zandronum on Metal (mac)

[mentaluproar]

Apple announced the next version of their OS is depreciating OpenGL and focusing exclusively on Metal, apples own graphics API. While OpenGL should continue to work, bugs and glitches will not be fixed and compatibility will eventually die.

I know mac users like me are in the minority, but is there any work on porting Zandronum to Metal and away from OpenGL for us mac players?

[Sean]

I mean, Apple's OpenGL implementation is stuck in 2010, so it was no surprise it'd be deprecrated. As for Zandronum, Metal support is very unlikely, given that it'd only happen if GZDoom implemented it, which again is very unlikely as it's a small amount of the userbase, and OpenGL is still supported elsewhere. A better approach would be to use Vulkan, which supports Windows, Linux, and Mac, but is still pretty unlikely. And even if GZDoom did any of these things, Zandronum is well-known for being behind on its GZDoom base by quite a bit, so you wouldn't be using them in multiplayer for a long time.

[Blzut3]

There is definitely interest in a Vulkan renderer in GZDoom so something with MoltenVK is likely the route that will happen. That said I'm sure there will be an implementation of OpenGL over Metal by the time OpenGL gets removed (or OpenGL to Vulkan :P).

[mentaluproar]

OGL on mac sucks so hard I really hope people skip over creating a compatibility layer and right to a modern standard. I could always run in it via WINE or a VM, but all that for one piece of software seems so unnecessary in 2018.

[Torr Samaho]

I will certainly not put any effort into supporting vendor lock-in APIs.

OGL on mac sucks so hard I really hope people skip over creating a compatibility layer and right to a modern standard.

Vulkan is a modern standard, Metal may be modern, but I wouldn't call it a standard...