Apple-Silicon-Guide VS Whisky

Congratulations for buying a NON-PC that's IN-capable of playing games on its own except these games https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_macOS_ARM_games. You paid top dollars for a crippled machine, all thanks to Apple. Any ARM user "Must" use one of the PC Emulators told in https://github.com/mikeroyal/Apple-Silicon-Guide which is usually Rosetta (default by Apple) for you so that you can play ANY game you see but NOT in its native speed but in Emulated (slower but not much) speed.

Steam sells only Windows games with "exceptions" for Linux games (SteamOS) and MacOS games (only means Intel-Macs, not ARM-Macs). Since you now own a non-PC now it's time to EMULATE a PC in your ARM device so first READ through https://github.com/mikeroyal/Apple-Silicon-Guide which forms the basis of how to do Gaming in any ARM device.

GPT (Game Porting Kit) is NOT what you think it's and definitely not what Apple advertises to be a Proton competitor (Proton is for SAME CPU but Different OSes, GPT is for Different CPU + Different OSes, totally irrelevant). GPT is just "another Windows EMULATOR" as there are lots of them in the https://github.com/mikeroyal/Apple-Silicon-Guide but a better one compared to previous attempts for the same thing.

Unless you sell your Mac for a PC (M1 devices are not PC), you'll need these emulation tools because nothing will change.

So there are 2 paths ahead of you; either buy a Normal Laptop (Intel or AMD) and enjoy all the PC games that can you find or buy a Apple Laptop and instead use Windows Emulation (current best solution with all emulation tools listed at https://github.com/mikeroyal/Apple-Silicon-Guide) to play any PC games you may want, with glitches of course due to emulation Basically you choose either Gaming or Apple but can't do both for a satisfactory performance because the money you'll be giving to a Apple Laptop will get you a better PC Gaming Laptop for the same price range.

All the solutions told in https://github.com/mikeroyal/Apple-Silicon-Guide are one way or another an emulation for Windows because there are no other ways. Sad thing is, Apple did the same scam back then 2000's with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC as it can be referred as M0 of is time (predecessor to M1) but that caused them to Bankrupt so later to be saved by https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/29/steve-jobs-and-bill-gates-what-happened-when-microsoft-saved-apple.html but Apple is stupid enough to repeat same mistake again and deceive their fans.

Thing is, Proton is between Operating Systems for the "same" PC Architecture of Intel CPU Instruction Set that governs all the CPUs (Intel, AMD, whatever) except only the ARM so Proton is extremely fast because it's a Code Conversion layer rather than an Emulation. Instead Apple using Mobile CPUs (where M comes from) on PC Architecture is very very different because this is between "different" PC Achitectures so code conversion won't suffice and instead Full Emulation is done from Intel-to-ARM via software on a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_machine that all ARM solutions told in https://github.com/mikeroyal/Apple-Silicon-Guide based upon.

In case anyone didn't understand his -Enigmatic- talk, he's talking about https://www.applegamingwiki.com/wiki/Game_Porting_Toolkit the latest band-aid from Apple as all previous attempts are at https://github.com/mikeroyal/Apple-Silicon-Guide to make Windows Warframe to -force- it work on M1-M2 series Macintosh models via emulation (and no GPTK doesn't work like Steam's Proton because Proton is a conversion layer between OSes so fast but Apple needs emulation between different CPU Architectures).

Basically, you own a "Mobile" CPU (where M comes from) running with the PC counterparts and no PC game is written for that CPU because all games are always written for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_instruction_listings (Intel and AMD) so players yourself now -Must- use Emulation Software that you can pick any from https://github.com/mikeroyal/Apple-Silicon-Guide. So you'll basically be running Windows in a Virtual Machine in your M1 Mac and run the game inside that virtual machine (any Windows game, it doesn't differ for you to be Mac anymore) for a lesser performance compared to running the game on a true PC that you used to have but no longer because of a poor and uninformed choice to switch to Mac.

So educate yourself by reading true articles like https://www.pcworld.com/article/394895/what-is-valve-proton-steam-deck-games-software-explained.html to learn the differences and be careful from now on where and how you get your information because you're inclined to believe in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_pollution created by Apple. Apple is creating Yet-Another-Windows-Emulator claiming to be faster from tons of other Emulators told in https://github.com/mikeroyal/Apple-Silicon-Guide which doesn't change the fact that games won't be running Natively so they'll either be slow or problematic (no emulation is perfect).

I don't think Apple really does much, at least nothing they've announced publicly.

However, Codeweavers (the company) makes Crossover, which can utilize GPT in its recent versions: https://www.codeweavers.com/crossover/

There is also Whisky, a FOSS app that uses Wine and GPT: https://github.com/Whisky-App/Whisky/ (unlike Codeweavers, it doesn't have per-game profiles, so you just have to look at its wiki and issues and try to get games to run on your own)

In my experience, neither is very good, and both are way more difficult to use than a real PC.

Maybe things will get better if the Apple VR headset spurs a game rush, but I doubt it will. In the meantime, I do all my Mac gaming on Geforce Now and it's been truly wonderful: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce-now/games/ You get a 4080 in the cloud for $20/mo, and no local heat or noise since the rendering happens remotely.

(Not affiliated with any of these companies, I just really like GeForce Now and use it every day, and have waited a loooooooong time for this to happen, hoping that Microsoft will do us a solid. They finally did!)

Thanks to Microsoft's acquisition of Activision (and them handing cloud streaming rights over to Ubisoft [1]), Diablo IV will soon be coming to Nvidia's cloud streaming service, GeForce Now [2].

GeForce Now offloads rendering to the cloud and makes your computer/tablet/phone act as a thin client that just receives the rendered frames and sends back control inputs. It's similar to how Google's failed Stadia program works, except Nvidia's offering uses your existing Steam/Epic/Xbox/etc. library, offers much more powerful hardware, and utilizes a lot of Nvidia-specific optimizations that Stadia never had.

Between DLSS, Reflex, and the upcoming cloud G-Sync, the game will likely run better on in the cloud than many desktop gaming PCs. The GeForce Now Ultimate tier comes with a RTX 4080 GPU, which is out of reach for many gamers due to its high price.

This will also finally allow Mac gamers to play Diablo IV without Crossover (which has poor performance) or Whisky and GPT (which often breaks and stays broken for weeks at a time [3]). GFN has much more powerful GPUs than even a M3 Max.

For Linux or Steam Deck gamers, D4 is already Proton Gold rated and Steam Deck verified [4], but GeForce Now should allow you to play it on much higher graphics, using less battery, and without using the fans.

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/13/23915780/ubisoft-activis...

[2] https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/CES-2024-geforce-now-activisio...

[3] https://github.com/Whisky-App/Whisky/issues/682

[4] https://www.protondb.com/app/2344520

Have you tried Apple Porting Toolkit? It’s able to get most of my Steam library working well (Cyberpunk and Halo for example). There is an app called Whisky that removes the hoops.

https://getwhisky.app/

https://github.com/Whisky-App/Whisky/issues/682

Today you just go to https://getwhisky.app/ and grab the app.

Whisky is amazing. It uses an older — free — version of CrossOver (proprietary and commercial software built on Wine). I'm able to play GTA V on very high graphics settings with amazingly fluid fps on my M1 Pro, with DXVK enabled in Whisky!

Whisky makes playing Windows games much more feasible with Apple's Game Porting Toolkit.