
Valve bringing Steam to Mac - blazamos
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/03/steam-mac/
======
weaksauce
I love that the mac is going to be treated as a tier-1 game device by valve
and that you don't need to buy both a mac version if you have already
purchased the PC version.

This could be the catalyst that the mac world was looking for to be more gamer
oriented and not an afterthought.

~~~
metachris
This also means a lot more games will be developed with OpenGL rather than
just DirectX, which might bring many more future games to Linux as well.

~~~
coderdude
Now there's a moving target. Given the amount of testing that is required just
to get modern games to work across most hardware without problems (on
Windows), Linux (which distros?) as a tier-1 platform is wishful thinking. The
mass gaming market exists on stable, more or less predictable platforms.

~~~
cookiecaper
He didn't say anything about Linux as a "tier-1 platform". I don't think there
are many of us fooling ourselves about the worthiness of that kind of
investment; there's just not enough money in Linux gaming to hold up a release
on Mac/Win for Linux issues.

The guy said OpenGL-based games might be good for Linux, which is indeed true;
it's much easier to go from an OpenGL Mac game to an OpenGL Linux game than it
is to go from DX Windows to OpenGL Linux.

Games on Mac are good news for Linux because if the game is made sanely, it
shouldn't be much work to get it to at least compile on Linux, as both systems
are more or less POSIX compatible. This is good! Even if there are problems
with the Linux build after a successful compilation, we're still much further
ahead than we are with a DirectX Windows game as the target.

Furthermore, making the OpenGL renderers available under Windows may greatly
improve the experience in WINE, especially for non-flagship games. Again,
there's no guarantee that this renderer will be exposed in Windows, but even
if not, there's at least a tangible possibility that it might happen sometime.

The bottom line is that the investment required to port a Mac game to Linux is
almost always going to be much less than the investment required to port a
[DirectX] Windows game to Linux. Therefore, previously Windows-only games
coming to Mac is great news because at the very least it makes the possibility
of a Linux release that much closer.

~~~
whughes
wine also works considerably better on OpenGL, as I understand it. A movement
toward OpenGL usage would bring immediate benefits to Linux gamers.

~~~
cookiecaper
Right, but there's no guarantee that the OpenGL renderer will be exposed to
the Windows games.

------
threepointone
I hope this kicks off the gaming peripheral market for macs. It would be
lovely to have a a handheld controller to play this stuff. Macbook Pro
keyboards are not very good for gaming :) The tiny arrow keys are pissing off.

I hear the ps3 controller already hooks up with snow leopard easily, so that's
good news.

EDIT: Google search for "ps3 controller snow leopard" shows a bunch of hits,
just to confirm what I said.
[http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS368US368&so...](http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS368US368&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=ps3+controller+snow+leopard)

~~~
jimm
I never use the arrow keys when gaming. A friend showed me the setup I use to
this day: look with the mouse, right mouse walks, left mouse fires, shift/c
strafe left/right, z secondary fire, x duck.

~~~
nonrecursive
how do you walk backward?

~~~
icey
Mouselook around, or whip it around if you're playing an FPS. I can't think of
too many times where actually walking backwards would be advantageous since it
usually makes you move more slowly.

~~~
weaksauce
shooting while retreating would be one scenario I can think of. Someone else
said it but the typical fps setup is wsad space jump, ctrl or shift =crouch or
run with mouselook.

------
msg
As a user who endured many crashes in Team Fortress 2 with the edge versions
of Crossover Games, I'm happy that I'll become a first-class citizen soon...

~~~
Flow
I'm in the exact same position. The crashes are very random.

------
sp332
<http://store.steampowered.com/news/3569/>

"Please submit the original source. If a blog post reports on something they
found on another site, submit the latter."

~~~
scott_s
I think there is a difference between a blog post and a news article by an
established site, such as Wired. Personally, I'd rather see Wired's news
article than a company press release.

Wired did reporting beyond the press release itself. The part of the
guidelines you quoted is, I think, more aimed at blog posts that add no value,
just quote another news story verbatim.

~~~
sp332
I don't entirely disagree, but it should be presented as commentary instead of
news. I guess I was just a little ticked that Wired didn't even link to the
official announcement.

~~~
ptomato
I think that's probably because the announcement wasn't up until after Wired
had published, as Wired and several other news sources just got the release
dropped in their inboxes directly.

------
dboyd
My experience with Steam on windows has not been entirely pleasant. Granted,
the poor user interface, and the endless amount of intrusion into the startup
and gaming process can quickly be forgiven in light of the fact that I got one
of the most entertaining games I've ever played through Steam: Portal.

Still, as someone who really doesn't want to have to own a high-end windows
box for the sole purpose of gaming, this announcement make me (cautiously?)
optimistic.

~~~
tialys
They've just released an early version of the new UI, and it's MUCH faster and
less intrusive (I think). That said, I can't really say it's all that bad when
compared to most any other similar tool. Plus, SteamFriends and other things
are just plain amazing for gamers -- frankly I don't know how I used to get by
without them.

~~~
noilly
the current steam beta ui has been ported from ie to webkit (which was a hint
that they were going to introduce mac support)

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stcredzero
Give this seamless integration with Front Row. (In the UI but have it be a
modular add-on install.)

