Steam IS coming to OS X

JonB

JonB

JonB

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Is Steam coming to OS X?

Some interesting things have been dug up in the new Steam Client Beta.

steamosxgoodies.png


Epsilon on the steam forums... said:
There's a line in Steam\Public\steamui_english.txt that says:

"steam_welcomeaction_platformwrong" "%gamename% is not available on your current platform."

Bear in mind, though, that file also contains about a million references to the P2P system that never arrived. While it looks certain they've at least experimented with moving to OSX, it still might not see the light of day.
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However Postal 3, which is being developed on the Source Engine, is billed as coming to OS X in a number of different interviews and on wikipedia.

A lot of Mac games from EA are ported using cider. I guess its not out of question for valve to do the same for their newer games (or even their back catalogues). Guess it would be wishing too much for a native port of the source engine though? Maybe it's just the developers of Postal 3 porting their work using Cider. Read more in this steam forums thread.
 
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EVH said:
Valve couldn't give a toss about developing for OS X. They barely support the 360.

Maybe they'll change Steam to allow third parties to sell games on OS X, but I can't see them porting any of their own current titles (HL2 etc) to support OS X in the near future.

Not unless OS X gets Direct X
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Didn't realise you and Gabe were drinking buddies :eek:
 
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http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/03/steam-mac/

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/03/08/valve_apple_worked_closely_to_bring_steam_to_mac.html

So completely official now then, and more announcements coming.

* licenses are cross platform, so no need to rebuy the Valve catalogue if you have already
* Portal 2 will be getting a simultaneous Mac and Windows release
* cross platform multiplayer for Mac and Windows
* cloud save games will work cross platform Mac and Windows
* Steamworks for Mac will have feature-parity with Steamworks for Windows
* Source has been extended to support OpenGL, and Valve are contributing to the standard
* Everything ships in April

That's pretty awesome actually, they seem to have every box on the wishlist checked. Setting a good example.
 
I'd just like to point out to all those wondering; The original half life is NOT a source based game. Neither are the addons / CS / TFC etc. Valve have stated that they are porting the source engine to the mac; I would be very surprised if the "originals" run on a mac.

It is very possible to run HL2/Ep1/Ep2/TF2/L4D etc on the 9400m integrated chip. Don't expect to be able to max out any settings though.
 
I guess it all depends on valves attitude to how games are adapted to work on a mac. While valve are setting the example and properly porting source to OS X, a lot of games you see for sale in the Apple store are ported using a wrapper called 'cider'.

It's not the best way to do it (it's akin to using crossover games or attempting to run a game in parallels, just a little more efficient) but if valve is happy to allow games into it's store using 'cider' we could se A LOT of the existing steam games 'ported' over to the mac.
 
icedbullet said:
Agreed. As much as I want a Macbook pro, im sticking with my rig as its way more flexible. When I go back to study however then ill pick up a macbook pro for carrying around with me. Steam on mac just seems like a waste
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The dedicated graphics chips in the new macbook pro's are more than capable at pulling their weight, as long as you're not expecting to run everything maxed out.
 
Yes. It's being converted for OS X and to run using OpenGL.

I can't imagine it would then be too hard for them to then shift that over to linux.
 
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