Comments on: Coming to the Mac in 2008: 'Spore'

Electronic Arts plans to release the much-anticipated new game on several platforms at the same time, including the Mac.
Photos: Following the evolution of 'Spore'

[jpsalvesen]

Oh no!

It will not play on my first generation MacBook, of that I'm pretty sure.

So, I'll have to upgrade.

But to what? The iMac's screen is just too glossy for me, since I am quite a bit of an amateur photographer. The MacBook Pro is just too damned expensive, IMHO. Mac Pro? Ditto.

Oh well. Maybe 2008 will provide me with a life rather than Spore.

[Penguinisto]

Meh - get an external monitor.

Problem solved for very little cost.

/P

[nachurboy]

Solution

Get an iMac and an anti-glare protection film like this one: http://www.photodon.com/lcdprotect-sheet.htm

[quadj]

Isn't it funny...

Isn't it funny that in order to port the game over to the Mac, they need a wrapper program to convert proprietary DirectX code into standards-based OpenGL code. Common sense would seem to suggest you start with the standards-based code and use a "helper" app to reach the proprietary code. Oh, how backwards the industry really is...

[balkce]

Good point

The problem is, though, that when a company like EA creates a
game they usually begin with marketing first and right now,
unfortunately, Direct-X is kind of like the "next best thing" towards
game creation. I say 'unfortunately' because, although I've seen
some amazing games built with it, it creates that backwards type of
game development that you point out... pity.

[Penguinisto]

Agreed.

I guess that's why games like Quake and Unreal Tournament have always stuck with OpenGL.

Strangely enough, most of your CG/3D apps also use OpenGL over DX as their choice of acceleration.

/P

[daver208]

Problem Is

OpenGL is a standard approved by a committee. While that does mean they will likely have well thought our specifications its also means there is a bunch of in-fighting on what technologies are implemented.

Microsoft on the other hand can go to AMD / NVidia as well as the game makers with DirectX and say "What do YOU want?" Thats why you've seen so many more version of directX than OpenGL. Because microsoft goes to their customers and asking what technologies they want, DirectX games will nearly always have features that are months if not years ahead of a comittee based process.

This is the reason they dont start with OpenGL and go to DirectX. You can take the features in DirectX and dumb them down so that they run on OpenGL, but you cant easily do the reverse.

Dont get me wrong, I wish every game would run on every platform, just being a realist here.

D

[skipperpma]

stereo typing...

The old thinking that Mac's are strange computers owned by the
graphic design community is completely out dated. People are
getting board with windows, and moving to Mac in droves. Just
go hang out in an Apple store for a little while and watch all the
young kids hanging out there. Apple has somehow connected
with the Youth in a big way. That's important, because they're
the next round of major computer buyers. -
Get with the program, or take you place with the rest of the
digital dinosaurs.

[twyrick]

re: stereotyping

I partially agree, but I'm still ultimately undecided. On one hand, yes, EA is mistaken if they really think Mac users "don't want 1st. person shooters", simply because they're too "creative" to enjoy that genre. Look how many Mac users play UT2004, or played the Mac version of Halo, or Quake IV, or even Doom 3.

On the flip-side, Apple themselves still seem to keep trying to market their machines towards the more "creative" set. The "Mac vs. PC" ads often highlighted the Mac's ability to work with photos and media, for example, while downplaying the usefulness of generating graphs, charts, and numerical data as "boring PC stuff".

I think you're right that the "general public" is getting on-board the "Mac-wagon" these days. But much of it still seems to be on the "listen to music, make your own music, store and edit your photos, and edit your video!" angles. Then the public goes on to do the rest of the stuff they used to do with Windows PCs, and Apple kind of ignores that whole part of the picture.

[Penguinisto]

Nice... Very nice. :)

I always wondered *** took (most of) them so long.

Sure, back in 2000 I was usually the only guy at a LAN party with a Linux or Mac machine. OTOH, by the time I stopped going to them in early 2007, I certainly wasn't alone by any stretch.

