Wuthering Waves for Mac is available

 If you've been watching my blog, you've seen that I've played Honkai: Star Rail, Genshin Impact, Seven Knights 2, and Solo Leveling: Arise on the computer (and on phone occasionally), plus a number of handheld-only games.

I saw that Wuthering Waves was available for Mac and I want more games on Macs, as Windows seems to be going in the wrong direction again, for me.

I'm a bit less enthusiastic about buying from the Mac App Store instead of Steam.  I'd rather have my games available on every platform, including Mac, Windows, and Steam Deck/Linux.  Occasionally, something I bought on Steam will suddenly have a Mac version, but that is happening slowly.

 My M1 MacBook Air (from 2020) has 8 graphics cores, so it's decent for what it is, but hardly great.  I ran Resident Evil 7 on it and it was smooth but not great.  It's the same with Death Stranding and Divinity-Original Sin 2 and others.  Baldur's Gate 3's minimum requirements are much higher than my machine has,  so I haven't bothered.

In any case, I recently changed phones, so I updated my Mac and my watch to the latest operating systems to match.  Performance is down.

 Regardless, Wuthering Waves seems to be very close to Genshin Impact, Solo Leveling: Arise, and Honkai: Star Rail with some changes.

This feels like a combination of the other three.  It's an open world-type of game, so it's like Genshin Impact, but it occasionally requires testing to ascend, which makes it similar to Honkai: Star Rail.

As with Genshin Impact, I've gone all over to activate the various devices for Fast Travel.  This makes certain that I can go quickly and heal quickly, when necessary.  Unlike Genshin Impact, there are more than a few of these devices.  Additionally, some of the devices can add to the maps on your Terminal, i.e., your communications device.

After about a week, I'm at Union level 31 and my main character, Rover is at level 54, on the way to level 60.  As well, his weapon, Red Spring is at level 50.

 I've got ten other Resonators.  I started with Baizhi, Yangyang, and Chixia.  Since the start, I've got Verina, Lingyang, Yuanwu, Sanhua, Youhu (who comes in Convene regularly), Taoqi, and Calcharo.  Going through the first set of acts, I've seen most of the characters appear.  Are three 5-star characters good?  Calcharo happens to have great abilities, while the other two are like 4-star characters.

It's important to keep on top of achievements in Maps, Pioneer Podcast, Guidebook, Trophies, Data Bank, and even Store and Quests.

There is a lot of climbing and just like Genshin Impact, the characters will climb when you're not wanting that to happen.  There is a lot of fighting, also, as with any gacha game.

The characters speak good Japanese.

I haven't spent any money on the game.  I'm not even sure what I'd buy, if I felt the need.

 Obviously, at Union level 31, I'm making some progress.  Some of it is easy, but there are difficult tasks and I've had to go through some of them three times.  However, compared to Genshin Impact, it feels so much less difficult.  I was at AR 43 when I de-installed that game and I never felt as though I was making progress.  I never got to the point where I had access to Inazuma.  In WuWa, I haven't made it too far outside JinZhou, except for Mt. Firmament, which I'm trying to solve now.

Update 2025.04.17: This morning, I hit Union Level 40, so I did the ascension test and finished it first time with Rover (Spectro), Baizhi, and Calcharo. Now, my main character can go to level 70.  As well, I completed the ascension on his weapon and that can go to level 70. That's decent progress for a few weeks' time.

Update 2025.04.27: Got to Union Level 45 today.  I guess the training wheels are being removed now.  Two days later, the new (1st anniversary) version will arrive.  Working on the weapons and finishing some quests, so I'm feeling a bit more prepared for what will happen.  I'm still struggling with main quests.  As well, a few confrontations seem to be far above my level, requiring characters at level 90 or higher, rather than my level 70. 

Update 2025.04.29: The anniversary update is complete.  The "Cubie" rubbish isn't endearing to me.  Who would allow them to spend money on that, instead of a proper update?

I suppose I should try to embrace the ridiculousness and try to win some stuff. 

Update 2025.05.01: I embraced the ridiculousness.  I got through level 5 and then, it wanted me to finish two Main Quests that I can't finish with level 70 characters and level 70 weapons.

Update 2025.05.07: Finally at Union  level 50, which means my maximum character level is 80.  The unfortunate part of this is that the opponents have automatically had their levels raised, even in Simulation Training.  Maybe, if there are four or five characters at level 80, I can finally finish  a couple of Main Quests.  I was stuck on the Vault and got partway through the Black Shores tower, but couldn't finish the second tower. 

