Apple Mac + Intel = More Games for MAC?

I have been keeping an eye on Apple and Intel combining there technology and am very interested in getting a mac. But I was wondering if anyone has heard if the new intel chipset will make it easier for gaming groups to make games for the Mac OS. I know they can play WoW , but looking for more of something like CSS .

I am currently on my friends G4 that he has had for 3.5 years! Never been formatted and stays on all the time and he downloads stuff off of limewire all the time. The point that i am making is it has No Viruses, No Crashes, And always works . My PC or any PC running Xp could never do that unless it had 20 firewalls and 19 antivirus's ! I cant beleive I ever doubted the MAC , but now I completely Respect the MAC .

Thnx for your feedback,
MiLwOrkZ

 

Unlikely that more games will be made for OS X. I'd imagine most people that enjoy PC gaming but prefer OS X (myself included) are desperate to get an Intel Mac just to dual-boot to XP for gaming.

 

If you run windows correctly and compitently you should a) never have a crash b) never infect yourself c) not to download potentially dodgy stuff.

Sure it'll be easier for them to translate the games because they are both x86 but unless the games developers convert the directx into ogl for running it on a non-windows platform then it will only be half as easier. As K said, the beauty of a Mactel is that you can dualboot XP for all your gaming needs.

 

I run windows as correctly as i know. AVG (not free but instead Full Version) Spybot Search & Destroy, And Active firewalls. But with all my best efforts of keeping the machine clean it gets corrupted not viruses but like it is old and just needs to be reinstalled. Gets slow and Apps dont run as smoothly.

I like macs because well the one i am on now has no antivirus and i can download all i want with no fear of it crashing or getting infected. sure there are viruses out there for mac's but i have never encountered one.

As for the dualbooting i will definately keep that in mind b/c i am gettting a MacTel Powermac whenever they come out with them!

 

If I already had a PC (I don't) I'd wait to find out how easy it'll be to load a legit x86 OS X onto various PC configs as I would rather use PC hardware that's easily upgradeable and such. Not for a laptop though

 

Macs still have different base code than PC's which is what affects games being ported over. However with x86 tech you'll be able to dual boot OSX and Vista

 

Well, even though X86 still makes Apple a different platform, if it made games easier to port, then maybe we'll start seeing Mac OS trojans and viruses spring up, and Apple struggling with security patches and service packs to bandage their OS.

Remember what they said about the Titanic? "Unsinkable"?

 

it makes it easier to port games but they still have to be ported and generally its still not worth their time and effort to do it considering the small number of mac users relatively

 

To the best of my knowledge most games are written in higher level languages that for the most part abstract the details of the processor away. The Operating System and other APIs further abstracts away hardware details of the hardware away (ex:OpenGL for graphics). That being said the biggest obstacle in porting games from one platform to the other is that the two platforms (Windows and OSX) do not use all of the same APIs. So the move from G4/G5 to x86 will have minimum impact on porting effort.

 

I've been saying for years that Apple could help themselves out enormously by doing a few things like....

Make it (relatively) quick and easy to port games onto the Mac platform.
Be it through an abstraction layer of their own design or development kits and hand holding for games studios. Perhaps even a thinly veiled 'copy' of DirectX so games can literally just 'plug into' that as they would on PCs.

Go and get some killer titles!
It's almost ironic that Halo was heading for the Mac platform (bungie always having been very Mac friendly) until M$ saw it's potential and made it the big FPS for XBox by pumping a huge wedge of cash into the developers.
Apple should do the same. Go out and buy up some great IP, or just buy up some promising small studios. If they get several then they're not even reliant on all of them coming up with the goods, they'd just need a few.


The reason there are so few viruses for OS X is that creators just can't be bothered writing them. When they decide what platform to target they have the same motivations as games and software companies. Biggest return on investment from targeting the biggest userbase.

It may be true that you don't directly see the effects of any viruses, that doesn't mean they're not being propogated through your machine.
Why not check out something like ClamAV for OS X? It's free (being based on the Open Source ClamAV) and I understand it's pretty good.

 

The notion of an open-source anti-virus software bemuses me - Surely any holes in it are there for everyone to see?

 

I've no particular insight, but surely virus writers exploit holes in systems, then it's the job of AV software to patch those holes up?
As opposed to virus writers looking for exploits in particular AV software packages, again limiting your potential user base and return on investment.

 

I thought this too. But I also reasoned the people that may be looking through open-sourced code and spot a hole, are more likely to be the kind of person to patch it.

Even if it is discovered by someone with malicious intent, as soon as a user that has the nessesary knowledge to prevent the attack is hit, they would be inclined to patch the problem.

Hence two ways of preventing/limiting the impact.

Remember in proprietary software the company has to be bothered enough to tell its engineers to solve the problem. If its low-priority attack they more than likely won't bother, compared to a very high-priority. Whereas you can be sure that small C++(or whatever) programmer Joe will be well pissed off the low-priority virus just fecked their system and wants to make sure it doesn't happen again.

 

I would suggest that you are not keeping your OS tidy. Installing and updating a lot?

 

You think you got enought emoticons up there, I think you used them all. LOL
You fail to mention the reason you can download sht off the net and not effect the Mac is because nothing you download off the net is made to work on a mac.
When you support nothing, then your O.S is indeed protected.
One of the biggest reasons people wanna have dual boot is software support as well as game support, Mac's all good when all you do is edit on Final Cut and listen to Itunes but half the things you do on a PC is unsupported by Macs.
So it ain't all sunshine and lolly-pops in Macland, but with there new Universal Theory for application dev kits maybe Mac will finally leave there Cave, but then again the price is potential security risks.
There's always a sacrifice, don't thinks Macs are some divine machine just cause they don't get viruses. You pay for that privilege

 

That sort of complacent attitude is dangerous; I've no doubt that one day, a lot of Mac users are going to get a big shock when someone writes a biggie for their OS. My thoughts on the topic are summarised here.

 

Do you own a mac? Would you care to name some examples of things that arn't supported on macs? Every type of application I have ever needed, I've been able to find a (usually free and open source) mac equivelent.

You are right to a small extent - there have been less viruses for macs, but mostly becuase it has a small user base not because there is no supported software - thats just wrong :s

 

O RLY?

I would love to dual-boot to play some PC games, you're right. But that's ALL I'd want to do. I can do everything else on my Mac and I choose to because the OS is a joy to use and there aren't any programs (other than the games) that I can't run. I've got every internet app, graphics app, music app, video app and office app I need. So... What am I missing out on?

 

Ill-founded Mac bashing, that's what.

Kaze seems to enjoy it.

 

well if you're using an intel mac MS Office and every Adobe app

(note, i am aware they can be run using rosetta but by all accounts they run so badly you might aswell not bother )