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Maxtech game reviews on M1
- Thread starter HappySponge
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Interesting. People were complaining that iOS games could not be played fullscreen, but it seems that they can. Or perhaps Max Tech are using some macOS beta with some new functionality.
EDIT: since he's using crossover, which requires Big Sur 11.1, it does appear that iOS games can be played fullscreen in 11.1. Nice.
Crossover performance is all over the place. I've seen Metro Redux running quite well on a MacBook Air, and for some reason, other low-end games do not run well at all.
I also wonder why DXVK is apparently required to play DirectX games on the Mac. It converts DX calls to Vulkan, then what? The Mac has no Vulkan drivers. Is moltenVK included in crossover?
It would certainly help is "DXMetal" existed, but AFAIK, no one has come up with a public JIT DX to Metal converter (though I suppose Parallel and VMware have solutions they keep for themselves).
EDIT: since he's using crossover, which requires Big Sur 11.1, it does appear that iOS games can be played fullscreen in 11.1. Nice.
Crossover performance is all over the place. I've seen Metro Redux running quite well on a MacBook Air, and for some reason, other low-end games do not run well at all.
I also wonder why DXVK is apparently required to play DirectX games on the Mac. It converts DX calls to Vulkan, then what? The Mac has no Vulkan drivers. Is moltenVK included in crossover?
It would certainly help is "DXMetal" existed, but AFAIK, no one has come up with a public JIT DX to Metal converter (though I suppose Parallel and VMware have solutions they keep for themselves).
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macOS 11.1 beta has an improved full-screen mode for iOS apps, it can either scale the iOS app to fit the screen or add a black border (the only option on 11.0.1).
iOS app that probably implement split-view are resizable and can fill the whole screen even on 11.0.1.
CrossOver uses MoltenVK, yup. CodeWeavers has been the main contributor to MoltenVK the past two years.
iOS app that probably implement split-view are resizable and can fill the whole screen even on 11.0.1.
CrossOver uses MoltenVK, yup. CodeWeavers has been the main contributor to MoltenVK the past two years.
It's disappointing that the recent Doom games don't work in crossover, given that they use vulkan.
I have to admit that I just keep getting blown away by what Apple's done here. Especially when it comes to the performance of Rosetta 2.
I've been playing Disco Elysium streaming from my game rig to my laptop because on my 15" MacBook Pro with AMD R9 it is effectively unplayable (FPS all the way down to below 20 even with minimal settings).
For kicks I decided to put Steam on an M1 MacBook. And so far it's run beautifully even though it's been translated via Rosetta. Of course it seems to be a super-GPU heavy game for some bizarre and unknowable reason (it certainly shouldn't be); so benefiting from the GPU in the M1 makes sense, but still; this is on a base MacBook Air! (Note: I've only tested it for about 10 minutes so far, so don't take this as hard evidence that Disco Elysium runs reliably long-term on M1 Macs.)
Now, it's not running it at 4K locked at 60FPS like my actual VR Game Rig can (2080 Super currently), but it's still INSANE that this non-ARM-native game is running like this.
Serious Kudos to Apple. This is the first time I've been truly impressed with Apple (or a new CPU for that matter) in years. Heck, the most exciting thing in the five years before the M1 for me was when Apple finally started putting decent keyboards back in their laptops again!
I've been playing Disco Elysium streaming from my game rig to my laptop because on my 15" MacBook Pro with AMD R9 it is effectively unplayable (FPS all the way down to below 20 even with minimal settings).
For kicks I decided to put Steam on an M1 MacBook. And so far it's run beautifully even though it's been translated via Rosetta. Of course it seems to be a super-GPU heavy game for some bizarre and unknowable reason (it certainly shouldn't be); so benefiting from the GPU in the M1 makes sense, but still; this is on a base MacBook Air! (Note: I've only tested it for about 10 minutes so far, so don't take this as hard evidence that Disco Elysium runs reliably long-term on M1 Macs.)
Now, it's not running it at 4K locked at 60FPS like my actual VR Game Rig can (2080 Super currently), but it's still INSANE that this non-ARM-native game is running like this.
Serious Kudos to Apple. This is the first time I've been truly impressed with Apple (or a new CPU for that matter) in years. Heck, the most exciting thing in the five years before the M1 for me was when Apple finally started putting decent keyboards back in their laptops again!
Rosetta 2 is fine up until Apple requires all applications to be ARM compliant in order to run. The reality is, running anything on Rosetta 2 should be a wakeup call that your apps will cease to function in the near future. If the developers have no intention of modernizing the code, it will be last call on them in short order... unless you downgrade to a system that can run the OS it was written to run natively on. The last transition was different because Apple was transitioning to the INTEL chipset... the same chipsets being used by Windows. This time they are going the other direction. Windows won't follow suit for a decade at best if at all. So that means Apple is going to be on an island all by itself for the first time in quite a very long time.
