Jun 21, 2018  Yes, it's a known issue with High Sierra on the 2012 - 2013 MacBook Pros with Nvidia graphics. Frustrating that Apple has done such a poor job optimizing the OS for slightly older (but still supported) hardware. Mojave is better, but switching Spaces with multiple apps open still stutters. Jun 05, 2018  90+ New Changes & Features in macOS Mojave - Duration: 16:14. AppleInsider 127,724 views. If you’re using macOS Mojave, choose Apple menu System Preferences, then click Software Update where you’ll find the upgrade. If you’re using an earlier macOS, use the App Store instead.

Gaming on macOS is still not much of a 'thing' as many enthusiasts would like. In fact, iOS is a far better gaming platform in terms of sheer number of games than is macOS. However, you can get your gaming on if you are so inclined. If there is a will there's a way! So, if you have a Mac mini setup for use as a media center or a file server, why not add some gaming to the mix to get the most out of your $799 investment? Here's how!

Some caveats

Although I'll be setting up my Mac mini in my living room as an entertainment hub that will offer movies, TV, and gaming, I'd be lying if I said that this was an all-in-one solution. Although many aspects of the Mac mini on its own could be used for gaming, I'll be recruiting the help of some extra hardware and non-Mac software to get us to the point where we can use the Mac mini as a proper gaming hub.

The hardware

2018 Mac mini

For our 'ultimate' gaming Mac mini, I'll be buying the lowest end 2018 Mac mini for $799 Apple. This comes with:

• 3.6GHz quad-core 8th-generation Intel Core i3 processor
• 8GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory
• Intel UHD Graphics 630
• 128GB PCIe-based SSD storage

I know what you're thinking. I can feel your look. Those specs aren't powerful enough to run the latest games. The GPU and CPU is way too weak, and the storage space is far too small. Well, you're correct for most modern games. Not only will we be adding some hardware to the mix, we'll also setup some gaming software that the Mac mini is able to play right out of the box. So sit tight.

We'll be connecting the Mac mini to a 5K display with a gigabit ethernet wired connection to my network. You'll get better performance out of this lowest end Mac mini if you limit your resolutions to 1080p but you can decide if higher resolutions are worth the performance hit.

External SSD (optional)

Extra disk space is completely optional depending on your needs. If you have an external NAS or are simply very good at managing your disk space (installing a single game and uninstalling it when no longer in use to save space), you can get away with not having to add external storage. In my case, I have both a Synology Diskstation, $370 on a gigabit ethernet connection and a Samsung 500GB thunderbolt 3 portable ssd, $299.

External GPU (optional)

If you want to play more modern macOS versions of 3D games, then you'll need a more powerful GPU. macOS Mojave has added excellent eGPU support for AMD Polaris and Vega GPUs right out of the box supported directly by Apple. You can also optionally add Nvidia GPUs but will be beholden to the company for driver updates and support.

You needn't add an eGPU if you plan on using the Mac mini for either emulated console and arcade games from yesteryear, or if you plan on streaming all of your games from a more powerful computer (we show you how shortly).

I do plan on running native macOS games directly from the Mac mini so I got Apple's own eGPU enclosure, $599. It comes with a mid-range AMD RX 580 GPU which is a good match for the Coffee Lake CPU's in our Mac mini. You plug it in to the TB 3 port on the back of the Mac mini, and Mojave just makes it work.

Gamepad

You can use a number of gamepads of your choosing. You can attach wireless bluetooth device such as the Steam Controller, a PS4 controller or even an Xbox One controller that supports Bluetooth. You can also use a regular USB wired gamepad that is Xbox compatible as well. If you plan on connecting via bluetooth, simply pair your controller to your Mac using the Bluetooth System Preference panel.

Windows Gaming PC (optional)

If you want to be able to play any game without limitations, you'll actually need a powerful Windows based PC somewhere on your network. We'll still be using the more aesthetically pleasing and living room friendlier Mac mini as our front-end, but the Windows PC will be our gateway to all things gaming. The PC I'll be using is running Windows 10 with a 6700k Intel Skylake CPU, 16 GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB SSD and a Nvidia GTX 1080ti.

The software

macOS Mojave

In order to get the best possible performance and compatibility, we'll be using macOS Mojave. Mojave offers support for the eGPU connected RX 580 without any configuring or hacking.

