- Steam Is Not Optimized For Your Mac Pc
- Steam Is Not Optimized For Your Mac Pro
- Steam Is Not Optimized For Your Mac Free
Editorial
By Andrew O'Hara
Wednesday, June 13, 2018, 08:10 am PT (11:10 am ET)
Apple is in a very strange position with the Mac and iOS in regards to gaming. One platform is enormous and making a ton of money for Apple and some developers, and the other is nearly dead. AppleInsider talks about the two, and what, if anything, is going on to improve the situation.Wednesday, June 13, 2018, 08:10 am PT (11:10 am ET)
Let's be frank: Apple's Mac hardware is not well optimized for gaming. Making matters worse, the marketshare gap between Windows and macOS is profound.
It can “misremember” things, which may be a cause for Steam not opening. To fix this, try deleting the “appcache” folder. (Don’t worry, this will be recreated next time you open Steam.) First, go to your Steam directory (“C:Program Files (x86)Steam” by default), then copy and paste the appcache folder to a safe location (just in case). Total War: Three Kingdoms was released for Mac on May 23, 2019, the same day as the Windows release (an impressive feat). But more importantly, with some calling it the best Total War in years, is the Mac version good enough to earn a spot among the best strategy games for Mac? How to Optimize Your Mac for Gaming. If the bulk of the games you play on the Mac are Steam games, your best bet before you fire up your favorite games—or before you hit the road with your. Nov 16, 2018 I am not sure if this is the right sub, but I'm gonna give it a go. Ever since updating to Mojave, I haven't been able to run Steam. I get a popup telling me it hasn't been optimized for the Mac. All your purchases on the App Store are linked to your App Store account, and you’ll be able to keep playing as long as you continue to use macOS Mojave. For Steam players who remain on Mojave, you will be able to access your 32-bit Aspyr titles purchased on Steam.
Let's be frank: Apple's Mac hardware is not well optimized for gaming. Making matters worse, the marketshare gap between Windows and macOS is profound. That said, the iPhone and iPad are gaming powerhouses for the mainstream consumer, and they aren't showing any signs of slowing.
While venues like Mac Gamer HQ covering Mac gaming still are about, nobody else really has much to say about the situation.
So, let's talk about it.
Apple's hardware is great, but not for gaming
Looking to hardware, Apple uses integrated graphical chipsets in many of their machines, leaving dedicated GPUs to the most high-end Macs. These machines are primarily geared towards creative professionals, and not gamers, leaving that audience underserved.
But, Apple does have a solid workaround for owners of modern machines thanks to the recent macOS 10.13.4 update.
Apple's macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 now supports external GPUs over Thunderbolt 3. Summarizing the situation, a Mac owner with Thunderbolt 3 can buy an external enclosure, and drop in a graphics card that can be upgraded over time.
This comes at a pretty profound price premium, though. With enclosures generally around $300, and a card with any heft hitting $300 and increasing dramatically, doing so is a non-trivial expense in addition to the computer itself. Plus, without hacks, Nvidia card support is non-existent.
BootCamp to install Windows on a Mac is workable, but eGPU support in BootCamp doesn't exist without workarounds right now. So, given Apple's GPU choices, it isn't a great one.
Apple jumping into Virtual Reality
With the eGPU, comes Apple's first tentative steps into virtual reality. At the 2017 WWDC, while talking about eGPUs, Apple officially added support for VR as well. HTC Vive now works on macOS and Valve launched SteamVR at the same time.
This certainly paves the way, especially with an eGPU, for more immersive gaming on the Mac, even if adoption has been tepid to start.
![Download Download](/uploads/1/2/5/0/125067465/238256859.png)
Apple has the smallest gaming platform, and the biggest
![Steam is not optimized for your macbook pro Steam is not optimized for your macbook pro](/uploads/1/2/5/0/125067465/392334816.jpg)
According to Statista, in July 2017, iOS had over 783,000 games available on the App Store. This is a stunning amount of titles.
Apple's new frameworks for porting over iOS applications to the Mac might be a big deal for gamers. This probably won't help with huge AAA titles, but popular ones such as 'Alto's Adventure,' 'Clash of Clans,' and the like.
If this proves to be effective, it could encourage larger-scale mobile developers to give the Mac a second look, at least for more casual titles.
Apple has used this new platform to port a few apps of their own in macOS Mojave; News, Home, Stocks, and Voice Memos. It will become fully available for third-party developers in 2019.
32-bit apps, OpenGL, and Metal
Metal 2 also got screen-time at WWDC. Apple announced the official deprecation of OpenGL, with new titles expected to use Metal 2 as an alternative. Most games running on macOS already use OpenGL which has caused quite a bit of discontent among developers.
Games and graphics-intensive apps that use OpenGL will eventually cease to run as Apple's OS march continues, without maintenance by the developer. This is further complicated by Apple's declaration that 32-bit apps will no longer be supported after macOS Mojave.
