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Steam for Mac! OMG OMG OMG! (Page 3)
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: Cape Cod, MA
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It's a mid-2007 Core 2 Duo 20"
Another 2004 game I got recently is Painkiller, which runs anywhere from 180FPS to 30FPS.
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Nobletucky
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Played Portal on my iMac last night (late 2009, 21" 3Ghz C2D) and it ran great. Nice and smooth. I didn't keep an eye on FPS, but I never noticed any stumbling or lag. Granted, I was not playing with max settings (the GF9400 in these things probably wouldn't know what to do) but the game looked great. The app did a good job matching the defaults to the machine.
There were a couple of glitches with the download and install. When OS-X's screen saver kicked-in, the download paused. Then, when the install was complete, Steam froze and had to be force-quit. Finder freaked-out and I ended up having to hard-reboot the iMac. Once re-booted, everything seemed to be settled down.
A couple of things about Steam/Mac...It automatically makes itself a startup item in your user account. So, when you log-in, Steam immediately phones home. That's easy to fix, of course. The other thing is that Steam installs all game files in a folder in your Documents folder. So, after installing Portal, I have this whopping 4.3Gig folder in my Docs. That's not too cool. Very un-Mac-like. There's already a couple of thread about this in the Steam forums. Oh, and, Portal/Steam disabled my Wacom tablet. I had to unplug/re-plug the tablet to get it running again. That's not cool.
Overall, there's definitely some rough edges, but it's nice to have Steam on the Mac.
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Sep 2000
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Originally Posted by Thorzdad
Played Portal on my iMac last night (late 2009, 21" 3Ghz C2D) and it ran great. Nice and smooth. I didn't keep an eye on FPS, but I never noticed any stumbling or lag. Granted, I was not playing with max settings (the GF9400 in these things probably wouldn't know what to do) but the game looked great. The app did a good job matching the defaults to the machine.
There were a couple of glitches with the download and install. When OS-X's screen saver kicked-in, the download paused. Then, when the install was complete, Steam froze and had to be force-quit. Finder freaked-out and I ended up having to hard-reboot the iMac. Once re-booted, everything seemed to be settled down.
A couple of things about Steam/Mac...It automatically makes itself a startup item in your user account. So, when you log-in, Steam immediately phones home. That's easy to fix, of course. The other thing is that Steam installs all game files in a folder in your Documents folder. So, after installing Portal, I have this whopping 4.3Gig folder in my Docs. That's not too cool. Very un-Mac-like. There's already a couple of thread about this in the Steam forums. Oh, and, Portal/Steam disabled my Wacom tablet. I had to unplug/re-plug the tablet to get it running again. That's not cool.
Overall, there's definitely some rough edges, but it's nice to have Steam on the Mac.
Thanks for the heads up on the startup item. Easy enough to remove, but nonetheless very un-Mac like.
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"Faster, faster! 'Till the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death." - HST
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Moderator
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: on the verge of insanity
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Just installed it without any problems. I haven't played anything yet though. I am thinking about getting Torchlight, anyone have it and care to shed some light on it?
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I like my water with hops, malt, hops, yeast, and hops.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: I'll let you know when I get there...
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Torchlight: Diablo 2 with fewer classes, and no multiplayer.
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Moderator
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: on the verge of insanity
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Are you implying that it is boring?
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I like my water with hops, malt, hops, yeast, and hops.
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: May 2001
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Anyone know why steam insists on having /Applications/Steam.app/Contents/MacOS/osx32/ipcserver up 24/7?
At least that's what the launchd-related com.valvesoftware.steam.ipctool.plist in ~/Library/LaunchAgents seems to be doing.
What is this ipc? Interprocess something or other? Why don't I see any ipcserver process running?
for fun, try " strings /Applications/Steam.app/Contents/MacOS/osx32/ipcserver" from the terminal and see what you get.
FWIW-- looks like Steam puts stuff here:
Code:
/Application/Steam.app/* <- the app you download
/Application/[shortcuts you asked for when you installed games. I haven't done this]
~/Desktop/[any aliases you may have asked for ? I haven't done this]
~/Library/Application Support/Steam/* <- support stuff/settings maybe?
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.valvesoftware.steam.ipctool.plist <- runs ipcserver
~/Library/Documents/Steam Content/* <- DLC, saved games, etc.
Anything else?
W
update: also wanted to point out that putting the 3.5 GB of portal in ~/Documents adds overhead to anyone using FileVault.
(
Last edited by VValdo; May 13, 2010 at 11:24 PM.
Reason: Just another thought at the bottom)
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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The most important question is this: Is there a difference between the Steam Civ IV and the Aspyr Civ IV?
