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STO for mac?
bad4evr
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I have a PC also but to run on mac would be a new experience for me..I have attempted to use VMs,and emulators but to no avail. My PC is currently down for the count and would like to see any feedback or ideas 
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This character is why I don't play my Romulan any more. Tovan Khev is NOT my BFF! Get him off my bridge!
I run STO in Mac OS using Crossover. It runs seemlessly for me. It's slighly more choppy than bootcamp at max resolution, but turn it down a tad and I have no complaints!
Edit: Here's a link: http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxgames/
I have a Mac Pro 3,1 (early 2008), with 16GB Ram, 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad cores with a GeForce 8800GT 512 MB graphics card.
I tried to use emulation software such as VMware Fusion and Parallels but have only been disappointed with the results. As a result I began to boot up in Windows 7 using Bootcamp.
To play STO I've traditionally run the video options at the second highest setting in order to maintain a smooth frame rate and have nice visuals. In doing that the fan ran pretty loudly but I thought that all was well.
Of late the graphics have become a little choppy, so I downloaded some monitoring software and it turns out that my card has been running a little too hot and now isn't what it used to be.
From my experience I have to say that Bootcamp is the best way to go. You will need to monitor your graphics card, however, as you may end up needing a new one like I do if you push your card too hard.
I would prefer that STO releases a Mac version but I don't really think that's going to happen.
As an aside I'm ordering a new graphics card tomorrow, partly because mine is not as sprightly as it used to be, plus Hawken requires more grunt than the 8800 GT can muster. I'm ordering a GeForce GTX 570 that's been configured for a Mac. It has 480 CUDA cores, 1.25 GB RAM, 320 bit memory bus and Fermi architecture. Much faster than the cards that Nvidia has listed for Mac. If anyone is interested I can let them know how this card performs. Nvidia doesn't sell this card for Mac but there is a company that installs custom firmware on them so they can run on Mac and PC without any issues. It's costing me US$350. (My Christmas present to myself.)
gonna buy me a PC this christmas just for gaming..
my son is playing his captain on an mac book pro 2007, middle settings, bootcamped WIN XP SP3. smooth.
i'm afraid that recoding the whole thing to mac would take too long and would be buggy. not going to happen till STO has 10 millions of subscribers (WOW gangnam style)..
I tried crossover but couldn't quite figure the bottles out and such.
Wʬ g+ fᵇ tᵂ
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=381881
I would love to see STO running on a Mac. So I won't have to restart, wait til it loads up Windows, and go from there. Where I just click the icon on my desktop and go from there. Plus it would run lot more smoothly since my Mac don't have to work extra to make it work. It would be sweet to see STO for the Mac.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
The reason most companies don't understand that is that it's not even remotely true. They're closer than they've ever been, yes, but that means PCs outsell Macs by only 17:1.
Last time i checked (windows) PC's occupied 85% of the world market Mac (OS) 5%
I sure would not design anything for a 5% market.
Check your stats first.
But i do LOVE a good outlandish statement!
Macs aren't and won't be more popular than PCs ever for two reasons.
1. The Mac OS Software is always optimized for the latest hardware, this creates several incompatibility problems resulting in non-latest hardware underperforming if you upgrade, and leaving yourself open to security holes if you don't. You can even see this in the iPhone and iPod Touch with older versions working worse with the new iOS software.
2. The price, a decent condition refurbished Mac can set someone back ?600-?700, a decent gaming machine that's upgradeable beyond memory and hard drive can cost as little as ?400-?500.
1. Thats not even remotely true, as far as OS X is concerned.... Yes, newer versions perform better on newer hardware and sometimes worse on old hardware, but Apple doesnt optimize new versions of OS X for new Macs... and last I checked this was true of Windows as well... Vista ran great on the new hardware of the time, but ran like junk on older hardware...
(To put the above in perspective my older mid-2007 MacBook came with Tiger (10.4) and didnt start showing signs of age until Lion (10.7), which was 3 OS versions newer. If anything Apple attempts to optimize for the widest base of hardware that the OS will run on)
iOS is different. It's a mobile OS. It should be optimized for the latest hardware because most of the time, thats what 98% of your userbase would be using.
2. Hey look the typical I can build a gaming PC for less than a new Mac. Great! Good for you! But most people arent inclined to build one themselves. Or most people intend to use the computer for work, and gaming on the side. I use a late-2011 Mac mini for school work with integrated Intel GFX. I play STO on the side. It doesnt run at 60FPS nor do I get to use the highest settings, but its more than playable for me.
So if PCs occupy 85% and Macs 5% whats the other 10%?
