Apple's Metal 3 key to 'No Man's Sky' and 'Resident Evil: Villages' coming to Mac

AppleInsider · June 6, 2022 6:56PM

The new Metal 3 API, coming later this year, will allow Macs to upscale more efficiently, intelligently draw frames for smoother gameplay, and access game data quicker.

Part of the new macOS Ventura, Jeremy Sandmel, senior director of GPU software at Apple, discussed the new Metal at the company's WWDC 2022 event.

The new version of Metal introduces the MetalFX framework. MetalFX manages upscaling for better resolution, as well as drawing extra frames to improve frame rate in games. The Mac version of the game "No Man's Sky" will utilize the MetalFX technology to improve its performance.

Metal 3 will also feature a "fast resource loading API," that speeds up the pipeline from silicon to RAM and storage to allow the device to find and draw textures quicker. This will allow games that use the API to experience less loading time.

With the technologies included in the new Metal, "Resident Evil: Village" was announced for the Mac. Masaru Ijuin, manager of the Advanced Technical Research Division, took the stage to announce the port of the game to macOS.

"Resident Evil: Village" will be available on the Mac later in 2022.

A new API in the new Metal specifically for iPad is a background download API, which optimizes performance for the foreground while the device is taxed by a concurrent software download.

Metal 3 will launch with macOS Ventura and iPadOS 16 this Fall.

Metal was first introduced in 2014 as an optimization layer for the iPhone 5s' Apple A7 processor. The technology was expanded in scope and to more devices as more powerful Apple Silicon chips were released.

Read on AppleInsider

crowley · June 6, 2022 7:02PM

Good pickups there, but still latecomers.

beats · June 6, 2022 7:03PM

I was very underwhelmed with the gaming segments. Although having one AAA large game announced (compared to some crappy old iOS game) is a start, it’s nothing compared to what companies traditionally announce. Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo come out arms swinging when new hardware is announced. They’ll showcase 12-25 games at once.

Maybe it’s Apple’s secrecy that stops developers but this was sad. And as usual Apple TV and tvOS get ignored like an ugly step child. when Craig mentioned gaming I was ready for Apple Arcade+ or some huge partnership. We get one big NON-EXCLUSIVE game. Ok. Back to Winblows and PS5, I guess.

crowley · June 6, 2022 7:09PM

Beats said:

I was very underwhelmed with the gaming segments. Although having one AAA large game announced (compared to some crappy old iOS game) is a start, it’s nothing compared to what companies traditionally announce. Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo come out arms swinging when new hardware is announced. They’ll showcase 12-25 games at once.

Maybe it’s Apple’s secrecy that stops developers but this was sad. And as usual Apple TV and tvOS get ignored like an ugly step child. when Craig mentioned gaming I was ready for Apple Arcade+ or some huge partnership. We get one big NON-EXCLUSIVE game. Ok. Back to Winblows and PS5, I guess.

Neither Resident Evil Village or No Man's Sky are a crappy old iOS game. Both are big games.

beats · June 6, 2022 7:10PM

crowley said:

Beats said:

I was very underwhelmed with the gaming segments. Although having one AAA large game announced (compared to some crappy old iOS game) is a start, it’s nothing compared to what companies traditionally announce. Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo come out arms swinging when new hardware is announced. They’ll showcase 12-25 games at once.

Maybe it’s Apple’s secrecy that stops developers but this was sad. And as usual Apple TV and tvOS get ignored like an ugly step child. when Craig mentioned gaming I was ready for Apple Arcade+ or some huge partnership. We get one big NON-EXCLUSIVE game. Ok. Back to Winblows and PS5, I guess.

Neither Resident Evil Village or No Man's Sky are a crappy old iOS game. Both are big games.

Read it again.

crowley · June 6, 2022 7:12PM

Beats said:

crowley said:

Beats said:

I was very underwhelmed with the gaming segments. Although having one AAA large game announced (compared to some crappy old iOS game) is a start, it’s nothing compared to what companies traditionally announce. Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo come out arms swinging when new hardware is announced. They’ll showcase 12-25 games at once.

Maybe it’s Apple’s secrecy that stops developers but this was sad. And as usual Apple TV and tvOS get ignored like an ugly step child. when Craig mentioned gaming I was ready for Apple Arcade+ or some huge partnership. We get one big NON-EXCLUSIVE game. Ok. Back to Winblows and PS5, I guess.

Neither Resident Evil Village or No Man's Sky are a crappy old iOS game. Both are big games.

Read it again.

Write it again.

What crappy old iOS game are you referring to?
Why are you only talking about one big game being announced when two were?

edited June 2022

foregoneconclusion · June 6, 2022 7:22PM

LOL at the resident hot takes...Metal 3 sounds like it has the capability to be transformative for gaming on M1 and M2. M1 was already better than what people expected using the older version and Metal 3 will be improving frame rates, graphic fidelity and load times.

