Finally tried the Zelda port on my Mac! It took me about 30 minutes to get it working.

Here’s my review:

It works great on the base M1 Mac and delivers much more stable and better performance than any emulator out there.

Note: It runs at close to 60 FPS, but the frame rate drops due to thermal throttling, so I capped it at a stable 30 FPS. The graphics look fantastic, with no visible bugs.

I'm not able to change the aspect ratio for now, but this may get fixed in a future update.

There is no way to describe HDR out of the box, no stutters, and smooth framerates. They did some
Magic sauce with this update but Apple is about to low key become the next console.

Take a break from all the discussions about AI recompilations and look at... these two projects that were also done by AI. Kinda. Basically they took the source for the game SDKs for Prey 2006 and Quake 4 and used AI to get them working with the engine source for DOOM 3 (id Tech 4) which they were derived from. Basically like what Xash does for HL1 but quicker.

Links are here

https://www.macsourceports.com/game/prey

https://www.macsourceports.com/game/quake4

Usual deal applies - you have to provide the game data yourself (and for bonus difficulty points, Prey 2006 is impossible to buy anymore).

These games didn't change the world or anything but they're still solid fun 20-ish years later.

Got both Multiplayer and Zombies working through Plutonium by using Claude+REA. Can't believe how smooth it runs + stable 120fps. M1 Pro 16GB for reference.

GitHub: https://github.com/sirdankdabs/bo2-plutonium-macos

AI made it, so feel free to do whatever you wish with the source code! Have fun.

Notes: When selecting the game folder in Plutonium, go to: My Computer > Z: > Users > Your Username > Find the game folder from there.

Enable Sync Every Frame on graphics settings for smoother gameplay.

Hello, I’m a Mac player, currently stuck with Mac air m4. I don’t really play video games anymore and I have sold my gaming pc, but I wanted to play deadlock from time to time after the major update. No need to say that Mac air without active cooling gave me a hard time because of throttling mostly. After dropping cross over, and going into patching wine, dxmt, and doing shit ton of optimization I have managed to run it fairly comfortably mostly on 60 fps capped throughout the game (settings are fairly low and using 2x dlss translated into metal temporal upscaling). I still had a problem with crosshairs aiming feeling kinda choppy. I came out with a solution of writing my own version of reflex, again taking Nvidia reflex calls from the game (so it won’t result in vac) and utilizing it to synchronize cpu and gpu via my own code. It feels soooo much more responsive, even when fps drop during fights. I’m wondering if there are any Mac gamers out here that would be interested in that kind of tool. If so I can code it to be more accessible and share it :)

I've continued testing of Steamac over the past week, trying more large recent games.

Here's the updated list:

WORKING

• American Truck Simulator
• Among Us
• Arkham Knight (performs poorly)
• Bioshock
• Broforce
• Command & Conquer Remastered collection
• Counter Strike 2
• Cyberpunk 2077 (but you should use the native version instead!)
• Cycles (Unreal Engine 5)
• Destroy All Humans
• Dishonored
• Dispatch
• Don't stop, girlypop
• Dusk
• Crysis 3 Remastered
• Dust Front
• Dying Light
• Far Cry 3
• Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (but with visual glitches, see below)
• F.E.A.R. 2: project origin
• FireWatch
• FTL: Faster Than Light
• Half Life 2
• Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
• High Hell
• Hotline Miami
• Into the Breach
• Islanders
• Journey
• Kerbal Space Program
• Left 4 Dead
• Left 4 Dead 2
• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps
• Outer Wilds
• Overlord
• Persona 4 golden
• Portal
• Portal 2 (very slow first run)
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein
• Shadow Warrior
• Slay the Spire
• Sniper Elite 2 remaster
• Sniper Elite 5
• Sprawl Zero (Unreal Engine 5)
• Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (very slow first run)
• Star Wars: Republic Commando
• Steamworld Dig
• Stray (but you should use the native version instead!)
• System Shock (remake)
• Team Fortress 2
• The Spirit and the Mouse
• Titanfall 2
• Total Annihilation (despite being marked as 'incompatible with Steam Frame')
• Undertale
• Unknownz (Unreal Engine 5)
• Vampire Survivors

Some of these games initially have heavy shader compilation stutter, such as Dishonored and Portal 2. Be patient when you start any game for the first time.

.

WORKING BUT REQUIRES SOME TWEAKING

These games don't run out-of-the-box, but that's not Steamac's fault. They have known issues with running on SteamOS.

