UE 5.4.4 running on the base Mac Mini M4. Lumen and Nanite work.
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Major gaming news at WWDC: Metal and New games
- Thread starter Homy
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Not all developers have the staffing, budget, or resources necessary to port a game to the Mac, especially when they're already working on their next big release. One of the biggest differences between porting to Linux via Proton and porting to Mac via GPTK is that Proton is still an x86 to x86 conversion, which is a far less complicated conversion than going from x86 to ARM64. Even within the Windows ecosystem, there are still issues relating to which apps run under x86 versions of Windows 11 and which can also run under Arm64 versions of Windows 11.
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Have you tried using a Steam Deck? It's pretty seamless and for most games you do nothing, just install off Steam and go. It feels native. I have plenty of past experience using Crossover on Linux/Mac and you'd often have to create multiple bottles because one game needs X, one game needs Y but NOT X, etc. You spend more time reinstalling Steam than playing. Perhaps that's changed.
I think I've had to use custom environmental variables for one game that I've played on Steam Deck, Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5 off the Epic Store. A few have needed a newer Proton versions but that's about as hard as changing the Windows Compatibility version.
True, but I have seen just enthusiasts getting games running under the GPTK, I’ve never used it but I do think if relative novice enthusiasts can do it, why can big studios? But I guess they think time is money even if it’s a couple of days and Mac isn’t worth it.
It’s incredibly frustrating because Macs have the power, their laptops are very popular, but devs just still aren’t interested in the grand scheme of things, so as a Mac user you have to do it yourself with Crossover etc. I mean take my M3 Max 14” Pro, in Crossover it runs Diablo 4 at max settings at way over 60 FPS native res. Emulation on emulation on emulation and games performance is still great. And the M4 Max is around 30 to 40% more powerful in games.
I‘m looking forward to trying out Cyberpunk native on it next year. But the list of games is slowly growing.
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M4 Max is very close to desktop 4070 considering AA was turned off in the PC test.
No, I haven’t used a Steam Deck but I didn’t say the experience can’t be smooth either. I also wrote ”sometimes”. I commented based on the user experiences on Protondb and other places. It’s a subjective matter and can vary between games and users. The discussion about ”native games” was also about the number of games that could be considered as native, not the seamless experience.
My Crossover experience is on the contrary similar to your Steam deck experience. I’ve been a BetterTester since version 22 and now even a Preview Tester since the program launched back in May. Can only speak for Mac, not Linux but I’ve written about 800 test reports and not once I’ve had to dig into any bottle to change the Wine settings. There have been maybe 2-3 old games that needed some missing extensions, like PhysX in Dragon Age Origin but it’s just a normal installation. Nowadays Steam also installs missing extensions automatically upon launching a game. Yes, there are a couple of more steps to run games through Crossover but it takes just a few seconds. You start Crossover, choose your bottle and then which API you want to use, D3DMetal, DXVK or Default/WineD3D for best performance. After all Steam Deck is a gaming device but Mac a multi-purpose device with different OS so you have to start an app like Crossover to game since it’s not built in macOS.
You don’t need to create a separate bottle for each game either. Perhaps it was more necessary in older versions when things didn’t work well and you had to tweak every game but now Crossover and Wine/DXVK/D3DMetal have matured so much that most games work without tweaking. I do have different bottles for the different launchers though for easier testing but it’s just basically four for Steam, Epic, EA and Ubisoft. You can also change the Windows version in the Wine settings easily without installing new bottles and change back after testing/playing. I also use the same bottle in different macOS volumes (Sonoma/Sequoia). Crossover and its bottles can also be installed on an external drive accessible to any Mac.
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Weird this image says that the M4 Max has higher fps. We are comparing averages right?
I saw that but there is that other larger number at the top so I wanted to be on the safe side but you can say it's faster if you want.
Miani's is avg so the fps can vary in different places.Christmas comes two weeks earlier. Resident Evil 2 on Dec 10th!
There is a demo.
store.steampowered.com
Same Room Same Day on Steam
Step into the mind of Rosaline in this psychological horror FPS. Face her fears, engage in intense combat, and help her find peace. Solve puzzles to unlock her psyche's secrets and progress by completing quests
Dimhaven - The Lost Source on Steam
Are you ready for an adventure? Challenges, exploration and puzzles in a narrative driven experience, pick up your camera and test your wits in this first-person mystery by the team behind Quern!
