Just two months ago, independent game developer CCP Games announced the available of its MMOG (massively multiplayer online game) Eve Online to the Mac and Linux platforms. For those not familiar with it, CCP describes the futuristic Eve Online as “a breathtaking journey to the stars, to an immersive experience filled with adventure, riches, danger and glory. Supported by a vast player-run economy, EVE offers professions to choose ranging from commodities trader to mercenary, industrial entrepreneur to pirate, mining engineer to battle fleet commander or any combination of these and much more.”

The porting of Eve Online to Mac and Linux is certainly a welcomed achievement, the lack of games available for the Mac and Linux platforms has long been an issue for users of both operating systems. I took advantage of the Macworld occasion to ask Eve Online’s Associate Producer, Arend Stührmann, a couple questions:

Tom’sGuide: What has the response been thus far to adding Mac support to Eve Online?

Arend: ”The response to the launch of the Mac client in November has been extremely positive and we are seeing steady growth in the number of players using it. Since the release of EVE Online in 2003, many people have asked us about making it available for the Mac and we are happy to now be able to fulfill this request. The feedback we’re receiving from the Mac EVE Online community is great and is already helping us make it even better and, in fact, the Windows client as well in some cases as both game clients share the same core code.”

Tom’sGuide: What challenges are you still facing on the Mac platform, and what changes are planned for the future?

Arend: ”We want to enable compatibility for the premium graphics content that was introduced in our most recent expansion, EVE Online: Trinity, so EVE can shine in all its glory on the Mac platforms. Our graphics developers are working closely with TransGaming to have it available within the next few months. We are also working with Apple, NVIDIA and ATI as well as TransGaming to improve the performance and stability of the EVE Online client for the Mac in general.”

The “TransGaming” that Arend referred to is a company that specializes in porting games to the Mac and Linux platforms. Its gaming engine, Cider for Apple, enables Windows games to be played on Intel Macs by loading the original Windows code and linking it to an optimized version of the Win32 API (Application Programming Interface). Games are then wrapped in the Cider engine, enabling them to run on Mac OS X. This all sounds particularly optimistic. Not only are CCP and its partner TransGaming involved in the process, but key GPU players nVidia and ATI are as well. Perhaps most important, Apple is also offering its cooperation.

I want to briefly make note of a piece of software that I’ve found particularly useful when running graphics intensive applications on my Mac: smcFanControl. iMacs, and notebooks as well, usually don’t offer good heat ventilation. The smcFanControl app enables increasing the speed of your internal fans, without permitting you to accidentally lower their speed below Apple’s specs. The software is open source and the author accepts Pay Pal donations.

You can read more about CCP Games and Eve Online at www.ccpgames.com and www.eve-online.com. You can learn more about TransGaming’s Cider for Apple at http://www.transgaming.com/products/cider/. And, you can find out about the smcFanControl at http://homepage.mac.com/holtmann/eidac/index.html