OS X New witcher announced, migration to UE5, future of mac gaming

[magikow]

CD Projekt Red announced that they will be working on the new Witcher game but what's most important they are going to ditch in house engine and use Unreal Engine 5. I observe that more and more studios are switching to UE5, is it final nail in the coffin for mac gaming? The main "drivers" for transition to the UE5 are probably Lumen and Nanite which are not implemented to support macs and I'm not sure if they can be because of how apple chips are designed. Do you think that studios will ever bother to prepare separate builds (with Lumen/Nanite for basically all platforms and without just for mac)? I don't think so. Additionally we know how things look like between Apple and Epic. Damn, it doesn't look optimistic unless Apple will somehow strongly support Unity3d

 

[russell_314]

CD Project Red announced that they will be working on the new Witcher game but what's most important they are going to ditch in house engine and use Unreal Engine 5. I observe that more and more studios are switching to UE5, is it final nail in the coffin for mac gaming? The main "drivers" for transition to the UE5 are probably Lumen and Nanite which are not implemented to support macs and I'm not sure if they can be because of how apple chips are designed. Do you think that studios will ever bother to prepare separate builds (with Lumen/Nanite for basically all platforms and without just for mac)? I don't think so. Additionally we know how things look like between Apple and Epic. Damn, it doesn't look optimistic unless Apple will somehow strongly support Unity3d

I think that coffin has been nailed shut and in the ground for quite a while now. The only gaming Apple seems to have any interest in is iOS gaming AKA mobile games.

I don’t even bother trying to game on my Mac other than playing WoW. I use my Mac for everything but gaming and then my Windows PC for just gaming

 

[diamond.g]

CD Projekt Red announced that they will be working on the new Witcher game but what's most important they are going to ditch in house engine and use Unreal Engine 5. I observe that more and more studios are switching to UE5, is it final nail in the coffin for mac gaming? The main "drivers" for transition to the UE5 are probably Lumen and Nanite which are not implemented to support macs and I'm not sure if they can be because of how apple chips are designed. Do you think that studios will ever bother to prepare separate builds (with Lumen/Nanite for basically all platforms and without just for mac)? I don't think so. Additionally we know how things look like between Apple and Epic. Damn, it doesn't look optimistic unless Apple will somehow strongly support Unity3d

Nanite should work on macOS (I think TBDR can handle 1 poly per pixel right @leman). Lumen using SDF (software) would also work as an approximation, not sure about performance though. Not really sure if Metal RT would speed things up or not (or if it is even designed to be used in a realtime manner).

 

[leman]

Nanite should work on macOS (I think TBDR can handle 1 poly per pixel right @leman). Lumen using SDF (software) would also work as an approximation, not sure about performance though. Not really sure if Metal RT would speed things up or not (or if it is even designed to be used in a realtime manner).

You know, I am sure quite a lot of things can work on macOS if one bothers to implement them. So far, Epic doesn’t seem to eager to bring more advanced features of UE5 to macOS, and CD Project never particularly cared about the platform anyway, so yeah…

 

[4743913]

Yeah, the only version of this game that M whatever Mac owners will see is the iOS version.

I am so thankful for Boot Camp.

 

[Random_Matt]

Doesn't matter if Apple through 1 trillion dollars at it, its OS market share is like 10%. Apple would need to sell their hardware at lesser prices in an attempt to get way more buyers.

 

[UBS28]

Epic Games probably have no interest in supporting Mac after Apple banned Fortnite from their devices.

 

[diamond.g]

Epic Games probably have no interest in supporting Mac after Apple banned Fortnite from their devices.

UE5 supports MacOS it is just missing the bits that make it more worthwhile to use over UE4 (as far as I can tell).

 

[Irishman]

CD Projekt Red announced that they will be working on the new Witcher game but what's most important they are going to ditch in house engine and use Unreal Engine 5. I observe that more and more studios are switching to UE5, is it final nail in the coffin for mac gaming? The main "drivers" for transition to the UE5 are probably Lumen and Nanite which are not implemented to support macs and I'm not sure if they can be because of how apple chips are designed. Do you think that studios will ever bother to prepare separate builds (with Lumen/Nanite for basically all platforms and without just for mac)? I don't think so. Additionally we know how things look like between Apple and Epic. Damn, it doesn't look optimistic unless Apple will somehow strongly support Unity3d

Hang on a second - correct me if I’m wrong, but UE5 runs well on M1. I’ll look up where I learned that, and let you know.

