Returning to the game. I'm on a Macbook pro now, but bought horizons when I was gaming on a PC. No dl in my list for it.

So, I see on my downloadable list my horizons purchase, but only the base game on the Mac side. I'm not expected to buy it twice, am I?
 
I think the 64bit Horizons was changed to only PC support with Frontier not being able to viably work with Apple's graphics API [Mantle, was it?] for whatever reason. Check with support, you might be able to get a refund for it, if you're not able to get it working through other means. I don't use a Mac, so not sure. Others may be able to confirm this or otherwise. Sorry for the bad news though.
 
So, I see on my downloadable list my horizons purchase, but only the base game on the Mac side. I'm not expected to buy it twice, am I?
Dude you should have done a little research first. I'll Trade it in for a nice Alienware. you can't run Horizons on a MacBook Apple won't support the latest GL it's not fd's fault it's Apple.
 
FDev decidet that they don‘t want to support macOS anymore.
Apple uses their own 3D graphics system they call Metal.

You can use boot camp to run Windows on your MacBook (dual boot) - I think it’s possible to use an external hard drive for that.

Or just wait until FDev releases an iOS version of Elite Dangerous ;)
 
Ah, Mantle must have been the AMD version then. Anyway, I think it was that Metal didn't support the needed shaders at the time or something. Can't really fault Frontier all that much for going rogue, as it were, in that regard too much anyway. Can be a bit of hassle for devs to keep up with these sort of changes mid-game development.

Been a while since Horizons now though, so not sure what Support might be able to do for you about it, all things considered. Might be worth getting in touch with them either way, but yeah, it is what it is at this point.
 
Can't really fault Frontier all that much for going rogue, as it were, in that regard too much anyway.

we really didn't need to go there (again) but ...

yes, you can. dropping compatibility midway of the lifetime of a project, for whatever the reasons, is a huge blow from a developer. this has to be truly exceptional. you might say they tried, that crap happens, but it is still a dropped ball. did they warn customers that the platform could run into incompatibilities in near future, or did they just happily introduce a new platform and cash in without even knowing what they would like to develop just next year, and if it was even possible there with their engine? why would a professional incur in such risk?

how would you feel if they dropped support for your platform?
would you choose cobra engine for your development knowing it has compatibility problems? can't really fault them ...
 
The old Mac forums tracked this closely. Most who have followed this feel the best inference is that Frontier decided to cancel the Mac client before Horizons, falsely claimed it was due to a technical issue, stonewalled the Mac community for years, then announced the cancellation of the Mac client. Bait and switch for early backers, and very poor behaviour for customers on the part of Frontier.

Lots of Windows fan-boys and Frontier sock-puppets tried to obfuscate this to little effect.

Having said that, there are better options available given Frontier's poor implementation of the Mac client itself.

You might choose to bootcamp and install Elite on that partition. Paired with eGPU's the performance is outstanding.

Or you might choose one of the streaming Windows services. I use Shadow which is excellent overall, and cheaper than building then upgrading a top-tier gaming rig.
 
we really didn't need to go there (again) but ...

yes, you can. dropping compatibility midway of the lifetime of a project, for whatever the reasons, is a huge blow from a developer. this has to be truly exceptional. you might say they tried, that crap happens, but it is still a dropped ball. did they warn customers that the platform could run into incompatibilities in near future, or did they just happily introduce a new platform and cash in without even knowing what they would like to develop just next year, and if it was even possible there with their engine? why would a professional incur in such risk?

how would you feel if they dropped support for your platform?
would you choose cobra engine for your development knowing it has compatibility problems? can't really fault them ...

My platform is Linux (both Debian [/Ubuntu] and Manjoro [Arch]), though I'm a holdout on Windows 7 still for the time being. I've set up Windows 10 laptops and the like for my family though as needed, but won't be moving there myself. I understand my days may be limited and would definitely hope for more dev support in those regards, but some have been able to get the game working as it is to some success at least.

To be honest, I think it was a kind of crap move by Apple to lock in their walled garden just that bit more. I personally then don't fault Frontier too much. It was a bit out of left field, as they say.

If Frontier moves to DX12 only or something like that instead of Vulkan, then I might well change my tune.
 
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So, I see on my downloadable list my horizons purchase, but only the base game on the Mac side. I'm not expected to buy it twice, am I?

Oh oh, cat amongst the pigeons there...

ED and EDH no longer work on MacOS, run bootcamp for Windows or follow one of the guides to run it on Linux (if that is more politically correct).
 
If Frontier moves to DX12 only or something like that instead of Vulkan, then I might well change my tune.

you will be assimilated. you just don't know yet!

yeah, i understand very well, i have been in the same boat for years. dual booting for games, wouldn't touch windows 8, much less 10 with a pole and ... oh wait, elite dangerous and stuff! tough call. at the end of the day i regard it as just an appliance, like a weird console.
 