There is one bit this article misses. Some games have always come out simultaneously for Windows and Mac, and have a long history of multi-platform playability (Unreal Tournament and Quake being among those). I remember playing Quake II (and MODs for it) on Linux back in 1998. With WINE, I was more than able to play Counterstrike on Linux as early as 2000 (one could probably do it earlier, but that's when I finally started getting into it).

I'm just glad to see game companies realizing that there are a lot of us out there who have taken machine performance to a level where we even question the OS itself (my framerates have always been better on Linux, and I remember watching the Windows kiddies recoil in surprise at my Mac - I had a movie playing and a CG render going on one monitor, but I was playing Unreal Tournament on the other at full speed :) ).

/P

[RompStar_420]

yep

I switched to Mac OS X for this same reason, I can do so many intensive tasks and not have to worry about it crashing, something that I have never been able to duplicate on windows.

Linux and OS X are great, I live and love them!

[Paul Schantz]

Boot Camp works well with XP Pro SP2

I never owned or really even used a Mac until I got a MacBook Pro about a month ago. I had years of stuff created in Windows (plus I'm an occasional gamer), so I loaded XP Pro SP2 into a Boot Camp partition. This would allow me to continue working with my "boring business stuff."

When booting into Windows, the "boring business stuff" ran so well, I downloaded demos of UT3 and COD4, along with some other games (Q4, HL2) that my 3 year-old Windows rig was having trouble running at even lower resolutions. I was skeptical they would run at all, but it actually works surprisingly well. I see very high frame rates (90+) at lower resolutions with details set to high. Not the highest performing gaming machine, to be sure, but certainly good enough for casual gaming on the road, even on the latest FPS.

A Macbook Pro will work fine for the *right user.*

[hdjones]

The only problem is...

These "ports" really suck. The two games I have so far from this "new breed" of EA releases are just... horrible. Crashes all the time, huge CPU overhead, and I'm running a Quad 2.66 Mac Pro. Not to mention the support for the Mac side of things seems virtually non-existent. I most definitely won't be spending any more money on EA titles until they start writing native code and truly start supporting the Mac platform. I will not, however, be holding my breath.

[jimdewhit]

I've had no problems...

I've used TransGamings Linux counterpart Cedega. Both Cedega and Cider (the software TansGaming is using to 'port' the games) are based off of WINE, and I have been able to play all of my games with no crashes or hangs or anything. What's actually funny is that the games played better on Linux useing Cedega then thay did on the same hardware on Windows.

[nachurboy]

Solution

Get an iMac with an anti-glare screen protector like this one: http://www.photodon.com/lcdprotect-sheet.htm

[nachurboy]

Oops

Pressed wrong button. Meant to reply to jpsalvesen.

[nzamparello]

Blizzard

Blizzard's never had a problem releasing their games to the mac on a hybrid cd..

[bignumone]

I am a Mac user, and I hate to give ammo to the PC-faithful, but Macs are just too darned expensive to buy as game machines. What kid (kid's parents) can afford over $1k for a game machine when you can buy a PC or Xbox for about $500?
Honestly, I don't think this is where Steve Jobs/Apple is aiming it's guns. I think that is short sighted and limits the base Apple sorely needs, but it seems to be working for them.
There is the mac mini, but I don't know how good of a machine that is.

[Alzidex]

I have been using a mac mini for about 2 years now. I've been playing a lot of games on this one and it is a truly enjoyable experience so far. I used my machine extensively and I have yet to come across a real problem. They make computer that works period. They understood that people want to maximize their computer usage and that's why they make them like they do.
I've been with Macintosh since 1997 with my first PowerMac 8600/200 ;)

You know what people really needs. Hats-off.

[johnpainter]

My Mac mini (OS X 10.5.6m 1.8 Ghz C2D, and 1GB RAM) plays Spore fine, it is set up to an Olvia 37" LCD (which is also my primary TV) with a VGA cable, which I'm switching over to HDMI with the DVI adapter.

The only way it will run on my Mac mini (it is stock, NO hacks) is if my display is set to 800 x 600 and 75mhz, given that I've logged hours of entertainment!