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Some notes on running Windows games on macOS, including ARM-based M-series Macs.
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windows-gaming-on-macos-including-arm-based-m-series-macs.md

Windows Gaming on macOS (including ARM-based M-Series Macs)

Some notes on running Windows games on macOS, including ARM-based M-series Macs.

Table of Contents

Unsorted

  • TODO: Link to the various tools like Wine, Whisky, Proton(?), etc
    • Note: Boot Camp is only available on Intel-based Macs, not M-Series
    • https://getmythic.app/
      • https://github.com/MythicApp/Mythic

        • Mythic

        • An open-source macOS game launcher with the ability to play Windows games through a custom implementation of Apple's Game Porting Toolkit — supporting multiple platforms.

        • Mythic is also a GUI frontend for Legendary, that keeps coherence with the rest of macOS in mind.

    • https://heroicgameslauncher.com/

      • Heroic is a Free and Open Source Epic, GOG and Amazon Prime Games launcher for Linux, Windows and macOS. Also available on the SteamDeck!

      • https://github.com/Heroic-Games-Launcher/HeroicGamesLauncher

        • Heroic Games Launcher

        • A games launcher for GOG, Amazon and Epic Games for Linux, Windows and macOS.

        • Heroic is an Open Source Game Launcher for Linux, Windows and macOS.

        • Right now it supports launching games from the Epic Games Store using Legendary, GOG Games using our custom implementation with gogdl and Amazon Games using Nile.

    • https://getwhisky.app/
      • https://docs.getwhisky.app/maintenance-notice

      • Maintenance Notice

      • WhiskyWine will no longer be receiving any further updates. We will not be upgrading to Wine 8+, and fixes for specific apps and games, like Steam will not be produced.

        Occasional updates may still come if macOS fundamentally breaks the main app, as it did in 15.4.

      • https://github.com/Whisky-App/Whisky

        • Whisky

        • A modern Wine wrapper for macOS built with SwiftUI

    • https://www.codeweavers.com/crossover

      • CrossOver Mac

      • Run your Windows app on MacOS and Linux

    • https://developer.apple.com/games/game-porting-toolkit/

      • Game Porting Toolkit

      • The Game Porting Toolkit 3 makes it easier than ever to bring games to the unified gaming platform across Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Take advantage of improved compatibility, expanded guidance, and updated tools.

      • Evaluate your Windows executable on Apple silicon

        To find out how your game performs on Apple silicon or if your graphics are portable, evaluate your unmodified Windows executable on Apple silicon using the evaluation environment for Windows games. You can test your game, understand its performance, and validate your shaders.

      • https://www.applegamingwiki.com/wiki/Game_Porting_Toolkit

        • Game Porting Toolkit

        • Game Porting Toolkit is Apple's new translation layer released on 6th June, 2023. Game Porting Toolkit (GPTK) combines Wine with Apple's own D3DMetal which supports DirectX 11 and 12. This is a less user-friendly method of installing Windows games on Apple Silicon Macs compared to CrossOver or Parallels, however it unlocks the ability to play many DirectX 12 games. A lot more games work using GPTK, however, games that use anti-cheat or aggressive DRMs generally don't work.

          Games that require AVX/AVX 2, e.g. The Last of Us Part I, would need either an

          • Intel based Mac
          • or a version of Rosetta that is capable of translating AVX/AVX 2 instructions to M1 instructions, which is present on macOS Sequoia.
    • https://www.winehq.org/

      • What is Wine?

      • Wine (originally an acronym for "Wine Is Not an Emulator") is a compatibility layer capable of running Windows applications on several POSIX-compliant operating systems, such as Linux, macOS, & BSD. Instead of simulating internal Windows logic like a virtual machine or emulator, Wine translates Windows API calls into POSIX calls on-the-fly, eliminating the performance and memory penalties of other methods and allowing you to cleanly integrate Windows applications into your desktop.

    • https://www.parallels.com/
    • https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton

      • Proton

      • Compatibility tool for Steam Play based on Wine and additional components

      • Proton is a tool for use with the Steam client which allows games which are exclusive to Windows to run on the Linux operating system. It uses Wine to facilitate this.

      • Most users should use Proton provided by the Steam Client itself. See this Steam Community post for more details.

    • https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom

      • proton-ge-custom

      • Compatibility tool for Steam Play based on Wine and additional components

      • This is my build of Proton with the most recent bleeding-edge Proton Experimental WINE.

        Things it contains that Valve's Proton does not:

        • Additional media foundation patches for better video playback support
        • AMD FSR patches added directly to fullscreen hack that can be toggled with WINE_FULLSCREEN_FSR=1
        • FSR Fake resolution patch details here
        • Nvidia CUDA support for PhysX and NVAPI
        • Raw input mouse support
        • 'protonfixes' system -- this is an automated system that applies per-game fixes (such as winetricks, envvars, EAC workarounds, overrides, etc).
        • Various upstream WINE patches backported
        • Various wine-staging patches applied as they become needed
        • NTSync enablement if the kernel supports it.
    • https://rosenzweig.io/blog/aaa-gaming-on-m1.html

      • AAA gaming on Asahi Linux (10 Oct 2024)

      • Gaming on Linux on M1 is here! We’re thrilled to release our Asahi game playing toolkit, which integrates our Vulkan 1.3 drivers with x86 emulation and Windows compatibility. Plus a bonus: conformant OpenCL 3.0.

      • https://rosenzweig.io/blog/asahi-gpu-part-n.html

        • Dissecting the Apple M1 GPU, the end (26 Aug 2025)

      • https://asahilinux.org/about/

        • About Asahi Linux

        • Asahi Linux is a project and community with the goal of porting Linux to Apple Silicon Macs, starting with the 2020 M1 Mac Mini, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro.

        • Our goal is not just to make Linux run on these machines but to polish it to the point where it can be used as a daily OS. Doing this requires a tremendous amount of work, as Apple Silicon is an entirely undocumented platform.

        • Does Apple allow this? Don’t you need a jailbreak?

          Apple allows booting unsigned/custom kernels on Apple Silicon Macs without a jailbreak! This isn’t a hack or an omission, but an actual feature that Apple built into these devices. That means that, unlike iOS devices, Apple does not intend to lock down what OS you can use on Macs (though they probably won’t help with the development).

    • https://machow2.com/lethal-company-on-mac/
      • Crossover, Whisky, Parallels, Boot Camp
    • https://mac360.com/lethal-company-on-mac/
      • Parallels, CrossOver, Boot Camp
    • https://lutris.net/

      • Lutris

      • Play all your games on Linux

      • Lutris is a video game preservation platform aiming to keep your video game collection up and running for the years to come.

      • Over the years, video games have gone through many different hardware and software platforms. By offering the best software available to run your games, Lutris makes it easy to run all your games, old and new.

See Also

My Other Related Deepdive Gist's and Projects

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