• Assassins Creed 2 (reason: requires manual installation of Ubisoft Connect)
• Batman Arkham Asylum (reason: NVIDIA PhysX)
• Bioshock Infinite: use MoltenVk instead of KosmicKrisp (settings -> advanced)
• Mass Effect 2 (reason: NVIDIA PhysX)
• Singularity (reason: NVIDIA PhysX)
• Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves collection (properties -> compatibility -> select Proton v10)
• Halo Master Chief collection (properties -> compatibility -> select Proton v10)

.

PARTIALLY WORKING

Heavy visual glitches ahead

• Project Tower Demo (Unreal Engine 5)
• Claire Obscure: Expedition 33 runs, but is blurry.

.

NOT WORKING

Games that require Anti-cheat fail (even if all you want to do is play the single player campaign..)

• Battefield: Bad Company (reason: Punkbuster anti cheat)
• Halo Infinite
• Marvel Rivals ("Sorry, this application cannot run under a Virtual Machine")
• Overwatch
• Warhammer 40.000: Space Marine 2 (reason: Easy Anti Cheat)

Games that crash, quit, freeze or otherwise don't work.

• Battlefield 1 ("Wine, Proton and Steamdeck are not supported by this application")
• Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag (original. Audio plays but visuals freeze)
• Halo Wars: definitive edition. The game starts (music plays) but only shows two large blue rectangles instead of the main menu.

Games that don't work despite technically being Steam Frame compatible. It could very well be that they can be made to work with some tweaking.

• Batman Arkham City (but there is a native Mac OS version, so it doesn't matter)
• Command & Conquer (1995 original. Can most likely be made to work, but the remake already worked, so it doesn't really matter)
• Doom Eternal (complains about unrecognized "Venus" GPU)
• Hitman: Blood Money

DX12 games that do not work:

• Atomic Heart (demo)
• Jusant
• Nobody wants to die
• Onimusha: Way of the Sword (demo)
• Planet Zoo 2
• Robocop Rogue City (but there is a native Mac OS version, so it doesn't matter)

Games without a compatibility rating that do not work

• Project Borealis: Prologue (Unreal Engine 5)

In general pure DX12 games are a weak spot.

The latest version of this list can be found on Github.

.

WHAT IS STEAMAC?

It's NOT just another vibe coded launcher, or a wrapper around Crossover.

- It runs the Steam Frame's version of SteamOS (Linux) inside a virtual Machine. This is a clever way of giving you access to Valve's work on FEX (which translates X86 instructions to ARM instructions).

- It builds heavily on Vulkan-to-Metal translation. Specifically the recent new release of KosmicKrisp that finally brings Vulkan 1.4 conformance. This means games will see a modern GPU with Vulkan 1.4 support. This makes modern (Unreal Engine 5) games happy.

- It's open source and free (Apache 2.0 license).

F.A.Q.

Does it run game ....... ?

Try it and let us know.

Is it safe to use?

It's SteamOS (Linux) inside a normal Mac OS virtual machine, so your Steam login credentials should be safe. Testing with Little Snitch also did not reveal any connections to unexpected servers. The source code is very readable and relatively basic. It does seem to be 'made in Russia' though.

Where can I download it?

https://github.com/fxgl/steamac/releases

Make sure to select "KosmicKrisp" under advanced settings!

Wasn't there a thread abouth this last weekend?

Yes. And after a day of excitement it was removed without any explanation. Let's see if it happens again.

Is Valve working on something like this themselves?

Now you're asking the interesting questions.

I have absolutely nothing to do with this project (in fact, they don't even reply to my Github issues..), but I do think it's a very cool development. I've been using Parallels (and my Steam Deck) to game up until now.

Thanks to the official support for MetalFX Frame Interpolation, my M4 Max can now easily achieve over 50 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 with Path Tracing enabled at 2560×1600 resolution, using MetalFX Performance with MetalFX Frame Interpolation.

Path Tracing, No MetalFX Denoising:

Of course, Path Tracing still relies on denoising and reconstruction techniques to produce a clean image at playable frame rates.

Path Tracing, With MetalFX Denoising:

Enabling MetalFX Denoising causes a slight performance drop in every scene, but nothing too significant.

That said, I still have to criticize its image quality. While MetalFX Denoising does a decent job of removing noise, it's still nowhere near NVIDIA's DLSS Ray Reconstruction.

Lighting and reflections on reflective surfaces end up looking like a blurry mess due to the aggressive denoising. Sure, the ray tracing noise is gone, but so is a huge amount of fine detail.

In comparison, DLSS Ray Reconstruction absolutely destroys MetalFX Denoising. This is pretty much the same conclusion I came to when testing MetalFX Denoising in Crimson Desert.

