apple graphics update

[drunkugly]

so, not being a techie, just wondering about this article i read.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/01/apple-moves-to-improve-opengl-support-in-1063-builds.ars

just a quick reference to what apple is up to. my question is will this improve gameplay? i also read somewhere else that 3.0 deprecates earlier functions. they article is no longer available, but the wording of the article suggests that current Mac video cards don't support the newer version. it was tough to discern whether they were saying this was a hardware issue, or the lack of driver support. at any rate, when do you think apple will release these updates, and will they require the video card makers to do a lot of work to update their drivers to take advantage?

[FuzzyPuffin]

Yesterday's build of 10.6.4 has no issues and should be out soon. It does contain graphics updates, but don't expect for it to be a magic potion that will improve framerates dramatically. It will probably require the developers to take advantage of any new added OpenGL features.

[Zahada]

10.6.3 is already out...

Apple has seeded developers 10.6.4 (which recently has been said to be bug free and ready to go out at any time)

One of the notes in the pre-release is graphics updates, which can be new drivers for video cards, new OpenGL drivers, or both!

Edit: Ah! you beat me to it FuzzyPuffin! Here have some +Rep

[Geruisloos]

Yesterday's build of 10.6.4 has no issues and should be out soon. It does contain graphics updates, but don't expect for it to be a magic potion that will improve framerates dramatically. It will probably require the developers to take advantage of any new added OpenGL features.

Valve might have taken advantage of it already. Because I don't think they would start developing for Mac without contacting Apple about the OpenGL status. Therefore, if they knew Apple is working on a big graphics update, then I guess they have taken those changes into account already with Source.

[drunkugly]

if apple and the video card makers can get their act together, then with valve as the creator of the demand, you have everything you need to make mac a gaming platform too. i'm not expecting complete parity with windows, just better. valve has done a great job with portal. also wondering if perhaps they are waiting for the 10.6.4 update to release tf2 and the other games.

[Neotyguy40]

Developers don't need to take advantage of any new 'software' when drivers get released. Drivers are for the hardware to run better. In other words, it will make graphics run faster without the need for developers to do a thing...

[d10sfan]

Developers don't need to take advantage of any new 'software' when drivers get released. Drivers are for the hardware to run better. In other words, it will make graphics run faster without the need for developers to do a thing...

If they add more features to openGL, depending on what they do, the developers may have to add them themselves if they made the game without using those.

[Kyle6477]

Developers don't need to take advantage of any new 'software' when drivers get released. Drivers are for the hardware to run better. In other words, it will make graphics run faster without the need for developers to do a thing...


Its more then drivers. Apple is making changes to the way it implements OpenGL, which is a rendering API, not a hardware driver.

[kof98se]

If this brings me one step closer to playing Portal and future source engine games on my iMac with its series 7 Geforce card then great.

[dpgirl]

If this brings me one step closer to playing Portal and future source engine games on my iMac with its series 7 Geforce card then great.

doubt that... the 7000 series is deficient, no matter what you do in software.

[heatwave21]

Any progress is good progress! Hopefully, this is just the beginning of Apple's response to Steam for Mac.

[stone man]

Its more then drivers. Apple is making changes to the way it implements OpenGL, which is a rendering API, not a hardware driver.

But as long as they just change the implementation and aren't creating extensions to the API, it still wouldn't require much if anything from developers.

[Scared]

doubt that... the 7000 series is deficient, no matter what you do in software.

What do you mean by that? A 7 series card can easily run source under Windows, with proper drivers on OSX it should be fine as well (assuming good drivers).