Gaming8.06.2023

Good news for gaming on Mac

Apple’s new Game Porting Toolkit (GPT) allows any tech-savvy Mac user to run several of the latest Windows games on Apple Silicon, and could pave the way for more developers fully porting games to MacOS.

Apple first announced GPT without much detail during the keynote opening address of its 2023 Worldwide Developer Conference on Monday, 5 June 2023.

On Wednesday, the company shared more details about the tool and made it available to developers.

GPT uses source code from CrossOver, a Wine-based open-source Windows compatibility layer that has been available since 2007.

Apple’s rework can translate Intel-based x86 instructions and Windows API calls to Apple Silicon instructions and MacOS APIs.

It supposedly boasts performance similar to that of the Proton compatibility layer used to convert Windows games to run on the Linux-based SteamOS that powers the Valve Steam Deck handheld gaming console.

The main purpose of GPT is not to let everyday users run Windows games easily on an Apple Silicon-based Mac, but rather to show developers whether it is worth going through a proper porting process to have their games run natively on Apple’s Metal graphics API.

Within 24 hours of the tool going live, numerous non-developers had already employed the tool to run some of the latest games.

YouTuber Andrew Tsai shared videos of several running various DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 games at respectable frame rates. The tool also supports DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 games.

Users on the Mac Gaming Reddit forum have shown they could play popular games like Cyberpunk 2077, Diablo IV, Hogwarts Legacy, and Spider-Man Remastered.

Notably, one M2 Max user running Cyberpunk 2077 at high-quality settings at his MacBook Pro’s native resolution achieved a near-consistent 30fps or higher.

Tsai’s base M1 in a MacBook Air did not fair so well, with Elden Ring only managing between 15–20fps on low settings.

However, this performance was possible without any optimization by the game’s developers. Should they choose to support MacOS, the actual results could be much better.

As Reddit user winterwarrior33 explained, the tool is not a one-stop shop for porting.

“It was just to prove to developers that their games can run on Mac,” they said.

“Once developers actually commit to porting the game fully, you can expect a higher performance bump as the bottleneck right now is the [translation layer].”

Tsai also cautioned that installing the tool is quite complex.

To assist those still interested in testing it out, Tsai compiled step-by-step instructions on the AppleGamingWiki.


Now read: Diablo IV launch-day hell begins

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