~~~
jrockway
Why? So you can select the game with a remote control, and then walk over the
the computer to play it?

~~~
jcl
Why not? Many games can be played with controllers instead of mouse and
keyboard. If you're using your computer as a media center hooked up to your
TV, then being able to select the game via remote could be quite convenient.

~~~
stcredzero
Exactly. Hide the "computer" aspect and just make it part of the entertainment
center. Release an Apple controller with pre-configured button/key mappings
for all of the Steam games. Have a "Widget" style window display these. Make
the Mac Mini into even more of a multi-use device.

The thing could soon have enough horsepower to support a lot of the Nintendo
Wii portfolio.

~~~
jrockway
Most of the Steam games are wasd-based, which you really don't want to
replicate with a controller. I played Portal on my XBox, which was OK, but TF2
sucks with a controller. The keyboard and mouse is a great control combination
for serious games.

Even Peggle would be hard to play with a controller.

~~~
jcl
Most of the games are wasd-based _by default_ , but many can be configured to
use a controller, if desired -- especially the games that are also released on
the PS3/360.

Whether a game is _particularly suited_ to a controller is another matter, but
this is in part a function of popularity; if more people played using
controllers (as they might with a media center setup), companies will make
more games that cater to them. Valve in particular is especially aware of the
hardware hooked up to a player's machine, through their regular Steam hardware
surveys and fanatical in-game tracking.

And while I agree that I can't see the appeal of playing a competitive
multiplayer FPS with a controller against opponents with keyboards/mice, that
doesn't stop a lot of people from trying:
[http://www.google.com/search?q=pc+counterstrike+controller&#...</a>

------
quizbiz
Does this mean PC games on Mac? Pardon my ignorance.

~~~
acj
Yes and no. Valve is porting some of its existing PC/Xbox game titles to run
natively on the Mac platform, and most (or all?) of their new titles will be
released simultaneously on PC, Mac, and XBox 360.

~~~
e1ven
Further, Valve is bring it's "App Store for Games" to the Mac, which will
encourage other game publishers to port to the Mac, and give them a solid
sales-platform to do so on.

~~~
dkasper
Carrying that train of thought further, they should integrate with Apple's App
Store. Everyone on a mac uses iTunes anyway, why should they have to install
Steam separately?

~~~
simonw
Because Valve don't have to give Apple a cut when people buy through Steam.

------
ekiru
One thing that I'm wondering is whether I'll be able to get the Mac version of
Dragon Age, for example, through Steam without having to buy it again since
I've already bought the Windows version through Steam. I'm sure there could be
some licensing issues there, but if Valve managed to convince other game
developers to allow them to do that with non-Valve games, it would make this
even better.

~~~
stef25
"If players already own the PC versions of Valve games, they’ll get Mac
versions at no extra charge through a feature called Steam Play."

Source: <http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/03/steam-mac/>

~~~
lutorm
Yeah, too bad that of the few games I own on Steam, a big fat zero come from
Valve...

------
bemmu
Already many students are using Apple laptops at school, and perhaps have a PC
at home since you can also play games on it. If you could play all the new
cool games on a Mac, instead of a home PC you could consider either getting a
beefier Mac laptop or a Mac desktop system.

While there may still be a lot of people preferring a PC, I think their future
number just went down a lot. Time to long AAPL?

------
jkincaid
Anyone with knowledge of the current generation of video cards know how recent
models of iMacs and Macbook Pros will perform (assuming performance of Steam
on Mac is comparable to its Windows counterpart).

I tried checking out the video card in my 27 inch iMac (by far the most
expensive desktop I've ever purchased) and was a bit underwhelmed to find out
the card was released in 2008...

~~~
tibbon
My 2008 Macbook Pro (C2d 2.5ghz, 512MB Geforce 8600gt, 4GB ram) holds up
pretty well with most Steam titles at reasonable settings and resolutions. I'm
sure the newer ones fare even better. I wouldn't worry about your graphics
card so much- even 'older' ones are pretty good still.

Will it play Crysis at full settings on a huge screen? No, but it does TF2 and
Portal nicely at 1440x900.

~~~
yashodhan
That's the same laptop I have. Do you think it'll last for a while?

~~~
tibbon
I don't really intend on getting another for a while. I might build a gaming
system someday, but for daily coding- this is the best computer I've ever
owned.

------
matthijs
I really like the Steam Play concept and hope all the older Valve games I
bought will use this feature.

Finally no more or at least less reboots to windows

------
snprbob86
How long before their achievements and other components are on iPhone too?

------
CoryMathews
Steam does not even run well on windows why would they try to port it to mac
before making it stable on windows?

------
zyb09
I bet Apple will sooner or later throw rocks in their path. Why? That's just
how Apple rolls.

~~~
ptomato
Per the valve guys in an interview with AppleInsider, Apple provided quite a
bit of support and help when they were porting Steam/Source to Mac.

~~~
potatolicious
It makes sense - Apple has been interested in Macs as a gaming platform for
years, but has never been serious enough to put their considerable muscle
behind it.

If someone else is willing to throw their money, time, and influence at the
problem, all the better for Apple.

