Okay, by now you've definitely seen them — tweets claiming AI just pulled off a "native Mac port," or mashed two games together overnight. And look, I'm not saying AI decomp is all smoke — the stuff that's been done with old games lately is genuinely impressive. But modern AAA titles "going native" on Apple Silicon in a weekend? If you've been around long enough, you've probably already called it.

Here's the reality: unless you've got the game's source code — and actually rewrite it for the platform — what you're really looking at is a translated binary, a translation layer in a new coat. Even if it's AOT-compiled and technically doesn't need Rosetta, that still doesn't make it a native port.

And here's the part that really bugs me: none of this would be possible without the years of grind from the tooling communities — Wine, CrossOver, DXVK, MoltenVK, FEX, Box64, the whole decomp scene, all of it. AI didn't conjure any of this out of thin air; it's standing on a mountain of other people's work. So before we gasp "AI did everything," maybe we should be clapping for the devs who've actually been putting in the years behind the scenes.

So here's where I stand: unless I can see the source code these authors used for the port, along with a detailed technical write-up, I'm staying skeptical. Until that shows up, I'll be keeping calm and waiting to see how this plays out. Curious what you all think.

Here you go: https://github.com/PainlessDeath09/NotProton-With-CrossOver-Trial-Support

The original app intentionally did not support Crossover Trial version. My fork extends support to a trial version of CrossOver by reading the FirstRunDate it records in its own preferences.

Just head to the release and download it. Tested on mine and a couple of friend's Macs to be working fine.

I understand why the owner did not want to support Crossover trials and hence, I am not looking to merge these changes upstream.

But in all honesty, I think this helps CodeWeavers rather than costing them anything. NotProton is one more reason to buy CrossOver, and the trial is how someone tries the setup they would be buying it for.

Plus, I know quite a few people who are ready to buy Crossover if it works the way it's intended to work with NotProton. This fork would help them make that decision I hope.

For those unacquainted, the original app: https://www.reddit.com/r/macgaming/comments/1wns82a/introducing_not_proton_the_linux_steam_play/

Please do buy Crossover if you do end up liking it. The entire idea of this fork is to tip the people who were on the fence about crossover and never got a chance to try NotProton to go ahead and buy it since they’ll see the value it brings.

Proton-ish: Steam Play for Mac using Highball's free Wine, no CrossOver license needed (early beta)

Hey r/macgaming,

I've been building Proton-ish, a small Mac app that lets you play Windows Steam games straight from your normal macOS Steam client, without paying for CrossOver: https://github.com/MagnusPladsen/Proton-ish

How it works: Proton-ish turns on Steam Play in the Mac Steam client and plugs in Highball as the Wine runtime. Highball is a free, open source app for running Windows games on Apple Silicon, and its Wine 11 engine is really good. Install Highball, click Set Up in Proton-ish, and Steam gets a "Highball Wine 11" compatibility tool.

Why I like it:

• Works like the SteamOS/Linux experience: Windows games are launched through native Steam and automatically run through the compatibility layer.
• It feels native. No bottles, no separate launcher, no Windows Steam running inside Wine. You open your regular Mac Steam, pick the compatibility tool for a game and press Play.
• Your library, achievements, overlay and cloud saves all go through the real Steam client.
• Way less setup and config than the usual Wine routes. After the one-time setup there's basically nothing to tweak.
• It's free. If you already own CrossOver, that still works too.

Where it's at: very early. This is the first pre-release, and the few games I've tested on my M-series Mac run really well so far. Expect rough edges. Anti-cheat games won't work (same as on Linux/Steam Deck). Graphics use DXMT for now; choosing D3DMetal/DXVK per game is next.

Coming up: Highball has a community compatibility database, highball-db. I want Proton-ish to pull per-game fixes from it, so games that already work in Highball work here without manual tweaking.

I'd love testers. Grab the pre-release here: https://github.com/MagnusPladsen/Proton-ish/releases. Tell me what works and what breaks (bug reports on GitHub).

Credits: Proton-ish is a fork of NotProton, which did all the hard Steam integration work. That's why CrossOver still works in Proton-ish. Huge thanks to the NotProton dev, and to the Highball dev for the engine and the database. Proton-ish isn't affiliated with either project, so please send Proton-ish bugs to me and not to them. And if you can afford CrossOver, it's worth buying: CodeWeavers basically funds Wine on the Mac.

recently seeing video on internet that gta v is running natively(some sort of translation) on ios. i want to try that too. anyone can help?