And you wouldnt develop for 5% of the market? Well, glad you dont run a software company... Valve develops for that 5% of the market now. Seriously, that more money in the companies pocket if they support that 5%.
I'd love to be able to ditch Windows on my Mac, and as it is the only reason that I have Windows 7 installed is for STO and TOR... and I could care less about TOR. I'd download the Mac version if it ran well on Mac and Im sure there are many others too.
Thanks so much for this post! I'm considering buying a new maxed out mac mini for work - 1TB fusion drive - mixed SSD and traditional HD, 16GB of (aftermarket) RAM, Quad core i7 2.6GHz, but it's hobbled by integrated graphics HD4000... I was worried that STO wouldn't work, which was making me consider other options. So in your experience Mac Minis are fine with integrated graphics? - if so that's good
Before I get flamed for using a mac - I just love them and they've worked out cheaper for me in the long run and I'm used to OS X now - writing this on a 12 year old powerbook, and my other computer is an 11 year old Powermac (dual 2.0GHz, 1.5TB, 8GB RAM, 512MB X850XT - the sad thing is the planned obselescence that Apple annoyingly insists on which is the only reason I'm moving on. But hopefully there won't be any more crazy changes like the powerpc-Intel switchover!)
Im my experience? My HD3000 handles STO just fine. Off the top of my head, I'll generally get about 30FPS during normal flying around/walking around, a little more or a little less depending on whats going on. In space combat, I'll drop to 15 or 20 if there are a lot of particle effects going on (such as warp plasma on a Tactical Cube). Ground combat is about the same as the base line, as theres usually less particle effects, but certain areas can cause a loss of FPS. And this is at 1920x1080 (which is my monitors native resolution)
It helps I dont care about graphics like most people... but its certainly playable. You'll have to do some tweaking to the GFX settings but it'll come out ok. You'll also get to use the DX11 mode, if I recall right, as the HD4000 supports it. If it helps, I also play TOR on Low to Medium and World of Tanks on Low to Medium with about the same frames as STO. You should be just fine.
I started playing STO on my Mac Mini since it was the best choice I had at the time. I ran it with Win 7 in Boot Camp, and it ran OK with the integrated Nvidia graphics in that machine. Had graphics at I think halfway, leveled my first (main) toon all the way up on it. This is probably ideal since you are at that point running Windows no differently than if it was on a PC
One warning I will give: If you are using a Mini or a laptop, you need to adjust your fans. Apple sets the fans low because Mac users are picky and they complain about fan noise (seriously, I have gotten this complaint). They expect in normal use, the aluminum housing will radiate the heat, and the fan only has to come on minimally. Gaming is not normal use, you will be pushing it hard. Unfortunately, the default fan settings seem to kick the fan up too late to compensate and you run the risk of overheating and frying the board. Yes, I fried the Mac Mini's logic board. Fortunately I work for an AASP so it wasn't a big deal to get fixed.
Use SMC Fan Control and set your fans up to at least 3000rpm. It's an OS X program, so do it in OS X, then reboot to Windows. You need to do this every time, if you power off and boot straight to Windows, it will forget the custom setting. Easiest thing is to just set SMC Fan Control to run at boot so you just boot to OS X, let SMC Fan Control do its thing, then immediately reboot back to Windows.
Mac Pros are fine, they have fans out the wazoo and nobody cares how loud a pro workstation is. iMacs I'm not entirely sure on, but better safe than sorry.
Regarding the Mac vs. PC debate, generally I obviously prefer Macs. I work on computers all day, I don't want to come home and do same on the ones I use to relax. Mostly OS X and the Mac hardware platform just does its thing and stays out of the way.
Now, there's a bit of "right tool for the right job" to talk about here. PCs get all the best new GPUs, and they more than anything determine your gaming experience. Mac GPUs are limited to what Apple chooses to support, either built into a laptop/iMac/Mini or supplied to be installed in a Mac Pro. Apple's focus for high end machines has always been professional content creation (graphic design, video editing, 3D modeling, etc). Their GPU choices reflect this, since they are more workstation GPUs than gaming (there is a difference). The current top of the line GPU for a Mac Pro is the Quadro 9000, a workstation card. Great if you're trying to get After Effects to render everything in real time, not so much for gaming.
So, if you really want a dedicated gaming box, a PC makes more sense. You can do what I did, grab a cheap PC off eBay, slap a modern GPU in it because that's all that really matters, and be ready to rock. If you don't want to have multiple computers, you can game just fine on the Mac, but just manage your expectations a bit. More native Mac games are coming out, though they are delayed usually unless it's Blizzard. For those that aren't, the easiest and best solution is to run Windows in Boot Camp.
