jerclarke, 8 months ago

@stroughtonsmith The question to me is: Will Apple be able to sustain these developers with long term support, and avoid the historical rug-pull deprecations that have broken all historical releases.

Really hoping so!

jerclarke, 8 months ago

@stroughtonsmith The question to me is: Will Apple be able to sustain these developers with long term support, and avoid the historical rug-pull deprecations that have broken all historical releases.

Really hoping so!

kkolakowski, 8 months ago (edited 8 months ago)

@stroughtonsmith Game developers benefits greatly with Apple Silicon only:

• much better baseline GPU performance/features
• single GPU to support (no need for Intel/AMD shenanigans), single Metal version
• single CPU architecture
• higher baseline macOS version to support (could be required on Intel too ofc)

What not to love here as gamedev?🥰

Apps developers, completely different story: x86 support is basically "for free" until they support newest OS 🤷‍♂️

#gamedev #macdev #macos

uliwitness, 8 months ago

@stroughtonsmith IMO that could be a good sign. Means the difference in graphics power is big enough to be worth dropping half the users for.

OldManJade, 8 months ago

@stroughtonsmith With an installed base of 150 million Macs and sales of 25 million a year, it seems like it would be awhile yet. However, about half Macs sold are to people new to the platform needing new software. 2026 seems about right for the end of the Intel era.

kern, 8 months ago

@stroughtonsmith Approximately 2/3rds of macOS Steam users are on Apple Silicon https://iosdev.space/@kern/111099133966484456

kyle, 8 months ago

@stroughtonsmith Baldur’s Gate 3, which was in early access on intel macs for years, now states an M1 is the minimum requirement. (It still launches on intel, but they do not recommend it!)

ianfogg, 8 months ago

@stroughtonsmith Annoyingly the Mac versions of Lies of P and Death Stranding do not appear to be on Steam, suggesting Apple has negotiated exclusive port access

stroughtonsmith, 8 months ago

@ianfogg might just have been a choice; No Man's Sky didn't launch on the MAS

ianfogg, 8 months ago

@stroughtonsmith Could be a choice. May also be a time window, then these titles will later hit other platforms like Steam.

ianfogg, 8 months ago

@stroughtonsmith Apple should encourage Mac triple A games to be on Steam, because that's the way to tempt gamers onto the Mac because Steam games are usually buy once, play on any supported platform, Steam is a gateway to gamers using the Mac to play....

codingpanic, 8 months ago

@stroughtonsmith what about the ray tracing games that are iPhone 15 or newer only? My iPhone 14 cries, lol.

haifisch, 8 months ago

@stroughtonsmith for anyone focused with macOS content I assume fairly soon, for game developers though I doubt they necessarily want to lock themselves to a particular platform and optimize for just M1.

For Apple app developers in general I feel it’s an inevitably, sorta like how they transitioned to 64bit binaries only.

foobarsoft, 8 months ago

@stroughtonsmith I wonder if that’s purely related to knowing the minimum GPU will be acceptable.

qlp, 8 months ago

@stroughtonsmith I'm guessing that apps that want to make sure of the neural engine and other features that just aren't available on any Intel-based systems would be the first to jump.

Metal abstraction can only do so much if you need graphics acceleration or certain offloading.

Would be interesting to see how fast the PPC to Universal to Intel-only transition is versus the Intel to Universal 2 to Apple Silicon-only will be.