How Come Mac Doesnt Have The Same Games As Pc

Posted on  by 

One of the first things a lot of people look for, once they get over the ‘newness’ of unboxing a new MacBook and switching on OS X for the first time, is how they can play their favorite games on Mac. We’ll help you figure out how to do it.

  1. The mac can see the PC and connect to it, but from the PC side the mac is invisible. Notes: I have a windows 10 laptop connected to the same network as my office Mac. I have file sharing enabled on both devices and am able to see & connect to the laptop's shared folders/files from the mac without any trouble.
  2. There's more many more Mac games available on Steam than there used to be, quite a few have Steam Play, though some of them have annoying differences from the Windows versions e.g. Not being able to ALT-Tab between the game and the desktop (though some let you do this), e.g. The Mac versions Paradox's games (Europa Universalis 4, Crusader Kings.

If you want to play games on a Mac that has lower specifications than ideally needed to play properly, it is possible to take advantage of the hardware of a more powerful Mac or PC elsewhere on.

How Come Mac Doesn't Have The Same Games As Pc Windows

Traditionally, Macs were not known for their gaming prowess. It wasn’t uncommon for Mac owners to own a Windows-powered PC explicitly for gaming – you’d use your MacBook (or PowerBook!) for work and relaxation, then boot up your Windows PC when you wanted to sit down and shoot things. For the most part, it worked really well. A few games were ported over, but never very many. That all began to change when Apple switched the processors found inside of Mac computers. Not only could Windows be installed, but major game studios brought some of their titles over. World of Warcraft became a huge seller on the Mac.

The Best Way to Get Games for Mac? Steam.

A few years ago, Valve sent waves through the Mac world when they announced that they were planning to port their Steam video game store / distribution channel / social network to OS X. Valve pushed devs to port titles over to the Apple platform, and now there are hundred or even thousands of games running in the Mac version of Steam (of the 315 games in my Steam account, 176 of them are Mac compatible).

Come

The easiest way to get started with a few games for Mac is to use Steam. If you’re a PC gamer, chances are you’ve bought more than a few Steam titles – and it’s likely some of those support the Mac at the same time; Valve doesn’t charge extra for non-Windows versions of their games.

But for Mac gamers, Steam is more than just a way to find Mac-compatible games. It’s also a way to play any game in your entire library, even if it’s Windows-only. It’s thanks to a newer technology from Valve known as In-Home Streaming.

Here’s the bad news, upfront: you still need a Windows PC for this to work. Preferably a good one, but any recent computer will do. In-Home Streaming works by actually running the game on your Windows PC, then routing the video over the network to your Mac.

Setting it up is actually pretty simple. Make sure your gaming desktop is attached to your network via an Ethernet cable. You want it to be plugged directly in rather than relying on wireless access. Next, download and install Steam on your Windows computer, and make sure the games you want to play are installed, configured, and have been launched at least once. Sometimes running a game for the first time causes issues when you’re trying to stream it elsewhere in the house.

Next, go to your Mac and download and install a copy of Steam there, too, if you haven’t already. Like with the gaming PC, your Mac will stream games better if it’s hardwired into your network. If that’s not possible, you can use your wireless network – but you should be running an 802.11ac network, and you should make sure you have a strong signal (even then, you might find some issues with playing really fast twitch shooters).

Log in with your Steam account credentials on both computers, and you should be good to go – if you don’t see all of your Windows games (at least, the ones that are installed on your gaming PC) available on your Mac, check the Steam settings on both computers and make sure that the ‘Enable streaming’ box is checked.

Steam’s implementation of game streaming works extremely well on most titles. First person shooters, especially if you’re into multiplayer, may prove problematic thanks to increases in latency.

Not every Mac game is available on Steam.

A number of high-profile publishers have gotten uncomfortable with the amount of power Steam was building up and decided to roll with their own game distribution services. Fortunately, many of them have their own Mac ports.

Games you won’t find on Steam, but can run on your Mac include Blizzard titles like World of Warcraft, Starcraft II, and Diablo III. Games you won’t find on Steam and are also Windows-only include most of the EA stable, with Mass Effect 3, Mass Effect: Andromeda (likely), Mirror’s Edge, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and more.

How Come Mac Doesn't Have The Same Games As Pc Controller

For this latter category, Steam may yet be able to help you out. For any games distributed via EA’s Origin service, you’ll need to download and have the Origin client installed and running – but you can still add them to your Steam library. Steam lets gamers add these non-Steam titles to their library for a couple of reasons: it gives them access to the Steam overlay and web browser in full-screen mode, and it lets your friends see what games you’re playing.

In-Home Streaming isn’t officially supported on non-Steam titles that you add to your library, but some games will work fine; you’ll need to experiment and see. To add some of these non-Steam, non-Mac titles, go up to the ‘Games’ menu on your gaming PC, and select ‘Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library’. A window will pop up listing a bunch of programs from your computer; scroll through to find the one you want, click on it to highlight, then click OK.

