Apple stuff

[Ekona]

Maybe that's their reason as well

[Steve]

I'm also interested in how they would do this, and how well it holds up on Mac hardware.

Mac hardware == PC hardware. What's the problem there?

Sorry, I should have elaborated more.

I meant if Valve used something like you mentioned (Cider) the performance obviously isn't going to be the same.

And somehow I don't see them completely re-writing the Source engine for the Mac platform, there just isn't a big enough market share for them to make a big enough return on time and investment.

[Tinlad]

Ah, I see.

I haven't played any games that use Cider, so I don't have any personal experience of it. From the (admittedly small) amount that I've read, it seems that there the results range from 'horrible' to 'good', with some games moving from the former to the latter as patches are released.

Having the Source engine running natively on OS X is probably naught but a pipe-dream; some level of emulation/translation is probably going to be happening (Cider or otherwise)... but if I can play TF2 under OS X at reasonable framerates then I'll be a happy bunny indeed.

[Chuck Steak]

Maybe you could try installing WINE on the Mac?

TF2 is actually playable under WINE if you don't mind turning the graphics settings down fairly low.

To get it to work well I also had the set the launch options in Steam to "-dxlevel 80"

[Tinlad]

Well holy gosh darn.

Steam and Valve's library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April.

[...]

"We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation," said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. "The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360. Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with the Windows updates.

[Savara]

Yeah, I saw that on Engadget earlier today. Quite plzedrly.

[DCUK7]

I was excited until they decided to leave the original Left 4 Dead off that list.

DAMN YOU VALVE, I PREFER THE ORIGINAL OVER THE SEQUEL, COACH AND ROCHELLE ANNOY THE SHIT OUT OF ME!!!!!!

[Blak]

If the Orange Box is on there I bet L4D1 won't be missing, or at the very least not far behind.

[Steve]

Well I shall now proceed to eat my own words.

+1 for Valve.

[DJ]

Not long till the iPad now. I'm buying it. Sounds like it'll be under £400 for the 16GB version, which is plenty enough.

[Savara]

Whyyyyyy??

[DCUK7]

Original Left 4 Dead Also Coming To Mac

IN MY FACE! I love being pwned!

[RB]

Not long till the iPad now. I'm buying it. Sounds like it'll be under £400 for the 16GB version, which is plenty enough.

Wow, I was wrong, Apple will sell at least one.

[DJ]

I'm forever browsing on the sofa on my iPhone . I don't want to go upstairs and sit at my big mac, and the MBP feels a bit anti-social on the sofa when the gf is there as well and you have to be a in a certain laptop position to use it. So I want the bigger screen to browse on the web while I'm on the sofa and be able to sit however I want. Absolutely perfect.
Also for watching videos on the train. It'll be great.

It's not strictly a product aimed at me, but I can see exactly where it fits with my usage and it'll get used loads.
And don't forget all the users we loath: they never update their software, they just use their pc for emails and maybe buying a present online. They don't care about anything else on their massive pc, they just want to do little things. Then when their pc starts grinding to a halt they don't use it because they don't understand it. They're the people who ask you to fix their pc and you find an ancient machine so clogged with dust it's actually breeding new forms of life. That's the people who need an iPad, it's the answer to their prayers. Apple just need to target them.
So while all us tech heads are power-users with huge amounts of expensive software and hardware can't see the point in a large screen iPhone that doesn't do much, it actually does LOADS when you look at it from the right perspective.
Can't wait!

[RB]

No Flash though.