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Blog Entry
Improving Macbooks for Gaming
Published on the 22nd of March 2008
I always assert that Macs are better than PCs for everything ... except for games. Gaming has been one issue for Macs that has really annoyed me, primarily the lack of games available for the platform. It is not like Macs do not have the specs for gaming, most have perfectly capable processors and graphics cards for gaming, or at least for casual gaming. However, the lower end Macbooks and Mac Minis do severely lack in graphical capabilities, even to play the few games available for OSX.
This article from Macworld (external link) discusses some very basic improvements Apple could make on the Macbook to make it suitable to play the games currently available for OSX and for any future games. It seems like such a small upgrade, which would make the Macbook more desirable for the average person (not for a serious gamer of course).
Comments
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Matt Oakes (external link) (23 Mar 2008 14:27)
Most windows laptops only have integrated graphics as well though. Its only when you get to mi to high end laptops you start to get dedicated graphics cards (Like mine is).
Another problem that apple have is that there isnt the same lelvel of libary support in OS X. Windows has DirectX which gives developers a common libary for grpahics, sound, network and other little bits. This works across every single graphics card, sound card and processer which means that seperate code doesnt have to be written for each different chip. Untill Apple can fix this and make it as easy to develop games on OS X as on Windows they wont be getting many developers making games for there systems.
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Ethan Poole (external link) (23 Mar 2008 15:29)
Apple has grahpics libraries though. I forget the names (Quartz?), but they have shown them at developer conferences and such. Anything written for them will look finely uniform across all Macs. The primary issue is that games have to be rewritten for OSX, and most companies do not find that profitable enough considering the smaller Mac market. Most games made for the Mac, though, look great graphically.
However, this blog post deals more with Macbooks not being able to play OSx games currently available, whereas they work fine on iMacs and such.
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