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Moderator
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
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IPC stands for interprocess communication - likely how the Steam app communicates with the various game apps.
While it's nice to have Steam, and Portal is awesome, I think I'll give it a while before I pay for anything through the system. Seems to have a few rough edges yet.
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The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
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Administrator
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Land of the Easily Amused
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HL2 coming tomorrow.
a move from Documents to Application Support coming in the near future.
that's some decent progress.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
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C'mon TF2... I got a fever, and the only prescription is some sweet-ass TF2 action without having to reboot into Windows.
Valve, I know you guys are ridiculously awesome, but please just be a tiny bit awesome-er and release TF2 tomorrow too. I'll bring you a cake!
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Any ramblings are entirely my own, and do not represent those of my employers, coworkers, friends, or species
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Professional Poster
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hampton Roads, VA
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Originally Posted by TheoCryst
C'mon TF2... I got a fever, and the only prescription is some sweet-ass TF2 action without having to reboot into Windows.
Valve, I know you guys are ridiculously awesome, but please just be a tiny bit awesome-er and release TF2 tomorrow too. I'll bring you a cake!
I doubt it's coming tomorrow, since they're making such a big deal out of HL2. But I'm praying for next week. It's the one game that I can't wait for.
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All glory to the hypnotoad.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: Cape Cod, MA
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Jul 2004
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Ok, so Portal utterly rocked. I sat down to play a little, and was totally sucked in, and finished the game in one sitting.
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Southern California
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That was pretty much my experience too. Can't wait for Portal 2, hopefully they do another Orange Box type of deal.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Nov 1999
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Originally Posted by lpkmckenna
Ok, so Portal utterly rocked. I sat down to play a little, and was totally sucked in, and finished the game in one sitting.
Don't forget about the advanced maps and challenges. One of the most rewarding aspects of the game for me was completing the "Least Portals" challenges on all the maps. I was even able to beat the 'gold' tier on one of the levels by two extra Portals I didn't have to use.
I'm also itching for Portal 2. I hope they up the difficulty without adding more things to kill you, like turrets and such.
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Santa Rosa, CA
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Slick shoes?! Are you crazy?!
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Professional Poster
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hampton Roads, VA
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Originally Posted by Stogieman
Can't wait!
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All glory to the hypnotoad.
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Professional Poster
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hampton Roads, VA
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It's out now, although the servers are overloaded and I can't download it just yet.
Can't wait to play some Dustbowl tonight!
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All glory to the hypnotoad.
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Games Meister
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Eternity
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Senior User
Join Date: Nov 2003
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downloaded it in a couple of minutes with the full 100 mbit. Plays quite nicely as it should, it even looks relatively good on my last gen mbp.
I also uninstalled bootcamp today, yay.
PS: all americans dealing with hopelessly overloaded servers should try setting their steam content server location to a place overseas with known good peering (london, amsterdam, frankfurt, etc)
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"The road to success is dotted with the most tempting parking spaces."
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
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It may take me the whole night to download, but I will find a way to be online tonight.
After all, bomb-cart will not push self!
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Any ramblings are entirely my own, and do not represent those of my employers, coworkers, friends, or species
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Colorado
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I'm getting like 1 kbps. Blarg.
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Toronto
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Downloading TF2 now over my iPhone tether. (I don't buy cable or internet.) So I guess I'll be playing just in time for the free offer to expire!
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Senior User
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(
Last edited by moep; Jun 11, 2010 at 05:29 AM.
)
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"The road to success is dotted with the most tempting parking spaces."
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Jul 2004
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In case anyone is curious, it took 5 hrs to download TF2 thru my iPhone.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
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I finished downloading at around midnight, and ended up sleeping instead. But TONIGHT will have gaming.
And I'm curious about the 'NN Steam group too.
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Any ramblings are entirely my own, and do not represent those of my employers, coworkers, friends, or species
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Isle of Manhattan
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Finished Half Life 2 Episode 2 last night...
Great game, beautiful graphics. With a MacPro Dual Quad with ATI3870 and 16GB ram it ran nicely, though there were some parts where everything bogged down and audio dropped out. But that was under 4x FSAA and everything else on high.
The game is challenging - there are parts where you need to accomplish some pretty complicated tasks. I was never bored, but sometimes frustrated!
So after a week or so of this, to my dismay, the game ended. It seems as though this is a very fractured game (hence episode 2) - I hate 'to be continued' situations.... I expected months of gameplay.
For the money it's worth it - lotsa fun, challenging, great graphics. Now I'm looking for the next big thing to play.
I'm impressed with Steam's efforts - this is a whole new way to waste precious time.
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"Faster, faster! 'Till the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death." - HST
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