Depending on which Apple computer you’re using, you might wish to add non-Steam games to your Steam library and try to stream them even if they have native Mac clients; your gaming PC is likely going to play them at a much higher quality.

Don’t forget: Your Mac is an excellent Windows PC.

A common refrain you’ll find among tech sites is that an Apple MacBook or iMac will often be one of the best Windows computers you can buy. Thanks to Apple’s Boot Camp assistant, it’s actually pretty easy to install Windows on your Mac, and use either Windows or OS X, depending on what it is you want to do.

It’s a great way to run software that is Windows-only and can’t be virtualized, which is an apt way to describe many modern games. It might be a good idea to try even if you want to play an app that has a Mac client: some tests have shown a substantial frame rate increase by running the Windows version of a game over the Mac version – even on the exact same computer.

The company has a great support page (here) detailing how to go about installing Windows 10 on your MacBook or iMac. It boils down to updating your Mac software, installing Windows, and then updating drivers – pretty simple, in all.

Related Posts

  • While most people can access their email via the web these days, having a dedicated…

  • What is the Mac swapfile? Is it important? Can you delete it? We'll walk you through this…

  • Here is a guide on how to create a bootable external Mac hard drive to run…

If your computer doesn't recognize your connected device, you might see an unknown error or a '0xE' error. If you do, follow these steps and try to connect your device again after each step:

  1. Make sure that your iOS or iPadOS device is unlocked and on the Home screen.
  2. Check that you have the latest software on your Mac or Windows PC. If you're using iTunes, make sure you have the latest version.
  3. Make sure that your device is turned on.
  4. If you see a Trust this Computer alert, unlock your device and tap Trust.
  5. Unplug all USB accessories from your computer except for your device. Try each USB port to see if one works. Then try a different Apple USB cable.*
  6. Restart your computer.
  7. Restart your device:
  8. Try connecting your device to another computer. If you have the same issue on another computer, contact Apple Support.

For more help, follow the steps below for your Mac or Windows PC.


* Learn how to connect iPad Pro (11-inch) or iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) to your computer.

If you use a Mac

  1. Connect your iOS or iPadOS device and make sure that it's unlocked and on the Home screen.
  2. On your Mac, hold down the Option key, click the Apple menu, and choose System Information or System Report.
  3. From the list on the left, select USB.
  4. If you see your iPhone, iPad, or iPod under USB Device Tree, get the latest macOS or install the latest updates. If you don't see your device or still need help, contact Apple Support.

If you use a Windows PC

The steps differ depending on if you downloaded iTunes from the Microsoft Store or from Apple.

If you downloaded iTunes from the Microsoft Store

Follow these steps to reinstall the Apple Mobile Device USB driver:

  1. Disconnect your device from your computer.
  2. Unlock your iOS or iPadOS device and go to the Home screen. Then reconnect your device. If iTunes opens, close it.
  3. Click and hold (or right-click) the Start button, then choose Device Manager.
  4. Locate and expand the Portable Devices section.
  5. Look for your connected device (such as Apple iPhone), then right-click on the device name and choose Update driver.
  6. Select 'Search automatically for updated driver software.'
  7. After the software installs, go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update and verify that no other updates are available.
  8. Open iTunes.

If you downloaded iTunes from Apple

Follow these steps to reinstall the Apple Mobile Device USB driver:

  1. Disconnect your device from your computer.
  2. Unlock your iOS or iPadOS device and go to the Home screen. Then reconnect your device. If iTunes opens, close it.
  3. Press the Windows and R key on your keyboard to open the Run command.
  4. In the Run window, enter:
    %ProgramFiles%Common FilesAppleMobile Device SupportDrivers
  5. Click OK.
  6. Right-click on the usbaapl64.inf or usbaapl.inf file and choose Install.
    You might see other files that start with usbaapl64 or usbaapl. Make sure to install the file that ends in .inf. If you’re not sure which file to install, right-click a blank area in the File Explorer Window, click View, then click Details to find the correct file type. You want to install the Setup Information file.
  7. Disconnect your device from your computer, then restart your computer.
  8. Reconnect your device and open iTunes.

If your device still isn't recognized

Check Device Manager to see if the Apple Mobile Device USB driver is installed. Follow these steps to open Device Manager:

  1. Press the Windows and R key on your keyboard to open the Run command.
  2. In the Run window, enter devmgmt.msc, then click OK. Device Manager should open.
  3. Locate and expand the Universal Serial Bus controllers section.
  4. Look for the Apple Mobile Device USB driver.

If you don't see the Apple Mobile Device USB Driver or you see Unknown Device:

  • Connect your device to your computer with a different USB cable.
  • Connect your device to a different computer. If you have the same issue on another computer, contact Apple Support.

If you see the Apple Mobile Device USB driver with an error symbol:

If you see , , or next to the Apple Mobile Device USB driver, follow these steps:

How Come Mac Doesn't Have The Same Games As Pc Games

  1. Restart the Apple Mobile Device Service.
  2. Check for and resolve issues with third-party security software, then restart your computer.
  3. Try to install the usbaapl64.inf or usbaapl.inf file again.

Coments are closed