Before the macOS soft-launch in early March, I tested it on the oldest MacBook I have, a MacBook Air from 2009 and it runs, but barely. Apple doesn't have any way for us to set a minimum requirement; instead they test it themselves and the App Store says whether it will work on your machine you have the App Store open on. I would definitely recommend a more current Mac-- Macs have always struggled with gaming graphics and that's still the case. Last Fall, I got the 15-inch MacBook Pro (Touch Bar and Touch ID 2.6GHz 6-Core Processor 512GB Storage) to develop VAST on wherever I go, revolutionary for my workflow. On that, VAST runs like a dream. My 5K iMac from Late 2014 fans up when playing it and struggled at 4K. The new MBP struggled a bit at 4K, so I capped VAST on Mac at 2K for now. Eventually I will take the cap off once I can add an options menu that can toggle resolutions. Testing it on Windows, VAST ran on 4K a lot more easily, so once I eventually launch it on Steam for Win/Mac (maybe within a few months), the Windows version will not have a res cap in the interim before I can get the options menu in. Over the next few years, more and more people will have more current Macs and should increasingly be able to run VAST swimmingly.
It's also worth noting that it runs perfectly on iPhone 6s and up. The touch controls feel better on the 6.5" iPhone XS Max, which I got last week to optimize the game for iPhone X's ultra-wide screens: https://www.astrogun.com/2019/03/17/vas ... -displays/ The touch controls take some getting used to, but once you do, I personally feel like they work very well. Doing an FPS on touch is definitely tricky. I will also still try to do an alternative 'Easy Touch Controls Mode' that streamlines things a lot. I had a lot of fun curling up in bed last night playing through VAST Episode 1 on the iPhone XS Max; it feels really good and looks beautiful on the ultra wide display. I think it feels better on the 6.5" touch display because there are more pixels per inch so there's finer touch tracking, which especially makes the Right Stick easier to control with flicking. NOTE: be sure to 'flick' the RS instead of push. Flicking frees the thumb up so it can do other things quickly like go between Look, Fire, Jump, or Action.
I'm thinking I might remove fall damage at some point because it always was a lot of fun to fall down great distances in Marathon, particularly the classic M2 What About Bob? level. Side note, I originally first played Marathon with M2 from a Mac Addict CD-ROM demo on my family's 68040 when I was a kid and played the three levels in that demo over and over and over, What About Bob? being probably my favorite of the demo. For VAST, the player character Enzo is a mercenary security cyborg part of the Aces High treasure hunting gang, so it would make sense that his robot legs wouldn't take fall damage, just like the cyborg in Marathon. Not having fall damage might also help VAST be more accessible to the Midcore+ audience I'm targeting.
Thanks for the notes so far! I am fortunately able to work on VAST fulltime in 2019 so I'm looking forward to adding a lot of polish features and new episodes this year! VAST will evolve over time, and everyone's feedback is highly valued. If I can't implement a change / feature right away, don't worry-- As long as it fits with the overall goals and vision, I'll add it to the list and strive to get to it as quickly as I can juggling other priorities.
Here is the link to the VAST Issues Tracker on Trello: https://trello.com/b/lOCfyhay/vast-issues-tracker
This week I'm focused on preparing the VAST Pitch Deck to present to possible investors at the Investment Summit at PAX East. https://www.astrogun.com/2019/03/15/ast ... arch-28th/ If anyone is going, let me know and maybe we can meet up on the PAX floor.
Cheers!
![[MUp]](./images/smilies/13.png "marathon")
