So I used crossover+not proton and somehow I got to this fall guys on Mac native ish via emu yk but is easy anti cheat finally comapatble or sami compatible?

Can we get a new AI flare so I can filter this deluge of nonsense out?

Hey everyone!

I have a MacBook Air M3 with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage, and I've been thinking about getting into gaming on it.

I'm pretty new to gaming on Mac, so I'm not sure where to start or what to expect.

I'm mainly interested in games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Assassin's Creed Shadows, Europa Universalis V, and Crusader Kings III.

I know the MacBook Air isn't exactly designed for gaming, especially since it doesn't have a fan, but I'm curious if anyone has managed to play these games or similar ones on an M3 Air.

How do you guys usually play games? Do you use Steam, CrossOver, Whisky, cloud gaming, or something else? And how's the actual performance?

I'm not expecting ultra graphics or crazy FPS. I'd be happy with decent graphics and smooth, playable performance.

Also, is running demanding games for a few hours bad for the MacBook in the long run, considering the heat?

Would love to hear from anyone with a similar setup, especially what games you've managed to run and what you'd recommend to someone just starting.

Thanks!

Добрый всем ,кто поможет решить проблему вылета игры?

IMPORTANT

I make this post because if you search "how to play [insert Gacha game] on Mac", most of the result never consider the user being a broke college student with a Macbook Neo.

I do not guarantee these are the best ways to play those games, but I can guarantee that they're free. Not "free trial for X days", not "the software is free but to get a game file you need to wait for several days unless you paid for the VIP queue", it's free free.

My machine: M1 Macbook with 16GB of RAM.

Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, Zenless Zone Zero

Use this: https://github.com/yaagl/yet-another-anime-game-launcher

• Each game has a custom launcher, CN & Global has its own version.
• Surprisingly good performance.
• Update right away.
• Work with mouse & keyboard.
• Devs actively support & fix bug.

Wuthering Wave, Honkai Impact 3rd, Infinity Nikki, Neverness to Everness, Reverse: 1999, Chaos Zero Nightmare

Use the native MacOS version on App Store.

• Reverse: 1999 & Chaos Zero Nightmare aren't really native, more that they run the iPad version of those games on your Mac. However, since they're turn based card game, I find that controlling with just the mouse is completely fine.
• Path To Nowhere is similar but I don't play the game so I'm not sure.
• HI3rd, R1999 & CZN are pretty lightweight game so performance is fine.
• No one seem to make an attempt as making a completely free way to play the PC version of Wuwa, NTE & Infinity Nikki so I can't say this the best performed options, but they're definitely the best supported option.
• Wuwa, NTE & Infinity Nikki are demanding 3D open world games so they barely reach 40 - 60 fps with the lowest setting on my M1 machine.

Arknight: Endfield

Use this: https://github.com/AugustLigh/LLauncher

• Custom launcher just for Endfield.
• Surprisingly good performance.
• Update right away.
• Work with mouse & keyboard.
• Devs actively support & fix bug.
• WARNING: at the time of this post, the MacOS version is being blocked by Endfield's newly updated anti-cheat (YES, all of your beloved Singleplayer PvE Gacha game has anti-cheat). The devs already fix it for Window & Linux and are working on the MacOS version.

Punishing Gray Raven, Limbus Company, Aniimo

Use this: https://github.com/Sikarugir-App/Sikarugir

• This is a bit technical.
• If you aren't tech savvy, best is to follow to Youtube on how to install Steam with Sikarugir, then play the game above via Steam since they all available on Steam.
• Tips: tick both Direct3D to Metal & DirectX to Vulkan.
• PGR & Limbus perform really well.
• Aniimo is too new so I can't find any free alternative for the PC version to compare.
• They all work with mouse & keyboard.
• They all get new update right away.
• Devs actively support & fix bug. Most user of Sikarugir use it to play game on Steam so the devs focus mostly on that.
• Not gacha games but Warframe & Brawhalla run well too.

Girl Frontline 2, Duet Night Abyss

Once again, use https://github.com/Sikarugir-App/Sikarugir, but download the official Window launcher of those game, and create a separate bottle for them.

• This is very technical.
• Install them similar to Steam, but choose the .exe file instead of using Winetrick.
• After running the Launcher Installer, change the directory to the Launcher, so that subsequence boot will open the launcher instead of the Launcher Installer.
• Use the launcher to download and install the game, then run the game through the Launcher.
• Technically you can install PGR & Aniimo this way too because those games also have a Window Launcher.
• Girl Frontline 2 run extremely well, while DNA run like piss (but I suspect it's because the game itself is poorly optimized).
• They all work with mouse & keyboard.
• They all update right away.