Update 2025.05.14: At Union level 52, I'm struggling.  Calcharo and Rover (Spectro) are at level 80 and have 5-star weapons at level 80, but I can't get Baizhi ascended.  I'm working on my two Havoc-oriented characters, Taoqi and Danjin, but getting them to level 80 and their weapons will take time.  I've only used Danjin in a limited number of battles and I've yet to have Taoqi to the level of the other main characters I've been using.

Update 2025.05.16: Baizhi is at level 80 and so is her weapon.  Got Danjin ascended, so I need to get her to level 80.  She'll be helpful in the Main Quests. Once I got to Union Level 53, it feels as though things became more even.  Certainly, having three characters at level 80 has helped.  Looking forward to see what other areas there are to visit.

Update 2025.05.22: I kept seeing some items for the anniversary that were locked up for 30 days.  Today, they were unlocked and I used the Convene tokens and got Ciaccona, as well as another Danjin.  That brings my total to 4 5-star characters.  Getting Ciacconna up to level 80 will take a while, but doesn't everything? 

 

Update 2025.06.17: Got past the level 60 ascension test.  I don't know if it will help anyone else, but you can see the helpers the characters consumed to be strong enough.

Once through the test, I happened to have enough to bring Rover up to level 86 right away.  I've been working on upgrading the skills for the last week or so because my characters weren't strong enough with level 4 skills.  I'm hoping that quite a few quests can be completed once everyone is at level 90.  I need to move Ciaccona past level 50 at this point.  Calcharo is the only 5-star character I have that is at level 80. 

Update 2025.06.21: Still working on Resonator resources to Ascend Baizhi and Calcharo past level 80.  Handling Calamity Class creatures is interesting with Rover at level 90 and the other two at level 80.  Supplies help, but luck is important and timing is everything.

Getting the other 5-star characters up to level 90 is difficult.  Working on the 4-star characters to get the resources to level up the 5-star characters.  When raising skill levels, I found that I need a third item and that you can only gather those (through battle) a limited number of times per week. 

Update 2025.10.09: The version 2.7 update was claiming that it needed 40.8 GB of storage in order to update.  I had around 144 GB free.  It wasn't enough.  I got it to 159 GB free and that wasn't enough.  I removed most every game and creative applications.  I got it to 349 GB and after the update, I'm back to 149 GB. 200 GB for an update?  Wow! 

Update 2025.12.14: Still going but I cannot seem to get the 5-stars up past level 80.  If I could even get Linyang and Verina up to level 90, I might have a chance to move the more impressive 5-star characters up a few levels. 

Update 2026.01.13: I've been trying the new areas added in version 3.0.  Daily Tasks are still set in the original areas.  I thought that they might reach out a bit, but perhaps, I need to finish a main task or three.

I've been concentrating more on Where Winds Meet and Solo Leveling: Arise and I've set the main interface in that one to Korean, along with the voices, since I'm learning Korean.  I don't want to be bored, do I? 

 

Update 2026.02.04: Version 3.1 is ready.  It claimed that it needed about 80 GB when I had around 250 GB free.  Perhaps, it should mention all of the extra bits and bytes.  Until I had about 100 GB extra was it happy.  At some point, I will have Wuthering Waves on my Mac and there won't be room for operating system updates.  I'm still on macOS 15.7.3, so I shudder to think about the requirements for 26.3, which should be out in a week or so.  Apple has been withholding updates for whatever reason, to get me to 26.x on iPhone, Mac, and Watch.

 The new version of WuWa doesn't look much different.  The update came with some goodies.  Hope they're good for you.  

Update 2026.04.30: WuWa has been updated again and it seems that they looked into the way it ran because it feels more responsive.  I used to struggle with which part of the buttons were active, and that's been corrected.  It feels like a fresh game. 

I'm really beginning to hate Apple and their Mac App Store

I've been an Apple Macintosh user since 1993.  I'd been using various Atari computers and played with a IBM L40SX laptop computer for about two years when the PS/2 mouse port died.  At that point, the US$6000 laptop computer that I bought for roughly $1500 was too expensive to repair and the contract required a solution.  They gave me $1000 and asked me to give them the computer.  I agreed.  Windows 3.1 had been a royal pain and DOS, more of a pain.

I eagerly went to OfficeMax and bought a Mac Performa something or other.  In any case, it's been a long time and several machines.