Not a whole hell of a lot of developers out there committing to converting games to ARM... never been a whole hell of a lot of developers writing for the Mac platform to begin with. Most people have been relying on ways to run Windows games via a wrapper or bootcamp... those days are coming to a close.
WoW is universal, but buggy... runs better under INTEL (depending on what graphics chip your system has because it's buggy due to poor driver support from Apple). Blizzard has been pulling back on developing for the Mac platform as a whole... could be that Shadowlands is the last expansion that will run on a Mac.
Who out there is writing games for ARM architecture natively? That is what everyone should be looking at because being able to run games under Rosetta 2 is like running games in a wrapper now... it only proves you can play games now, not that you will be able to play games later.
Not a whole hell of a lot of developers out there committing to converting games to ARM... never been a whole hell of a lot of developers writing for the Mac platform to begin with. Most people have been relying on ways to run Windows games via a wrapper or bootcamp... those days are coming to a close.
WoW is universal, but buggy... runs better under INTEL (depending on what graphics chip your system has because it's buggy due to poor driver support from Apple). Blizzard has been pulling back on developing for the Mac platform as a whole... could be that Shadowlands is the last expansion that will run on a Mac.
Who out there is writing games for ARM architecture natively? That is what everyone should be looking at because being able to run games under Rosetta 2 is like running games in a wrapper now... it only proves you can play games now, not that you will be able to play games later.
CCP -- the developers of EVE Online -- have announced their intent to bring the game to M1 Macs.
CCP Games developing a native macOS client for EVE Online
Public beta for the sci-fi spacefaring MMO’s Metal-powered client will launch in Q1 2021
Note that this is a two-step endeavor. They are focused on getting EVE Online to run natively on Big Sur first then will tackle the M1 version.
The current Mac version is a Windows executable running in a WINE wrapper.
I'll be honest. I am surprised they just didn't push people to running Eve Echoes instead.CCP -- the developers of EVE Online -- have announced their intent to bring the game to M1 Macs.
CCP Games developing a native macOS client for EVE Online
Public beta for the sci-fi spacefaring MMO’s Metal-powered client will launch in Q1 2021www.ccpgames.com
Note that this is a two-step endeavor. They are focused on getting EVE Online to run natively on Big Sur first then will tackle the M1 version.
The current Mac version is a Windows executable running in a WINE wrapper.
Apple has a huge number of games if you look at iOS.
These games should run natively on ARM Macs.
I do think, unfortunately, that you are probably correct and that Apple will probably drop Rosetta 2 fairly soon after they transition the last new Macs to Intel. That will be a shame however. Apple has developed something so damn good they should just leave it in there effectively forever, just for the sake of backwards compatibility.
The only 'downside' is that some developers may not feel inclined to update their apps as promptly; but having a larger software catalog that works well is in all other ways a benefit to Apple and to Apple users.
True, games that have only been available on the iOS App Store up til now: PUBG, Doom 1, Doom 2, etc, run on my iPhone 11, with controller support, as do RIP, COD mobile and both of 3DMark’s mobile benchmarks - Ice Storm and Slingshot.
Backwards compatibility isn't what Apple is known for... you're thinking Windows... which has a long history of being backwards compatible.
32 bit games won't even run on their latest INTEL OS... and haven't since Mojave. Rosetta 2 cannot be supported for all perpetuity because the hooks that allow them to do so are going away. In other words, the version of ARM that is running on your M1 now is not going to be the version that runs on it in the future. The same reason the original Rosetta went away is the same reason this one will too.
Out with the old... in with the new.
Since Apple has never been known for gaming... and people don't buy Macs for gaming... the notion that somehow now, in 2020 that will all change because of M1 is a fallacy. Reality is the preponderance of developers develop solely for Windows... DirectX to be exact. Their thought is this... you want to play their games, you come to the platform that has been running them for eons. The only reason you have been able to play any Windows games at all is because of bootcamp. In a nutshell, you went to their house. They have zero incentive to come to your house.
Is Apple buying game companies? No. Is Microsoft? Yes. And with Mircrosoft, it's purely to support their Xbox because they know they have no problem holding onto the gaming companies who develop for PC... the console market is an entirely different story.
You need to see some commitment for developing the games you like on the platform you use. I can assure you, that commitment isn't there. There is no incentive to support a company that has closed architecture over a company that supports open architecture.
Think about it... the billions of dollars each year going into to nothing more than GPU cards each year. You think game companies aren't getting some sort of kick back for supporting an industry that revolves around swapping GPUs every 6 months? If Apple were the top dog in gaming... there would be no GPUs to be bought because they would all be part of a closed eco-system. An entire industry would cease to exist. This is why Windows remains king of that hill. It is why it will ALWAYS remain king of that hill.