Attention-Drawing Tip: Does Apple Game Porting Toolkit really improve Mac's game compatibility?

macos tips
1

Apple has enhanced Mac’s game compatibility by releasing the Apple Game Porting Toolkit, I wonder if this feature really works. Is there anybody knowing it and giving a detail introduction?

2

Game Porting Toolkit is Apple’s new translation layer released on 6 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, along with games that require AVX/AVX 2, e.g. The Last of Us Part I.

Here are some tips that you should know:

  • macOS Sequoia should be used, if you want to run a game that has AVX/AVX 2 instructions.
  • macOS Sonoma should be used. You can download the pkg installer from Mr Macintosh blog.
  • macOS Ventura causes large numbers of issues with steamwebhelper.exe crashing so it isn’t recommended, to use the macOS Sonoma beta.
  • Visit Apple Developer Downloads site, these files are now free to download and use for any logged-in Apple account.
    • Search for Command Line Tools for Xcode 15 beta download the dmg file, and run the contained pkg file.
      • If you have an old version of Xcode installed, remove it.
    • Search for the Game Porting Toolkit and download it. Open/mount the dmg file (some commands will require that it is mounted).

Automated Installer • Link

  • A new open-source installer that automates the steps found in the Homebrew approach below is now available from InstallAware’s GitHub Repo. Scroll down where they have a screenshot of their graphical user interface, and download the DMG from the link right above that.
  • The automated installer is notarized by Apple, so has no known malware and runs as soon as you’ve double-clicked it without any Gatekeeper concerns.
  • Neither macOS Sonoma nor an Apple Silicon device is required by the automated installer.
  • You also won’t need to download the Game Porting Toolkit DMG from Apple, although if available, it will be utilized (you just point the installer to the DMG download, and it takes care of the rest). Of course, in this scenario, you would still need macOS Sonoma and an Apple Silicon device to enjoy 3D acceleration benefits.
  • The automated installer also doubles up as a GUI to launch existing installed apps, all visually without ever having to drop down to the command line.