Stride: Feature request: Add MacOS support

[aaronfranke]

There's already a few issues open about Linux support, so I thought I'd open one for Mac. I don't personally use Mac, I use Linux and Windows, but I'd still like to be able to export games to MacOS. As far as I can tell, this can be divided into 4 parts:

• [x] Finish and polish existing Linux support first, to make sure it runs well on Unix-like systems.
• [x] Allow exporting games to MacOS from the Windows and Linux editors.
• [x] Implement Metal support via the MoltenVK wrapper for Vulkan.
• [ ] Allow building and running the GameStudio on MacOS.

I'd suggest voting via :+1: if you desire full Mac support. I'd personally only need the first two items.

[xen2]

I would go directly for Metal (either by MoltenVK or native implementation) and not even bother with OpenGL.

OpenGL on mac is deprecated. When we tried to do the port we ran into many issues due to shader compilation bugs or missing features.

[aaronfranke]

Sounds good, assuming that's the best option. I assumed it would be easier to do Mac OpenGL as a stepping stone to Mac Metal/MoltenVK.

[SurenaSKQ]

Editor (gamestudio) is too hard to port right now (see the issue on github) but support for exporting to Mac shouldn't be that hard to add, assuming there are people with Macs to test and develop it.

[phr00t]

I was all ready to switch to Xenko... until I realized it didn't support exporting to Macs. I don't particularly care about using the GameStudio on a Mac... but I don't want to start a project knowing Mac users will have to be excluded from playing it.

[phr00t]

I've made a branch where I'll try and find time to make progress on this: https://github.com/phr00t/xenko

[xen2]

Quick update, after checking MoltenVK, I retract my comment to go for Metal directly (at least for the time being).
My main concern was the extra step converting shader but it seems MoltenVK has support for prebuilding macOS version at build time too.

Let's just leverage on our Vulkan port, should make it much easier.

[xen2]

Oups, reread my comment again and I was not dismissing MotenVK, so nevermind my previous comment :)

Still standing by not wasting time on OpenGL altogether, let's not spend resource on dead platforms and go straight for Vulkan+MoltenVK over Metal if everybody agrees.

[phr00t]

I agree, if I have any voting authority xD

[aaronfranke]

Agreed. Metal directly is a waste of time if you can use MoltenVK.

[phr00t]

Can this issue be closed, now that Xenko can build for MacOSX & MoltenVK is now used? It doesn't seem like anyone was requiring Mac GameStudio support in this thread (and some talked against it).

[xen2]

Yes, let's close this one. We can open new issues if there are bugs/perf issues.