Before the PowerPC years, they were stuck because Motorola couldn't deliver a more powerful processor than the 68040.  The System 7 operating system because Mac OS 8 after they couldn't figure out what they were doing and scrapped the real Mac OS 8.  Mac OS 8.5 was a substantial difference, as were 9.0, 9.1, and 9.2.  Unfortunately, the MultiFinder architecture for cooperative multi-tasking was ancient.  Steve Jobs' return with NeXTStep made a difference.  Thanks go to Ellen Hancock.

It has been a horribly bumpy road and as Mac OS X hit 10.3.4, it became good enough to forget dual-booting into Mac OS 9.2.2 forever.  Unfortunately, 10.4.10 was probably the last full quality release.  Sadly, Windows of the time wasn't good and Linux was only usable by people who enjoyed frustration.

As of Mac OS X 10.7, Apple started to bring the frustration and Windows 7 started to bring ease-of-use.  The whole Mac App Store and downloading the operating system was messed up and still is.  It's amazing how I can download system software smoothly but the applications from the Mac App Store are usually problematic in downloads.  Apple doesn't test for real life, apparently.  When I had contacted the Mac App Store support, it was a problem with two or three applications, with other applications working fine in the downloads between the problematic ones.  I was told that whatever problems I was having was my problem, not theirs.

My latest mid-2012 MacBook Pro is working on 10.9.5, even though it started on 10.7.  It wasn't easy to get there.  I was going to drop off my machine at the Apple Store to be updated to 10.10.5 but I waited a bit too long and they removed the option.

Unfortunately, all this mess with the Mac App Store has left me in a mess that I found today.  I can't open my spreadsheet files that the current version of Numbers has been updating.  Somehow, the files were somehow upgraded to a newer version than what I have, in a failed download from the Mac App Store just after I updated to 10.9.5.

I was trying to update my spreadsheet with serial numbers.  Now, I only have a .pdf version of it.  As well, my Pages files complained but they worked.

Now, I have a machine I don't trust much.  I'm wondering if anything else has gone wrong.  Thankfully (and hopefully), I'm limited to Apple's applications and their ridiculous application store.

Given that I recently picked up a Windows 10 machine, I'm thinking that Apple could lose my business.  I'm betting that Corel wants my money for office software, as well as, creative software.  Phase One already has Windows versions and besides, the newest version for Mac doesn't run on anything but the latest 10.11.x operating system.  I think my Apple Care plan has been finished, so I don't have any easy way to upgrade the operating system.

I'm not saying that the US$750 machine could replace my US$2300 machine for speed but functionality probably isn't a problem.

I never thought that I would say that any version of Windows was smoother than Mac OS X but it's pretty much the truth.  Windows 7 proved that Microsoft could make Windows get out of the way when you just wanted to work.  It wasn't foolproof but it was much better than all of the previous versions.

Windows 10 seems to greatly improve on that.  The Windows App Store works brilliantly well.  Being able to use touch-enabled displays is interesting and it works but it doesn't seem great yet.  Folding the laptop computer into different shapes works well enough, but it doesn't automatically switch enough automagically.  They'll probably get there.  They want the desktop back.  I might be willing after all these years.

Update 2015.12.30: I was trying to download Evernote several times--at least, 6, from the Purchases pages, since it wouldn't work from the Update page and I noticed a problem with Numbers--from last year after my computer was updated to 10.9.5.  It never completed while inside of the Apple Store on their network.

Having been at the car dealership for service today, I used their network, which isn't any faster than my mobile hotspot to update everything but it worked.  I know that I shouldn't trust open networks, but it worked, rather than my safe mobile hotspot.  I can access my spreadsheets again.  Apple needs to test in real-life situations, not just the best, easiest situations.

There are several versions of the iWork applications since then, and they show up in Incompatible Updates, along with the latest version (4.0.0) of Twitter.  How is it that they could be incompatible when they shouldn't be tied so closely to the operating system?  I'm remembering how Microsoft Office was using hidden APIs to make it faster than the competition and yet, the DoJ under George W Bush ignored this kind of thing and wanted to watch their accounting practices instead.

Apple seems to be just as back-handed some days.  Why should Safari updates require a restart when Chrome and Firefox updates don't.

In any case, the road is smoother but it will become bumpy again, I'm sure.

Update 2016.01.27: Since upgrading to 10.11.3, the Mac App Store seems somewhat better.  I'll wait to see how it handles non-Apple applications before saying that it's running smoothly, but I have hopes.

