Apple Game Porting Toolkit, Launch, Availability
Apple’s Mac computers have been in the market for decades now and are quite popular. But the number of games on macOS is considerably scarce, hence creating hassles of playing popular AAA titles. Well, that might change soon with Apple’s new toolkit known as Game Porting Toolkit which is making it easy to port games from Windows to Mac. Without further ado, let’s get straight into the news.
Game Porting Toolkit Overview:
Looking back at the WWDC Event 2023
The WWDC Event 2023 witnessed Apple launching a new 15-inch Macbook Air, Vision Pro, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro. Not only that, the company announced the Beta for iOS 17 and also, the Game Porting Toolkit. This toolkit aims to pave the way for developers to port Windows games on macOS without much of a hassle.
Apple Mac Studio (2023)
How does it work?
As the name implies, the Game Porting Toolkit enables a translation layer (emulation environment) for running existing Windows games on macOS without having to make any changes to the code. The Metal shader converter on the toolkit makes the Windows games shaders and graphics code compatible with the Macs.
The Game Porting Toolkit (Beta) is already out on Apple’s developer forum. Developers can straightly try this tool to see how their games perform on macOS. It will significantly make it less time-consuming for developers to port games from Windows to Mac. Not only developers, but geeks can also give it a try by following the guide.
Not quite there yet
As of now DirectX12 games are working somewhat fine. Meanwhile, games using anti-cheat or aggressive DRMs are not running as per the guide. Going by Dave2D’s videothe tech Youtuber was able to run Cyberpunk 2077 up to 71 fps, Diablo 4 at 97 fps, and Hogwarts Legacy at 59 fps on a Mac Studio M1 Ultra.
Source:- Dave2D (Youtube)
The fps count might not seem too tempting here. But given that it’s a port test, this actually generates more scope for further improvements for a game developer to finalize a proper port.
To wrap it all up, Apple seems to finally hear the voices of the gaming community. Its new macOS Sonoma will include a new gaming mode, providing more CPU and GPU boost for a gaming session. Besides that, gamers can get reduced audio latency on their Airpods and also on third-party game controllers through doubled Bluetooth sampling rate. And the Game Porting Toolkit is opening more ways for gamers to enjoy on the macOS.
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