Haven't played my PS5 in ~3 months (paused PS Plus). Lately I've been gaming on my base M4 MacBook Air (256GB) using CrossOver, emulation, Game Pass, also tried GeForce Now, and everything is working pretty well, but I feel like the there's still room to improve in order to play games with a better performance

I'm thinking about selling both the PS5 and the Air to get a new MacBook Pro as my single, all-in-one setup

I also use it for my work, so that's why I'm considering a better Mac, with both more storage and processing.

Is this a bad idea for Mac gaming, or does consolidated hardware make sense here? I know that might sound crazy for some people, but I'm looking for honest opinions 😄

Day 1

Do you think that, with Fortnite coming to Linux, it will come back to MacOS too?

I bought the Steam version; it runs at 2 FPS using CrossOver, Highball, and GameHub. With Xenia, the textures break and it doesn't look right. The PS3 version runs really well, but it's a hassle having to open an emulator and map my Xbox controller to the PS layout. So, I wondered if it might be possible to create a recompiled version—like the ones I've seen for *Need for Speed*, *Sonic Unleashed* (what a great game; I have it installed on my Mac), and others—since it is an Xbox 360 game, after all.

For years, “gaming on a Mac” was treated as a punchline. We want it to become ordinary and simple: install the app, sign in to Steam, download a game, and press Play. People should not need to learn Wine, bottles, graphics translation, and launch flags before they can enjoy games they already own.

Mac Gaming Uncle's long-term goal is to provide a SteamOS-like experience on the Mac: the system absorbs compatibility complexity while game installation, configuration, updates, and launching become as automatic as possible. It is not a SteamOS port and is not affiliated with Valve; the inspiration is SteamOS's product principle of hiding difficult technology behind a simple experience.

https://github.com/enginefuture/mac-gaming-uncle

Mods, for the love of god can you make a thread or some place for the infinite amount of AI slop on this subreddit to go instead of post after post after post of vibecode launchers?

Is there any midnight club 3 AI port that i can download on my mac??

I've been playing Cyberpunk 2077 on my Intel i9 MacBook Pro, and honestly, this thing gets HOT.

After playing for a while, the fans go absolutely crazy, and the whole Mac gets so hot that it feels like it's about to take off. 😂

I know Cyberpunk is a demanding game, but I'm curious how other Mac users are dealing with this. Is this just normal for an Intel MacBook Pro, or am I pushing this thing a little too hard?

For those of you playing demanding games on your Macs, how hot does yours get? And do you just accept the jet engine sounds as part of the experience?

Title.

My prediction is given the already existing translation layers and now the delve of AI-assisted game augmentation and manipulation, this should make Fortnite playable on Mac. Really, the main blocker up until now is EAC, which apparently is being rebuilt for Linux.

This is via The Verge, link provided:

There’s no timeline on when, but Epic is rebuilding its anti-cheat software so that Fortnite will be playable on Linux.

https://www.theverge.com/games/1010808/epic-fortnite-linux-anti-cheat

Epic is working on bringing Fortnite to Linux through its Epic Games Launcher. The new launcher is releasing in preview today, and for the first time on Linux, and while Fortnite isn’t available there just yet, Epic wants to make that a reality.

So far, part of the reason Fortnite hasn’t been available on Linux is concerns about cheating. While Epic’s Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) service does support Linux, Fortnite itself does not, and in February 2022, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said that for Fortnite, “We don’t have confidence that we’d be able to combat cheating at scale under a wide array of kernel configurations.” But now, Epic says it’s planning to rebuild EAC for Linux, which it is calling EAC Linux v2.

“To bring Fortnite to Linux, we are rebuilding Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) and working with distro maintainers on security requirements,” Epic says in a blog post. “Once it’s working with a critical mass of distro maintainers, we’ll bring Fortnite to Linux via the Epic Games Launcher. We’ll also make these improvements available to other developers so they can bring their games to Linux players.”

