Last week StarCraft 2, the latest RTS game from Blizzard, was released. I naturally bought it and installed it on both Windows and OSX. I said "naturally" because I teach game design and am quite passionate about game technology. I think what we call "video game" is the foundation of a lot of other things in near future, including storytelling, education, simulation, and of course entertainment. I try to get people, particularly my students, interested in games and how they can be designed better and be used for various purposes. My academic research is mostly about how to make games more intelligent and immersive. But as much as I like to read about games and try new ones, I have to admit I'm not a big game player myself. I used to play more but these days I usually play a new game only enough to know what's new in it. That's one of the reasons I like game nights. I get to see levels that I usually don't explore myself!
Anyway, with that background one of my main concerns when starting to use a Mac was to see how good it was for playing games. If you are like me and have anything to do with Macs and games, you've probably heard two important things, or maybe I should say myths:
1- Macs and OSX are not powerful or graphically optimized enough to run high-end 3D games
2- There are very few games (especially among popular titles) available for Mac users
Until a short while ago, I did believe in both these myths. I no longer do. Well, not entirely.
(1) Game Performance
It cannot be denied that Macs have never been the ideal gaming platform. So there is some reality in that myth. There are different reasons for this performance problem, among them I'm sure are (a) inferior development tools and APIs, and (b) graphic cards that may not be ideal for 3D games. There is an interesting fact about Macs: Users are limited to certain hardware choices. There are some advantages to this such as relatively high-quality (but expensive) hardware, and an operating system that is optimized for the known hardware. Windows on the other hand is written for "unknown" hardware. This makes it less optimized and more unstable, but gives the users the chance to upgrade to high-end components such as better graphic cards.
Having mentioned those reasons, I have to say that probably the major reason for lower 3D graphics performance on Macs is the drivers. OpenGL is the core 3D technology on Mac and OpenGL drivers for Mac are less optimized than OpenGL and Direct3D drivers on Windows. See this review for some interesting comparisons that show Windows and even Ubuntu can outperform OSX in 3D graphics:
* Phoronix Graphics Comparison
So does this mean the myth #1 is correct? Maybe it was at some point but it's not anymore (lower performance doesn't mean unacceptable performance), or at least it's changing in favour of Macs. There are a few things causing this change:
1- Better hardware on newer Macs
2- Better OpenGL drivers and support as for example mentioned here:
ArsTechnica: Apple Moves to Improve OpenGL
3- Game developers efforts motivated by growing market, for example the release of Steam for Mac.
My own experience of playing Half-Life 2 and StarCraft 2 on Mac (both Windows and OSX) was generally positive. I did notice lower FPS but nothing too annoying. Here are some user reports confirming my observations:
* EveryMac
* ArsTechnica
* MacRumors: Windows Games On Mac
* MacRumors: Native Mac Games
One interesting point to consider is running Windows version of the games on Mac (using Bootcamp) as opposed to running native Mac version. As expected, the performance can be a little better on Windows in terms of quality and FPS, although better stability is being reported for Mac versions which goes back to general stability of OS due to its optimized nature for a known hardware. Here is another good article:
* ArsTechnica: Gaming Performance and Stability
So what's the verdict? As I said, I no longer think that Macs are too weak for high-end 3D games and apps. The myth is less true for hardware and closer to truth for native Mac software, but certainly not true, and in both cases the situation is improving in favour of Macs.
(2) Available Games
Many Windows users think that Mac games are limited to casual games like 2D puzzles, etc. This myth is completely wrong. There is no denying the fact that Windows gamers have a wider selection of games, but many popular 3D titles have Mac versions. Developers like Blizzard and Valve seem to be committed to releasing Mac version of their games, and we can be sure that the growing number of Mac users will mean more Mac games. Here are a couple of good sites to check out for Mac games:
* http://www.apple.com/games/
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_games
* http://www.insidemacgames.com
And here is a very short list of some popular games that have Mac versions:
Age of Empires 1-3
Age of Mythology
BioShock
Black & White 1-2
Call of Duty 1-4
Civilization 3-4
Command and Conquer: Generals
Counter-Strike
Darwinia
Diablo and Diablo 2
Dragon Age: Origins
EVE Online
EverQuest
Fallout and Fallout 2
Guitar Hero (Aerosmith and Legends of Rock)
Half-life (series)
Halo: Combat Evolved
Harry Potter (some titles from the series)
Left 4 Dead
Max Payne
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
Myst (some titles from the series)
Need for Speed: Carbon
Portal
Prince of Persia (2008 and some others)
Quake (series)
SimCity (series)
Sims (series)
StarCraft and StarCraft 2
Star Wars (various games)
Monkey Island (series)
Team Fortress 2
Tomb Raider: Anniversary
Toy Story 3
TRON 2
Unreal Tournament (series)
World of Goo
World of Warcraft
I'LL BE BACK!
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