Need some tech advice from you eggheads: I just got myself an Imac and obviously, I want to use use it for gaming. My question is: what should I do, to have a nice Win experience, given the scarcity of Mac games? Dual Boot or virtual machine? I lean towards the latter, but tech issues are not my strong. And, in the end, which version of Win is better for what i need? I mainly play Quake, but I'd love to try out newer games that did not run on my old rig (halflife2, painkiller, bioshock). And install some editors, too. So, Windows XP? Seven? I just don't have a clue... Thanks to anyone who'll take the time to give me some advice... 

Is still very stable, but some of the newer games run better in Windows 7. Fallout 3 and New vegas really dont like Windows 7. Bioshock runs on Win 7 but you have to tweak it. Apart from those things, there are no other reasons to choose XP over 7. Im guessing that performance on a Windows boot is going to be better than a virtual machine. 

Since you are going to buy a legit new copy of windows, I highly recommend getting the latest and greatest one. The OS improved a lot since XP and it would be a shame not to utilise that. I am saying this as Microsoft and DRM hater who uses Linux for over 3 years now. If you want to play recent games I guess you must use a recent Windows.

HL2 has been ported I think. Would works very well in wine too but the one time I tried wine on macos it was not working with 3D acceleration...

Do a proper installation and dual-boot. 

The performance of virtualization is not good enough for current games. For Quake, use the QuakeSpasm engine directly in OS X. I have never tested using editors in a virtual machine, but I imagine it to be tedious. There are ports of NetRadiant to OS X, but when I tested them, they were fickle and not very Mac-like. There is ToeTag, which is a map editor for the Mac and I myself am working on an editor as well. If you need more info, let me know. 

I've had no problems on win7 with it. What doesn't work? 

Are you 32 or 64 bit? Just out of curiosity. It's not just confined to NVidia or ATI, it's both. A lot of people have a problem with it. 

Win7 is power!!!

XP is history... 

64 bit. I'm not sure if the game has a 64bit .exe or not, i have the goty edition from steam. 

Yeah im 64 bit too. I was using the retail disc of FO3 and the steam version of NV. Both stutter in Win 7 and both run perfectly in XP. It's the only game I've had problems with in 7. 

What game development platforms/engines are there out there. Primarily looking for 2D while avoiding flash (obviously UDK seems the most appealing if forced to go for 2.5D, but wish to see if there are any alternative options before I go down that route). 

? 

Looking forward to your editor! Do you have any info online about it yet, or is it too early in the day? 

perhaps: http://www.garagegames.com/products/torque-2d
?

I have tried torque 3d though, and it's total balls. I've heard people say 2d is good though. For 2.5D, unity might be a good option also, not as pretty as UDK, but it's better documented and more aimed at the task in my limited experience of the two. 

there are more tutorials and things written about making platformers in unity, UDK is equally or more documented in other areas I reckon... 

another mac OS level editor sounds cool. :-)

btw, I'm sure know already that the ToeTag source is available at http://wantonhubris.com/toetag/Download.html - I bet a lot of the model classes and file format code could be reused (might want to ask Willem about the license on his code though.)

Another project I found which sounds cool is: http://code.google.com/p/quakeed-macosx/
This guy says he is modernizing and porting the original QuakeEd to OS X. He hasn't released any code yet though.

I'm also a developer on GNUstep which could be used to compile and run such a level editor on Linux / Windows, so let me know if you're interested in that and I can probably lend a hand. 

very stable.

Except that I cant run some older games like WoT or cunting Ubisoft games that had that stupid Starforce protection system which Win 7 (rightly) detects as a virus and wont install. 

and Ubisoft refuse to provide installers for those games that used Starforce. Way to go guys. 

I did not want to reuse stuff from ToeTag because a) the license is unclear, b) I wanted to learn this stuff myself and c) quite frankly, it is not up to the standards I'm setting for my own work. I hope Willem doesn't take it personally if he reads this, but his code shows that he isn't a programmer by trade. If you take that into account, ToeTag is quite the achievement though. Oh and d) I'm following a very different approach to Quake level editing than Willem was when he made ToeTag.

Anyway, my editor is about 75% done I'd say. I will try to release a beta asap, but I'm very busy with work until the end of may. 

That's an idea I have been toying with myself but I decided against it because I wanted to try a different approach to level editing. It's sad that the project doesn't have any code though. I'd love to see such a port happen. I used Radiant back in the day myself and loved it. 

Quite a bunch of useful info, thanks a lot.


@SleepwalkR: I'm aware of Toetag (and learned to use quite a bit of it), but it surely has its glitches and limitations, so a new editor built from scratch is GREAT news.
Tbh, being my first ever experiences @mapping for the time being Toetag does the trick for me. But, ehi, my skills will improve and I'll need some reliable program.

If you'll ever need a real n00b tester to see if your editor is stupidproof, just drop me a line ;).

I already use fitz0.85 sdl for Quake and it's quite good, apart from the unmappability of the cmd key, that's a major pain in the ass for me...


Thaniks again tyo all of you, things are clearer, now. 

An edit function would be nice, on this forum. 

It's much better than Fitz SDL. 

 

And it looks way better than the last time I played it (several years ago.)

http://kotaku.com/5805322/nexuiz-is-the-prettiest-shooter-youve-never-heard-of/gallery/16 

It is a whole different game. The name was sold. Kotaku is shit.