Bottom line: Macs are better for most people's general day to day life provided they can get over the cost of entry. Apple has everything integrated and taken care of, so you don't need to worry about it. If you are a gamer or a hobbyist who likes to tinker and hotrod things, you will be happier with a PC. That's from the professional Mac guy. Can't make it any more fair than that. :-)
And heed my fan warning, seriously.
Edit: Also I have been meaning to try out the WINE wrapper on my laptop. It would probably run like TRIBBLE compared to what I'm used to, but I could at least jump in on my lunch break and make sure my Doffs ain't slacking off.
With Apple the No 1 company world wide I think developers are taking notice, they just have 30 years of people using windows as default. It all stems back to that IBM/Windows deal in the early years where Gates got paid when an IBM desktop shiped whether or not it had windows on it.
But there are soooo many IT people out there who when you mention Apple go into a rage. I have one friend who anytime I say anything about apple he goes into the whole rant about market share etc....
Apple is the most highly valued company in the world because their margins are high. You may have noticed the price of Macs and other Apple gear does not really change regardless of where you get it. That's on purpose. Apple will not play the game that Wal-mart and other big retailers tend to play where they try to strongarm the manufacturer into lowering the cost. Price is what it is, you either pay it or you don't sell Apple. They also have a minimum advertised price to prevent the retailers that do get good bulk discounts from trying to undercut each other. Apple does not want you to have to price shop or wait for sales. It protects the buyer experience, and also Apple's margin. Price wars are what have killed Dell and HP's profitability in the last decade.
The IT people, those are the people I mostly work with. They've built their careers around Windows and Microsoft, and now that everyone from the CEO to the common office worker is wanting to bring in Macs and iPads, so they are freaking out. That's fine though, it's my job to come in and they either pawn off all the Mac support on me, or I help them get it together for themselves. Also, just because something is more popular doesn't necessarily mean it's right. That's argumentum ad populum, it's a fallacious argument that proves nothing. I'm perfectly fine with Macs being a boutique minority platform though, as long as it's big enough to have good peripheral and software support.
I'm on a Mac though and I run STO under WINE, and very playably too actually, means I don't have to switch to Bootcamp which is ideal. So it probably wouldn't be too hard to go the very easy route and use a custom WINE/Cider wrapper, test it a bit and fix some of the minor niggles (for me STO will eventually become unplayable if I do STF after STF without exiting and re-opening). It wouldn't take too much effort, and wouldn't cost much either. Obviously a proper, native port would be much better, but a lot of companies write sloppy code when it comes to porting programs, i.e - they code for Windows only then it's a huge pain to actually recode everything to be neutral so it can be moved over to Mac (or Linux, lets not forget). WINE at least might provide a convenient stop-gap that would actually be suitable for Linux as well, which would hit slightly more users since there are a pretty good crowd of Linux gamers, or at least dual-booting ones.
Game Balance - Ship Size and Wingmates
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=381881
This is what some of the folks in this thread have been using, and what I have been intending to test.
Havent had an issue in over a year of playing (for multiple hours per day sometimes)... my fans kick up almost immediately upon getting to the character select screen, and they stay that way until I exit out of the game.
Oh actually just a very quick question. This is going to make me sound really really stupid and wasteful of money but I let my subscription carry on even though I wasn't playing anymore because I was happy to contribute $15 a month for STO to succeed as I always intended coming back once I had the excuse to buy a new computer... Is there actually any benefit to subscribing any more or not?
Game Balance - Ship Size and Wingmates
You may or may not have a problem, it probably has some dependency on which specific model you're using, what GPU, etc. What SMC Fan Control does is set a minimum fan speed, which it won't let them drop below. That helps keep things under control so the heat doesn't get out of hand to where it can't ever catch up. I've also had an issue where people on MacBook Pros with the 27" Thunderbolt displays complain the laptop gets too hot, and the fans are barely coming on. I use SMC Fan Control to fix that too. It uses presets, so you can easily switch to a "gaming" preset, then switch back to normal when you're done. 3000rpm is not that loud though, barely audible, so you might as well leave it that way.
I also think that for whatever reason the SMC itself (system management controller that regulates power and cooling) works better under OS X than under Windows, maybe a driver issue. I played through Arkham Asylum's Mac version without doing anything to the fans and was fine, but running STO under Boot Camp killed the board in a couple weeks. Twice.
If you think it's fine, you can do what you wish. I just wouldn't be quick to snub a free piece of software that can prolong the life of your computer or save you from a $600 repair.
It's a valid concern but I think that the integrated GPUs are les prone to frying the board than a dedicated/discrete chips are as they likely don't get as hot.