Apple: revised for 2014

A few things stand out from the Apple presentation today:

• No more 15 inch MacBook Pro with the older displays
• iPad 2 continues to be sold, starting at US$399
• Mac Pro is finally being updated, starting at US$2999

Of course, the iPad mini has been revised with a 2048 by 1536 resolution at 326 pixels per inch (ppi) display.  However, the price has also been revised US$70 higher, starting at US$399.  That seems a bit much, especially when they're still selling the (electronically) ancient iPad 2 for US$399 also (and people apparently want a full-sized tablet, even with low resolution but why shouldn't the price be $299?).  They have made their money back on the iPad 2, I'm sure, so why charge so much for the iPad mini revision?  Could it be that inclusion of the A7/M7 pair has upped the cost that much, along with the higher resolution display?  Alternately, they could drop the price of the iPad 2 to US$299 but that would disrupt iPad mini sales.  It would seem rather high cost given that the 9.7 inch iPad Air has the same resolution in a less dense display.  Also, there are still reports of low yields of the higher density 7.9 (what happened to 7.875, too much precision?) inch displays.

(Update 2013.11.06: I tried the iPad Air at the Sprint store and it was quite a comfortable beast.  It seemed rather warm just sitting on the plastic display, running the demo, so I can't imagine how it would be running Galaxy on Fire 2 HD.)

Apple, the whole "thinner, lighter" thing has been overdone.  My iPhone 4S has to wear armor to survive a fall, so it's bulkier and heavier, not thinner and lighter.  I appreciate that you want to design things with more aesthetic value, but there is a point where the devices aren't going to a museum display, and will be used by everyday people.  (I don't expect anyone from Apple to read this, and they don't seem to care anyway, but I thought I'd write it.)  I expect that the new MacBook Pro that is thinner and lighter will get some lawsuit about the palm rest being hotter and unbearable.

I wonder how many people use a Mac Pro now.  I haven't used one since the G4 days and I got mine at significant discounts.  Both were originally US$3999 each.  Of course, the base Apple II+ configuration was US$2495, as was the original Macintosh.  I believe the Macintosh Portable was US$6499.  Someone at work in 1990 had the Portable and I couldn't imagine spending that much money on any computer, short of a minicomputer system.

When people use Maya or other 3D software, or AutoCAD or various other technical design software, do they bother with Apple equipment now?  I know that Linux-based systems are often used on the back-end of projects but commercial desktop software is slow to move there.  As much as Apple and Microsoft and Google are herding us in a certain direction, we end up having to live with it because the commercial software we run isn't about to be moved.

The Macintosh operating system, (Mac) OS X, has been updated as Mavericks--something to do with a surfing spot in California.  As 10.9, it should be better, but I'm concerned about their slipshod implementations.  Look how long it took them to implement FileVault without losing data.  Resolution Independence never really took hold, but can be used on a per-application basis.  Memory Compression is their big, new technology and I think I'll wait, rather than having working memory corrupted, no matter how free they make it.  I wonder if anyone else remembers RAM Doubler from Connectix?  I used that quite a lot in one of my 1990s Macs, and it seemed to work flawlessly, but the Single-Tasking Mac OS 9.x (with Task Switcher) was much less complicated, although convoluted.

Let me remind you to take a moment or several moments to check the requirements and compatibility of your special, necessary software before you upgrade your operating system.

What I'm not saying is that I was ready for an iPad mini with the enhanced (but apparently not great, as far as color gamut goes) display--at US$349 but I'd want a 32 GB model, which would be US$100 more, and since reality hit, and it's US$50 more than what I expected, I'll be waiting.  I'd prefer to put money into an enhanced phone like the 32 GB iPhone 5c that has enhanced LTE band (2 bands on Sprint, my current carrier) support.  Since my iPhone 4S has no LTE support, and since LTE is starting to take shape, I'd like to be ready for 2014, when I'm expecting decent real-life LTE coverage and use.  (Yes, AT&T and Verizon have coverage, but putting LTE on a tower and saying that a town has coverage is not useful.  It has to work, and work well.)

Update 2013.11.17: I got the iPhone 5c and it's quite good, as you'd expect of what is mostly 1 year old technology.  I also looked at the iPad Air and it's very desirable, but only for situations where I wouldn't be trying to use it at stores or restaurants.  The Google Nexus 7 and EVGA Tegra Note 7 tablets are far more usable, if everything Android is in place and working smoothly.

WWDC Monday: turning 2012 obsolete

We all know it's coming as soon as we buy something: it's turning obsolete as soon as it has been released.

A car depreciates the moment you sign the paperwork and drive off the lot.  An electronic gadget starts toward obsolescence the moment it arrives in the real world and can be bought.  Even humans and other living things start to decay after they're born--we live to die.

So, it's no mystery that once new laptop computers are revealed by Apple at WWDC on Monday, mine will be the previous generation.  Oh, no!