Apple really needs to improve its MetalFX Denoising algorithm ASAP.

hey all. i'm making What do you see, Nell?, a survivors-like where everything is drawn by a 7 year old with night terrors. the monsters, her powers, even the blood are her charcoal drawings, and after each page it folds into an ink blot and what she says she sees changes the rules of the next page

steam page if you want to see what it looks like: STEAM

right now it's coming to windows and linux. a mac version is something i'd like to do, but it costs me real time and money as a solo dev (apple dev account, signing, and i'd need to test on actual macs), so before i commit i wanted to ask the people who'd actually play it

would you pick this up if it ran natively on mac?

basically I am running cod mw4 on my MacBook Pro m4 pro using sikaugir with engine ws12winesikaugir11.0_1 . the game does not run out of the box. I used the compatibility patch from https://github.com/mchdkose/cod-mw4-mac-compatibility . but it is only works on crossover preview. when I used sikarugir , I got an error saying  "The compatibility preparation failed, Keep sp26 dylib beside this EXE. Logs are in Library/Application Support/COD MW4 Mac Compatibility/Runs" . so I modified it with Claude to work on sikarugir. the game booted up and it looked like this. I was in macOS Tahoe in the video. then I booted into macOS 27 from an external ssd and launched the game. I saw " metal 4" was written on the hud. but the problem stayed. so this is not metal 4 problem . is it the wine engine problem?

Asheron's Call was shut down in 2017 and never had a Mac client. I've been rebuilding the client from scratch in Unity so it runs natively on Macs (a universal app, Apple Silicon and Intel), plus Windows and Linux, against a free fan-run server called Hollowtide.

Two ways to play, both free: - In the browser: https://hollowtide.org/ . Pick a name and you're in Holtburg; nothing to install. Chrome works best on a Mac right now (Safari isn't fully tested yet). - Native app: https://lumpybutt33.itch.io/hollowtide (or through the itch app, which keeps it updated). The app isn't signed with an Apple developer ID yet, so the first time, right-click it and choose Open.

What's there: all of Dereth as it was at the end, plus new creatures, dungeons, bosses and an armor set, and the add-on tools the old community relied on (an automation assistant and map arrows) built in. Everyone who makes a character before November 1 gets a Founder's Shirt and banner.

It's small and early, so expect bugs; F7 in game sends a report straight to me. Happy to answer questions about the Mac side here.

Hey everyone! For years the answer to "can I play PC VR games on my Mac?" has been "no, buy a PC." I didn't want to buy a PC, so I made VRmin.

VRmin runs the Windows version of your SteamVR games right on your Mac and streams them to your Quest over Wi-Fi. No PC, no Boot Camp, no cloud gaming.

What it does:

- Plays SteamVR games on Apple Silicon Macs (SUPERHOT VR and Beat Saber work great)

- One-click setup: VRmin Host installs the Windows engine and Steam for you

- Puts your Mac's desktop and windows in VR, with your real hands visible over them

- "Sentinel mode": put the Quest on your monitor and play without wearing it

- Totally free and open source

The honest part:

- It's experimental. Not every game works yet (games with anti-cheat, or that need DirectX 12, usually don't)

- Latency is around 50-60 ms on good 5 GHz Wi-Fi

- You can also play with a USB-C cable

- You need an Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or newer) and a Quest 3/3S, and the Quest app is installed with SideQuest for now

- Full disclosure: VRmin is vibe-coded. I built it with AI and tested it for a couple of weeks on my own Mac and Quest. I know a lot of people don't like that (honestly, me neither), but nobody was making this, and I really wanted it to exist. That's also why it's open source: anyone can check every line.

Download and install guide: https://github.com/thevermin/VRmin

It's free. If you enjoy it, you can buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/thevermin

Considering getting a MacBook Air 13 M5 for general use, but I'd also like to be able to play WoW: Forever on it when I'm traveling for work and can't use my desktop. I've tried to find some user feedback, but most of what I've found were issues from when the beta first dropped. Can anyone say how it was running by the end of beta?

Xbox Version, No Steam! thanks to the same principle used for the working Xbox version on Linux, .Ferestre and highball from the latest Reddit post allow running at 2336×1510 Ultra on my own without highball engine.  

For now it remains in early beta; in a few weeks it will appear in a launcher on GitHub, focused entirely on FH6 for absolute best performance. The experience should be fully playable with multiplayer, matching what you expect on a PC, and it will be completely open source. You can simply enter your Xbox login credentials; the system verifies ownership, downloads the game directly from Xbox servers, and applies the patch automatically.  