It’s only 10 minutes, and he’s testing Ray Tracing on his 14” MBP:

 

[Irishman]

I think that coffin has been nailed shut and in the ground for quite a while now. The only gaming Apple seems to have any interest in is iOS gaming AKA mobile games.

I don’t even bother trying to game on my Mac other than playing WoW. I use my Mac for everything but gaming and then my Windows PC for just gaming

Just because you’ve given up on Mac gaming doesn’t mean we have to, does it?

 

[magikow]

Hang on a second - correct me if I’m wrong, but UE5 runs well on M1. I’ll look up where I learned that, and let you know.

UE5 runs through Rosetta and it runs pretty ok but two the hottest technologies "Lumen" and "Nanite" don't run. Ok, Lumen recently got some support but it's still very early and I'm not sure about the performance. If it comes to nanite there is 0 support for now. I know that CD Projekt didn't care about mac gaming in general (although witcher 1 and witcher 2 were developer for macs as well) but it was just an example to show general trend of bigger and bigger studios switching to UE5. CDP plans to develop further UE5 so that's pretty big commitment We had few really interesting demos lately of big studios that are working on hot titles using UE5. Actually UE5 can produce mac builds but if 2 biggest technologies aren't supported - will anyone bother to try?

 

[Irishman]

UE5 runs through Rosetta and it runs pretty ok but two the hottest technologies "Lumen" and "Nanite" don't run. Ok, Lumen recently got some support but it's still very early and I'm not sure about the performance. If it comes to nanite there is 0 support for now. I know that CD Projekt didn't care about mac gaming in general (although witcher 1 and witcher 2 were developer for macs as well) but it was just an example to show general trend of bigger and bigger studios switching to UE5. CDP plans to develop further UE5 so that's pretty big commitment We had few really interesting demos lately of big studios that are working on hot titles using UE5. Actually UE5 can produce mac builds but if 2 biggest technologies aren't supported - will anyone bother to try?

This guy chose UE5 on M1 Max instead of Unity, so clearly someone is trying.

 

[magikow]

This guy chose UE5 on M1 Max instead of Unity, so clearly someone is trying.

yea but he is "small" indie developer and he wouldn't use lumen and nanite anyway it's nice that someone is trying but few indie devs won't bring huge AAA titles to macs

 

[diamond.g]

This guy chose UE5 on M1 Max instead of Unity, so clearly someone is trying.

There is another video on that channel that seems to indicate they are going to switch to Unity.

 

[Irishman]

yea but he is "small" indie developer and he wouldn't use lumen and nanite anyway it's nice that someone is trying but few indie devs won't bring huge AAA titles to macs

Are you able to share evidence that fortifies your notion that AAA devs are choosing Unity over UE5? M1 is a first generation SOC, so it’s only getting better as time goes on, generationally.

Further, I hope you had seen the first YouTuber that I linked to, who had gotten around 93 FPS in the Ray Tracing test test.

I don’t know if that performance is hardware-accelerated or not, but does it even matter, because this is Apple’s first version of it.

 

[Irishman]

There is another video on that channel that seems to indicate they are going to switch to Unity.

Linkie?

I’m trying to set a good example. ?

 

[Irishman]

Yeah, the only version of this game that M whatever Mac owners will see is the iOS version.

I am so thankful for Boot Camp.

Ever is a long time. Do you know something we don’t know?

You a developer?

 

[diamond.g]

Ever is a long time. Do you know something we don’t know?

You a developer?

The last Witcher game wasn’t ported (they bothered to make a switch version) so I wouldn’t get my hopes up.

 

[russell_314]

Just because you’ve given up on Mac gaming doesn’t mean we have to, does it?

You mean just because Apple and every game dev other than Blizzard has given up on Mac gaming? I'm fairly certain Apple paid Blizzard a stupid amount of money to keep WoW on the Mac. Whether I game on PC, Mac, iPhone or don't game at all is irreverent because what I do isn't really important. I would like to see games on Mac but I'm a realist and it hasn't happened in over a decade. What's worse is it's going in the other direction. Many of the games that were on Mac aren't anymore because it's just not profitable to spend so much money on a smaller market share. Even games like Rocket League dropped Mac (and Linux) support.

I'm not against gaming on the Mac and I play WoW classic on my iMac. If there's a game that has Mac support and it's something I like I'm interested. Perhaps as the community we need to get a website together that lists games supported on modern Mac hardware. If there's a market then perhaps it will change but as consumers we have to buy the products if we expect them to be sold.