IMO, it also increases the possibility of an M series ATV down the road.

edred · June 6, 2022 7:27PM

Resident Evil Village and No Man’s Sky is a decent start but not nearly enough.

blastdoor · June 6, 2022 8:24PM

Apple's progress in games is evolutionary rather than revolutionary. No doubt that pace can be frustrating. But with the passage of enough time, evolution can look like revolution.

Every year another piece of the puzzle falls into place. I think we are getting closer to waking up and discovering that the world of Mac gaming has radically changed while we weren't looking. Not there yet.... but I really think it's coming.

edited June 2022

beats · June 6, 2022 8:25PM

edred said:

Resident Evil Village and No Man’s Sky is a decent start but not nearly enough.

Yeah I didn’t even count No Man’s Sky because it’s a good powerful game but not a really popular one like Resident Evil. Gamers aren’t gonna sell their PS5 and throw their Windows virus machines for either game on Mac.

Now if No Man’s Sky was exclusive that would have been something.

crowley said:

Beats said:

crowley said:

Beats said:

I was very underwhelmed with the gaming segments. Although having one AAA large game announced (compared to some crappy old iOS game) is a start, it’s nothing compared to what companies traditionally announce. Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo come out arms swinging when new hardware is announced. They’ll showcase 12-25 games at once.

Maybe it’s Apple’s secrecy that stops developers but this was sad. And as usual Apple TV and tvOS get ignored like an ugly step child. when Craig mentioned gaming I was ready for Apple Arcade+ or some huge partnership. We get one big NON-EXCLUSIVE game. Ok. Back to Winblows and PS5, I guess.

Neither Resident Evil Village or No Man's Sky are a crappy old iOS game. Both are big games.

Read it again.

Write it again.

What crappy old iOS game are you referring to?
Why are you only talking about one big game being announced when two were?

I said “compared to”. Usually Apple shows old iOS games on new hardware.

They actually DID show a game announced in 2017 for the A10 processor today. Did you miss it?

edited June 2022

mark fearing · June 6, 2022 8:32PM

Apple is just not into gaming in the way Microsoft ETC. are. And they never will be. I think they feel like they need to pay a little attention to gaming, especially in the mobile end of things, but don't see it as a focus for the Mac for good reason. The companies that focus on it spend a ton on it. Gaming dev is expensive and there just isn't the opportunity for Apple to make it back given market realities.

edited June 2022

foregoneconclusion · June 6, 2022 8:40PM

mark fearing said:

Apple is just not into gaming in the way Microsoft ETC. are. And they never will be.

The #1 market for gaming revenue is mobile, not PCs or consoles. It's bigger than console/PC gaming revenue COMBINED. Apple is doing just fine with their gaming approach.

crowley · June 6, 2022 8:46PM

Beats said:

edred said:

Resident Evil Village and No Man’s Sky is a decent start but not nearly enough.

Yeah I didn’t even count No Man’s Sky because it’s a good powerful game but not a really popular one like Resident Evil. Gamers aren’t gonna sell their PS5 and throw their Windows virus machines for either game on Mac.

Now if No Man’s Sky was exclusive that would have been something.

crowley said:

Write it again.

What crappy old iOS game are you referring to?
Why are you only talking about one big game being announced when two were?

I said “compared to”. Usually Apple shows old iOS games on new hardware.

They actually DID show a game announced in 2017 for the A10 processor today. Did you miss it?

What are you talking about?

Why are you "comparing" to "some crappy old iOS game" at all if you don't have anything specific in mind? When have Apple ever shone a light on a "crappy old iOS game" running on a Mac? It's usually Tomb Raider that they show, which isn't on iOS. Where's the connection?

And No Man's Sky has had success comparable to Resident Evil Village. They're both multi-million unit sellers.

I don't recall seeing another game. Why don't you name it instead of writing riddles?

edited June 2022

mpantone · June 6, 2022 8:46PM

Gaming on the Mac is eventually going to largely end up in the cloud, like GeForce NOW where one can currently play No Man's Sky RIGHT NOW.

I believe you can play No Man's Sky on your phone via GeForce NOW and cast it to a TV set. For this reason, I believe that iOS gaming has a brighter future than Mac gaming. There are simply more iPhones in use than Macs.

marvin · June 6, 2022 9:06PM

edred said:

Resident Evil Village and No Man’s Sky is a decent start but not nearly enough.

It might encourage others to port games when they see high profile games adopting Metal. I wonder if Apple pushed for this or if Capcom decided to do it themselves.

These developers don't need many sales to justify doing this. Apple's Mac userbase is over 100 million, Apple Silicon is a smaller portion but should be over 30 million by now. Game companies consider 5-10 million unit sales across all platforms to be a good result:

https://clutchpoints.com/ranking-best-selling-resident-evil-games-of-all-time/

For one platform out of 4-5 (PC/Playstation/XBox/Nintendo/Mac), they only need to sell 1-3 million copies on Mac around $60.

