Any advice for me? (Mac GW2 User here \o/)

[Gumbolia.5381]

There's a detailed thread [100% Unofficial] How to play GW2 on Mac OS after the Mac client is gone covering several options.

[Menadena.7482]

@"Veprovina.4876" said:Finally someone that doesn't blame Anet and sees who's really responsible fo this...

As for your question, you can still play Guild Wars 2 on your Mac pretty easily.Anet only dropped support because Apple isn't supporting OpenGL anymore and their new chips and stuff they don't have resources to code for.

But that just means there won't be a native Mac client anymore. You can still play the Windows client on the mac, espicially if you have a Mac that still uses Intel chips.If you have a Mac with Intel chips, it's pretty easy to set up a dual boot and run Windows alongside Mac OS.

One such tool is Boot Camp:https://support.apple.com/boot-camp

Just install Windows alongside MacOS and run Gw2 from Windows when you want to play. That's the easiest solution because it's native and requires no tinkering.

You can also natively install WIndows on a Mac with Intel chips and dual boot it. That way you literally run Windows, and you can keep it as your "gaming OS" when you want to game, and Mac OS for everything else.

For other solutions, check this thread:https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/121721/100-unofficial-how-to-play-gw2-on-mac-os-after-the-mac-client-is-gone#latest

It has some tips you can do to run GW2.

This should work for a while yet, dual boot especially should be a more or less permanent solution should Apple remove OpenGL. This should give you time to buy a PC that you want, or, depending on your preferences, and hardware could be even a permanent solution.

Good luck!

I blame them. The mac community told them about this long ago and they decided not to address it then. Apple gave plenty of time to migrate.

[Veprovina.4876]

@Menadena.7482 said:

@"Veprovina.4876" said:Finally someone that doesn't blame Anet and sees who's really responsible fo this...

As for your question, you can still play Guild Wars 2 on your Mac pretty easily.Anet only dropped support because Apple isn't supporting OpenGL anymore and their new chips and stuff they don't have resources to code for.

But that just means there won't be a native Mac client anymore. You can still play the Windows client on the mac, espicially if you have a Mac that still uses Intel chips.If you have a Mac with Intel chips, it's pretty easy to set up a dual boot and run Windows alongside Mac OS.

One such tool is Boot Camp:

https://support.apple.com/boot-camp

Just install Windows alongside MacOS and run Gw2 from Windows when you want to play. That's the easiest solution because it's native and requires no tinkering.

You can also natively install WIndows on a Mac with Intel chips and dual boot it. That way you literally run Windows, and you can keep it as your "gaming OS" when you want to game, and Mac OS for everything else.

For other solutions, check this thread:

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/121721/100-unofficial-how-to-play-gw2-on-mac-os-after-the-mac-client-is-gone#latest

It has some tips you can do to run GW2.

This should work for a while yet, dual boot especially should be a more or less permanent solution should Apple remove OpenGL. This should give you time to buy a PC that you want, or, depending on your preferences, and hardware could be even a permanent solution.

Good luck!

I blame them. The mac community told them about this long ago and they decided not to address it then. Apple gave plenty of time to migrate.

Cool, and while you blame them, go and redo the entire client from scratch for the new instruction set of that processor, pay for the work, programmers and testers yourself and after all is done, and the client works, pay for the maintnance of both clients, PC and new Mac. You'll also have to pay the people maintaining out of your own pocket too because you won't get enough money out of that 5% or so mac users that use the mac client.

Then when you're bankrupt for making a bad business decision, see if you still blame Anet...

[OldJanx.6798]

Metal (OpenGL's replacement on macOS) was released in 2014, I think around the same time they came out with the native mac client... so its not like they had to do anything from scratch.

the initial mac client was actually a wine based app, so they had everything they needed when the made the native app to do what needed to be done when it needed to be done to have a working mac app now.

they just didn't.

Similar to their windows client sporting a version of direct x from 2004... they just chose the oldest technology they could possibly get their hands on.