To be honest, I think it was a kind of crap move by Apple to lock in their walled garden just that bit more. I personally then don't fault Frontier too much. It was a bit out of left field, as they say.

Yeah i think its poor form from everyone involved.

Amazed apple didn't go for the enthusiast market as soon as windows started to stink... enthusiasts don't mind paying and if apple built a specification respecting pc and not abandoned industry api they could have a huge chunk of it now. Maybe leaving games to microsoft was part of their friend pact with them. Maybe games don't fit in certain handbag brand image apple are also placed in (film and music are approved by this demographic).

Frontier with again with mac support took the too hard option. Going got tough, the tough got going. The only thing we know is on mac the truck simulators and farming simulator games are brilliant products, fully supported, acceptable games a service offerings while the games are constantly getting improved. The truck simulator games are more updated than elite.. palms up frontier style not sure what to conclude there. Even everspace works on mac... Its definitely a case of frontier not wanting to (which is their right) than any customer serving reason though.

Off topic, years later i think its been long enough to 1) stop thinking that your computer is yours anyone and not being watched, simply don't use the products and services that product you. Not that hard if we know about the problem in the first place. 2) The highground for desktop computing are older versions of macos to your taste. A few simple regular maintenance processes are enough to make your machine bulletproof even when security updates have stopped.

EDIT: Another just theory.. maybe frontier only have 1 core set of assets for elite for all platforms. Havent done too many comparisons with other games, but apart from resolution, blurryness and post processing stuff the ps4 version is identical to the pc version.. ground bases, stations, stars... possibly everything... if the mac couldnt field their one build that would make sense too. X rebirth on mac has similar problems.. the experience is woeful on a like like game.
 
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Oh oh, cat amongst the pigeons there...

ED and EDH no longer work on MacOS, run bootcamp for Windows or follow one of the guides to run it on Linux (if that is more politically correct).
Not sure if political correctness ever stopped anyway in this regard. OK, there might well be a few. ;) But I appreciate the intensive none the less.

Mac can't now run the standard Elite: Dangerous any more though? Was it done away with with the move to 64bit too? Sorry, playing a bit of catch up here.

OP seems to be able to still launch and run the base game.
 
Not sure if political correctness ever stopped anyway in this regard. OK, there might well be a few. ;) But I appreciate the intensive none the less.

Mac can't now run the standard Elite: Dangerous any more though? Was it done away with with the move to 64bit too? Sorry, playing a bit of catch up here.

OP seems to be able to still launch and run the base game.
I suspect that'll be the old demo/arena that has barely changed since ED came out.
 
EDIT: Another just theory.. maybe frontier only have 1 core set of assets for elite for all platforms. Havent done too many comparisons with other games, but apart from resolution, blurryness and post processing stuff the ps4 version is identical to the pc version.. ground bases, stations, stars... possibly everything... if the mac couldnt field their one build that would make sense too. X rebirth on mac has similar problems.. the experience is woeful on a like like game.
I would say that this is the case. They will not be creating brand new core assets for each platform. Most of the assets will be identical, it's the clients that work with those assets that are tough to create. It took well over a year for the PS4 client to get working.

They may well have looked at metal and metal 2 and realised it either wasn't compatible or would take far too long with virtually no return on investment.

Either way, apple dropped the ball. They could have used Vulkan, but decided to create their own graphic API which isn't as good as Vulkan either.

And as Vulkan has a lot of similarities to Open GL, that could have been a much easier port and it could have also been good for Windows users too.

I hope the PS5 moves over to Vulkan too.
 
They may well have looked at metal and metal 2 and realised it either wasn't compatible or would take far too long with virtually no return on investment.

Either way, apple dropped the ball. They could have used Vulkan, but decided to create their own graphic API which isn't as good as Vulkan either.

There's moltenvk they could have used? Yeah more than 2 graphics api's would be a nightmare i'm sure. Directx gets 2 platforms (??) so it would be great if the other one got the other two (sorry linux.. unless linux has a strong vulkan infrastructure already, no idea).
 
Like it or not, Apple likes to have complete control over the OS on their devices (something that is obvious to anyone that follows the company even slightly), and the graphics subsystem comes under that heading. OpenGL wasn't under their control. Vulkan also would not be, therefore it was always a non-starter.

It was a business decision on the part of Apple to no longer support OpenGL (it's officially deprecated). It was a business decision on the part of Frontier not to recode to Metal 2 despite it being more than capable (Metal 1 was not, as I recall).
 
So, I see on my downloadable list my horizons purchase, but only the base game on the Mac side. I'm not expected to buy it twice, am I?
I have to ask.. why are you using a mac book pro.. sell it sell it sell it... buy a decent gaming laptop problem solved
 
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