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Gaming on M1 (Look inside, Games List)
- Thread starter UCDHIUS
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If they bothered writing an engine backend for Metal, I am fairly confident M1 would run Cyberpunk at low-med settings at 1650x1050 with acceptable framerates (40-ish). Actually, it would be a great publicity move for Apple sponsoring such a port
Mac laptops have the potential to be much better gaming machines than PCs at similar noise level, weight and battery life.If they bothered writing an engine backend for Metal, I am fairly confident M1 would run Cyberpunk at low-med settings at 1650x1050 with acceptable framerates (40-ish). Actually, it would be a great publicity move for Apple sponsoring such a port
But I don't think Apple cares much about that type of gaming.
I disagree. If they didn't care about it, they wouldn't invest that heavily in gaming-specific features. I mean, this year they introduced some new frameworks for game controller support, and Metal got a lot of new toys as well. While Metal raytracing is not performant enough for games (although one can still use if for some limited stuff), there are some very cool things one can do with M1 that would be a massive PITA on some other GPU architectures.
And of course, if Apple didn't care about gaming, they would hardly spend time promoting Baldur's Gates 3 during the WWDC.
These Metal features are not specific to AAA gaming, AFAIK. They can be used for more casual games and pro apps.
Yes, Apple also helps Unity, but for me, that's not enough. (I'm not optimistic about Unreal Engine.)
Has Apple ever reached an AAA game studio to help them port a big title? We know they've been collaborating with a couple of studios (Larian), but I believe that these studios had Mac fans among their developers and that they were the ones who initiated a collaboration with Apple.
Aspyr seems to have all but stopped its Mac porting division. If Feral does the same (purely hypothetical), would Apple reach them and try to maintain Mac ports one way or another? I doubt it. They would simply let that happen and be content with the situation.
Yes, Apple also helps Unity, but for me, that's not enough. (I'm not optimistic about Unreal Engine.)
Has Apple ever reached an AAA game studio to help them port a big title? We know they've been collaborating with a couple of studios (Larian), but I believe that these studios had Mac fans among their developers and that they were the ones who initiated a collaboration with Apple.
Aspyr seems to have all but stopped its Mac porting division. If Feral does the same (purely hypothetical), would Apple reach them and try to maintain Mac ports one way or another? I doubt it. They would simply let that happen and be content with the situation.
I don't see why casual games (or pro apps) need GPU-driven render loops, variable rate shading, virtual textures, programmable AA or shader-writeable resource bindings. And don't even let me start on advanced stuff like tile shaders (which IMO are one of the most exiting GPU features since the advent of programmable shading).
If Apple only wanted to target casual games, they could have just left the Metal in the rudimentary state it was at version 1.0 and tackled on a competent compute platform (which is what pro apps mostly care about).
I don't think that Apple is known of actively encouraging or incentivizing *anyone* to bring apps to their platform. From my understanding, their stance is more along the lines "if we make a compelling products, others will join in". Don't get me wrong, I agree that sponsoring a company (or five) to bring some popular games to Mac would accelerate it's adoption as a platform for gamers, but that kind of operation is not really Apple's style...
Precisely. If they don't do something radical like purchasing a major game studio before it's purchased by another big one, the situation won't change. You can't attract major developers with less then 10% of the potential user base, even if you have the best technology out there (which isn't even the case, I suppose D3D development tools are better than Metal ones).
I play most games on Nintendo or PlayStation, but a few games are simply better played at a computer, such as Civilization, Europa Universallis or Baldur's Gate.
That said, I am not the least interested in game streaming services. Horrible idea.
BG3 was shown during the M1 announcement, Tomb Raider was what they were playing during the WWDC keynote. Either way, Apple is clearly placing more emphasis on gaming than at any time in the last two decades.
GeForce NOW plays it really well. right now $24 for 6 months. It also has years ahead of Stadia and others in compression and playing.
