Many people did try it, without success. It requires DX12, so no way this is going to run in Parallels or Crossover for now (if ever).
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Diablo 2 Resurrected - not for macOS?
- Thread starter TBoneMac
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Hey dropping a comment here on the status of D2R on Intel Mac. I HAVE IT WORKING ON AN IMAC 27" 5K LATE 2014 under BOOTCAMP.
I followed some threads that eventually directed me to this website ----> https://www.bootcampdrivers.com
I installed Bootcamp through Big Sur, logged into the PC side and followed this video below to get it working.
Last edited:
I understand but it does offer a solution for people on Intel still. I read multiple posts about people saying it wouldn't work in Bootcamp.
Last edited:
Why would it not run in Bootcamp? I mean, Bootcamp is a native Windows solution which turns Intel Macs into Windows hardware no different from PCs. So unless the hardware is too old or drivers are not available for that old hardware, anything that's made for Windows will work using Bootcamp.
As I stated above many people have said they couldn't get it working in Bootcamp. It freezes as the Blizzard logo comes up. I would assume driver issues as being the culprit.
Not able to Run D2R in Bootcamp
Game: D2R Hardware: 2020 Macbook pro - 32g RAM, AMD Radeon 5500, Intel i9 chip running on bootcamp windows 10. I launch the game, and it gets to the loading screen for battle.net. After staying there for a minute or so, D2R freezes. After freezing my only option is to exit out and after...
us.forums.blizzard.com
Im simply stating it is working for me on a late 2014 iMac using the custom video drivers at the site I referenced. This is a thread about D2R, mac and gaming. Am I not allowed to discuss such things here without being scrutinized?
Never said or implied you couldn't discuss it here. I was just mentioning that on my M1 iMac there is no longer the option to use BootCamp which is what I am dealing with. Sorry.As I stated above many people have said they couldn't get it working in Bootcamp. It freezes as the Blizzard logo comes up. I would assume driver issues as being the culprit.
Not able to Run D2R in Bootcamp
Game: D2R Hardware: 2020 Macbook pro - 32g RAM, AMD Radeon 5500, Intel i9 chip running on bootcamp windows 10. I launch the game, and it gets to the loading screen for battle.net. After staying there for a minute or so, D2R freezes. After freezing my only option is to exit out and after...
Im simply stating it is working for me on a late 2014 iMac using the custom video drivers at the site I referenced. This is a thread about D2R, mac and gaming. Am I not allowed to discuss such things here without being scrutinized?
No worries man. I do hope it gets figured out on M1 too. Not sure Blizzard would make an ARM version however. Does Windows have some sort of compatibility that would allow it to run x86 software if it were an ARM machine?
I know that I run an older program (IBM Lotus Approach) which was obviously written for x86 Intel machines and it runs fine. As do other games that I play using the Windows version of Steam. So I would assume it would. But I have Battlenet for windows install and purchased D2R but it has an issue as it can’t initialize the graphics. Still waiting for Blizzard and/or Parallels to figure it out.
There is nothing to figure out. It’s not supported, period. D2R requires DX12, which Parallels can’t do. It’s technically impossible to emulate it right now. The requirements for DX12 are higher than what can be done on the software and hardware side on macOS. Codeweavers is working on something, presumably using compute shaders to get around the limits. This will have a massive performance hit, how well it will run, no one knows. If everything goes smoothly and as expected, they’re targeting a late 2023 release, maybe later. It’s all very vague, because it might not work at all.
Maybe they will be able to use the Metal 3 API to downscale textures and then re-upscale to increase performance. What do you think?
Not sure what you're asking. Performance isn't the problem. There's no way to run DX12 games in any way, the APIs are too different. The only way it could work is if Crossover adds DX12 support or if Blizzard remove the DX12 requirement from the game.
You said that the requirements are also an issue in the hardware side, so my thought is that they could remove some shaders, downscale the resolution, and upscale it with the Metal 3 API.
It's both hardware and software when it comes to DX12 ports. There's no option to modify the game, resolution etc. by a 3rd party (at least legally and without a ton of work). This could be done by Blizzard, but why? If they had any interest, they could create a native Metal 2 or Metal 3 version and would eliminate the problem completely.
