Apple Silicon Mac Windows gaming and virtualization

Efforts to expand gaming and operating system compatibility on Apple Silicon Macs have progressed through different technical approaches. Initially, MaPC released a free public beta that allows Windows-based games to run on M1, M2, and M3 chips by using translation layers like Wine, DXVK, and MoltenVK to convert DirectX calls into Metal. This method supports DirectX 9, 10, and 11 but faces limitations with DirectX 12 and kernel-level anti-cheat software.

Subsequent developments have focused on lightweight virtualization. The Vimy application enables users to run macOS virtual machines directly from the Finder. Additionally, the steamac project has implemented an ARM64 SteamOS build within a microVM using the Hypervisor framework and libkrun. This setup utilizes a graphics stack where Proton translates DirectX to Vulkan, which is then passed through virtio-gpu to a Vulkan driver running on Metal, allowing SteamOS to access the Mac GPU.

Further progress includes the FX Steam Launcher, an open-source project that enables Valve’s SteamOS to run on Apple Silicon Macs using macOS 15 or newer. This launcher leverages the Hypervisor framework and libkrun to execute the ARM64 version of SteamOS. By utilizing Proton 11 for ARM64 and the FEX emulator for x86 to ARM64 instruction translation, it facilitates Windows gaming. The system supports DXVK for DirectX 9, 10, and 11, vkd3d-proton for DirectX 12, and experimental DXMT support to interface DirectX titles directly with Apple’s Metal API. Testing on high-end hardware like the MacBook Pro M4 Max has demonstrated the ability to run demanding titles.