the cost).

AKA_Tenn
where as mac is about total control of every aspect of software/hardware, therefore its simpler to use, more reliable, but you have extremely limited variety and options in both the software and hardware

Tenn,
Apple Mac's have the ability to boot 100% into whatever version of Windows you want, even Win7.
Apple designed and made hardware, running Microsoft Windows.
And a top end Mac tower is about the same price as a top end Dell Xeon.
So, now anyone can install anything they want on Apple computers, and then some.

the ONLY truly open system is Linux. Anyone prove otherwise.

The best reason PC dominates games?
about 90% of home computers run some version of Windows.
But there is a few million Mac's out there, so.

[airmalik]

I guess I'm an 'elitist' too.

I was a diehard ex-Amiga user. Switched to Windows95 after Commodore managed to kill off such a wonderful OS/machine. Used PCs at work and home for the next ten years. Desktop and laptop at work and a custom game rig at home. Five years ago switched to the Mac mainly because of Ruby on Rails (web app dev platform) and haven't looked back.

I still use a PC at my current job. They still run WindowsXP because they never upgraded to Vista (smart move) and they don't have any plans to move to Win7 at the moment. It's a large govt agency BTW.

I'm glad I switched to the Mac. I now spend more time actually using the machine than tinkering with it, messing around with drivers, virus checkers, registry settings etc.

About the only time I recommend a PC these days to anyone is for hard core PC games. So once SoW is released, I'll be building a custom rig (first one in six years) but I'll make sure the components are 'hackintosh' compatible so I dual boot back into OSX when not playing SoW.