Aren’t modern Macs literally not able to run games due to them being arm?
ARM isn’t the problem. Some games have native ARM ports, and x86 games can be run by Rosetta. It’s not as fast as native, but broadly comparable with the performance of the previous gen Intel chips they replaced.
A bigger problem on macOS is that they dropped support for 32-bit software a few years ago in Catalina. Not a problem with newer games, but it decimated Mac users’ Steam libraries.
And the biggest problem is that Apple just doesn’t give a shit about gaming. Every few years, they claim they’re going to do games, but quickly forget about it. They’ve never put decent video cards in Macs, and never hesitate to throttle hardware if proper cooling would mean a larger enclosure, so AAA games typically arrive on macOS years late, when second-rate or integrated video cards can run them.
If they actually cared, they’d have their own Vulcan implementation. Instead, they’re focused on their own proprietary Metal API.
Basically, Apple and AAA game studios have been ignoring each other for decades.
so AAA typically arrive late
that’s IF they arrive at all. Many studios/publishers just don’t care about lower hardware anymore. If it doesn’t run on current day hardware they don’t release it for it. Especially with Linux and Mac. The best time to get a release for the the two would be release day, after that it’s diminishing results
I firmly believe that with the move to ARM, they gutted macos gaming capability past the point of no return. You used to be able to say that you could run compatibility layers on it but, the new architecture makes it super hard to do so. Even virtualizing it via VirtualBox is a pain in the butt on the new system. I’ve just been telling customers if you want any type of gaming support, choose anything but the new macs.
It depends, actually. You can stack translation layers to take things from x_86 -> Arm and stuff intended for Windows -> MacOS. Depending on your solution sometimes you need to use Microsoft’s x86 translation layer and some times you use Apple’s.
This takes a pretty big hit tho. And for a long time DX12 was an issue, but with Apple’s release of the GameDev porting kit (intended for developers) you could now do play those titlss through a WineBottle. Many users did this (myself included) and I think commercial products like CrossOver are able to have the same functionality. Playing D4 on my base m1 was kinda wild.
It’s honestly kinda fun if you like tinkering, but not ideal if you care about raw performance. Ultimately tho, my Linux system is just easier now, but if I get curious if I can run a game on the thinnest laptop I own I reach for my Mac.
I guess people just trying to do things with what they have. I had a friend who plays LoL on a Mac. She also used Steam on it but there were very few games.
