Mac gaming is finally getting the overpowered upgrade it deserves

91–92 of 92 posts

Re: Mac gaming is finally getting the overpowered upgrade it deserves

#91

Post by zer0zzz » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 11:23 PM UTC

bigyabai wrote: post #88

zer0zzz wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It matters because if Apple embraced Vulkan it would give more market share to one standard API for non-Windows platforms. How does this actually help Apple customers have a better experience in some unique way that live translation to Metal does not? Runtime GPU compilers already do plenty of runtime translation; having worked on several I could be convinced having a simpler interop layer would make things smoothe…

> How does this actually help Apple customers have a better experience in some unique way that live translation to Metal does not? By decoupling the support for Windows games from Apple's whimsical downstream release cycle, obviously. Proton would build perfectly fine on macOS with proper DXVK support, enabling the "same day" support patches that the Steam Deck and Steam Frame enjoy. There would be no need to wait to…

I’m not entirely sure what apple’s interest in any of this is. Would it get them any additional customers? What portion of their customers would be significantly more happy with games being somewhat more optimized a few months sooner? I just don’t see the value add here.

I’m not sure the community needs that much support from apple either. Lot of projects have figured out how to targete AIR directly by now.

Re: Mac gaming is finally getting the overpowered upgrade it deserves

#92

Post by danaris » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 6:06 AM UTC

bigyabai wrote: post #90

danaris wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This idea that Apple has been plotting this whole time to turn the Mac into iOS, in terms of limiting the software you can run to their own App Store, is a tired meme that makes zero sense given what we've seen from Apple in the past... checks ... 19 years . Like, seriously, do you think they need longer than that to do it if it's really what they plan? If they were ever going to do it, it would've been when they swi…

> If they were ever going to do it, it would've been when they switched to Apple Silicon chips, and...they didn't! They did, though; - macOS lost support for eGPU and dGPU drivers - OpenGL support was frozen to focus on Apple's mobile GPU API - Apple promoted Mac Catalyst apps instead of pushing Mac-native ones - The iOS and iPadOS App Stores became available on macOS alongside the native store - The macOS design lan…

> They did, though;

You cite a bunch of changes, but none of them are what people have actually been claiming for the past 19 that Apple will do: preventing us from installing arbitrary software on our Macs.

I still have my MacPorts installation, which works fine, and installs all kinds of command-line tools.

I can still write anything I want on my Mac, compile or interpret it, and run it.

I can still install whatever I want from outside the Mac App Store.

This is a classic example of goalpost-moving.

Post reply on HN