Apple Game Porting Toolkit already put to work with the latest games
Apple promises to offer a true gaming experience with its new emulation software.
MacOS does not have a large gaming portfolio, but there were games such as Resident Evil Village or No Man’s Sky that were natively supported by Apple hardware, reports The Verge. However, thanks to a new software called Game Porting Toolkit, Apple could take gaming support to a new level, by introducing a fast translation layer for popular graphics APIs for macOS systems.
At WWDC earlier this week, Apple announced its plans to enable Windows game emulation through its new tool called “Game Porting Toolkit”. Game developers, modders and gamers can use this DX11/DX12 Wine-like translation layer to run any games they like.
What should be noted, however, is that Wine DX12/Vulkan translation does not always work without hiccups, and there are many bugs or optimizations required to make the game playable. It took a long time and a lot of software engineering effort to enable seamless Valve’s Proton support on Steam Deck.
Modders have already had success running games such as Cyberpunk 2077 or Diablo 4 on Apple M1 or M2 Max processors, but the performance will vary. Gamers report that Cyberpunk can run at sub-15 FPS on the M1 system and at around 40 FPS with Ultra settings on M2 Max.
Cyberpunk 2077
Apple’s new game porting toolkit is fantastic. Here’s Cyperbunk 2077 running at Ultra on an M1 MacBook Pro 16 GB! pic.twitter.com/hylzMU6U46
— Isaac (@isaacmarovitz) June 6, 2023
Diablo IV on M2 Max
Other games like Diablo 4, Hogwarts Legacy or even GTA Vice City have no issues running on Apple hardware either.
Diablo IV on M2 Max using macOS Sonoma and game porting toolkit
by u/just_reload_it in macgaming
There is also a M1 Max demo.
Hogwarts Legacy
There are now many other examples of DX11 and DX12 games now running through the GPT on a dedicated macgaming Subreddit.
CodeWeavers were pleased to know that Apple chose their CrossOver source code to emulate Windows games through the Game Porting Toolkit. While Apple did not work with the company directly for GPT, CodeWeavers are eager to work with any game developer who wants to port games to macOS using their tool.