As I had said when Apple released the first MacBook Air, the company would develop all of their laptop computers in a similar form for the long term.  They've accomplished some of that but they're still holding on to an earlier type.  I suspect it won't be until 2014 when they cut all ties to past laptop computer designs that are still current at this moment.

More than that, they desperately need to replace the Mac Pro--the tower-encased work horse created for the most professional pursuits of creativity.  Will they still have Xeon processors?  These processors have kept the price abnormally high, but have kept the performance equally high.  Will they be replaced with simpler, 8 core i7 processors?

I believe they must.  Apple have been working toward more reasonable pricing lately.  No, they aren't going into budget-class territory.  There is no reason to fight for the bottom end.  However, they can bring more power at a lower price.

Intel boasts the Haswell series of Core i processors as being less needy for power.  Certainly, whole systems seem too needy, especially when it comes to graphics hardware.  We've gone from 300 watt power supplies to much more than 650 watt requirements for many middle class graphics cards fit to a system.  As the CPU becomes less thirsty, will the GPU just soak up the rest?

When the various Macs were using G4 processors, they needed very little energy to survive, in contrast to the Pentium 4.  Even the PowerPC G5 wasn't incredibly ravenous.  It would be good to see a laptop computer that supposedly can last 7 hours on battery last more than 12.

I was reading something about nVidia's 600 series GPUs being re-badged with higher numbers for 2013.  Whatever Apple decides to use, I'm sure they'll be somewhat more powerful, but careful to conserve battery life.  The 650M graphics hardware in my machine can drain the battery so much faster than the Intel HD 4000 hardware, but then, there is so much difference in performance.  The HD 4000 uses less juice, but is it nearly as efficient?  I'd think it isn't.  Intel bought a third rate graphics hardware company to "help" the industry and they haven't really made a lot of progress with it.  It's still quite laughable.  How AMD/ATI and nVidia continue to dominate without tripping over the patents of each other is amazing.

So, when Monday afternoon (GMT-4) arrives at 13:00, will I cringe that my computer has suddenly shifted into the past?  No, it's quite powerful and will be after any announcement.  It's all perspective, of course.  If you live for tomorrow, you'll miss today.

I've seen the details now and I suspect that my MacBook Pro is safe--there was no replacement today.  The MacBook Air people should be feeling the strain, as those machines were given the newest Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) Haswell processors.  The battery life on the bigger machine has improved to a rated 12 hours.  It's not as good as I would have expected but it's very good.  Once the new (Mac) OS X arrives in autumn, that should help also.

 Speaking of which, OS X Mavericks is the first Apple operating system to make me smile for a while.  They've actually been working on the functionality, instead of spending most of their time on eye candy.

Virtual Memory has long been a problem for Mac OS X.  Considering that Mac OS X has had its roots in the Mach (micro-)kernel project and BSD UNIX, it's a wonder that Virtual Memory would have ever been a problem.  The various BSD-based operating systems (OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD) have been really stable.

Apple, in their infinite wisdom, thought that they could fix the world with an enhancement and it's been hell ever since.  I used to be a PowerMac user with the fastest (Ultra) SCSI hard drives and the virtual memory swapping was always at the wrong time.  I suppose for most people using a web browser and e-mail client, it wasn't a problem.  However, I've been at the edge of free memory far too often--even on my newest machine with 16 GB of RAM.

I'm hoping that this new Memory Compression technique will put things right.  It says a lot about processor power when they can do such a thing.  Back when the Motorola 68000 series processors were new, virtual memory was something only big business machines would do.  Motorola came out with an add-on that allowed virtual memory, but when you consider how slow all of the components were, it was much better to limit memory space to available RAM--16 MB or 4 GB.  Of course, the 16 MB limit of the 68000 was rarely used.  It was more likely restricted to 4 MB by an artificial limit.

Replacing the networking hardware was an expected change, as they were a bit behind the times already.  It's not that everyone has been running to stores to find 802.11ac (Gigabit WiFi) equipment, but the major vendors already have it out there.

In any case, Apple are finally pushing toward the future again, having put it on pause earlier.

Update 2013.07.21: Apple are in the middle of a Back-to-School clearance, so there is no new iPhone, iPod touch, Mac Book Pro, etc. until supplies are exhausted.  I suppose it's good for all involved but once a year changes aren't really enough to keep up with other companies.  I thought that Apple were trying to be more flexible.  Hopefully, they'll also have enough displays for a high density iPad mini, but I wouldn't bet on anything, given all the delays.