Xbox controller support

Download and install the open source 360Controller driver to be able to run your non-macOS native gamepads like the Xbox 360 or Xbox One controller. This will install a new System Preference panel that allows you to configure your gamepads. I strongly suggest to checkmark the Spoofing Preferences option to Pretend to be an Xbox 360 Controller under the Advanced tab if you don't actually have a true Xbox controller for compatibility purposes.

OpenEmu

OpenEmu is a multiple console and arcade machine emulator. It has a slick and easy to use interface where you and just drag and drop your supported game ROMs into the OpenEmu application and things get installed automatically. If you need M.A.M.E. support make certain you download the 'Experimental' version of the software. Download it. Run it. Use the wizard and install all defaults. That's it.

You can then configure your controllers per game or per emulated console. The lowest end Mac mini will likely run all of these types of games without the need of externally connected hardware like the eGPU or need copious amounts of disk space from an external SSD.

Configure your Gamepad settings as needed. Note that OpenEmu tries it's best to automatically bind the proper buttons to your selected gamepad.

Steam

For modern gaming, you'll likely want to install Valve's Steam platform. With Steam, you'll be able to buy and play a mountain of native macOS titles as well as a handful of pretty modern titles as well. If you opted to use a powerful Windows based PC on your network as well, you'll need to install Steam on both the PC and the Mac mini.

Simply download Steam and install it. Create an account and download your games. If using a networked PC to power your games, use the same account for both your Mac mini and your PC.

For a list of owned games that can run natively on macOS, Click Library > Mac. Once you install your macOS native game, make certain to set your eGPU (if you have one) as the preferred device for graphics. You'll need to find the installed game with Finder, Option-click the Application > Get Info and set the check box.

If you added an external SSD for more storage. Be certain to add your SSD as one of the default download directories for steam in Preferences > Downloads > Steam Library Folders.

Mac Os Mojave Makes Gaming Worse Lyrics

To Stream games, you'll need the game installed on the machine that you'll be streaming from and on the Mac mini Steam client, click Stream to play the game. The PC will provide the power, you Mac mini will be the interface.

If you have an eGPU and you want to stream from a PC, you can enable more advanced streaming options in Steam Preferences > In home Streaming > Advanced Client Options. Here you can enable hardware decoding for better visual performance capabilities. (Note that at the time of this writing the ethernet cable was faulty. Wireless streaming was used so the performance through streaming was worse than expected).

Your Controllers should also be automatically configured in Steam.

You can enable Steam's Big Picture Mode to get a controller-centric interface where you can sit on your couch and use your controller input to navigate Steam.

Final comments

Above is a near no compromise gaming option for using your Mac mini as a gaming hub in your den or living room. It's ideal since it's sleek, very quiet, and is able to do things beyond gaming such as serving as a media player. Adding the ability to run emulators is an extra benefit as well as simply having a full blown OS at your disposal. The ability to stream via Steam and connect a controller via bluetooth makes this setup very unobtrusive. A more integrated option could have been to use my AppleTV but unfortunately, at this time, Apple has put the kibosh on the Steam Link App from Valve to be able to stream games through my AppleTV. Let's hope that Apple gets with the program on this and makes that happen. Let us know your comments or thoughts in the comments section!

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4.2

Eve updates app to add new customization and better iCloud syncing

Eve has updated its Eve for HomeKit app, and version 4.2 has a host of new features!

Is Apple killing Mac gaming? Believe it or not, this is a question developers and gamers seriously ask themselves every few months.

This concern gained momentum when Apple announced, during 2018’s WWDC, that OpenGL would be deprecated. And it only got worse with the confirmation that macOS Catalina, due this fall, will stop supporting 32-bit apps.

Both changes are officially happening but are they truly putting Mac gaming in danger?

In this post:

It is undeniable that Mac gaming is going through a lot. Apple’s decisions to leave OpenGL and 32-bit apps behind will both have major consequences on Mac gaming… Just not in the way most media outlets want you to believe.

Is OpenGL the end of Mac gaming?

With Mojave, macOS’s current version, Apple effectively deprecated OpenGL:

Apps built using OpenGL and OpenCL will continue to run in macOS 10.14, but these legacy technologies are deprecated in macOS 10.14. Games and graphics-intensive apps that use OpenGL should now adopt Metal.

