Reading gamedev subs on reddit, I got a very strong impression that Macs are generally being looked down upon and not considered worthy of porting to.
In part due to a significantly weaker hardware compared to Windows machines, in part due to constantly changing API surface and breaking backwards compatibility, and in part due to historical game-hostile stance of the company stemming from Jobs' personal dislike towards having games on Mac.
It is spot on. Macs are less than 5% of the Steam audience, software now needs notarization, developer tools cost money in the form of hardware, GPU drivers are buggy (unless you use Metal and buy into Apple ecosystem), modern OpenGL was abandoned years ago, etc. So developers only target macOS if the game gets big enough.
From the point of view of gamers, it is annoying. The recent 32-bit support drop killed a huge amount of macOS games. Now I have to bootcamp to play some of my favorite games. The GPU performance is also quite bad due their fight with NVIDIA.
Basically. Also, amusingly in this context, they have bad joypad support (No built-in support for xbox controllers is pretty grim, you have to rely on fan drivers. [Rumble stopped working last year]). Maybe they'll improve it, but maybe not. I'm very skeptical.
Also on iOS they totally let gamecenter rot.
They're a bit more positive now now, but for a long time in their conference talks they tend to up productivity tools and downplay games, which are a biig source of app store money IIRC. They're ashamed of games a bit (their original theming for gamecenter was a casino, which I think accurately reflects their distaste for games). And that's a position you can have, but it makes it less appealing if you're a game developer.
[honestly, raw hardware performance\value for money is the least of the issues].
Well, the 3D performance is very poor in general - my 2018 MacBook Pro 15" is about 30% slower under macOS than on Bootcamp Windows on the same hardware with the same app. And that comes on top of the fact that the GPUs in these MacBooks aren't really all that good and can't really run games at native screen resolution with any kind of decent performance.
The Windows world has made huge strides - e.g. laptops like Razer Blade Stealth 13" pack in faster GPU which is actually usable in a MacBook Pro 13" sized chasis.
> due to constantly changing API surface and breaking backwards compatibility
Interesting that those same problems exist in Linux Desktop, and Ubuntu nearly pulled an Apple and dropped 32bit support on x64. The fact that Valve maintains a platform for devs to target that is relatively independent of distribution shenanigans, and that you can run Linux without paying for it or buying new hardware (probably), are the only reasons it gets any attention at all.
Apple isn't doing this for Macs primarily, this is for the iPhone and iPads. With Nintendo starting to bring a lot of titles to the app store, Apple probably expects other big publishers to start using it as well. They are going to want good controller support. Dark Souls on the iPhone 13? Yeah, I'm going to need a controller. Fortnite is huge and more titles that offer mobile experiences are coming.
There's also an entire generation of children growing up right now who gamed mostly on their mobile devices. One of my friend's kids actually made fun of me for still playing games on my desktop.
Think about what a Nintendo Switch is. It's an iPad with controllers stuck to the side. I can imagine a future where Nintendo might say "why are we building hardware, Apple does it better and cheaper than us, let's just be a publisher". From what I understand, most hardware is sold at a loss anyways, so what's preventing gaming from consolidating around a few devices?
Power really isn't an excuse these days. There's a huge library of great games on Steam that run beautifully on a $600 laptop. Look at how many great games are on the Switch, which is about as powerful as an iPhone 6S.
It's just ridiculous that a leading software company can't support such a wildly popular class of software, but Apple game support has such a long history of tragic incompetence that any handwringing is a waste of time.
You said weaker hardware but really it comes down to cost and modular builds with PC's are a huge factor from a game player perspective. You can piece-meal together a decent gaming system for half the cost of a Mac and the most useful upgrade is a new graphics card.
For hobbyists, a big blocker is that one needs a Mac just to export for it. This probably isn't an issue for profitable companies, but $400+ for a MacOS device is a big ask for indie devs making games in their free time.
Unless your definition of “game” primarily covers Japanese or Chinese apps you play to build a deck of playing cards by collecting spent $100 App Store prepaid cards through the process of paying iAP to collect digital arts of featureless girls with superbright skin made of raw springroll wrap, difference between Japanese and Chinese being either the girls consists of those {are FTM, has absolute flat chests, are chemically castrated men} or {has breasts larger than a sack of football, has breast larger than a sack of football and hair made of bare optical fibers}, then you’re spot on. As for “games” that falls into this category Apple loves them.
It is well possible to attach a TV and a gamepad to an iPhone - there is an official adapter that plugs into the iPhone's lightning port and gives you an HDMI port and a vacant lightning port.