[Bao Lin Nda.1042]

No, the Mac Beta began around mid 2012. But Apple dropped OpenGL-support ages ago, providing only a buggy and damn old version, no Vulkan-support at all though Apple is still member of the Khronos board. Shame on Apple. There is a Metal-Vulkan layer call MoltenVK, but it's far from finished or ready for production, and I also doubt that GW2 is already on Vulkan.Blaming Arena for Apple being unsupportive for industrial standards - well, I guess you're an Apple fanboy.

[OldJanx.6798]

like i said, the first mac beta (mid 2012) was wine based. the "native" mac client as it stands today (just going off memory so i could be wrong) was a few years later.

i don't blame apple at all. they're a product company who doesn't care about lazy developers who refuse to provide good user experiences to their end users (cough) by not adopting modern software to fit modern hardware. if you want to talk about industry standards, I'm guessing that's just repeated talk on things unknown. not throwing shade but while opengl is open doesn't mean its for modern hardware, it doesn't mean its the best tool for the job, doesn't mean it produces the best result for the best user experience.

just saying.

[Bao Lin Nda.1042]

Well, if OpenGL aka Vulkan is not made for modern hardware, then AMD, NVidia, Intel, Google, ARM, Samsung, Dassault, ptc, Siemens etc. pp. are all wrong, you should tell them! Really, they need to know!

[OldJanx.6798]

LOL... Vulkan is not OpenGL.

Much like Metal (and is THE reason apple is dropping OpenGL because it is old and lacks features of a modern api) Vulkan is a next generation rendering api that provides rendering and task scheduling capabilities, further proving my point about OpenGL being past its prime. If you look at any of the triple a games being released, they'll primarily be released on directx on windows, and today will be on metal on macos. for linux they should be on vulkan (and would be if released on steam though more than likely would released as directx games and run under vulkan in proton).

nice try but thx for the attempt. ;)

[Bao Lin Nda.1042]

Well, if you have no idea what you are talking about, than there is no point arguing. First get the facts (hint: Who is Khronos?), then come back an explain again why Apple is right to stop supporting OpenGL and its successor Vulkan. And also explain, why game developers should bother making games running on MacOS/iOS where Apple's new API Metal isn't any standard, open or supported anywhere else. They either concentrate on Direct3D on Windows only (Linux might work with D3D12 and such) and 90% market share or use OpenGL/Vulkan to provide support for Windows, Linux and prob. MacOS (where OpenGL is stuck at a buggy v4.1) for 95% market share. Yes, there is MoltenVK, but it's not from Apple and not supported by Apple. It might or might not work good enough, so why even bother trying. There is good reason why eg. Autodesk killed Alias on MacOS. Apple is showing some quite annoying amount of arrogance here, though they still included their kitten old OpenGL- and OpenCL-implementaion on macOS 11 and therefor auricularly admit that noone really uses their brilliant Metal-API. Besides companies like Maxon with Cinema4D, but they still do have a lot of Mac users.

[OldJanx.6798]

i've written games using opengl, metal, and directx and have a good grasp on vulkan.and as i have no purpose in being here anymore, i'm done with this insane misinformed conversation.

[Bao Lin Nda.1042]

@OldJanx.6798 said:i've written games using opengl, metal, and directx

No, you didn't. With your level of knowledge you are a typical Apple fan with the typical strong tie and engagement to Apple and a strong will defending this company against all odds. People like you blame all other companies to not support the brilliant and beloved Mac, but never ever admit that Apple could have done something questionable like dropping standards.

[TheThief.8475]

@StarSilverZero.5673 said:

@Tzarakiel.7490 said:While buying a new machine is a last resort,it should be easier to get used machines in the near future since a lot of people are going to be upgrading soon due to large leaps in hardware performance the last year. If any family or friends plan on upgrading try asking what they are going to do with their old machine and if you can get it for cheap. Just make sure you replace the power supply if it's bronze rated. Mine almost caught fire last year.

Okay! Thanks for advice! :D

I will checking on it! And oh fire- wow! As long you are safely!

