7 ms·

I was a little surprised that they actually released an Apple Silicon version for it just a few months ago (https://support.aspyr.com/hc/en-us/articles/12168615

I was a little surprised that they actually released an Apple Silicon version for it just a few months ago (https://support.aspyr.com/hc/en-us/articles/12168615035405-How-to-access-the-Apple-Silicon-update-on-Mac-Steam-SimCity-4-Deluxe-Edition https://support.aspyr.com/hc/en-us/articles/12168615035405-H...) in spite of its age.

Rury 3y ago
I think that's because surprisingly, it's still a marketable/profitable game. If only it weren't, then maybe it would eventually be open sourced. Only flaw I find is that due to it's age, it wasn't really designed with maximum concurrency in mind, and doesn't utilize the full capabilities of modern hardware, so the simulation slows to a crawl after a certain size.
- bombcar 3y ago
  It's even more amazing because EA didn't do the port, Aspyr did, and they're still around to do an Apple Silicon port. I wonder how it affects mods, I might have to dive back in ... I also note it's on the Mac App Store so that's probably why they're upgrading it. Still, worth the buy at Steam for $2.
- speeder 3y ago
  The game actually does support decent threading, but it relies on old RDTSC behavior and will crash on modern CPUs if you allow all the threading to run. I nagged EA a lot to Open Source SC4 or allow fans to fix bugs on Windows version, but they are stubborn :( The Mac version is published by Aspyr that has rights to the source and to release updates. For example the Mac version is 64bit now. Windows version is 32bit thus heavily limited regarding mods.
  - mhh__ 3y ago
    Similar with the Sims 3, the Mac version is 64 bit the windows version is not and thus becomes unplayable after a given length of savefile.
  - scrlk 3y ago
    I'm hoping someone will consider starting an "OpenSC4" project, in the same tradition as OpenTTD or OpenRCT2.
    - speeder 3y ago
      There is such a project, but sadly I am not involved with it right now because I am spending all my time trying to get a new job.
harha 3y ago
Would be nice if they’d do the same for civ 6 - it’s burning hot on my MacBook (not sure it would solve the issue but worth a try)
- izacus 3y ago
  It wouldn't.
  - bleep_bloop 3y ago
    The minimum requirements for Civ 6 are far below the capability of the M1 series macbooks so I don't know why you'd think so.
    - izacus 3y ago
      Because that's not how games work - they don't run "at minimum capabilities" and they run their game loop constantly, rendering graphics. This means that it will almost certanly saturate at least M1s GPU and probably at least one of P cores. At that stage, even the M1 starts drawing a lot of power which needs disspiation. Also Civ 6s target GPU is much faster than any of the M1s (which, despite the marketing, are still mobile CPU/GPU SoCs, not high clocked 100W+ TDP desktop CPUs with a separate 100W+ TDP GPU) so you won't see it use less than maximum what GPU (and CPU) can handle. Don't mix performance profiles of games with performance profiles of bursty desktop browser software running Electron.
      - harha 3y ago
        Curious to learn more here: everyone was praising the M1 so much, but here’s a case that based on this wouldn’t fit the bill. also how high do you think the penalty for running an intel binary is?
        aeonik 3y ago
        Not the GP, but Civ is CPU bottlenecked. I don't know how their code is written under the hood, but games slow down as you get farther in the game. If you play too many turns the game can take minutes to process a single turn. I can saturate all my 16 cores, on my workstation, the only result is that the turns are processed faster. When you play multiplayer, everyone is going to be pinned to the slowest person in the lobby.

Rury 3y ago

I think that's because surprisingly, it's still a marketable/profitable game. If only it weren't, then maybe it would eventually be open sourced. Only flaw I find is that due to it's age, it wasn't really designed with maximum concurrency in mind, and doesn't utilize the full capabilities of modern hardware, so the simulation slows to a crawl after a certain size.

bombcar 3y ago
It's even more amazing because EA didn't do the port, Aspyr did, and they're still around to do an Apple Silicon port. I wonder how it affects mods, I might have to dive back in ... I also note it's on the Mac App Store so that's probably why they're upgrading it. Still, worth the buy at Steam for $2.
speeder 3y ago
The game actually does support decent threading, but it relies on old RDTSC behavior and will crash on modern CPUs if you allow all the threading to run. I nagged EA a lot to Open Source SC4 or allow fans to fix bugs on Windows version, but they are stubborn :( The Mac version is published by Aspyr that has rights to the source and to release updates. For example the Mac version is 64bit now. Windows version is 32bit thus heavily limited regarding mods.
- mhh__ 3y ago
  Similar with the Sims 3, the Mac version is 64 bit the windows version is not and thus becomes unplayable after a given length of savefile.
- scrlk 3y ago
  I'm hoping someone will consider starting an "OpenSC4" project, in the same tradition as OpenTTD or OpenRCT2.
  - speeder 3y ago
    There is such a project, but sadly I am not involved with it right now because I am spending all my time trying to get a new job.

harha 3y ago

Would be nice if they’d do the same for civ 6 - it’s burning hot on my MacBook (not sure it would solve the issue but worth a try)

izacus 3y ago
It wouldn't.
- bleep_bloop 3y ago
  The minimum requirements for Civ 6 are far below the capability of the M1 series macbooks so I don't know why you'd think so.
  - izacus 3y ago
    Because that's not how games work - they don't run "at minimum capabilities" and they run their game loop constantly, rendering graphics. This means that it will almost certanly saturate at least M1s GPU and probably at least one of P cores. At that stage, even the M1 starts drawing a lot of power which needs disspiation. Also Civ 6s target GPU is much faster than any of the M1s (which, despite the marketing, are still mobile CPU/GPU SoCs, not high clocked 100W+ TDP desktop CPUs with a separate 100W+ TDP GPU) so you won't see it use less than maximum what GPU (and CPU) can handle. Don't mix performance profiles of games with performance profiles of bursty desktop browser software running Electron.
    - harha 3y ago
      Curious to learn more here: everyone was praising the M1 so much, but here’s a case that based on this wouldn’t fit the bill. also how high do you think the penalty for running an intel binary is?
      - aeonik 3y ago
        Not the GP, but Civ is CPU bottlenecked. I don't know how their code is written under the hood, but games slow down as you get farther in the game. If you play too many turns the game can take minutes to process a single turn. I can saturate all my 16 cores, on my workstation, the only result is that the turns are processed faster. When you play multiplayer, everyone is going to be pinned to the slowest person in the lobby.