I don't know what functionality does that provide though. That probably does just screen mirroring + charging.
The GameControllers API on macOS is completely useless. They forget to say it in the documentation, but only a tiny fraction of game controllers are supported, so you have to use a lower level API to have any level of compatibility.
On iOS it's a different story. Only a tiny fraction of game controllers are allowed to connect to iPhones in the first place, and this API supports them all (1).
(1) They have deprecated support for game controllers that don't have joysticks, so even made-for-iOS game controllers may stop working.
XBox One and PS4 controllers have been supported on Mac and iOS since last year. The situation was pretty grim before then, but things are much better now.
As outsider I'm amazed how much work it is just to detect a button or to vibrate the controller. That haptic diagram at 7:55 looks like satire. Compare it with LOVE API which is as simple as it can be. https://love2d.org/wiki/love.joystick
Apple is wasting its energy. All they know is they seem to make some decent money from the crappy mobile gaming world, so they blindly think they'll be able to leverage this.
For VR, that is pretty much what we do! For some higher-end stuff like the Valve Index knuckles, you don't even need to hold the controllers - they strap to your palm and track the position of each individual finger
[+] [-] huhtenberg|5 years ago|reply
In part due to a significantly weaker hardware compared to Windows machines, in part due to constantly changing API surface and breaking backwards compatibility, and in part due to historical game-hostile stance of the company stemming from Jobs' personal dislike towards having games on Mac.
Is this off or did I get the sentiments right?
[+] [-] jfkebwjsbx|5 years ago|reply
From the point of view of gamers, it is annoying. The recent 32-bit support drop killed a huge amount of macOS games. Now I have to bootcamp to play some of my favorite games. The GPU performance is also quite bad due their fight with NVIDIA.
[+] [-] jan_Inkepa|5 years ago|reply
Also on iOS they totally let gamecenter rot.
They're a bit more positive now now, but for a long time in their conference talks they tend to up productivity tools and downplay games, which are a biig source of app store money IIRC. They're ashamed of games a bit (their original theming for gamecenter was a casino, which I think accurately reflects their distaste for games). And that's a position you can have, but it makes it less appealing if you're a game developer.
[honestly, raw hardware performance\value for money is the least of the issues].
[+] [-] izacus|5 years ago|reply
The Windows world has made huge strides - e.g. laptops like Razer Blade Stealth 13" pack in faster GPU which is actually usable in a MacBook Pro 13" sized chasis.
[+] [-] AnIdiotOnTheNet|5 years ago|reply
Interesting that those same problems exist in Linux Desktop, and Ubuntu nearly pulled an Apple and dropped 32bit support on x64. The fact that Valve maintains a platform for devs to target that is relatively independent of distribution shenanigans, and that you can run Linux without paying for it or buying new hardware (probably), are the only reasons it gets any attention at all.
[+] [-] jbob2000|5 years ago|reply
There's also an entire generation of children growing up right now who gamed mostly on their mobile devices. One of my friend's kids actually made fun of me for still playing games on my desktop.
Think about what a Nintendo Switch is. It's an iPad with controllers stuck to the side. I can imagine a future where Nintendo might say "why are we building hardware, Apple does it better and cheaper than us, let's just be a publisher". From what I understand, most hardware is sold at a loss anyways, so what's preventing gaming from consolidating around a few devices?
[+] [-] saturdaysaint|5 years ago|reply
It's just ridiculous that a leading software company can't support such a wildly popular class of software, but Apple game support has such a long history of tragic incompetence that any handwringing is a waste of time.
[+] [-] matt_s|5 years ago|reply
You can't upgrade Macs.
[+] [-] lynndotpy|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] faet|5 years ago|reply
Most engines (Gamemaker/Unity/and epic soon) will port to iOS/Mac so it isn't a huge 'step'.
[+] [-] jasonsync|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] numpad0|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mensetmanusman|5 years ago|reply
Why can’t you plug the iPad into an HDMI slot and use near-by iphones as controllers?
[+] [-] micheljansen|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] qwerty456127|5 years ago|reply
I don't know what functionality does that provide though. That probably does just screen mirroring + charging.
[+] [-] Jyaif|5 years ago|reply
On iOS it's a different story. Only a tiny fraction of game controllers are allowed to connect to iPhones in the first place, and this API supports them all (1).
(1) They have deprecated support for game controllers that don't have joysticks, so even made-for-iOS game controllers may stop working.
[+] [-] dsrw|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 0xDEEPFAC|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tobylane|5 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] WoefullyInept|5 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] karmakaze|5 years ago|reply