For the last couple years, I've been experimenting off-and-on with finally making the leap from Windows to Mac full-time, trying to use my Intel i7-based MacBook Pro as a daily driver.
As my annoyances with Windows continue and computing needs change, and especially after switching back to an iPhone, I've decided I'm ready to take the leap. I intend to pick up a Mac mini M4 Pro once my tax refund hits (and a big raise at work, woohoo!). I don't do much PC gaming these days besides Trainz, and older console emulators that even the base M4 Mini seems to be a beast at. Most of those PC games I still have kicking around in my Steam library either have Mac native versions, or seem to play nicely in Crossover, so I'm not too worried about those. M4 Pro may be a little overkill for my needs, but I value longevity and a high performance ceiling.
So here's where things get weird: I've tried the Mac version of Trainz on my MBP and found myself slightly disappointed with the lack of such features as TurfFX, and while it doesn't really apply to my x86 MPB, AFAIK there is not a native Apple Silicon version, requiring the game to be played through Rosetta (an x86 compatibility layer built into MacOS), which comes with a slight performance hit. There's also the fact that I have over 500 GB of content I've built up over the last 10 years or so. Transferring all this content would be a massive undertaking (not to mention, needing to purchase some extra storage). Oh, and my PC has decided it now won't recognize any external storage devices plugged into any port, though peripherals mostly work, so make that "impossible". Oh Windows...
Doing a bit of poking around on the ol' interwebz and Reddit threads, it appears that streaming games from a Windows PC is a popular alternative to compatibility layers like Crossover, Wine, Proton, etc., for playing Windows games on Mac. Steam has this capability built-in (I've found it's a bit flaky, even on Steam games), as well as apps such as Moonlight.
I did attempt to stream my non-Steam installation of TRS22 from my Windows PC to my MacBook over Steam, and could not get into the game. As soon as I hit "Start Trainz" on the launcher window, the stream would end. Seems it tries to stream the launcher rather than the game itself, which would also make Content Manager and even the settings inaccessible. I have not yet attempted Moonlight, though I expect a similar result.
My end goal is to turn my existing Windows PC into a "headless" game server to stream games that don't have native Mac versions (or don't work in Crossover), so I don't have to have two separate setups (at least my monitor has multiple inputs). But my research so far seems to show that this may be impossible with Trainz. And while Crossover is an option, it seems TRS22 hasn't been officially tested for it yet, and then there's still the issue of transferring content.
Remote access apps like TeamViewer appear to have a considerable amount of latency and input lag, so while that may work to access things like CM, it would make the game itself unplayable.
I am aware this is getting pretty niche, but has anyone tried such a thing? Either streaming Trainz from a Windows PC to a Mac, or installing the Windows version of TRS22 on a Mac? I think the answer is ultimately going to be keeping my PC hooked up and switching monitor inputs when I want to run Trainz, but I thought I'd try.
As my annoyances with Windows continue and computing needs change, and especially after switching back to an iPhone, I've decided I'm ready to take the leap. I intend to pick up a Mac mini M4 Pro once my tax refund hits (and a big raise at work, woohoo!). I don't do much PC gaming these days besides Trainz, and older console emulators that even the base M4 Mini seems to be a beast at. Most of those PC games I still have kicking around in my Steam library either have Mac native versions, or seem to play nicely in Crossover, so I'm not too worried about those. M4 Pro may be a little overkill for my needs, but I value longevity and a high performance ceiling.
So here's where things get weird: I've tried the Mac version of Trainz on my MBP and found myself slightly disappointed with the lack of such features as TurfFX, and while it doesn't really apply to my x86 MPB, AFAIK there is not a native Apple Silicon version, requiring the game to be played through Rosetta (an x86 compatibility layer built into MacOS), which comes with a slight performance hit. There's also the fact that I have over 500 GB of content I've built up over the last 10 years or so. Transferring all this content would be a massive undertaking (not to mention, needing to purchase some extra storage). Oh, and my PC has decided it now won't recognize any external storage devices plugged into any port, though peripherals mostly work, so make that "impossible". Oh Windows...
Doing a bit of poking around on the ol' interwebz and Reddit threads, it appears that streaming games from a Windows PC is a popular alternative to compatibility layers like Crossover, Wine, Proton, etc., for playing Windows games on Mac. Steam has this capability built-in (I've found it's a bit flaky, even on Steam games), as well as apps such as Moonlight.
I did attempt to stream my non-Steam installation of TRS22 from my Windows PC to my MacBook over Steam, and could not get into the game. As soon as I hit "Start Trainz" on the launcher window, the stream would end. Seems it tries to stream the launcher rather than the game itself, which would also make Content Manager and even the settings inaccessible. I have not yet attempted Moonlight, though I expect a similar result.
My end goal is to turn my existing Windows PC into a "headless" game server to stream games that don't have native Mac versions (or don't work in Crossover), so I don't have to have two separate setups (at least my monitor has multiple inputs). But my research so far seems to show that this may be impossible with Trainz. And while Crossover is an option, it seems TRS22 hasn't been officially tested for it yet, and then there's still the issue of transferring content.
Remote access apps like TeamViewer appear to have a considerable amount of latency and input lag, so while that may work to access things like CM, it would make the game itself unplayable.
I am aware this is getting pretty niche, but has anyone tried such a thing? Either streaming Trainz from a Windows PC to a Mac, or installing the Windows version of TRS22 on a Mac? I think the answer is ultimately going to be keeping my PC hooked up and switching monitor inputs when I want to run Trainz, but I thought I'd try.
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