As pointed out by industry experts, that was Apple’s first step to officially kill OpenGL and that could have serious ramifications for Mac gaming. Many went so far as to say it will eventually kill Mac gaming.

Twitter was taken over with variations of that hypothesis:

So fellow #gamedev folks, who else is gonna drop Mac support like a bad habit if they follow through on the #OpenGLpocalypse ?

— Lars Doucet (@larsiusprime) June 4, 2018

The internet loves drama and people love to hate Apple. This explains why many were so quick to call for the death of Mac gaming. But to set the record straight, we reached out to developers that both:

1. Have experience with MacOS
2. Have created successful games

They all came to a similar conclusion: Mac gaming will be just fine.

⚠ Keep in mind this is the personal opinion of developers, not official statements from the companies they are part of.

First of all, OpenGL is not dead

For those unfamiliar with development jargon, deprecated means the feature will continue to work, but will no longer be supported moving forward. Deprecated does not mean removed. Free online racing games for mac.

To be fair, Apple stopped supporting OpenGL years ago, and if the past is of any indication, OpenGL will continue to work for a few more years:

OpenGL has not been updated on macOS for 7 years at least. Deprecated does not mean removed. 10.14 will have the same drivers and support 10.13 had. Not sure what all this fuss is about. They are just making clear they will not update OpenGL, which was obvious at this point.

— Matteo Bertello (@Corralx) June 5, 2018

And by the way, Matteo Bertello works for one of the top Mac porting companies. He understands how MacOS works and knows what he’s talking about.

Raymond Doerr, the developer behind Rise to Ruins concurs:

Assuming the code only remains deprecated and *not* removed, no, I don’t think it’ll hurt anything at all. […] Anyone who needs even-newer OpenGL standards will also have the manpower to support Metal.

Another developer, who preferred to remain anonymous (but is behind one of the most popular strategy games released last year), agrees:

OpenGL is not going anywhere, it’s more like Apple are officially admitting they won’t be advancing it – which they haven’t, for many years.

This means the short-term is safe and developers can continue selling OpenGL games for Mac. But what will happen when Apple eventually kills OpenGL in 4 or 5 years?

Can Metal take Mac gaming to the next level?

The need to move away from OpenGL will encourage developers to adopt Apple’s Metal API faster. And that’s a good thing.

Metal was introduced as a set of 3D tools that would optimize GPU usage and maximize the graphics potential of your Mac. It sounded like a dream come true for gamers and developers alike, the thing that could take Mac gaming to the next level.

To better understand how important Metal is for Mac gaming, we sat down with Andy Wood, Head of Commercial at Feral Interactive, to ask a few questions:

Would you say Apple’s aging OpenGL is starting to be a real problem for developers?

A: It has been a challenge to work with OpenGL for some years now, especially with the advent of new graphics technologies. For example, we weren’t able to release F1 2015 on Mac because OpenGL didn’t have the necessary features. But don’t worry, we have some racing projects planned to make up for that!

Would you say these new features will make Metal much easier to use for development?

A: It’s not about making development easier exactly, but the new features in Metal certainly make more games feasible on Mac. Without these features, many modern games just wouldn’t be viable. With Metal, we have much more possibilities to bring them to the Mac with good performance.

And it makes sense. OpenGL on Mac was in a such a bad state, it was hurting Mac gaming. Do you remember all the games that were on hold because OpenGL was too old to support critical features?

Platon Fomichev from Elverils, a studio specialized in porting games to several platforms, agrees that moving away from OpenGL towards Metal is a good thing:

Metal is cool for Mac/iOS but it’s a closed source thing. But one thing you should keep in mind. OpenGL/Metal/Vulkan, it really does not matter as long as renderer components are separated in a small component. […]

The renderer component is 5% of code of the game! Even less. So porting DX->Metal is very easy as long as MTL has enough capabilities.

If you want to learn more about Metal, this video from Apple is an excellent introduction for non-programmers. We also list all the games currently using Metal here.

But what about the smaller indies?

This is where removing OpenGL could become an issue, especially for the indie devs who use proprietary engines. Raymond Doerr was clear:

If they remove OpenGL entirely I’d sadly have no choice but to drop support. It’s just not realistic to be a one-man dev and support two entirely different rendering APIs in my custom engines.

