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So Apple made a game porting toolkit for macOS, based on Wine like Proton is for Linux/Steam Deck and then part of the code has a license that forbids developers to ship with it - evaluation only.

What. So confused on why.

https://twitter.com/never_released/status/1666191614253907968

in reply to Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮

Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮
Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮
• •
Apple: we're gonna make it easier to port but actually we're not.
in reply to Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮

eagerpebble
eagerpebble
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Isn't that basically what happened with OS X? They said, "we're using BSD!" and then, "but nothing will seemlessly interoperate!"
in reply to Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮

Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮
Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮
• •
So it's basically very much like a developer-only Proton to evaluate ports, without Apple wanting to maintain a full translation layer like Valve do with Proton - they still want developers to port.
in reply to Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮

Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮
Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮
• •
(but we've already seen users download it, and then use this porting toolkit to run games on macOS so people will do it anyway lol)
in reply to Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮

__Miguel_
__Miguel_
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What? Users going around absurd Toss stipulations? That can never happen! /s
in reply to Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮

StarkRG
StarkRG
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It's not gonna be able to run on Apple Silicon, right? At least not anything written for x86. Seems kinda pointless if you're transitioning to an entirely different architecture.
in reply to Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮

StarkRG
StarkRG
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If it's based on Wine, how the heck does that work? Wine just provides libraries, not architecture emulation...
in reply to Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮

sclyde
sclyde
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It’s meant to allow you to very quickly test your game (with little to no changes) on a Mac to see where the gaps are. You then use other new tools to convert your shaders to Metal and start to port your game. Definitely not full on Proton where there’s not a ton you need to do to get it to work, but should make the process much simpler for devs.
in reply to Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮

Sandhu
Sandhu
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For a company so focused Apple is always so confused about gaming. It’s so strange.

They spent their very valuable keynote time on Kojima’s 3 years old game. What’s the point if you’re never going to go all in. Gamers don’t buy devices just to play one game a year.

in reply to Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮

Steve Streza
Steve Streza
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This is going to roll out in their annual release this year, the license would probably change at that time.
in reply to Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮

Vasishath Kaushal
Vasishath Kaushal
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they want devs to use it and port their games to macOS, not ship their windows game along with the porting toolkit lol
in reply to Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮

Skylar Caulfield :verified:
Skylar Caulfield :verified:
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isn't this against wine licence, I thought wine was a copy left
in reply to MOVED TO @julia@eepy.moe (Julia :verified_trans:)

Skylar Caulfield :verified:
Skylar Caulfield :verified:
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@julia so is it just appstore guidelines preventing devs from shipping with it, or is that it has other propriety stuff that you can't ship with. Cause if its just appstore someone just gonna bundle it in a steam game
@MOVED TO @julia@eepy.moe (Julia :verified_trans:)
in reply to Skylar Caulfield :verified:

Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮
Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮
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@skymtf @julia not AppStore no, the license is from tech used in the porting toolkit for their "emulation" environment, devs simply cannot just use it and still have to port, it's for evaluating possible performance only it seems
@Skylar Caulfield :verified: @MOVED TO @julia@eepy.moe (Julia :verified_trans:)
in reply to Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮

Skylar Caulfield :verified:
Skylar Caulfield :verified:
• •
@julia yeah they added more propriety stuff into it oooof! This won't stop people from building launchers built around this though
@MOVED TO @julia@eepy.moe (Julia :verified_trans:)
in reply to Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮

Biggles
Biggles
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I believe it has code from crossover - a commercial product - that they've licensed to be used as part of this porting effort, not for general use. I also suspect Apple's quality requirements are a driver - a ported game is likely to be of superior quality to one that's just passed unoptimized to an emulator, because the game's developers have skin in the game.
in reply to Liam @ GamingOnLinux 🐧🎮

Torsten :void: :herbstluftwm:
Torsten :void: :herbstluftwm:
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well, since avahi already runs faster on mac hardware than macOS why would anyone use macOS for gaming anyway...

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