Other ports that would be good are GTA V, Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, Mass Effect series, Far Cry 4/5/6, Forza (not likely), Resident Evil 2/3 remakes, Horizon Zero Dawn (not likely), Plague Tale, Star Wars Battlefront 2, some of Call of Duty Black Ops and MW series and Battlefield, Apex Legends.

https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-reveals-its-best-selling-and-most-played-games-of-2021

Partnering with Microsoft on their Game Pass might be an option as they can port some good first party titles like Microsoft Flight Simulator and Forza. Currently it works through streaming but they can add native titles where it's feasible to maintain the port.

Although it's just one title, it's a high profile and high-end one so it's great to see a native port. It would be good to see Apple throwing some of the budget they allocate to Apple TV content to games. I don't know what it would take to convince a company to do a port and support it but $50m should do it and is a pretty small amount for Apple. $1b would get them 20 high-end game ports and if the games sell through the App Store and they sold 1m per title x $60 x 20 titles x 30%, they'd make $360m back.

Most of the top 50 or so best-selling games over the past 10 year ported natively would make a difference, the rest can be supported via streaming (NVidia Geforce Now, XBox Cloud etc).

beats · June 6, 2022 9:54PM

Marvin said:

edred said:

Resident Evil Village and No Man’s Sky is a decent start but not nearly enough.

It might encourage others to port games when they see high profile games adopting Metal. I wonder if Apple pushed for this or if Capcom decided to do it themselves.

These developers don't need many sales to justify doing this. Apple's Mac userbase is over 100 million, Apple Silicon is a smaller portion but should be over 30 million by now. Game companies consider 5-10 million unit sales across all platforms to be a good result:

https://clutchpoints.com/ranking-best-selling-resident-evil-games-of-all-time/

For one platform out of 4-5 (PC/Playstation/XBox/Nintendo/Mac), they only need to sell 1-3 million copies on Mac around $60.

Other ports that would be good are GTA V, Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, Mass Effect series, Far Cry 4/5/6, Forza (not likely), Resident Evil 2/3 remakes, Horizon Zero Dawn (not likely), Plague Tale, Star Wars Battlefront 2, some of Call of Duty Black Ops and MW series and Battlefield, Apex Legends.

https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-reveals-its-best-selling-and-most-played-games-of-2021

Partnering with Microsoft on their Game Pass might be an option as they can port some good first party titles like Microsoft Flight Simulator and Forza. Currently it works through streaming but they can add native titles where it's feasible to maintain the port.

Although it's just one title, it's a high profile and high-end one so it's great to see a native port. It would be good to see Apple throwing some of the budget they allocate to Apple TV content to games. I don't know what it would take to convince a company to do a port and support it but $50m should do it and is a pretty small amount for Apple. $1b would get them 20 high-end game ports and if the games sell through the App Store and they sold 1m per title x $60 x 20 titles x 30%, they'd make $360m back.

Most of the top 50 or so best-selling games over the past 10 year ported natively would make a difference, the rest can be supported via streaming (NVidia Geforce Now, XBox Cloud etc).

The $1B investment is worth the snowball effect alone. Apple just need to get the ball rolling. They could have offered Capcom half of that for a catalog of games. Even if Apple made $0 from the deal the developers that would follow would make up for it in new hardware sales alone.

The problem is, Apple has a desert that they’re trying to sell home owners (gamers) to. There’s nothing there but they expect people to just move in(to Mac). Build something here first and watch others adopt.

Had Apple gave Capcom just $150M to develop a catalog of games with iPhone companion apps, they’d see a ton of switchers to both Mac and iPhone. If I were Cook, I’d take it further and have them develop Resident Evil to work across Mac/iPad/iPhone/Apple TV.

Mac: Full core game
Apple TV: pickup where you left off with your choice of game controller
iPad: Same as Apple TV with added touch features
iPhone: mini games that help you on your journey/companion app

Heck, I’d find a way to throw Watch and AirPods in there. Maybe Atmos/Spatial Audio with head tracking support for AirPods. Especially after today’s announcement

https://www.roadtovr.com/apple-iphone-custom-hrtf-ios-ear-scan-spatial-audio/

Then I’d find a way to earn herbs(Resident Evil’s health supplement) and find other items by walking and running with Watch Fitness.

Buy ONCE get all these platforms and features.

The idea is to get gamers on board with Apple and into a better ecosystem. As of now, no one is gonna put their PS5 to the side to play Resident Evil VIII on Mac. That’s ridiculous. Also, this causes a paradox which Nintendo dealt with before, since no one is buying Resident Evil on Mac, Capcom will then use that as a reason to stop developing for it but there’s no reason to buy it on Mac in the first place. It’s a catch 22 I’ve seen in the industry before.

