Mac and PC Multiplayer Matches?

[McKay]

Just wondering if players on a PC can play Empire: Total War online battles with players on a Mac.

Thanks!

[SLAMNUTS]

I dont think so, I just picked it up for MAC and I cant play multiplayer with most other people, and its says we have different versions.

[Clyde]

It's such a pity ... anyway guys, do you know if there is any kinda of group for players who have a Mac? I am looking foward to playing some online games but I do not find any :(

[76561198140997333]

Mac & PC cannot play against each other due to the design of the orignal game and how certain features work on different OSs.

[RoboRob]

Originally posted by Clyde:

It's such a pity ... anyway guys, do you know if there is any kinda of group for players who have a Mac? I am looking foward to playing some online games but I do not find any :(

I'm looking to form a friends network for Mac players. I'm pretty new to Steam so let's be friends (if you already know how send me a request or something). Thanks!

[76561198140997333]

Originally posted by RoboRob:

I'm looking to form a friends network for Mac players. I'm pretty new to Steam so let's be friends (if you already know how send me a request or something). Thanks!

There is a group we created for Mac Empire players who are looking for people to play with.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/empiretwmac

[RoboRob]

Originally posted by FERAL Edwin:

Originally posted by RoboRob:

I'm looking to form a friends network for Mac players. I'm pretty new to Steam so let's be friends (if you already know how send me a request or something). Thanks!

There is a group we created for Mac Empire players who are looking for people to play with.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/empiretwmac

Thanks!

[✵The Red Comet✵]

You can't... Me (mac) and my friend (PC) tried to play and they said that the version is different...

[RoboRob]

Originally posted by General-Sandstorm:

You can't... Me (mac) and my friend (PC) tried to play and they said that the version is different... :Dignity:

I ended up downloading Windows on my Mac.

[sr_chatto]

Oh man what a shame, I was wondering the same thing. I was hoping to be able to play with someone using a Mac. Oh well I guess I'll just have to conquer the world alone :(.

[✵The Red Comet✵]

Originally posted by RoboRob:

Originally posted by General-Sandstorm:

You can't... Me (mac) and my friend (PC) tried to play and they said that the version is different...

I ended up downloading Windows on my Mac.

Same here

[76561198140997333]

We always enable Mac vs PC multiplayer when it is technically possible however sometimes it is not possible for various reasons. In the case of Empire it proved impossible, we have two explanations for you a simple one and a more technical one.

Simple answer first. Basically the multiplayer code has some platform dependant features meaning it acts very slightly differently on different OS’s causing sync issues that cannot be resolved without redesigning how the multiplayer code works on all platforms.

More technical answer is some games multiplayer libraries were not designed for cross platform when they were initially created, multiplayer networking is a complex process with many things that need to be kept in exact and perfect sync with other players, this is done by using complex mathematical processes. When a game engine is designed to support cross platform multiplayer care is taken to make sure all of the mathematical processes are done in such a way that they don’t use any platform specific features and the maths libraries and results will always match no matter the platform the engine is built on.

In the case of Empire the game engine uses the platforms maths libraries to calculate checksums and syncing between players, this means that due to very subtle differences in various platforms maths libraries (floating point calculations specifically) playing games between different platforms will slowly go out of sync due to the small differences ending up with the players dropping out due to sync issues getting too great.

We are still investigating if Mac / Linux might be possible as part of a future update.

[Terminator]

why don't fix floating type for all platform ? or you just allowed to make changes for linux build?

** I'm watching for one OpenSource game(warzone2100) - whan devs was making cross-play they've had same problems (different packet sizes).

[Hegel]

no