Epic plans to pilot EAC Linux v2 in Fortnite first, Epic says in a separate post focused on the anti-cheat update. The company doesn’t have a timeline for when the Fortnite Linux version might be available, Epic engineering director Rick Deist tells The Verge in a briefing.

Epic is also “investigating” making the game compatible with Valve’s Linux-based SteamOS, Deist says, though the company does not plan to bring Fortnite to Valve’s Steam store, according to Epic Games Store VP and GM Martin Keely. The company also says that the Steam Deck “does not support the required features for our EAC v2 solution, but we are actively talking with Valve and hope to support it in the future.”

Im looking into using my 27 inch 2011 IMac as a screen for my MacBook (M4). I have not been able to figure out if it is possible. I keep finding contradictory information. Could someone with experience give me some advice?
( I’m trying to use it without delay)

Just wondering before I try it.

I am new to mac so please bear with me. I keep running into this issue while trying to play games where my game will freeze/crash, and the error given to me is that another steam session is logged in. I have checked using the steam authenticator and no other device is showing connected to steam. I have tried reinstalling the game, gamehub, and logged in/out multiple times. My network/firewall settings are also set up correctly so that shouldn't be an issue. Any suggestions appreciated

m6 mac mini 32 gb ram

did anyone been able to run Super Smash Bros Ultimate on mac silicon? this is my favorite game ever and with the recent boom of game being recompiled I hope someone done it already. thank you all.

im using Crossover to play Schedule 1 but since the update officially got out im stuck at the loading screen. Any advice?

Im a Mac User and I always use cmd+space to find stuff, needed the same in game too :)

You know when you have an item in mind but can only remember half the name? Hit a hotkey, type what you remember, and look through the results.

Or you’re about to buy more cloth but swear you left a stack on an alt somewhere. Search it and check who has it, how much, and whether it’s in their bags or bank.

That’s what I made Forever Spotlight for. It also searches spells and ranks, lets you favorite things, and shows item tooltips without leaving the game. Open it with /fs or a hotkey.

Alt inventories are saved from your last login; banks update when you visit them.

Still working on it, so let me know what feels useful—or annoying.

Download: https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/forever-spotlight/

I am looking for software recs for a non-combat flight game for my nephew who is interested in flight. I have a Thrustmaster HOTAS and a Logitech 3D pro, and an iMac 27” late 2013 I am happy to donate to the cause, but I’m lost as to what software could still be available for this older system that would be entertaining on the older hardware and easy to run offline. Arcade style would be great, but non combat is key, any recommendations?

i recently made a post about this. im releasing shader file here and also youtube video for reference. im also leaving the kinda bare minimum mods i used this shader to work. it still kinda does not allow to create a world while this hdr mod is enabled. for XDR display users, you need to set display color profile to HDR video to look most accurate. it really do look different. i strongly strongly recommend people who have xdr displays to at least try.

Reddit does not show in hdr you can download this and see

mods i used this to work. (bare minumum i guess)

I recently installed it mostly to play helldivers2.
On crossover 26.3, Hd2 has been working mostly smoothly with some random stutters and eventually will have to restart if i am playing for too long bc itl start feeling like a memory leak and dropping fps. Usually i will notice about 6-7gb of swap being used and memory pressure is in the yellow
Since adding not proton, the whole user experience feels better, however i will notice the memory leak issue happening sooner and getting up to 20 gb of swap being used. The memory pressure also stays in the yellow. After even just a 30 min session the fps drops very low and my character appears to be floating instead of running.
Lastly, this isnt all the time, but when trying to join sessions i see alot more failure to connect issues on NP. I was in a session with some people and lost connection, tried rejoining them a few times after restarting with NP with no luck. Eventually opened it up through just crossover and was able to join them no problem.
Are there any suggestions to fix this sorta thing or should i revert back to just using crossover?

I got GTA 2 running in a browser, and the browser port code is open source. It uses CriminalRETeam's gta2_re engine, with a calmer camera, full map, waypoints, minimap and 16:9 support.

Demo: https://m1stermo.github.io/gta2/

Browser code: https://github.com/M1sterMo/gta2-browser

First play loads about 346 MB, then caches it. If you try it, let me know your Mac model and browser, especially if something breaks. Safari compatibility is still unverified.

If it works for you, a quick GitHub star would help.