I was surprised but I was able to play in a multiplayer game at 900p for four hours without a desync in Europa Universalis IV. Quite impressive on the fanless 7core M1 Air. I’m quite impressed with its performance in these paradox games. The 2020 i7 iMac I had issues running native Mac OS and playing multiplayer.
Just tried it on my M1 Air. Playing at 5k on my Pro Display XDR at around 140fps, ultra with ray tracing. The Apple Silicon truly is astounding.
Added Farming Simulator 2017 Crossover Steam 1920x1080) (Medium)
** You must go into documents and open "game.xml".
Change <fullscreen>true</fullscreen
to <fullscreen>false</fullscreen>
save
launch game (no graphical glitches like FS19)
** You must go into documents and open "game.xml".
Change <fullscreen>true</fullscreen
to <fullscreen>false</fullscreen>
save
launch game (no graphical glitches like FS19)
Farming Simulator 2013 Crossover Steam 1920x1080) (Medium)
** You must go into documents and open "game.xml".
Change <fullscreen>true</fullscreen
to <fullscreen>false</fullscreen>
save
launch game (UI is offset and stutters) quite a bit.
** You must go into documents and open "game.xml".
Change <fullscreen>true</fullscreen
to <fullscreen>false</fullscreen>
save
launch game (UI is offset and stutters) quite a bit.
******* See this link for latest updated list **********
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zE23-y5b0byvcwP9XeQAPNgpyPDd2tXZtwyn2LtTco0/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zE23-y5b0byvcwP9XeQAPNgpyPDd2tXZtwyn2LtTco0/edit?usp=sharing
Mafia III DE (Crossover Steam) \*\* You need to rename “launcher.exe” to something like “me.exe”.
Then scroll down rename MafiaIIDE.exe to “launcher.exe” and launch from the root folder.
It will launch to a blackscreen
Exit out and go to /Users/"account name"/Library/Application Support/CrossOver/Bottles/"bottle name"/drive_c/users/crossover/Local Settings/Application Data/2K Games/Mafia III/Saves/videoconfig.cfg
Open Videoconfig.cfg
and change the included line to "-6 31 1920 1080 0 0 0 0 0" (without the quotes)
Severe graphical issues, but it launches and runs...
Then scroll down rename MafiaIIDE.exe to “launcher.exe” and launch from the root folder.
It will launch to a blackscreen
Exit out and go to /Users/"account name"/Library/Application Support/CrossOver/Bottles/"bottle name"/drive_c/users/crossover/Local Settings/Application Data/2K Games/Mafia III/Saves/videoconfig.cfg
Open Videoconfig.cfg
and change the included line to "-6 31 1920 1080 0 0 0 0 0" (without the quotes)
Severe graphical issues, but it launches and runs...
Added GTA V (Windows on ARM) Parallels framerate isn't great but for a proof of concept it runs !
With the amount of emulation going on i'm surprised it even launches !
See here
With the amount of emulation going on i'm surprised it even launches !