Half life 2 just got a big update for its 20th anniversary. I suppose the Mac version has been updated too, but who can play it nowadays, since it's 32-bit...?
Coincidently, I tried playing "old" games on my M1-Pro 14" MacBook Pro using whisky, crossover and VMWare (Windows 11 ARM). Surprisingly, the latter offered the best compatibility and performance for the games I tried: Tomb Raider anniversary, Tomb Raider Underworld and Portal 2.
Windows 11 also runs HL2 and F.E.A.R very well at native resolution and max settings (I haven't compared with crossover). It's also completely free of charge. So for DX8-9 games, VMWare seems a rather good solution.
Coincidently, I tried playing "old" games on my M1-Pro 14" MacBook Pro using whisky, crossover and VMWare (Windows 11 ARM). Surprisingly, the latter offered the best compatibility and performance for the games I tried: Tomb Raider anniversary, Tomb Raider Underworld and Portal 2.
Windows 11 also runs HL2 and F.E.A.R very well at native resolution and max settings (I haven't compared with crossover). It's also completely free of charge. So for DX8-9 games, VMWare seems a rather good solution.
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Another test with Deus Ex HR. This game doesn't run in whisky nor in crossover regardless of the DX version that is set (9 or 11). Performance is so poor that even menus are unusable. VMWare is a mixed bag because there are major freezes when (supposedly) shaders compile, but other than that, I'm getting 80-120 fps+ at native res on high settings, DX9 version. Things may become better as the game progresses and more shaders get compiled in cache. The DX11 version wouldn't launch at all.
VMWare Portal 2 runs at about 120 fps at native resolution and highest settings (except MSAA which is off and not very useful at native resolution given the pixel size). Pretty good.
VMWare Portal 2 runs at about 120 fps at native resolution and highest settings (except MSAA which is off and not very useful at native resolution given the pixel size). Pretty good.
It runs perfectly on the M4 Pro. Problem is everything is blown out, you clip through the face and the RTX remix menu doesn't show when you use option-x.
This is funny. I finally installed VMware Fusion three days ago just to test Deus Ex HR. Good to have a confirmation. I played the game on my iMac 2011 and was on the last level near the end on my way to turn off Darrow’s signal before my iMac’s GPU gave up in early 2022. I hadn’t played it since 2021 and tested the free GFN but it was limited to two hours gameplay and 1080p. It has never worked in Crossover either. I finally finished it in VMware. I too had occasional freezing up to 5s due to shader compilation but other than that it worked well with about 80 fps at 1440p max settings. The game wouldn’t start with DX11 and after that even with DX9 so I had to switch between the basic video driver to get it started again and back to the VMware driver. In the game I could though switch to DX11 without restarting.
I also tested OpenGL games that don’t work in Crossover. Wolfenstein: The New Order works well. In large areas outside the fps drops to around 25 and lowering the settings doesn’t help but otherwise I get 40-50 fps at 1440p High. The Old Blood doesn’t work unfortunately. Steam tries to launch it but then it just quits.
VMware is a good free option for some games. I didn’t have pay extra to buy Parallels to finish Deus Ex.
That's promising indeed, but I suspect that the 4090 is being limited by the intel CPU at that resolution. That may be particularly true for the RoTR test, where the Mac crushes the PC despite using Rosetta.
Turning on path tracing would help load up the GPU as well at that resolution.
Apple partnering with Corsair on a Mac gaming keyboard and mouse was not on my bingo card.
gizmodo.com
Apple’s First Gaming Keyboard and Mouse Aren’t Made by Apple at All
Apple has partnered with Corsair for its first gaming keyboard and mouse that might make you feel like a real gamer on MacBook or Mac mini.
gizmodo.com
Yeah, he calls Rise of the Tomb Raider a native game but it's x86 and still uses Rosetta. There are a lot of ARM64 native games he could have tested, like Death Stranding, Resident Evil series Lies of P and many more. Also at 1200p Medium he's not tasking the GPU much. He should at least use Very High/Max settings like in the Cyberpunk test and go up to 1440p. M4 Max is very close to desktop 4070 in Death Stranding at 4K Max settings.
Apple partnering with Corsair on a Mac gaming keyboard and mouse was not on my bingo card.
Apple’s First Gaming Keyboard and Mouse Aren’t Made by Apple at All
Apple has partnered with Corsair for its first gaming keyboard and mouse that might make you feel like a real gamer on MacBook or Mac mini.
Looks as if we got an official release date for Control in the article. It says Feb 2025.