Reliable method for emergency

Most of the method above are 3rd party solution done by indie devs, so the risk of something breaking after the game update (see Endfield above) or the devs drop the project indefinitely are always present. If that happen on a day you really need to open your game, here's an emergency method.

Use this: https://www.bluestacks.com/mac

• This is an Android emulator. Since all of the game mentioned above has a mobile version, they should be accessable through this method.

https://playcover.io

• There is also Playcover which is an iOS emulator. However, it require you to install the .IPA file yourself, but since all Gacha games has regular update, this option is kind of a pain in the *ss.
• Bluestack Air emulate and entire Samsung phone instead, so you download & update the game through the real Google Play.

I'm the developer of Super Retro Race, a retro arcade racer coming to macOS and Windows. You weave through traffic, use nitro to get through openings and try to keep the journey going before the timer runs out. This trailer combines gameplay with cinematic shots of the car and scenery.

A free demo is already available on Steam for both platforms. The full game launches October 28, 2026. If you've been looking for another arcade racer to play on your Mac, please consider trying the demo and adding it to your wishlist.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5348290/

Stuttering in GeForce NOW on a Mac is so annoying. But there's a fix for MacOS that actually works.

The cause is AWDL, the Wi-Fi feature behind AirDrop and Handoff. Every few seconds it hops your Wi-Fi to another channel, and in a stream that shows up as lag spikes. macOS keeps turning it back on, so a one-time fix doesn't stick.

I made a lightweight app that turns AWDL off while GeForce NOW runs. Every time macOS switches it back on, the app catches that at the kernel level and turns it off again within a fraction of a millisecond. When you quit, AirDrop works again. It sits in the menu bar and stays out of your way. Lifesaver for me!

Credit where it's due: it started with swicken's gfn-awdl-watcher script, and the technique comes from Oliver Ames' Ping Warden, which builds on James Howard's AWDLControl and jamestut's awdlkiller. Thanks to all of them.

Ping Warden is a great app with more features, but it now costs $15. I don't think a fix like this should cost money, so mine is free and open source. It's written in Rust, runs on Apple silicon and Intel, and comes in 7 languages.

Heads-up: it isn't notarized by Apple, so the first time you open it you need System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. It asks for your password once to install the small helper that switches AWDL.

Download: https://github.com/brainvine/gfn-optimizer/releases/latest

Works for all game-streaming apps, not just GeforceNOW.

Imperium is developed on a Mac, so the macOS build isn't an afterthought: native universal build on Steam, no Wine or CrossOver.

It's a single-player space 4X with real depth and a lot of polish. The free demo is in Next Fest (Oct 19 to 26), and full release follows shortly after.

AI tools were used across the workflow, alongside 7+ months of human design and testing. Proud of it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4806180/Imperium/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=r_macgaming&utm_campaign=nextfest_trailer

Hey everyone! 👋

I just released **CherryHud**, a lightweight, open-source, and hassle-free in-game performance overlay for macOS that I've been developing! If you game on a Mac and want to keep an eye on your performance, this is for you.

🌐 **Website & Download:** https://cherryhud.com

🐙 **Source Code:** https://github.com/Matricard/CherryHud

---

### ✨ Highlights & Features

- **🛡️ 100% Safe & Anti-Cheat Friendly:** Unlike MangoHud (Linux) or RivaTuner (Windows) which inject DLLs/code directly into game memory, CherryHud runs strictly out-of-process. There is **zero risk of getting banned** by anti-cheats (like Blizzard's Warden in WoW, EasyAntiCheat, etc.).

- **🔒 No Root / No Sudo Required:** Requires no administrator password or heavy `powermetrics` background scripts.

- **📊 True Telemetry (Way beyond Apple's Metal HUD):** Apple's built-in Metal HUD is great for developers, but requires terminal flags and can't display hardware temperatures, system RAM, or MacBook battery. CherryHud tracks **real-time FPS, frametimes (with micro-stutter sparklines), CPU & GPU temperatures (°C), utilization %, dedicated VRAM, RAM, and battery** in one clean card.

- **⚡ Smart Auto-Game Mode:** The overlay automatically pops up when a 3D game goes full-screen / in-focus and hides itself as soon as you return to the desktop. No hotkeys to memorize.

- **🚀 Zero Input Lag & Zero Performance Hit:** Rendered on an auxiliary window layer that is completely transparent to your mouse and keyboard. Thanks to Apple Silicon's multi-plane hardware display engine, overlaying this window introduces zero FPS drop.