I'm not sure about requirements on the hardware side since intel Macs have AMD and intel GPUs that support DX12... I'd be surprised if Apple Silicon GPUs were less capable than intel's.
Heck, Feral used the DX12 windows version to port SoTR to the Mac, and intel GPUs are supported.
I just installed the beta version of the Windows version of Diablo Immortal (runs a bit slow but could be because it is a beta or becauseI don't have quite enough RAM) but while D2R won't start at all, this will load properly and run. So I would think that if Blizzard could get one to run then perhaps with a bit of work they could also get D2R to run also on M1 Macs/Parallels/Windows 11 ARM.
I’m really not what’s discussed here. So I’ll go over it again.
Diablo Immortal is using NetEase’s Messiah engine. This engine was primarily designed to work with mobile games on Android and iOS, there’s nothing specific about it. Whatever runs on iOS can easily be run on macOS. A port is simple and easy to do.
Diablo 2: Resurrected is running on a Blizzard proprietary engine specifically developed to run on Windows. It’s utilizing DirectX 12 to various degrees. D2R is using DX12.
DX12 is using higher resource limits than DX11, so it can’t be easily ported to other graphics APIs. Namely, these are 1M+ descriptors in CBV/UVA/SRV heap and the full heap for shader stages. In other words, the whole resource binding model changed in comparison to DX11. macOS and Metal doesn’t have the resources to handle it the same way as DX12. Metal only supports 500k resources per per argument buffer vs 1M+ on DX12. Any Windows DX12 game utilizing Tier 2 or above won’t run with Metal, not even with Parallels, Crossover, etc. There are theoretical ways around it, but no one has found one working as expected. Crossover is aiming to release this in late 2023, but that’s only if everything goes smooth and no one knows what impact it will have on performance.
That leaves us at the point where Blizzard could port D2R over if they wanted. They would not change the Windows version, so it can be run with Crossover. If they’d do it, they’d do a proper port. This would be expensive for them to do, as it would require time and manpower to do so.
So the best bet is to wait for Crossover in late 2023 and see what that brings, maybe they managed to work around it. That has nothing to do with D2R though, it would be the same for all DX12 games. And then the whole thing starts again for DX13…
Diablo Immortal is using NetEase’s Messiah engine. This engine was primarily designed to work with mobile games on Android and iOS, there’s nothing specific about it. Whatever runs on iOS can easily be run on macOS. A port is simple and easy to do.
Diablo 2: Resurrected is running on a Blizzard proprietary engine specifically developed to run on Windows. It’s utilizing DirectX 12 to various degrees. D2R is using DX12.
DX12 is using higher resource limits than DX11, so it can’t be easily ported to other graphics APIs. Namely, these are 1M+ descriptors in CBV/UVA/SRV heap and the full heap for shader stages. In other words, the whole resource binding model changed in comparison to DX11. macOS and Metal doesn’t have the resources to handle it the same way as DX12. Metal only supports 500k resources per per argument buffer vs 1M+ on DX12. Any Windows DX12 game utilizing Tier 2 or above won’t run with Metal, not even with Parallels, Crossover, etc. There are theoretical ways around it, but no one has found one working as expected. Crossover is aiming to release this in late 2023, but that’s only if everything goes smooth and no one knows what impact it will have on performance.
That leaves us at the point where Blizzard could port D2R over if they wanted. They would not change the Windows version, so it can be run with Crossover. If they’d do it, they’d do a proper port. This would be expensive for them to do, as it would require time and manpower to do so.
So the best bet is to wait for Crossover in late 2023 and see what that brings, maybe they managed to work around it. That has nothing to do with D2R though, it would be the same for all DX12 games. And then the whole thing starts again for DX13…
If you have bootcamp with an intel Mac then you can play D2R. Otherwise what Grumpy says is true.
Thanks for the more detailed explanation. While I understood that Diablo Immortal was probably built on a different engine to be able to run on iOS devices, I was just trying to be optimistic. We can only hope that either Parallels or Crossover (which I use for quicker access to IBM Lotus Approach even though the printing screens in Crossover are still screwed up LOL) will come up with something. Otherwise I guess there are plenty of other games I can play.