Dunno if you solved your problem, you can use streaming services like Nvidia ge force now to play the game, if you have atleast 100mbit/s internet connection with very few problems, (you need to always stay online when you play, but gw2 is online anyway xD). Otherwise buy compenents and build a pc with the help of your friends and a YouTube guide, nothing impossible if i did it :D. Sadly hardware prices raised due to covid (at least in my county, if they are good in your, no problem), if they raised, just wait a month or so and then buy :D.

Keep in mind that you need a CPU with high single core performance if you want to have a smooth experience, no need for a huge GPU, it won't be used at its full potential.I Suggest you AMD rx 580, or Nvidia gtx 1060 6gb, for 1080p great deals, more than powerful enough for gw2.

Also remember when the times come to download gw2 addon manager and install dx12 mod, it's super easy, litterally click on checkbox and then the update button. The game performance will be better and stability will be HUGELY better.

Good luck with your plans

[Xaxxus.6719]

This game runs like shit on all hardware because it runs on shitty graphics APIs that are more than a decade out of date.

It’s a miracle Windows still supports directX 9.

Nobody should be giving ArenaNet the benefit of the doubt here.

Issue number 1: they built this game from day 1 with graphics APIs that were 10 years out of date.

Issue number 2: metal came out around the time this game did on Mac. They have had 7 years to upgrade to Metal.

Issue number 3: the game is STILL using dx9. In 3 years dx9 will be 20 years old.

The people defending ArenaNet here is a standard case of Stockholm syndrome. Whatever your opinion on Apple is, ArenaNet has had a VERY long time to update their graphics APIs on both Windows and Mac clients.

They aren’t discontinuing the Mac client because of Apple, they are discontinuing it because they can’t be assed to upgrade their engine. DirectX isn’t an open standard either. So apples lack of support for open standards has nothing to do with this.

This is 100% on arena net. Their long winded post about Apple killing OpenGL support is just a PR stunt to cover up the fact that they either no longer have the resources to fix it (the game is in maintenance mode) or the Mac user-base just isn’t large enough to justify it. And considering they won’t even upgrade their Windows client, I’m going to assume it’s the former.

[Astyrah.4015]

@Xaxxus.6719 said:This game runs like kitten on all hardware because it runs on kitten graphics APIs that are more than a decade out of date.

It’s a miracle Windows still supports directX 9.

Nobody should be giving ArenaNet the benefit of the doubt here.

Issue number 1: they built this game from day 1 with graphics APIs that were 10 years out of date.

Issue number 2: metal came out around the time this game did on Mac. They have had 7 years to upgrade to Metal.

Issue number 3: the game is STILL using dx9. In 3 years dx9 will be 20 years old.

The people defending ArenaNet here is a standard case of Stockholm syndrome. Whatever your opinion on Apple is, ArenaNet has had a VERY long time to update their graphics APIs on both Windows and Mac clients.

They aren’t discontinuing the Mac client because of Apple, they are discontinuing it because they can’t be assed to upgrade their engine. DirectX isn’t an open standard either. So apples lack of support for open standards has nothing to do with this.

This is 100% on arena net. Their long winded post about Apple killing OpenGL support is just a PR stunt to cover up the fact that they either no longer have the resources to fix it (the game is in maintenance mode) or the Mac user-base just isn’t large enough to justify it. And considering they won’t even upgrade their Windows client, I’m going to assume it’s the former.

it's not just about graphics APIs. it's also about the new CPU architecture that comes with all currently new and future (until they change it again) macs and macbooks.

if arenanet wants to continue supporting macOS as a platform they need to maintain the x86_x64 (same architecture as intel/windows pc) mac client as well as an ARM64/M1 client -- the latter of which doesnt even exist yet so they have to rewrite/port the whole engine to that platform.

now if arenanet doesnt have any inhouse programmers and software engineers who have experience coding for apple's new cpu architecture they would have to outsource a team to port it and then have to pay them to maintain it as well. they can't brand gw2 as having mac support but only for older macs. just doesnt look right -- it's better to drop support for the whole platform altogether

it's just not feasible. so yeah it's not just the graphics api.

i agree about them not upgrading the engine though -- but on the windows side. we need a 64bit directx11 client with better multithreading support (directx12 or vulkan would be nice too)

[Xanadrine.4352]

Honestly Mac is great for drafting/design ect, but for gaming you wont beat windows. I had two computers one for work one for games, you can build a windows pc that will blow your Mac out of the water for playing games cheaper than buying prebuilt. Windows is the go to platform for most game companies.

