Mac vs. PC's on Highest Games

Qion · #1 March 8th, 2005, 11:10 PM

I figure this has already been posted in some form, but I would really like some input on why the PC's kicked the s*** out of the Macs in Halo, Doom 3, UT04, AND Quake. You can see the bench's here: http://www.barefeats.com/mac2pc.html

I don't know about you guys, but I want the ability to buy a Mac that not only has super OS prowess to PC's, but also be able to laugh in their face when it comes to games. Even if you buy the latest G5, you can't even touch the latest PC. I love Macs, but I find it sad that the PC whores are owning us in games.

texanpenguin · #2 March 8th, 2005, 11:48 PM

It's because the games are written on the x86 platform. Aspyr, who ports them, does a phenomenal job, but it's just not going to be able to do the same things that the original code can.

Plus, many games utilise Microsoft DirectX (which is fantastic at what it does). To run on OS X, the video engine has to be ported to OpenGL.

Pengu · #3 March 8th, 2005, 11:52 PM

It's largely because games are made for Wintel, and when they are ported, they aren't necessarily using the most efficient code for OSX/PPC.

Qion · #4 March 9th, 2005, 06:19 AM

Got ya guys. I've known that there have always been porting issues, and usually OS X gets the brunt of it. I heard that Direct X is going to be used in the xbox 360(if thats what they are gonna call it), so even more porting issues! YEY! I will always stay true to Mac, but maybe sometime in the near future all the hot games will finally run like they should on the best machine out there.

Pengu · #5 March 9th, 2005, 06:51 AM

Um. i think you'll find that the current xbox probably uses DirectX..

and in THEORY, the new xbox should make porting EASIER, not harder. any CPU specific code is more likely to be easier to port to Mac than X86, as it will already be PPC code. not PPC mac, but PPC none-the-less.

also what 6.1 system are you using?

Lycander · #6 March 9th, 2005, 02:20 PM

Just food for thought:

There's still no hardware audio acceleration for Mac games. Much of the audio processing is being done by the CPU. CreativeLabs did create a sound card for Macs, but it was a flop. I think there was a thread in this here forums in which someone said "turning off sound in XYZ game boosted framerates."

Qion · #7 March 9th, 2005, 03:58 PM

Alright, Pengu got me with Xbox already uses DX. But, I don't know if I agree with the new Xbox making ports easier. I read in an Xbox-specific site(a friend showed me) that the new 360 is going to use technology that WILL make porting harder to a Mac(seeing that Apple doesn't adopt MS-like code). If I find this article again, I'll post it.

As for my audio system,

I knew when I bought the system(Logitec X620) that my Mac couldn't technically support the full 6.1, but I was going to work around that. I just got on eBay and bought an audio splicer. I have the splicer hooked into the Mac's headphone jack, with two of the three speaker inputs plugged in. I use the built-in support on the speakers that combines two channels to run all of the speakers at once anyway. I have the speakers arranged so that I have two center channels, right front, left front, and I have the two rear L+R speakers on the sides of me. It's pretty sweet sounding in games or with music, even without full audio support. It makes ME happy

Pengu · #8 March 9th, 2005, 11:53 PM

sorry.. im not suggesting the porting will necessarily be easier, given the use of DX (most likely).. but i meant that anything CPU specific (there must be some code that makes direct CPU calls) these are more likely to map to G4/G5 CPUs than to X86...

as for audio.. i wouldn't have thought game audio was such a big drain.. but then look at my specs, i can't say i've noticed in CoD or Postal2..