Testing Valve Games on Intel Macs

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Revision as of 11:29, 5 April 2006 by Cargo Cult (talk | contribs) (Some tidying up while my MacBook Pro installs...)
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This page is intended as a local focal point for efforts concerning the running of Valve games on Intel-based Apple Macintoshes.

Since modern Macs essentially consist of high-powered laptop PC hardware with legacy systems such as the BIOS removed, there is no real technical hindrance to running exclusively PC software such as Half-Life 2.

Note.pngNote:As of 2006-04-05, the OnMac.net efforts are made irrelevant thanks to Apple's Boot Camp system for installing Windows XP on an Intel Mac - one which includes full hardware drivers for all available platforms! Older information continues. Please, for this article, specify whether or not you are using OnMac's method, or Apple's Boot Camp.

Links to pirated software are not permitted; it is assumed that anyone wishing to run Windows in this manner will have a suitable Windows license for the purpose.

Apple's Boot Camp

This officially developed solution is likely to be the best for running Windows XP and thus Valve games, since it comes with a full set of Windows drivers for Intel-based Mac hardware. Compatibility reports will follow as soon as information becomes available.

OnMac.Net

This unoffically developed method of modifying Windows XP for booting on Intel-based Macs is problematic, since it depends on modified drivers for full hardware support. A table of Valve games confirmed as working follows:

Confirmed Working
# Console Engine Quality
1. Mac Mini Source Good
GoldSrc Great
2. MacBook Pro Source Poor
Unconfirmed, or Doesn't Work
1. 17" iMac
2. 20" iMac

Progress

Microsoft DirectX 9.0c is now successfully running on intel macs.

Mac Mini

Working

  • Half-Life 2 is now very playable on the mac mini, especially considering the integrated graphics.
    • Autosaving does not work. Needs to be disabled using sv_autosave 0
  • Half-Life runs very well using both D3D and OpenGL modes.
  • Video of Mac Mini running Half-Life 2 Here and Here

17" iMac

Not yet working, or not yet tested.

20" iMac

Not yet working, or not yet tested.

MacBook Pro

Not working well

Hardware

Software

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