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M1 Apple Silicon Client ? Where is it ?


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@commops.7164 said:M1 Apple Silicon Client ? Where is it ? Per ticket # 7954737 - what is ETA on a build for M1 Macs?

You are gonna have to run it in an emulator, I really, REALLY doubt anet is going to spend the money needed to make this work on ARM. Photoshop, who is a BIG seller for Apple computers said it wont be until end of 2021 before they have native M1 support. Then you are talking about a game? Which mac is already going to be a fraction of the user base and then you are talking about a just released HW set that is not even based on the x86 architecture and instruction sets? Yeah.....Not going to happen.

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Don't see ANet getting to it soon. Adobe is just slow as they have years of old code base to go through. Companies like Affinity Serif had M1 releases of all three of their apps ready on the day of release, hence the reason I kicked the Adobe bucket last year. EveOnline is getting a native M1 client in Q1 2021, Blizzard already has a native client for WoW - and both of these will use the Metal API. I just can't see ANet doing it because the user base is so small on GW2.

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I doubt ANet will bother with this, Mac support has always been limited. Heck the game itself is still using OpenGL on macOS and the api is deprecated (still present but not supported or optimized).

If I had to pour resources on Mac I'd focus my efforts on getting the game on Metal which is what most programs/games are using these days and a larger amount of people would benefit from this. As a sort of hitting 2 birds with 1 stone, the performance might even improve on M1 with Rosetta.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Really? https://isapplesiliconready.com/de/for/graphics ;)

@TinkTinkPOOF.9201 said:

@commops.7164 said:M1 Apple Silicon Client ? Where is it ? Per ticket # 7954737 - what is ETA on a build for M1 Macs?

You are gonna have to run it in an emulator, I really, REALLY doubt anet is going to spend the money needed to make this work on ARM. Photoshop, who is a BIG seller for Apple computers said it wont be until end of 2021 before they have native M1 support. Then you are talking about a game? Which mac is already going to be a fraction of the user base and then you are talking about a just released HW set that is not even based on the x86 architecture and instruction sets? Yeah.....Not going to happen.

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@"DarkShade.6245" said:Really? https://isapplesiliconready.com/de/for/graphics ;)

@"commops.7164" said:M1 Apple Silicon Client ? Where is it ? Per ticket # 7954737 - what is ETA on a build for M1 Macs?

You are gonna have to run it in an emulator, I really, REALLY doubt anet is going to spend the money needed to make this work on ARM. Photoshop, who is a BIG seller for Apple computers said it wont be until end of 2021 before they have native M1 support. Then you are talking about a game? Which mac is already going to be a fraction of the user base and then you are talking about a just released HW set that is not even based on the x86 architecture and instruction sets? Yeah.....Not going to happen.

You understand that lists shows that photoshop has to use Rosetta 2 (emulation) to work on computers using the ARM chip right? You understand that list actually proves what I am saying right?

You understand that Adobe, who owns photoshop has been working on the M1 beta for some time and that the late 2021 statement was from their own press release at the time?

The point being, if something as "simple" as photoshop who sells lots of software to Apple users and has been working on the ARM version of photoshop for over a year, shows how much work this is to get something to work native on the ARM architecture when porting from x86, keeping in mind, Photoshop already has ARM versions as well, so it's not like they are starting from scratch. This would involve not just a game recode, but a game engine one as well. And games are a small market on Apple, meaning that an investment of time and resources of that size for the smallest part of your market is never going to have ROI. As such, my answer still stands that if they want to run GW2 on a M1 based computer, it will probably always be in an emulator.

You also posted a thread months ago about support for Big Sur/M1, and you got an answer there as well in the form of a video from an anet partner who said they spoke directly with their anet contact who said they had no current plans for supporting it. They also had a new Mac with the M1 chip, and installed it on video, stated that it required emulation to run and showed that on lowest settings in a populated area he was getting in the mid to upper 20 FPS, in an empty core map he got mid/upper 30's.

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@ArmoredVehicle.2849 said:I doubt ANet will bother with this, Mac support has always been limited. Heck the game itself is still using OpenGL on macOS and the api is deprecated (still present but not supported or optimized).

If I had to pour resources on Mac I'd focus my efforts on getting the game on Metal which is what most programs/games are using these days and a larger amount of people would benefit from this. As a sort of hitting 2 birds with 1 stone, the performance might even improve on M1 with Rosetta.

And that is why I've gone and installed Debian + Lutris + DXVK on a little 'spare parts' Linux box I built to play GW2, it will happily run at 60fps in most zones where my Mac struggles to get 25fps. I do pop on with the Mac client on my 2010 MacPro every now and again. The only reason I stil have the MacPro is for my CAD/BIM apps and photo / publishing software.

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As some tech reviewers are claiming Apple silicon will become a big player in gaming in the near future. And I agree with this. Some games already run great on the M1 and some are getting there. WoW, ESO and Albion run 60 fps+ on my base model Air with 7 cores. Albion even does it at 1600p high.Although I doubt Anet will actually do anything to bring Mac client performance up to par with their competitors, I do think they should do it, and do it quickly.Times are changing, ARM is pushing hard into the desktop and laptop market, and Apple will lead the way. And we all know what happens when Apple does something new... others initially laugh, but then quickly follow.But for now, I'll continue shaking my head at Anet and their ignorance.

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I don’t see Anet porting GuildWars2 over Arm aka M1 any time soon if ever, the best you can hope for for M1 games is ported over mobile games for the first couple of years! I don’t think Apple is interested in gaming they are looking to the creator production market more then gaming. If you want to game “Don’t buy an Apple system with an M1 processor stick with Intel or AMD for serious gaming!

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I've done some more testing on my Air M1 and GW2. 1600x900 lowest settings with best texture filtering on. I can WvW inside blobs. No joke. Sure it drops to low frame rates in blobs (lowest I've seen was 17 fps in SM 50v50), but for the most part in blobs its 20-25 fps, and roaming I'd say an average of 45-50fps. Actually playable :open_mouth: in WvW

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  • 3 weeks later...

So this thread ended up being a rather disappointing "how it started"/"how it's going", didn't it?

I get that Anet don't have much in the way of resources to develop for new tech, and possibly the whole thing is gradually going out backwards, but flat out killing the mac client (not just dropping support, but explicitly making it not run at all) is a worse turn of events than most would have hoped for.

GW2 is currently listed as 3-star on Crossover (which is "runs, has significant problems"), but I suppose we can see what other Wine wrappers can achieve on M1/Rosetta2 for the time being.

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The big game engines are obviously going to be (or already have been) ported to M1 and Metal, which will facilitate porting games that use those engines. Games with custom engines don't have that luxury.

In other news: Linux with a graphical desktop has already been shown working on a new Mac. The biggest obstacle there is the custom graphics hardware which needs reverse engineering and drivers written from scratch.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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