---

### 💻 Requirements

- Apple Silicon Mac (M-series) running macOS 13.0 (Ventura) or newer.

The project is completely free and open-source (MIT). Feel free to download it, try it out on your favorite games, and let me know what you think! 🍒

Is anyone else having issues with Deadlock not making it past the loading wheel upon launching? I'm on an M4 Pro Mac Mini on 27.0.1. and I have Crossover + NotProton. It was working fine last week and I tried launching the game earlier today but It gets stuck on the logo as it fades. Everything is up to date and I even tried a fresh reinstall with no success. My other games work just fine so it doesn't appear to be a Crossover or NotProton issue.

I've recently made the switch to MacOS after being a Windows user for the past 25 years. Windows has only gotten worse the past years, and over time the (legacy) software I use for work received native AS versions or work good enough in a VM. I still like to play games from time to time, and I've really been impressed by what's possible here too. Switch emulation and World of Warcraft works amazingly well, which are some of the things I've mostly been playing nowadays.

However, there is literally one piece of software that's made the switch to MacOS difficult; DayZ. This is a game that childhood friends and I play on the regular to catch up with each other, and something pretty important to me to keep running. Unfortunately this game doesn't have a native app on MacOS, nor does it work through current translation layers due to BattlEye anti-cheat.

I've been trying to play the game through a VM. I'd say it works extremely well for what it is, but the input delay and (micro)stutters make it practically unplayable. However, the vision is there, because when it's not stuttering it runs close to 60fps. So in a way it's quite frustrating that the game runs and doesn't run at the same time!

I'm wondering if I should be hopeful for any improvements in this regard, or that I should temper my expectations. For example, I know that DayZ works with BattlEye on Linux. What is the feasibility or outlook on getting this working on MacOS? Is this something that requires a lot of work from the developers or community? And on that note, I see a lot of community work done on getting games to work on PC/MacOS through agentic AI workflows; is this something that would allow or speed up stable version of DayZ on MacOS?

I'm sorry for the many clueless questions, since I'm not really up to speed with the state of the art of translation, emulation, anti-cheat software etc. I'd be extremely thankful if someone could give me an answer on what I should expect. I'd love to play this game on MacOS!

Hi all,

I made SpellBin a small silly mac utility app that let's you bin files using a cauldron

You can drop files into the cauldron and unlock achievements and new skins along the way as a bit of an idle game :)

It's a one time purchase, all future updates come with it. The only network calls it makes are licence key checks and app update checks. No analytics, crash reports or anything like that.

Would love to know what people think of it!

the game with sikarugir takes around 1.7GB of space which is mostly windows overhead, after using butterscotch (re-implementation of gamemaker runner) the whole app is now around 160MB.

the game is available as a dmg in releases

https://github.com/DevER-M/Undertale_Macos_port

Tested Over the Hill on my 14-inch M5 Pro MacBook Pro using CrossOver at 2K resolution.

Mac Specs:

M5 Pro (15-core CPU / 16-core GPU)

48GB Unified Memory

1TB SSD

Recorded the first 25+ minutes of gameplay with a live FPS graph throughout, so you can see how the game performs during off-road driving, exploration, and trail challenges.

⚙️ Graphics settings shown at 25:16.

🎮 Gameplay & FPS Test: https://youtu.be/5nmqFV62kkY

Can the M5 Pro hold 60 FPS at 2K? Curious what you guys think of the performance. Anyone else trying Over the Hill on Apple Silicon through CrossOver?

MacBook Air M1 8gb

Sequoia 15.7.7

Crossover 26

The game works perfectly, effects and other graphics options are set to low settings, 720p resolution.

Obviously we have a ton of AI slop on this subreddit, but there seems to be some pretty solid recompilations/ports that seem to be going under the radar.

It'd be nice to have a database not unlike the Crossover compatibility DB that lists whether a game has been recompiled and/or patched by AI to work on Mac

Hey everyone!

I built a native macOS app called PollingRateTester to measure mouse polling rates and investigate how different macOS input APIs handle mouse events.

I originally started this project because browser-based polling rate testers were showing inconsistent results on my Mac, so I wanted to experiment with different input measurement methods.

Download: https://github.com/HIRBOWD/PollingRateTester/releases

Source code: https://github.com/HIRBOWD/PollingRateTester

A quick note: observed event rates aren’t necessarily identical to a mouse’s verified hardware polling rate, and IPS accuracy depends on the available movement data and CPI calibration.

