Any news on a version that will run on OSX 10.11?
Maybe once 10.11 is actually released
Ah ok, I presumed that a beta of a version that ran on a beta of the new OS would be possible.
Developers were showing a demonstration of a version that was running at WWDC 2015. Is that version classed as an Alpha for internal purposes only?
I must admit I’m pretty confused about developers and the release schedules. I’d be wanting to show the Metal API in action as a matter of priority even if it was running on an early OS beta.
The beta1 version of the OS seemed to run Metal fine when you were showing off Fortnite on stage.
One last question. Why is the Kite Demo limited to the PC? I have a 2013 with 2x D700s and plenty of RAM which seems to be within your PC hardware requirements. Is there a possibility you could compile a runtime for the Mac?
Thanks,
They’re not going to release an update that supports a beta version of an OS, since the OS can change before it gets released, and few people need it anyways.
The Kite demo is not limited to PC, just the compiled version, if you want to load the project you can download it from the launcher and load it in, and make a build if you want.
Also, I don’t work for Epic, I’m just a moderator
Ah i see…
The Launcher version of the Kite Demo never gets beyond ‘Syncing’ otherwise I would compile it using that method.
Any fixes to get past that?
Thanks
Correct on all counts. Beta OS X builds can contain bugs that Apple fix before release that affect UE4, so we don’t recommend them & don’t officially support them. Also, new APIs being released in such versions of OS X tend to change & develop right up to the final release, so any preliminary support could end up broken in a following Seed/Beta. We are working on getting Mac Metal support ready for 10.11 as a matter of priority but it is a big job so we’ll release it in UE4 when it is appropriate. What was shown at WWDC was just a preview, not the final result.
I acknowledge that there would be bugs and features that are not fully working because of the OS being in a beta form. What I don’t understand is why Apple is even bothering releasing betas at all if the developers are just waiting for the full version to go live before they then start showing what there applications are capable of. The WWDC demo looked amazing, surely everyone wants to see what the performance would/could be like on there own setup.
I pretty sure you will have a version that works on OS 10.11 with Metal support, you made that public knowledge at WWDC. Would that not be classed as a beta?
Seems odd having an OS with a boasted performance increase and yet no company willing to show it functioning because they think the next iteration Apple send out will break there code.
Again, I wanted to ask why the Kite Demo is only available for the PC? I have a pretty capable Mac (Pro 2013 - 8 core - 64gb - 2x D700s) that I thought could handle pretty much anything thrown at it. Is there a technical reason why it won’t work?
I’m not trying to rile anyone with these questions. I’m just trying to understand the reasoning behind the lack of news/demos/benchmarks for 10.11/Metal because it doesn’t make sense to me so far.
The Seed builds are made available to developers by Apple to file bugs against the new OS, so that Apple can fix them before the final release of the new OS. They aren’t meant for consumption by end-users & until recently they were a very privileged, heavily NDA’d affair.
As stated the WWDC Mac Metal demo was only a preview and there is much more work to be done before we release it.
If we release a build with support then we are committed to supporting it even when a new Seed build comes along and introduces a breaking change, meaning a build that works on Seed 2 might not even launch on Seed 3. Working around these problems and maintaining compatibility across different Seed releases of OS X is not a good use of our development time.
Required rendering features aren’t supported by the 4.8 Mac/OpenGL renderer, consequently a binary release is not available. This may change in the future.
It is quite simple - we aren’t ready to release our work-in-progress on Metal on a beta OS. We want to complete our work and show it in the best possible light on the finished version of El Capitan.
Seperate from the whole Metal discussion. If the UE4 editor does not even launch in the OSX 10.11 beta build… Is that not a concern for Epic and something that needs too be addressed? Surly that is the purpose of the OSX beta release? (So Epic can confirm that their software runs correctly on the upcoming OS?)
The purpose of the beta release is so that people who are interested in the new version of OSX can test it out, much like how Windows 10 has been available for testing. They can always work behind the scenes to add support for a new version of an OS, and they likely do even when there isn’t a public beta available, but they aren’t going to officially support stuff like that until it’s final.
As an indie developer I use the beta builds of Windows 10 and OSX 10.11 to confirm that my “App” will be ready and working on launch day of said operating systems. (Possibly taking advantage of new opportunities… DirectX 12 or Metal of those operating systems.) This would not be possible if my development tools did not even launch on those operating systems. As a indie developer switching from Unity3D to UE4 your comments are very troubling to me. Would a compatible UE4 version be ready/available on launch day of WIN10 and OS 10.11 or “shortly there after”?
UE4 already works on Windows 10 because they haven’t done anything significant that prevents it from working. As a developer it’s not worth the trouble to develop for a Beta OS when an update could make it stop working again, few people need the engine while the OS is in Beta, so it’s best to update the engine to support the new version of the OS once there aren’t going to be any more changes that could make it stop working.
I think we’ll agree to disagree on this one? Even Epic itself uses the beta version of OSX 10.11 to have Metal ready for market?
Anyway can you confirm that UE4 will work on launch day of OSX 10.11?
If you read the post above from an Epic employee, the support for Metal was not complete OSX 10.11 support is a lot of work for them to do, so they have a lot of work to get it compatible and don’t want to waste time when it’s still in beta.
It’s unlikely that UE4 will support OSX 10.11 the day that it launches, given that the updates to UE4 don’t line up with those types of releases, for example Windows 10 launches this week, but it will be a while still before we get UE4 4.9
Though given how many people update OSX when a new version is out, they may prioritize having support available if UE4 doesn’t work on it at all.