Can I transfer game from Mac to Windows?

[behelit 1]

im currently playing on mac but would like to move to windows later.  can i transfer my save game from mac to windows?

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

Since you say currently, can we assume you have the latest version of the game for the Mac? (Ergo, the 64 bit one.)

If so, then no because your save files are 64 bit encoded and the Windoze version still uses 32 bit. OTOH, if you are playing with the older Mac version of the game, then yes those are 32 bit saves and would work across platforms.

[behelit 1]

3 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

Since you say currently, can we assume you have the latest version of the game for the Mac? (Ergo, the 64 bit one.)

If so, then no because your save files are 64 bit encoded and the Windoze version still uses 32 bit. OTOH, if you are playing with the older Mac version of the game, then yes those are 32 bit saves and would work across platforms.

ah ic ty

[HayleyRenaNemeth 465]

On 1/7/2022 at 5:20 PM, CorinaMarie said:

Since you say currently, can we assume you have the latest version of the game for the Mac? (Ergo, the 64 bit one.)

If so, then no because your save files are 64 bit encoded and the Windoze version still uses 32 bit. OTOH, if you are playing with the older Mac version of the game, then yes those are 32 bit saves and would work across platforms.

but wait what about taking the old 32 bit files from an older version of macOS to a version of macOS Catalina or newer. Catalina dropped support for 32 bit applications does that include files that are written to be 32 bit or does the OS or the game update then. 

[rsc204 21,808]

So the general issue here is that a 64-bit application needs to work in a 64-bit address space, which is different and not backwards compatible with 32-bit apps. It can load 32-bit data, but I assume as it is loading this data, it gets transferred to the game's 64-bit formatting. Although it's not until you refresh the save data that these changes get permanently written into the save data.

Honestly, given the rather unique way SC4 stores it's save data, there probably was no other way to make this work without rebuilding everything. Even if the PC version got updated to 64-bit in future, there is no guarantee the changes would be the same as the Mac port, for example parts of how it works now may be directly influenced by things unique to the Mac Kernel/OS. Ultimately Aspyr weren't looking to make the 'best' job they could, rather to find the cheapest (quickest) way to keep the game working and making money on the AppStore.

Not to mention, presumably there will be a further update to native ARM code if they plan to keep selling SC4 for Mac. I'd give it at most another 2 or 3 MacOS releases before Intel based Macs are no longer supported, Apple aren't a company that focuses heavily on past standards. Anyone who bought an Intel Mac in the last few years is going to be very annoyed no doubt, but why continue supporting legacy x64 CPUs and Rosetta II? If the transition from PowerPC to Intel is any guide, Rosetta II won't be with us all that long.