Subj : Gaming MacBooks are no longer a joke thanks to major free update
To   : All
From : TechnologyDaily
Date : Wed Jul 05 2023 16:45:03

Gaming MacBooks are no longer a joke thanks to major free update

Date:
Wed, 05 Jul 2023 15:35:54 +0000

Description:
Watch out, gaming laptops  MacBooks just got a serious performance boost.

FULL STORY
======================================================================

It looks like gaming MacBooks could be one step closer to actually being a 
thing, as Apple has just updated its Game Porting Toolkit, which should give 
games a serious performance boost. 

The Game Porting Toolkit was announced at WWDC 2023 as part of the updated 
Metal 3 developer suite, and was touted as a fast and reliable way for game 
developers to port their games to macOS  the operating system that Macs and 
MacBooks use. 

This announcement was certainly exciting, as Apple has been making hardware 
that should (in theory) be able to play the best PC games well, especially 
with the powerful new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips found in the MacBook Pro 
14-inch (2023) and MacBook Pro 16-inch (2023) . However, gaming on Macs has 
continued to be a bit of a pipe dream due to the lack of games available on 
the platform compared to Windows (and even Linux, thanks in part to Valve, 
the company behind the Steam store, and its support for the open-source 
operating system). 

The Game Porting Toolkit, as the name suggests, aims to make it easy for 
developers to port their games to macOS  including tools to run Windows games 
in an emulation environment. In a similar way that Apples Rosetta 2 tool 
allowed apps built for older Intel-based Macs to run on Apple's own silicon 
(the M1 and M2 chips), without the need to rewrite the code, the Game Porting 
Toolkit should show game developers how well their games will run on Mac 
hardware without having to port it first. A welcome performance boost 

Running games via emulation, rather than natively, does have performance 
implications, but with the latest version (v0.2) of the Game Porting Toolkit, 
it looks like performance has been seriously improved for some games. 

As Apple Insider reports , Elden Ring gets a 20% improvement when running on 
the M1 Max, and Cyberpunk 2077 gets a doubling of framerates on the M2 Ultra. 
Both of those games dont have Mac versions  so before the launch of the Game 
Porting Toolkit, there was no way for Mac owners to run these games. 

So, the fact that the Game Porting Toolkit allows them to run on a Mac or 
MacBook  and more importantly, run well  is certainly exciting. This update 
is free, which will hopefully encourage game developers to try it out  and 
the improved performance should give them a better idea of how their games 
will run on Apple hardware. 

While the Game Porting Toolkit isnt meant for consumers to use, any tool that 
makes it easier for developers to bring their games to macOS should be 
encouraged. Combined with the recent announcement of Game Mode for the 
upcoming macOS 14 Sonoma , this will hopefully mean that the best MacBooks 
and Macs become viable gaming devices in the future - by breaking the vicious 
circle of games not coming to macOS because gamers dont buy Macs... due to 
games not coming to macOS.



======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/computing/macbooks/gaming-macbooks-are-no-longer-a-j
oke-thanks-to-major-free-update


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Linux/64)
 * Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)

.