@Astyrah.4015 said:

@Xaxxus.6719 said:This game runs like kitten on all hardware because it runs on kitten graphics APIs that are more than a decade out of date.

It’s a miracle Windows still supports directX 9.

Nobody should be giving ArenaNet the benefit of the doubt here.

Issue number 1: they built this game from day 1 with graphics APIs that were 10 years out of date.

Issue number 2: metal came out around the time this game did on Mac. They have had 7 years to upgrade to Metal.

Issue number 3: the game is STILL using dx9. In 3 years dx9 will be 20 years old.

The people defending ArenaNet here is a standard case of Stockholm syndrome. Whatever your opinion on Apple is, ArenaNet has had a VERY long time to update their graphics APIs on both Windows and Mac clients.

They aren’t discontinuing the Mac client because of Apple, they are discontinuing it because they can’t be assed to upgrade their engine. DirectX isn’t an open standard either. So apples lack of support for open standards has nothing to do with this.

This is 100% on arena net. Their long winded post about Apple killing OpenGL support is just a PR stunt to cover up the fact that they either no longer have the resources to fix it (the game is in maintenance mode) or the Mac user-base just isn’t large enough to justify it. And considering they won’t even upgrade their Windows client, I’m going to assume it’s the former.

it's not just about graphics APIs. it's also about the new CPU architecture that comes with all currently new and future (until they change it again) macs and macbooks.

if arenanet wants to continue supporting macOS as a platform they need to maintain the x86_x64 (same architecture as intel/windows pc) mac client as well as an ARM64/M1 client -- the latter of which doesnt even exist yet so they have to rewrite/port the whole engine to that platform.

now if arenanet doesnt have any inhouse programmers and software engineers who have experience coding for apple's new cpu architecture they would have to outsource a team to port it and then have to pay them to maintain it as well. they can't brand gw2 as having mac support but only for older macs. just doesnt look right -- it's better to drop support for the whole platform altogether

it's just not feasible. so yeah it's not just the graphics api.

i agree about them not upgrading the engine though -- but on the windows side. we need a 64bit directx11 client with better multithreading support (directx12 or vulkan would be nice too)

Man DX9 does need to go when they drop support it will be a happy day , this game would perform and look so much better if they would optimize and upgrade. I get why they dont, for the same reason Blizzard and FF didnt for a long time, many players are still running older platform's. Problem is this will become a security risk soon. There is no 7 support anymore leaving the owner of those platforms vulnerable. And 8.1 is done in '23 people could have freely upgraded to 10 they had it out for a year at least. I bit the bullet and upgraded from 7 back when they let you use your 7 key too.

[Astyrah.4015]

@Zuldari.3940 said:Man DX9 does need to go when they drop support it will be a happy day , this game would perform and look so much better if they would optimize and upgrade. I get why they dont, for the same reason Blizzard and FF didnt for a long time, many players are still running older platform's.

having players still running on older systems isnt a reason not to upgrade the game's engine to support and utilise newer hardware.

going with your cited games, WoW and FF14 when they offered dx11 rendering, still kept the dx9 as a legacy option for those who can't play with the newer client -- they supported both for quite a while, while also informing and recommending players to upgrade their systems soon.

eventually after a year or so, they would drop support for the legacy client/rendering when enough statistics/data gathered from active players show that those running the old client are now a very very small minority such as what happened when FF14 dropped dx9 and 32bit support.