Multi-threaded OpenGL

[Sky]

Not sure if this has been mentioned as I haven't trodden the halls of the WoW forum in ages.

Better performance on Intel Macs

Blizzard was one of the first Mac game developers to release a Universal Binary version of its game after Apple began shipping Intel Macs in January 2006. In fact, Blizzard showed off a development build of WoW running on an Intel iMac at this year’s Macworld Expo—the same show where the Intel iMac was introduced. Now the company is leading the way with another Mac OS X technology: multithreaded OpenGL.

While the graphics processor, or GPU, is certainly a limiting factor in the performance of a 3-D game like WoW, it’s not the only one—the way in which the CPU, the heart of your Mac, handles data is also at issue, because much of what’s being calculated in a 3-D game is done by the CPU, not the GPU.

Multithreaded OpenGL holds the promise of improving performance for those games and applications that find themselves CPU-bound, which as it turns out, WoW does quite a bit. The technology boosts performance by splitting OpenGL rendering code into multiple pipelines on multi-processor or multi-core computers, such as those Macs that are equipped with Intel Core Duo, Core 2 Duo and Xeon chips.

Blizzard’s engineers have enabled a setting in the Intel build of the beta version of the game that I’ve been playing that allows you to take advantage of this. The net result is that frame rate rendering performance is, in some cases, dramatically improved—doubled, in fact. The biggest improvements are to areas that have really complex geometry, such as cities, or areas that have large “mobs” of players—raids, for example, or crowd scenes.

Apple has enabled multithreaded OpenGL to function in the Intel build of Mac OS X 10.4.8, and is actively touting the feature for the forthcoming Mac OS X 10.5. It remains to be seen if this is a feature that will make it to PowerPC-based Macs, which have featured multi-processor and multi-core configurations, or if this is something that will be strictly limited to Intel Macs, but it’s exciting to see, regardless. It helps resolve a long-standing issue with the graphics performance of Macs when playing modern 3-D games.

Source

[Venkman]

For the 12 people playing WoW on Macs  :-D

Seriously, I actually do wonder what percentage of their playerbase plays on a Mac. The Mac has never struck me as a gamer's primary choice. It'd seem more home to those Graphic/Video/Photo/Educational types who are seeking a momentary diversion. I applaud Blizzard's support of the platform all these years, but I've long wished they'd get more support from the casual online industry than MMOs. It seems to me that Macs are the utility platform of choice for creative folks who basically work 24/7 because that love that stuff. Like, Graphic Design is a whole body/mind experience, between work and keeping up with all those cutty-pasty pixel-pushing trends. And dressing appropriately.

Will that change in this age of Intel-based Macs? Probably not. For the average person, there's just no compelling reason to buy one, as the factors that are compelling appeal to people who want something a bit different, or are new to computers and don't come with the baggage of having PCs everywhere else in their life.

Macs are a holistic experience. People love them. The computer, OS, and devices are effectively a self-consistent immersive experience. Do people attracted to that want to get themselves immersed into a virtual online world that subjugates the Mac to some simple no-bragging-rights-because-we're-all-the-same-in-Azeroth role? I wouldn't think so.

And no, I don't want to talk about which systems sell more :)

[Merusk]

For the 12 people playing WoW on Macs  :-D

Seriously, I actually do wonder what percentage of their playerbase plays on a Mac. The Mac has never struck me as a gamer's primary choice.

I can point you to at least 60-80 people on Alleria alone.  Shield of Azeroth was an EQ-Mac guild (the horror) that came over when WoW started, and their friends.  In fact, that's one of the reasons I left the guild.  As a PC user I was excluded from their little cliques, despite being one of the few 60s. 

[Viin]

I'm sure the percentage of Mac users running OS X and playing WoW is pretty small - however, since it's (the only?) MMO natively supported on OS X, they probably have 100% of the MMO gamers in the Mac space. Also, I'm sure Apple is helping as that makes it "easier" to switch to a Mac when your favorite game is already supported. (I know of two friends who recently switched to a Mac - one of which plays WoW every day).

[Righ]

Macs are a holistic experience. People love them. The computer, OS, and devices are effectively a self-consistent immersive experience. Do people attracted to that want to get themselves immersed into a virtual online world that subjugates the Mac to some simple no-bragging-rights-because-we're-all-the-same-in-Azeroth role? I wouldn't think so.

Sure, you could characterize Mac users that way if it makes you feel better. To me they are Unix systems that I can get responsive GUI-based applications on, and having a quarter of a century of Unix experience, that makes them more useful to me than Windows boxes. These days, I'm probably not even an unusual Mac user. I'd like the Ventrilo port to hurry up and support the GSM codec, but other than that, its a pretty good WoW platform. Nice to not have to either use another box or reboot this one into Windows just to play a game. But please, continue.

[stray]

Seriously, I actually do wonder what percentage of their playerbase plays on a Mac. The Mac has never struck me as a gamer's primary choice.

Except for two people, everyone I personally know who plays WoW is playing it on a Mac.

As for the Mac being a gamer's choice or not, I don't know what that has do with WoW. You don't have to be a gamer to play WoW.

Though I do know one guy with both PC and Mac. He's a gamer. His PC is probably more suped up than most people's machines here....And yet, it merely functions as his "Thottbot" machine. He plays the actual game on a G5 (it's hooked up to a 30 inch Apple display though...So that might have something to do with it).

[Venkman]

however, since it's (the only?) MMO natively supported on OS X, they probably have 100% of the MMO gamers in the Mac space

Was Shadowbane also? Not sure where it stands today. I think EQ Mac shut down too.

Stray, I agree. You don't need to be a gamer to enjoy WoW. There's plenty of games for the Mac already. My question was about whether those attracted to what the Mac is would be also attracted to an MMORPG.

We all know people who play WoW on Macs. And we know Blizzard can afford to keep supporting Macs, even if they didn't go Unix and then Intel. This isn't about me. I've been dual-OS since the 90s. I was just wondering if because Macs have traditionally not been platforms graced with games (since the early 90s) whether people who buy Macs just play diversional experiences between the work they do on a platform traditionally perceived as great for doing certain types of work. Circular question.

My own group of friends and vendors don't have time for MMORPGs because they're off doing traditional Mac-y things. Not a one is a Unix programmer though :)

[gimpyone]

Apple offers many discounts at my university for their hardware.  I'm quite sure a number of those users play WoW.

[raydeen]

One reason to switch is that patch day is much more tolerable on a Mac. I can get patched in 3-5 minutes for small updates and maybe 10-15 minutes for the large ones. I still patch my PC but only when I can find the actual download for the patch and not have to use Blizztorrent.

[Morfiend]

For the 12 people playing WoW on Macs  :-D

Every WoW guild I have been in has had a percentage of about 8-10% mac users. Enough where most guild I have been in run the Speekx codex for Vent so the mac people can use it to.

[Righ]

If anybody needs to know how to get a listen-only Ventrilo running with GSM on a Mac, I can point you in the right direction. Basically it involves using Crossover Mac (or some other flavour of WINE) to run the Windows version of Ventrilo, and copying over the msgsm32.acm from a Windows box/partition into the appropriate 'bottle' and including a path to it in the system.ini. Good enough for raiding under Mac OS on my MacBook Pro.