They’re asking developers to dedicate their time to an entirely new API only used by one OS with a very small market share (3-4% of my total sales last I checked). It’s simply too time expensive to support, many developers will just drop support entirely.

If you’re a one-man dev (or a very small team) with a proprietary engine, the end of OpenGL could mean the end of supporting the Mac platform. But OpenGL still has a few years left.

And even for smaller indies, there are solutions.

Multi platform engines are ready

Engines such as Unreal or Unity are more than ready for the end of OpenGL on Mac. Aras Pranckevicius, a Unity employee, shared his personal opinion with us:

This might affect niche/indie games somewhat more — on the other hand, quite likely many of them already use Unity or Unreal as their engine, so updating to Metal “should” be easy.

Unity will keep on supporting Mac platform for sure. We already have supported Metal on both iOS & macOS for quite some time.

If you’re an indie and use Unreal or Unity, the heavy lifting will be done for you and your games will support Metal without requiring much more work from you.

That said, already released games are a different story. Aras does warn that:

It might mean that some of the games that have shipped some years ago and have never been updated, will stop working. But they might also stop working due to Apple dropping 32-bit support.

I personally will be sad if some of my existing game catalog will stop working. Will they get updated to 64-bit and to Metal from OpenGL? I don’t know. I hope they will!

And there’s also the Vulkan alternative.

What about Vulkan and MoltenVK?

Seen by many as the future of PC gaming, Vulkan is an open-source API that promises better graphics performance and easier multi-platform development.

Initially, Apple decided to drop Vulkan and focus all its energy on the Metal API, but recently the Khronos Group and Valve released MoltenVK, a third-party tool to allow bring Vulkan games to macOS.

In theory, that could be a great alternative to support Mac, Windows, and Linux simultaneously. Even Valve used it to make Dota 2’s Mac version up to 50% faster than before.

Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais believes this should greatly benefit developers:

These efforts are aimed toward reducing development and porting costs for any developer supporting multiple platforms.

According to Khronos President, Neil Trevett, developers will be able to bring their Vulkan-based applications to macOS and iOS with very little or no re-writing of the GPU compute and rendering functionality.

But according to Raymond Doerr, the reality isn’t that simple:

Using Vulkan (and thus, Molten) is completely out of the question for indies. I love Vulkan and I’m trying to learn but it’s a huge beast. It takes about 1,000 lines of code to draw a triangle in Vulkan (not exaggerating!), it takes about 15-20ish in OpenGL depending on what OGL version you use.

While I love Vulkan, it just isn’t viable for us little guys at the moment.

Between Metal, MoltenVK and the fact OpenGL still has a few years to go, we can safely assume OpenGL’s deprecation is not a real threat.

Unfortunately, there is a much bigger threat than the end of OpenGL…

The end of 32-bit apps

With macOS Catalina, due this fall, Apple will officially end support of 32-bit apps and games. As a direct consequence, all games not updated to 64-bit will stop working if you upgrade to Catalina.

This is far more dangerous than OpenGL’s deprecation. In fact, the consequences can already be seen. Both Aspyr and Feral Interactive have officially listed the games they won’t be updating to 64-bit. And that is only the beginning…

Hundreds of 32-bit games will not be updated and will become unplayable. This will mostly affect older games. Still, fewer Mac games is bad for everyone. In case you’re wondering about what games have been discontinued and are still 32-bit, you can check our massive list of 32-bit Mac games.

Mac Os Mojave Compatibility

Mac gaming isn’t going anywhere

Mac Os Mojave Makes Gaming Worse Download

With everything that has been said regarding the death of Mac gaming, we had to set the record straight.

With all due respect, the radical opinions of unknown one-man developers are not representative of how the industry will react. Some of the developers we talked to agree that in certain cases, some games won’t be supported when OpenGL is finally removed.

But that won’t happen anytime soon. And more importantly, the vast majority of the major indies and AAA studios believe that moving away from OpenGL on Mac will be a good thing. If anything, Mac gaming will suffer from the end of 32-bit apps support…

But as Michael Blair from Aspyr told us:

Mac Os Mojave Makes Gaming Worse 2

We’ve been here before, and this is definitely not the end of Mac gaming.