ED Odyssey also runs just fine on Apple Mac Mini (M1) computers.

[Howard Pew]

ED Odyssey also runs just fine on macOS Monterey (latest version), using Parallel's Desktop Pro 17 (for ARM & M1), with MS Windows 11 Pro (for ARM), on Apple Mac Mini (M1) computers.
When the prices came down a bit, I wanted to give the recent Apple chip processors (M1) a go, as I have been using Apple computers since the early 1980's, with the Apple IIe computer.
I don't really have that much experience in using Linux operating systems, only having used about 15 of their versions over the last 3 years.
I have however been using Apple computers as my backup computers over the last 30 years or so, and using Microsoft Windows PC's as my main everyday computer.

What I have discovered recently, is that ED Odyssey will run just fine on the latest version of Ubuntu Linux, with Steam and Litrus (with default settings). I am starting to reliase however, that
maybe ED Odyssey does not require Lutris any more, to run successfully. Just Steam using Proton, may be enough to run ED Odyssey, successfully, without any fault.

I am now in a position, I believe, to choose between my Apple Mac Mini (M1 with 16GB RAM) computer or Ubuntu Linux running on a amd64 / x86 based PC.
I think for the performance value and the reliability factor, and fewer things to go wrong, I will have to choose the Apple Mac Mini (M1)

I now have this Apple Mac Mini (M1) computer sitting in our lounge room, near the 43" LG HD T.V (using this as the monitor too), all configured with a wireless Logitech
mouse and keyboard (combo) to run my favourite Steam games (MS Flight Sim 2020; No Man's Sky; Star Citizen and ED Odyssey). I still have a few more things to do,
in order to get Star Citizen to run, as at the moment it does not like the Apple M1 processor. Well, eventually, I hope to get all my Steam games to run just fine. Oh, yeah,
I forgot to mention, for a controller, at the moment I am using the XBox Series X controller, with great success.

Kind regards,
Howard Pew.

 

[Razzerman]

Good news for all the Mac fans out there - I think I best start saving for the M2 Mac studio now, so in three years time I'll be ready to migrate from my poor old 2009 Mac Pro

 

[Bottom Hat]

I can think of someone who will be happy, but furious at the same time.

 

[Rat Catcher]

I can think of someone who will be happy, but furious at the same time.

Stop telling porkies... The first part of the statement is an outright lie...

 

[Bob McBobblehead]

I'll never understand the lure of expensive walled ecosystems like Apple.

 

[Razzerman]

I'll never understand the lure of expensive walled ecosystems like Apple

It's pretty straightforward; you get what you pay for, plus the new apple silicon chip makes current models excellent value, imho (not that I have one....yet!)

 

[Rubbernuke]

So whats the performance like / heat / etc?

I can vaguely remember someone trying this before and saying it works but makes the M1 sweat.

 

[Bottom Hat]

Stop telling porkies... The first part of the statement is an outright lie...

You are right, I flowered up my statement!

 

[Northpin]

Except the academic interest, i fail to see why someone would go through all the hurdles for this.

A PS5/XBX will do better at gaming (no Ody, i know i know...)
A dedicated gaming PC, even a dedicated gaming laptop will do better - but sure, they will cost way more than the mac mini.

Apple Mac Mini (M1)

... is not a gaming machine.
Its power efficiency is very good indeed, but it is very tdp limited and is cramped in a case designed to look pretty, not to dissipate a lot of heat.
As far as my google-fu is serving me right now, it's gfx power is somewhere near a gtx 1650/4gb - which will be rather minimal in Odyssey.
Sure it will run, but on which resolution and what quality settings?

 

[amigacooke]

I'll never understand the lure of expensive walled ecosystems like Apple.

Well both myself and the OP are still running Macs from 2009, so longevity might be part of the answer.

 

[Frop]

Well both myself and the OP are still running Macs from 2009, so longevity might be part of the answer.

Yeah, longevity. Or in other words, too expensive to replace and since you can't really play most games on them anyway, you don't really notice the age as much.

 

[Oztig]

Well both myself and the OP are still running Macs from 2009, so longevity might be part of the answer.

My Apple G4 Cube is still running happily after 22 years - It's now relegated to my Music player / server, but a very pretty looking one - and the round speakers give out a nice noise

 

[Razzerman]

you can't really play most games on them anyway

well, I really am playing Elite (Horizons and Odyssey), Diablo 3 (less grindy than Elite), Civ 6, Valorant (my lad is great at it, I just run around with the odin making a racket), New World, X Plane 11 + a few others, on my poor old Mac Pro via bootcamp. Maybe I'm just really doing it wrong?

 

[Frop]

Maybe I'm just really doing it wrong?

Probably, if you're going to run Windows anyway you could've bought similarly performing hardware for less money.

 

[amigacooke]

Maybe I'm just really doing it wrong?

You mentioned the M word which is enough to get some rushing to defend their threatened OS with its shaky over 90% market share and effective monopoly

 

[Razzerman]

you could've bought similarly performing hardware for less money

I doubt it as I was given the Mac in the first place. Sure, spent a bit on upgrading the processors to 2012 cpu's and chucked a graphics card / ssd in, but other than that shall we say it's offered great value and service

threaten OS with its shaky over 90% market share and effective monopoly

yeah, I don't get why people get so anti-mac; it makes no difference to them at all. I remember the good old days when the original Elite came out on so many different platforms (I used to play on an amstrad 464). Sure, a bit of heckling from speccy users, but nothing like the animosity of today. Probably down to a genetic survival thing- a bit like supporting the 'wrong' football team.

 

[Old Duck]

Someone explain this to me. The only way I see this working is if Windows for ARM emulates an x86 processor, converting CISC to RISC on the fly. That works fine for a Commodore 64 emulator, but I can't imagine this being efficient for running a modern game on an ARM-based processor, unless the M1 is so much better than equivalent Intel / AMD processor to compensate for the conversion overhead. This is way different than running x86 Windows code on x86 Linux.

Don't get me wrong, I love ARM, but if you're going to be running mostly x86 compiled code, it seems wiser to just get an x86 processor, no?

 

[amigacooke]

Don't get me wrong, I love ARM, but if you're going to be running mostly x86 compiled code, it seems wiser to just get an x86 processor, no?

I think the argument is that the ARM architecture provides sufficient benefits over the x86 architecture that it is worth converting the code to ARM. Microsoft, as I understand it, have started to provide the tools to make that possible.

 

[Old Duck]

I think the argument is that the ARM architecture provides sufficient benefits over the x86 architecture that it is worth converting the code to ARM. Microsoft, as I understand it, have started to provide the tools to make that possible.

Is it converting on the fly (emulation) or is it recompiling to make an ARM-based .exe binary? If Microsoft provides something that does the latter, and it's good (as in, it can change a CISC instruction to a small number of high-performance RISC instructions), then I could see benefit in that, but I can't imagine it would be trivial. It's not just instruction sets, but hardware differences like memory architecture and some "secret sauce" that only Apple knows about the M1 / M2.

I'm sure it's great for Apple-only users who have been wanting to run x86 code on their new, nice M1/M2 Apple hardware, but I personally would not buy an Apple for gaming purposes, regardless of the processor.

But do let me know when someone gets ED running on the Raspberry Pi

 

[amigacooke]

I'm sure Microsoft can explain it much better than I can.

Windows on Arm documentation

Learn more about running Windows on PCs powered by Arm processors. Find guidance on how to build Windows apps for Arm64 devices or iteratively update your existing Windows app to take advantage of Arm64 native capabilities.

docs.microsoft.com