 

[diamond.g]

Linkie?

I’m trying to set a good example. ?

Here you go.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

You mean just because Apple and every game dev other than Blizzard has given up on Mac gaming? I'm fairly certain Apple paid Blizzard a stupid amount of money to keep WoW on the Mac. Whether I game on PC, Mac, iPhone or don't game at all is irreverent because what I do isn't really important.

Apple has never been interested in gaming, so they couldn't give up on it, And Blizzard has always been full with pro-Mac people, which is why all their games were ported to Mac for many years. Apple most likely never payed them a dime, because it wouldn't make sense for them to do so at all.

 

[GrumpyCoder]

Apple has never been interested in gaming, so they couldn't give up on it, And Blizzard has always been full with pro-Mac people, which is why all their games were ported to Mac for many years. Apple most likely never payed them a dime, because it wouldn't make sense for them to do so at all.

Why would they pay them? Mac support with Blizzard games goes way, way back. WoW is an really old title and the engine allowed to port it somewhat easily. Other engines/games, don't. That's why there's no D2R on Macs and that's why there won't be D4 on Macs.

 

[Irishman]

You mean just because Apple and every game dev other than Blizzard has given up on Mac gaming? I'm fairly certain Apple paid Blizzard a stupid amount of money to keep WoW on the Mac. Whether I game on PC, Mac, iPhone or don't game at all is irreverent because what I do isn't really important. I would like to see games on Mac but I'm a realist and it hasn't happened in over a decade. What's worse is it's going in the other direction. Many of the games that were on Mac aren't anymore because it's just not profitable to spend so much money on a smaller market share. Even games like Rocket League dropped Mac (and Linux) support.

I'm not against gaming on the Mac and I play WoW classic on my iMac. If there's a game that has Mac support and it's something I like I'm interested. Perhaps as the community we need to get a website together that lists games supported on modern Mac hardware. If there's a market then perhaps it will change but as consumers we have to buy the products if we expect them to be sold.

Should Apple make a deal for Mac games with Microsoft or Sony?

Pschaww! You call yourself a gamer?!?!? Here is my list just of Mac games: Prodeus Arena Ziggurat Half Life Half Life 2 Counterstrike: Global Offensive Portal Portal 2 Left 4 Dead 2 Halo: Combat Evolved Dusk Metro: 2033 Metro: Last Light Metro: Exodus Borderlands Borderlands 2 Borderlands TPS...

forums.macrumors.com

In my post #39, you’ve forgotten a lot of fun Mac games, brovah!

 

[russell_314]

Should Apple make a deal for Mac games with Microsoft or Sony?

Pschaww! You call yourself a gamer?!?!? Here is my list just of Mac games: Prodeus Arena Ziggurat Half Life Half Life 2 Counterstrike: Global Offensive Portal Portal 2 Left 4 Dead 2 Halo: Combat Evolved Dusk Metro: 2033 Metro: Last Light Metro: Exodus Borderlands Borderlands 2 Borderlands TPS...

forums.macrumors.com

In my post #39, you’ve forgotten a lot of fun Mac games, brovah!

Do those games run on the current macOS (Monterey) and with M1? I remember having Steam on my 2018 Intel Mac mini and when I upgraded to Catalina it dropped 32 bit support so that meant a lot of old games that were no longer being updated stopped working. I haven't tried anything other than WoW on my iMac.

 

[russell_314]

Why would they pay them? Mac support with Blizzard games goes way, way back. WoW is an really old title and the engine allowed to port it somewhat easily. Other engines/games, don't. That's why there's no D2R on Macs and that's why there won't be D4 on Macs.

Because you can have the best hardware but if you don't have the software people want it's not going to sell. For Mr or Ms PC buyer who's not loyal to any brand and they see PC A that will play their favorite games and works with the software they use vs PC B that only plays a few games and works with some of the software they use it's not hard to see what is the more attractive purchase. You have to look at it from the outside as someone who don't have a brand loyalty. I'm not talking about hardcore PC gamers that watch LTT but non techy people who don't watch videos about computers or hang out in computer forms. They might play some games, get work done then maybe do some online shopping.

Apple has current customers but the big catch is that huge majority of PC users who currently don't use Mac. If Apple could pay software and game devs to make versions for the current Mac hardware that means more people would buy it.