Mac and PC Games: Cross Save and Cross Achievements

[Fragmintz]

n00B question here: I've been gaming on Steam for more than 7-years now, on and off. Until recently I mainly focused on console gaming until I realized that a Windows 7 build on my iMac kicked even my PS4s a**.

Here's what I want to know: if I have a game that plays on PC and Mac, like Borderlands 2 or the Batman Arkham series, are there separate Steam Achievements for each OS? Also, how can I have my saves carry over so that if I play on OSX or Windows 7 I can always pick up in the same spot?

[MainframeMouse]

I don't think there are os specific achievements. As for cloud game saves i'm not sure. It might be game dependent. I'll trstvwith some win/linux games.

[celsius]

Achievement are the same but Is complicate depends of the game engine.
For example: Nihilumbra.

Nihilumbra don't support cross-save between Linux/Windows.
And the achievement are bugged in Linux 64bits but works in 32bits.

[Red Panda]

Having saves work across multiple platforms is a feature that the developer of each game needs to manually write. Some engines already support it. You would need to directly contact the company who made the game to request something like that. If the developers were smart enough to design a cross-platform title, it will not be difficult for them to get the saves working.

Please stop saying PC. It's an acronym for "personal computer" and has never represented anything else, ever. Every time you say PC in reference to a computer booting a non-server Windows operating system, a Microsoft shareholder is lighting a cigar with a flaming $100 bill and laughing because they know that the intellectual genocide of the customer base is already in full swing and continues to grow daily.

[MainframeMouse]

Shadowrun saves happily jumps between a Non-PC PC( Non Politically Correct Personal Computer) AKA Windoze and Linux.

I need to look at why it runs like a dog under linux though.

Joseph,I know where your are comming from though technically a MAC is a PC too. Heck even when it used RISC processors it was still a personal computer. But now the main difference is the Price and the OS.

[Fragmintz]

Originally posted by Joseph:

Please stop saying PC. It's an acronym for "personal computer" and has never represented anything else, ever. Every time you say PC in reference to a computer booting a non-server Windows operating system, a Microsoft shareholder is lighting a cigar with a flaming $100 bill and laughing because they know that the intellectual genocide of the customer base is already in full swing and continues to grow daily.

LOL - so what do I call my iMac running Windows 7 to distinguish it between my playing on OSX?

[MainframeMouse]

Abomination, chimera, GateJob?

[8BitCerberus]

Originally posted by Fragmintz:

LOL - so what do I call my iMac running Windows 7 to distinguish it between my playing on OSX?

I dunno, that's a tough one... I mean, OS X, Windows... yeah I see the similarities in the names. I can see why one might get confused.

As for cross platform saves, some games it does work with. I know my Portal 2 saves transferred between PS3, OS X, and Windows. The beta build on Linux, however, doesn't appear to bring them over (ie: I can't continue where I left off last, but it does see that I've completed the game so I can start a new game and load any chapter). I'm not sure if that's only for the beta or if that's something they aren't going to be able to implement for some reason in the final build. Save file formats should be the same, regardless of platform. The only reason saves should ever have a problem is if the version numbers of the game don't match between platforms.

Borderlands 2 saves also transfer between OS X and Windows, but only when the game client is the same version. Which is less a problem now, but when it first came out the OS X version was often 1 - 2 version updates behind the Windows version because the port wasn't done in-house at Gearbox, and instead was done through a 3rd party, Aspyr. Aspyr had to take the build that Gearbox finished and released to Steam for Windows, and then port it to OS X which could take several days to a couple of weeks before they could get a build out to Steam on OS X, a delay in which Gearbox may have already released another build or two, which Aspyr would then have to take and start the process of porting again.

Bioshock Infinite, however, was having none of the OS X / Windows cross-save compatibility.

Most of the indie games I have, for whatever reason don't do the cross-platform save transfers. They all support SteamCloud, game client updates are all released near simultaneously, but I can't start a game on Windows and then boot my Steam Machine to continue it, or boot my Mac Pro and continue it. It makes no sense. I tend to now have to decide which OS to start on, because that's the OS I'll be sticking with throughout the game. Occasionally I'll re-start on another OS if I'm not too far into the game, though.