But, Apple has provided the ability to make apps 64-bit for a decade. So, it's not like this is a big surprise, unless you're a Valve front-end developer apparently. As of June 13, 2018, the Steam app itself still isn't 64-bit.
Mac App Store, and Steam help —but aren't the solution
Don't get us wrong. Porting houses Feral Interactive and Aspyr are doing a fantastic job. But, they are only two companies and they are vastly outnumbered by the AAA publishing houses.
This all sounds pretty dire. But, popular titles have still shown up on Steam or the Mac App Store. Titles like 'Firewatch' launched on Mac at the same time as other platforms, and 'Civilization 6' was pretty close to day and date.
But, this also exposes some problems. 'Firewatch' launched towards the tail end of 2016 and to this day the Mac App Store is still promoting the game after minor updates. It is a fantastic game, but it shows the lack of other content the Mac App Store has to work with.
Steam, the go-to PC gaming platform, has been available on Mac for years at this point. But, as readers are likely aware, the vast majority of games on it are Windows-only. Looking specifically at the macOS games filter that Steam provides reveals a lot of small titles and new content highlights instead of new, popular games.
We saw this lack of availability recently as we were testing out Steam Link, which allows you to play powerful desktop games on your iOS/tvOS device using your Mac or Windows PC to do the heavy lifting. As we perused the top games Valve recommended to test, the vast majority were not available on macOS.
Valve and Apple have been working together lately, and though Apple eventually rejected the Steam Link from the iOS App Store, they are working together to make it available once more.
Even as Apple has made improvements to the platform, and fully embraced gaming on iOS with nods to it on tvOS, it still has not been enough to entice publishers to throw more weight behind the Mac. In the last several years, very little has changed overall with the lion's share of PC gamers clearly opting for Windows over macOS.
We aren't going to claim to be big Mac gamers. We have a few, but the couple of AppleInsider staffers who game have Windows PCs, or consoles —or just play on our iPads or iPhones.
Looking to the future, gaming on the Mac overall seems unlikely to get better.
From yesterday a large number of Steam users reported that they were seeing a '[GAME] is not optimized for your Mac' alert. If you've seeing the same thing, you are likely running a game that is a 32-bit app on macOS 10.13.4.
35 Steam Games from Aspyr Are Affected
Not all game developers have updated thier popular 32-bit apps to 64-bit to ensure future playability with macOS. Aspyr, an American video game developer and publisher, says that so far its remedy for this upadte is currently unknown. We understood the 32-bit to 64-bit transition does present unique development challenges, and it's not yet known if every Aspyr game will be upgraded. This update affects the following Steam games from Aspyr Media:
- BioShock Infinite
- Borderlands 2
- Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!
- Call of Duty 2
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
- Call of Duty: Black Ops
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- Civilization IV
- Civilization IV: Colonization
- Civilization V
- Command & Conquer™: Generals Deluxe Edition
- Company of Heroes Complete: Campaign Edition
- Doom 3
- Duke Nukem Forever
- Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered
- Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions
- Homeworld Remastered Collection
- Prey
- Quake 4
- RAGE
- RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum
- SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition
- SimCity: Complete Edition
- Star Wars: Empire at War
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
- Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
- Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
- The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition
- The Sims 2: Castaway Stories
- The Sims 2: Life Stories
- The Sims 2: Pet Stories
- The Sims 2: Super Collection
- Tomb Raider II
Read Also: The Best Way To Transfer Music from iPhone to Mac >
Everything You Want To Know About This Alert
Steam Is Not Optimized For Your Mac Pc
By cleaning up 32-bit Apps/Gamings from macOS, Apple hopes that this alert will help gamers and game developers to raise a concern about the modern design of Mac apps/games. According to Apple: 'To ensure that the apps you purchase are as advanced as the Mac you run them on, all future Mac software will eventually be required to be 64-bit.'
Steam Is Not Optimized For Your Mac Pro
- Q: Why am I seeing this '[GAME] is not optimized for your Mac' alert? A: Starting with macOS High Sierra 10.13.4, apps that have not been updated to use 64-bit processes produce a one-time alert when opened. This gives users advance notice that they are running 32-bit software/game, which will not be compatible with macOS in the future.
- Q: Can I keep playing my 32-bit games on my Mac? A: Yes, you may continue to play 32-bit games with your Mac today as this is just a reminder alert. This has no adverse effect on your data or your computer.
- Q: How do I check if my Steam game is 32-bit or 64-bit? A: On Apple menu > Choose About This Mac > Click the System Report button > Software > Applications. When you select an individual game, you will see a field titled '64-bit (Intel)'.
The Bottom Line
Please feel free to contact us if you have similar problems or concerns and we will update this thread as we have news or updates. Leave your message in comment box below to join the discussion with other steam gamers.
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