Forums | MacLife

First, my brains aren't up to speed yet about this Boot Camp thing.  Second, I'm going to make an assumption, and if I'm wrong, then Brad Oliver can correct me.

When a company (in this example, Aspyr) ports a game, they have to pay company Z ( Z can be any company)  a licensing fee. If Aspyr wants to port 5 of Z's games that use the same engine, Aspyr has to pay the fee 5 times. If I'm right then this Boot Camp is great for gaming because --- you are playing on your IntelMac, not having to have a second computer, a PC . Also forget Virtual PC for gaming. It doesn't support video card acceleration. This means (if I am correct): (picks up bullhorn) SWEEEEEET ! HAVOK HAVOK HAVOK HAVOK!!!!!!!

Doesn't it mean that Mac porters won't have to pay the ridiculously high fee to port games using Havok? Mac fans can go to a nearby store, buy the PC version, take it home and play it? Aspyr can sell the games, and with the money they could port more games for the Mac? Not all Mac fans are going to buy IntelMacs right away. There are plenty of games to port. I see this as being good for Mac gaming. There are plenty of Mac fans who have said they have a PC for gaming. Now they can use just their IntelMac.

Or I could just be stoopid.

Dragon- your scenario is good for the companies that make the PC versions of the games. What people are up in arms about is what this means for the actual programmers and shops whose only job is converting PC games to the Mac.

John Gruber seems to think that Boot Camp will almost inevitably morph into a virtualization-type system by the time Leopard ships. I have barely any tears left for all this joy, if this savvy gent's assumptions come true.

And I will say, again, that the current iMac is the greatest form factor known to man, and the relative non-upgradability of the machine is merely a speed bump to the perfection that is using it. When I get back to the colonies, I'm offing this Powerbook, buying an Intel iMac and (when released) an Intel iBook for the wife, and crying myself to a happy sleep.

I just built a PC about a month ago.  I'm already regretting it - lucky I can buy a intel Tower at the end of the year, and take 95% of the parts out of the PC and plunk them in it (only the motherboard/chip will be useless).

DragonKnight wrote:

When a company (in this example, Aspyr) ports a game, they have to pay company Z ( Z can be any company)  a licensing fee. If Aspyr wants to port 5 of Z's games that use the same engine, Aspyr has to pay the fee 5 times. If I'm right then this Boot Camp is great for gaming because --- you are playing on your IntelMac, not having to have a second computer, a PC . Also forget Virtual PC for gaming. It doesn't support video card acceleration. This means (if I am correct): (picks up bullhorn) SWEEEEEET ! HAVOK HAVOK HAVOK HAVOK!!!!!!!

Correct.

Doesn't it mean that Mac porters won't have to pay the ridiculously high fee to port games using Havok? Mac fans can go to a nearby store, buy the PC version, take it home and play it? Aspyr can sell the games, and with the money they could port more games for the Mac?

I suppose we could sell the PC version, but what would that get us? We'd be nothing more than a storefront (a la the current incarnation of MacPlay) at that point. You'd be better off price-shopping for the PC version off Amazon.

Until more people get Intel Macs, I doubt the market will change much. Once the userbase has more and more Intel Mac users, then we will see what happens, and if there's still a market for ports.

Wumpus wrote:

I can't wait to get my hands on Deus Ex: The invisible War. I loved the first one so much I've played it through fully 10 times over the years. I'm also interested in F.E.A.R and Half-life. That's about the only thing I've envied about the pee-cee users. But now the best of both worlds is available.

This couldn't have come at a better time, I'm about to get a new laptop, and I was indecisive about what to get. But now I'm definitely going to grab the Macbook Pro.

Deus Ex 2 sucked. Seriously, just go back to the original and keep your mind untainted.

Now F.E.A.R and Halflife OTOH...

Half-Life 2 was quite a letdown... not nearly as good as the first.  Graphics are amazing though.

I don't suppose that anybody has run any comparisons with game such as UT2k4 Mac vs. Windows on the same hardware? OpenGL vs. OpenGL, of course. (though DirectX would make an interesting comparison as well)

B.S. wrote:

Seems really expensive to buy a brand new Intel-Mac, a copy of Windows, a copy of whatever new game you want just to play a whoop-di-do-another-first-person-shooter game of month.
Just get an xbox and blockbuster rental card. Most games are only fun for like a week anyway.

Though the idea of finally being able to play X-Wing Alliance (if that game even still works on the newest version of Windows) is tempting, but the cost is way too prohibitive. The chances of me getting a new Mac (I haven't bought a brand new mac since my G3 iMac) are about as good as my getting a PC.

Its not the new games that I want it is a bunch of the old ones that I own but did not finish or I could hit up the bargin bin and really have some fun. Wow has it really been two years since Doom 3 came out.

So basically, you'd be half way to playing FPSs on a Mac.

The main reason for the discrepancy between the MacBook Pro and the Acer is the fact that the Radeon X1600 on the MacTels are underclocked by a good deal. The reason for such a large difference between Windows and OS X is mainly because the graphics card drivers for Windows have many, many more optimizations specifically for Doom III than Mac drivers. It would be interesting to throw some games in there, but there are very few that are equivalent both graphics code-wise and coding-wise on Mac and PC. One good example might be Knights of the Old Republic, but unfortunately it isn't a Universal Binary yet. (plus it's the worst port ever )

I was under the impression the macbooks only needed the driver to see the video card as a device that accepts drivers and that you where to install the latest Catalyst. Gonna have to look into it.