There’s the “Tim Cook knows how to run the biggest tech company in the world” excuse but here’s the problem with that argument: Cook doesn’t give a damn about gaming. It’s just a fun side hustle for Apple. They don’t even update us on Apple TV at WWDC anymore. I was hoping M2 would be the chip Apple was waiting on for a new Apple TV but that’s looking hopeless as time goes on.

edited June 2022

crowley · June 6, 2022 9:57PM

Marvin said:

edred said:

Resident Evil Village and No Man’s Sky is a decent start but not nearly enough.

It might encourage others to port games when they see high profile games adopting Metal. I wonder if Apple pushed for this or if Capcom decided to do it themselves.

These developers don't need many sales to justify doing this. Apple's Mac userbase is over 100 million, Apple Silicon is a smaller portion but should be over 30 million by now. Game companies consider 5-10 million unit sales across all platforms to be a good result:

https://clutchpoints.com/ranking-best-selling-resident-evil-games-of-all-time/

For one platform out of 4-5 (PC/Playstation/XBox/Nintendo/Mac), they only need to sell 1-3 million copies on Mac around $60.

Other ports that would be good are GTA V, Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, Mass Effect series, Far Cry 4/5/6, Forza (not likely), Resident Evil 2/3 remakes, Horizon Zero Dawn (not likely), Plague Tale, Star Wars Battlefront 2, some of Call of Duty Black Ops and MW series and Battlefield, Apex Legends.

https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-reveals-its-best-selling-and-most-played-games-of-2021

Partnering with Microsoft on their Game Pass might be an option as they can port some good first party titles like Microsoft Flight Simulator and Forza. Currently it works through streaming but they can add native titles where it's feasible to maintain the port.

Although it's just one title, it's a high profile and high-end one so it's great to see a native port. It would be good to see Apple throwing some of the budget they allocate to Apple TV content to games. I don't know what it would take to convince a company to do a port and support it but $50m should do it and is a pretty small amount for Apple. $1b would get them 20 high-end game ports and if the games sell through the App Store and they sold 1m per title x $60 x 20 titles x 30%, they'd make $360m back.

Most of the top 50 or so best-selling games over the past 10 year ported natively would make a difference, the rest can be supported via streaming (NVidia Geforce Now, XBox Cloud etc).

You’re suggesting that Apple spend $1b to possibly earn $360m?

mpantone · June 6, 2022 9:58PM

Shareholders will be pissed.

neoncat · June 6, 2022 10:19PM

foregoneconclusion said:

mark fearing said:

Apple is just not into gaming in the way Microsoft ETC. are. And they never will be.

The #1 market for gaming revenue is mobile, not PCs or consoles. It's bigger than console/PC gaming revenue COMBINED. Apple is doing just fine with their gaming approach.

So, are you happy with the gaming options on Apple devices, including the Mac? That's great. I don't presume to speak for Beats, but I know I'm not. I won't spend even a dollar on mobile games and do my gaming on consoles and a gaming PC.

I despise this attitude that those of us who demand more should settle for less because it benefits Apple. I'll look out for my own interests, thank you.

macxpress · June 6, 2022 11:44PM

mpantone said:

Shareholders will be pissed.

Not sure what you mean by this comment?

beats · June 7, 2022 12:42AM

crowley said:

Beats said:

edred said:

Resident Evil Village and No Man’s Sky is a decent start but not nearly enough.

Yeah I didn’t even count No Man’s Sky because it’s a good powerful game but not a really popular one like Resident Evil. Gamers aren’t gonna sell their PS5 and throw their Windows virus machines for either game on Mac.

Now if No Man’s Sky was exclusive that would have been something.

crowley said:

Write it again.

What crappy old iOS game are you referring to?
Why are you only talking about one big game being announced when two were?

I said “compared to”. Usually Apple shows old iOS games on new hardware.

They actually DID show a game announced in 2017 for the A10 processor today. Did you miss it?

What are you talking about?

Why are you "comparing" to "some crappy old iOS game" at all if you don't have anything specific in mind? When have Apple ever shone a light on a "crappy old iOS game" running on a Mac? It's usually Tomb Raider that they show, which isn't on iOS. Where's the connection?

And No Man's Sky has had success comparable to Resident Evil Village. They're both multi-million unit sellers.

I don't recall seeing another game. Why don't you name it instead of writing riddles?

You don’t deserve to be spoon-fed but there was a very old and outdated iOS game shown off as they talked about gaming power. In usual Apple event style.

I was surprised they didn’t show off Real Racing 3 again almost a decade later.

Apple's Metal 3 key to 'No Man's Sky' and 'Resident Evil: Villages' coming to Mac

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