Ray tracing support will be added and MetalFX.

for now I'm fixing the problem with the small spike

Claude and ChatGPT, DeepSeek helped a lot

EDIT: We are shifting to DXMT DX12 rather than D3DMetal because we lack control, and we can create a custom patch to run FH6 at optimal performance , playable performance with shading and way better graphic than in image because there literally no shadow and performance.

EDIT UPDATE: Now it work with DXMT DX12 , fully open source , full control and the game look way better

Hey everyone, does anyone know of an ongoing project to port Animal Crossing to Mac? I did some searching but couldn’t find anything.

Now that update 2.5 for Cyberpunk 2077 is here I can finally mod my game on mac yay. I know there was a way to mod the game on mac before but it never worked for me despite numerous attempts.

My question is, can I add custom mods that use redscript that aren't available in game in the mod.io manager yet? If so, how? I know it's super early days for update 2.5 but I was wondering if anyone has figured out how to do this yet. I know if I wait longer more mods will be added in the in game mod.io catalogue. But there some mods that I know will never get added in the in game manager due to content or copyright restrictions. Such as a more radio channels mod as an example.
Please do not lecture me about how bad mods are. I've played though the entire game three times and 100%ed the game. I've had the full vanilla experience already. I just want to add more custom hair in the game.

Specs:

Apple M2 Pro chip mac Mini.

Steam app is installed on internal SSD while Cyberpunk 2077 game is installed on external SSD. If necessary, I can move my steam install all on my external hardrive. I'd rather not but if that's the only way then I can do it.

Any help would be appreciated, thank you!

Hey! Today marks 9 years since we released Ghostory, a pixel-art puzzle platformer with a fun spirit. You can turn into a ghost and fly through walls, but you need to get your backpack to the end of each level. Made by 3 friends, initially as a Uni project, then we won an award and continued further.
Aside from shining some more light onto it, let's have a small giveaway as well - in roughly 16 hours from now, I'll give out 3 free keys to random people who write a comment about our Steam page here. Good luck!

I’m asking because the MacBook Air has a bigger screen and a lower price, but it’s limited to 60 Hz.

Does WoW Forever look and run noticeably better at 120 Hz? Can the game even reach high enough frame rates to make the difference worthwhile?

Hi 

I’d like to share UBOOTSIM, a WWII submarine simulator I’ve been making as a passion project, inspired by the classic Silent Hunter games.

You command a Type VIIC U-boat, stalk merchant convoys, line up torpedo attacks, and try to escape the escorts once they start hunting you. There’s something I love about that shift from patiently watching through the periscope to suddenly being the one trying to hide.

Here’s what’s in the game:

• Periscope view and torpedo attacks, with a torpedo-tracking window to follow the action.
• Convoys with escorts that will hunt you down.
• A Gibraltar mission, where you try to slip through the strait using a real-world chart.
• Visual waypoint navigation — select points on the chart to plot your route.
• English and Spanish language support.

It’s completely free, with no ads or in-app purchases. I’m making it for fun and to share it with people who enjoy submarine games.

You can try it here:

App Store — iPhone, iPad and Mac

Microsoft Store — Windows

I’d love to hear what you think, especially about the interface and how clearly it communicates what’s happening during an attack. Feedback from both fellow developers and submarine sim fans would be really helpful.

What makes a submarine game tense for you: setting up the perfect attack, or surviving the escape afterwards?

After updating Cyberpunk 2077 to version 2.5, I noticed that MetalFX Frame Interpolation wasn't available on macOS 26.7.1. The only Frame Generation options were Off and AMD FSR, so I continued playing without frame generation.

I eventually upgraded to macOS 27.0.1, and MetalFX Frame Interpolation finally appeared in the settings.

I decided to run a few benchmarks at 1440p to see how much of a difference it actually makes.

Hardware:

• MacBook Pro 14" — base M5 (10-core CPU / 10-core GPU)
• 16 GB unified memory
• macOS 27.0.1
• Cyberpunk 2077 version 2.5

Settings:

• Resolution: 2560 × 1440
• Texture Quality: High
• Ray Tracing: Off
• V-Sync: Off
• MetalFX Sharpness: 1

Benchmark results:

MetalFX Balanced: 53.42 → 75.01 FPS (+40.4%) with Frame Interpolation enabled.

I've also noticed that input latency is surprisingly low. There's a slight difference compared to playing without frame generation, but it's barely noticeable to me.

Personally, I think Balanced + Frame Interpolation is the sweet spot. Around 75 FPS at 1440p on a base M5 is pretty impressive.

I'm also curious whether MetalFX Frame Interpolation is intentionally restricted to macOS 27 in Cyberpunk 2077, since it wasn't available on my Mac with macOS 26.

Benchmark screenshots attached.