CrossOver Support - Community Forums

Steam is adding HW acceleration to its Mac client. Let's see if they'll make it native AS too. I assume this will work without any problems in Crossover?

"The technical work in this update also makes it possible to enable hardware acceleration for the Mac & Linux versions of Steam, bringing them up to par with Windows. You should see snappier animations, scrolling and more responsive UI. Linux users can try the new client out today! For Mac users, you will have to wait a couple weeks as we are hard at work getting the client ready for public testing."

I wish we could safely assume that major app updates will just work seamlessly with CrossOver...but sadly that often isn't the case.

The changes in the Windows Steam client beta require some tweaks on our end to play nice with CrossOver. We are working on fixes, but advise folks to stay away from the beta for now.

Best,
Meredith

I don't use Steam but I understand it is one of the larger game distribution/end-user game-management services. So I'm the odd one here, I suppose. I keep reading about problems with the "Steam client" and wonder if it's necessary.

Is it possible to run games purchased from Steam without using the "Steam client" to do so? I have a couple of games which I purchased through GOG. GOG has a "GOG client" application (both a Mac and Windows version) which I have never installed, I just run the games directly the way god – er, I mean, the developers – intended. I don't need the "GOG client" to install games I purchase through GOG, either.

Maybe Steam adds some DRM or otherwise requires games purchased from them to be run through their client application. But maybe not. Have you tried looking for the game's own application (probably buried somewhere in a "Steam" folder in your bottle) and running that directly?

John M. Hammer wrote:

I don't use Steam but I understand it is one of the larger game distribution/end-user game-management services. So I'm the odd one here, I suppose. I keep reading about problems with the "Steam client" and wonder if it's necessary.

Is it possible to run games purchased from Steam without using the "Steam client" to do so? I have a couple of games which I purchased through GOG. GOG has a "GOG client" application (both a Mac and Windows version) which I have never installed, I just run the games directly the way god – er, I mean, the developers – intended. I don't need the "GOG client" to install games I purchase through GOG, either.

Maybe Steam adds some DRM or otherwise requires games purchased from them to be run through their client application. But maybe not. Have you tried looking for the game's own application (probably buried somewhere in a "Steam" folder in your bottle) and running that directly?

Steam is basically a web browser but is needed for DRM authentication. Even if you launch the game app directly from your drive Steam will launch. In that case the web browser won't launch but the Steam app will be running in the background. You can close it and keep playing but you always need it for launch. GOG is DRM-free so you don't need the client for launching the games. Steam has crossplay though so you always have both the Mac and PC version to choose from.