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I tried Windows gaming on a Mac

andrewethanzeng.com

61–70 of 102 posts

Re: I tried Windows gaming on a Mac

#61
post #52

This should be titled, "I Tried Windows Gaming on a Mac and With a Lot of Effort It's Passable!"

To be fair, one couldn't have even said that much about Linux a decade ago even though Linux ran on the same hardware as Windows. Now we can say that we can do Windows gaming on Linux and it is amazing. It is possible to both play a huge swath of Steam games under Linux, with comparable performance to Windows, and to go the "a lot of effort" route with non-Steam games under Wine (again, with comparable performance to…

It's funny how what people consider "a lot of effort" varies through the years. As a kid I was cracking open my apple-clone 5.25" drive and trying to manually adjust the drive speed with a screwdriver, with absolutely no documentation, internet or other support to help out - just to get a game work!

Re: I tried Windows gaming on a Mac

#62
post #53

Does Mac not do Steam gaming the same way? In Linux I just press install and it works with my AMD card. I haven't pressed any other buttons. Fedora 42

Steam works, but most games can't be bothered to provide macOS builds, and some that do are 32 bit and thus cannot be run (macOS only supports 64 bit executables nowadays).

Lots of older Mac Steam games support 64-bit but show the incompatibility warning in the store anyway. It’s annoying but with Steam’s return policy it’s not a real risk to test such games.

Re: I tried Windows gaming on a Mac

#63
post #4

tl;dr: you can run windows games with crossover, requires extra manual configuration to make performance better, has input lag and you can get 1080p at medium. None of that sounds amazing. If you want to play these games without a windows machine, a steam deck seems a much better option.

I do appreciate the article though - was thinking about repurposing a M1 MacBook for games for kids and this tells me it is a better idea to sell it and get a different computer instead, maybe a second hand workstation for cheap.

Re: I tried Windows gaming on a Mac

#64
post #62
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steam works, but most games can't be bothered to provide macOS builds, and some that do are 32 bit and thus cannot be run (macOS only supports 64 bit executables nowadays).

Lots of older Mac Steam games support 64-bit but show the incompatibility warning in the store anyway. It’s annoying but with Steam’s return policy it’s not a real risk to test such games.

Lots of newer Mac Steam games do this as well. It's quite annoying as it also hides them from your library when you use the macOS filter.

Re: I tried Windows gaming on a Mac

#66

I do my work on a mac because I don't like the nuisance of trying to do it on windows. There is always some wonkiness that I don't even bother to remember the details of, because the solution is just to do it on mac. I rather play games on windows because I don't like the nuisance of trying to do it on mac. There is always some wonkiness that I don't even bother to remember the details of, because the solution is jus…

This is probably true though as a non-gamer and recent mac convert I have basically zero complaints. Windows these days is full of too much crap that sucks away attention and makes it hard to use.

Average windows experience:

Welcome to BING (tm) with your MSN chumbucket spam links! Here's a desktop notification for a "sweepstakes"; no, you didn't get adware, just MS Windows! Enjoy this full-screen pop-up telling you to "prepare for windows 11" that completely disrupts your workflow when you're in the zone! Your computer is running slowly? Oh yeah, that's windows defender sucking up half your CPU, because not scanning every file would be a Security Risk (TM)! Want to turn that off? No worries, but you can't do that on the home edition because we don't give you group policy editor! If you do it anyway, we will re-enable this "feature" with every update and change the precise incantation of powershell miscellany, regedits, and menus that haven't been updated since the nineties you need to turn it off again!

We hope you enjoy your Windows (TM) 11 (TM) experience!

It's like fisher price, a casino mogul, and a schizo got together to cook up the latest batch of whatever slop microsquash is trying to pass off as a legit OS. Which is a shame, because the technical fundamentals are actually pretty sound. Some of this doesn't apply if you're using a corporate-managed machine, because companies don't want to put up with that nonsense, but a chunk of these annoyances still does.

It's weird to say but I enjoy using a computer to get stuff done substantially more after no longer using windows. While I still like linux, a bunch of software I need doesn't really work, and I don't have time to dick around with wine when I'm trying to do a job, so I'm glad there's a reasonably non-garbage option.

Windows will probably be the default corporate os for the forseeable future, but if the only people who actually have reasons to use it are "gamers", that should be a wake-up call for the ms product guys.

Re: I tried Windows gaming on a Mac

#67
post #57

Not releasing Mac or Linux builds this day in age, should be an arrestable offense. At least if someone is using Unity, Unreal or Godot. I actually do it in reverse and do most development on mac or linux and just release a build on Windows at the very end.

Releasing a Linux build is a waste of time given how quickly the library situation changes in distros. Better to just release a Windows version tested on Proton.

Re: I tried Windows gaming on a Mac

#68
post #47
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, unfortunately Apple have backed themselves into a corner there with their ~220ppi Retina display standard. Nobody makes monitor-sized panels that dense which also support high refresh rates, they're all limited to 60hz. The Apple monitors still don't support VRR either, even though the software support has been in place on macOS for a while it only works with third party monitors.

I have a 27” 5K display with 218 ppi running at 75Hz. It’s a newly released monitor from Viewsonic. 75Hz would be acceptable however macOS has funky mouse acceleration that makes gaming feel weird.

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Re: I tried Windows gaming on a Mac

#70
post #25

i love my studio displays but they would be absolute dogwater for gaming

Yeah, unfortunately Apple have backed themselves into a corner there with their ~220ppi Retina display standard. Nobody makes monitor-sized panels that dense which also support high refresh rates, they're all limited to 60hz. The Apple monitors still don't support VRR either, even though the software support has been in place on macOS for a while it only works with third party monitors.

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