See here
Code:
Frames Per Second (Higher is better) Min, Max, Avg
Pass 0, 0.354196, 47.955593, 30.179359
Pass 1, 3.199978, 35.364223, 23.195637
Pass 2, 1.318226, 41.583427, 26.351814
Pass 3, 1.379330, 41.467823, 30.206476
Pass 4, 0.836233, 48.314625, 24.471741
Time in milliseconds(ms). (Lower is better). Min, Max, Avg
Pass 0, 20.852625, 2823.298340, 33.135231
Pass 1, 28.277166, 312.502197, 43.111557
Pass 2, 24.048042, 758.594971, 37.948051
Pass 3, 24.115084, 724.989441, 33.105484
Pass 4, 20.697666, 1195.838379, 40.863461
Frames under 16ms (for 60fps):
Pass 0: 0/258 frames (0.00%)
Pass 1: 0/211 frames (0.00%)
Pass 2: 0/233 frames (0.00%)
Pass 3: 0/273 frames (0.00%)
Pass 4: 0/2675 frames (0.00%)
Frames under 33ms (for 30fps):
Pass 0: 144/258 frames (55.81%)
Pass 1: 35/211 frames (16.59%)
Pass 2: 88/233 frames (37.77%)
Pass 3: 168/273 frames (61.54%)
Pass 4: 598/2675 frames (22.36%)
Percentiles in ms for pass 0
50%, 31.00
75%, 44.00
80%, 47.00
85%, 56.00
90%, 65.00
91%, 66.00
92%, 70.00
93%, 72.00
94%, 82.00
95%, 90.00
96%, 96.00
97%, 99.00
98%, 119.00
99%, 193.00
Percentiles in ms for pass 1
50%, 41.00
75%, 52.00
80%, 55.00
85%, 59.00
90%, 70.00
91%, 71.00
92%, 74.00
93%, 76.00
94%, 83.00
95%, 86.00
96%, 88.00
97%, 98.00
98%, 103.00
99%, 160.00
Percentiles in ms for pass 2
50%, 36.00
75%, 48.00
80%, 52.00
85%, 56.00
90%, 61.00
91%, 63.00
92%, 68.00
93%, 73.00
94%, 76.00
95%, 81.00
96%, 85.00
97%, 96.00
98%, 118.00
99%, 147.00
Percentiles in ms for pass 3
50%, 30.00
75%, 35.00
80%, 38.00
85%, 42.00
90%, 49.00
91%, 50.00
92%, 57.00
93%, 60.00
94%, 88.00
95%, 109.00
96%, 164.00
97%, 167.00
98%, 173.00
99%, 309.00
Percentiles in ms for pass 4
50%, 41.00
75%, 51.00
80%, 54.00
85%, 59.00
90%, 65.00
91%, 67.00
92%, 69.00
93%, 71.00
94%, 74.00
95%, 78.00
96%, 82.00
97%, 88.00
98%, 98.00
99%, 119.00
=== SYSTEM ===
Graphics Card Vendor Id 0x344c5250 with Device ID 0x353030
=== SETTINGS ===
Display: 1280x720 (Windowed) @ 60Hz VSync OFF
Tessellation: 0
LodScale: 0.000000
PedLodBias: 0.000000
VehicleLodBias: 0.000000
ShadowQuality: 1
ReflectionQuality: 0
ReflectionMSAA: 0
SSAO: 0
AnisotropicFiltering: 0
MSAA: 0
MSAAFragments: 0
MSAAQuality: 0
SamplingMode: 0
TextureQuality: 0
ParticleQuality: 0
WaterQuality: 0
GrassQuality: 0
ShaderQuality: 0
Shadow_SoftShadows: 0
UltraShadows_Enabled: false
Shadow_ParticleShadows: false
Shadow_Distance: 1.000000
Shadow_LongShadows: false
Shadow_SplitZStart: 0.930000
Shadow_SplitZEnd: 0.890000
Shadow_aircraftExpWeight: 0.990000
Shadow_DisableScreenSizeCheck: false
Reflection_MipBlur: true
FXAA_Enabled: false
TXAA_Enabled: false
Lighting_FogVolumes: false
Shader_SSA: false
DX_Version: 2
CityDensity: 0.000000
PedVarietyMultiplier: 1.000000
VehicleVarietyMultiplier: 1.000000
PostFX: 0
DoF: false
HdStreamingInFlight: false
MaxLodScale: 0.000000
MotionBlurStrength: 0.000000
Last edited:
So I've been playing Cyberpunk 2077 via GeForce. Get GeForce not Stadia since you actually buy and own your games in GeForce in Steam. Should you buy a PC or should the game ever come out for the Mac, you can play it. In Stadia you can't ever play anywhere else and that sucks. Cyberpunk 2077 works just fine on the MBA, but a wired connection (mine is 750MB down, Verizon's idea of "gigabit") makes all the difference. I connect via an OWC Thunderbolt dock that has a port for Cat 6e.