I made a sailing simulator for Mac and iOS while studying for my skipper licence

Hi everyone,

I’m a retired doctor from Madrid. While studying for my skipper licence I wanted a way to practise at home, so I built SailorSim, a sail and motor simulator set in the Mediterranean.

Leave the port, trim the sails, tack and gybe, anchor in a cove, enter Mahón harbour between buoys and ferries, or sail all the way to Salou, Mallorca and Menorca, by day, at night or in a storm. Charts come from OpenStreetMap.

Free, no ads, no data collection, works offline. English and Spanish. Runs on Mac, iPhone and iPad.

It’s my first sailing game, so any feedback is very welcome.

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6822390196

Fair winds!

Thanks for reading, and fair winds!

Starting from the port that produced this

https://github.com/BlackLineInteractive/Driveclub-Port—I’ve

managed to reach this point on my MacBook M1 Max. I’ve spent about 24 hours trying to optimize everything; it wouldn’t even launch on Apple Silicon before, but now I’m hitting 23–24 fps. The CPU is very well-optimized—usage is quite low, just as it should be—but the GPU and shaders are the current sticking points. I’m working on those; once I clear up the visual glitches caused by other players' lights, I hope to shave off enough time to boost the frame rate further.

We’ll see—in the meantime, I hope to post something to GitHub later this evening so others can collaborate with me.

Beyond that, I’d like to bring *Forza Horizon 3* or *2* to Apple Silicon Macs, since nobody else seems to be thinking of us! =)

https://github.com/fladnaG86/Driveclub-Port-AppleSilicon

Finally, AI began to be used for its intended purpose, and now you can get such results. Yes, the game is 2005, but it looks incredible on my M1 base, and works at an honest 60 fps. I hope in the near future we will get more ports of old but very cool games, or games for Mac 32 bit ported to Apple silicon.

Edit: 0.5.1 is out with some fixes

https://github.com/Wooloomooloo2/bloodborne_mac_port/releases/tag/mac-v0.5.1

Fixes are:

- Missing icons at 1440p, thanks again Noel

- macOS27 game has been falling back to single process (I've built on '26) GPU process start should now work

- Incomplete game folders now get an error message

- New Character name entry fixed in full screen

https://github.com/Wooloomooloo2/bloodborne_mac_port/releases

So this one has taken a while, but finally no MoltenVK, full metal renderer and shader pipeline. MetalFX fully supported, FSR 3.1 supported on Metal back end. Memory leak fixed (should stop crashing) and fix for lower memory Macs (thanks Noel Miller).

Enjoy and give feedback, feedback is best sent to Github, but happy to engage here. Very interested in how base Macs with 16GB of RAM do with the full native renderer.

My 8BitDo Ultimate 2C Wireless worked in some games on macOS but was invisible to every game that uses Apple's GameController framework. I fixed it in the firmware. The controller now identifies as an Xbox Elite v2 over Bluetooth, so games see a fully supported controller with no drivers and no background software.

What the patch does

• The controller now advertises itself as an Xbox Elite v2 over Bluetooth, which is an identity macOS already supports.
• It sends input reports in the real Xbox Bluetooth format, so every button, stick, and trigger lands where Apple's driver expects it.
• Rumble works. The stock Bluetooth rumble path was broken in a way that macOS could never use, and the patch repairs it.

Everything works except L4 and R4. The controller sends them, and SDL-based readers can see them, but macOS does not expose paddle button, so GameController-native games won't see them. If you want them in a game, remap them to standard buttons on the controller itself. Tested on an M5 Mac running macOS 27.

Caveats

• This modifies firmware, so flash carefully. The script backs up your flash first, and the official 8BitDo updater can restore stock firmware over USB, but nothing is guaranteed. Flash at your own risk.
• I built this with AI assistance, including the reverse engineering.
• It only accepts the official 1.06 beta as the base image. Other versions are refused.
• I only tested Apple Silicon on macOS 27. It may work on other devices as this patch is done in the controller firmware. If you try it on something else, I would like to hear what happens.

Github repository: https://github.com/Alan-Gomes/8bitdo-macos

Leave a star if you liked it!

I had just purchased the new ROR2 DLC, Hallowed Concepts, and wanted to play it on my MacBook. I got through loading and character selection, but when I pressed E to leave my escape pod, nothing happened. Now I have tried reinstalling the game, removing my mods, and switching from keyboard to controller, and nothing has worked for me. With the other 3 DLCs installed, I did not have this bug.

Does anyone have any insight into how I can fix this?

I'm using Crossovers, and I have a 2022 MacBook Pro with an M2 Chip and 16 GB of Memory. I am running Tahoe 26.6.2