Apple has always been known for making the most powerful and battery-efficient CPU and GPU systems. No wonder many pro users out there choose to buy the Mac series of PCs by Apple over Windows alternatives. This article is dedicated to understanding the much talked about Apple games porting toolkit.
Apple sells the Mac for various types of usage scenarios. This includes the Mac desktop for home use, the MacBook for portability, Mac Studio, Mac Mini, and much more! Macs are best in their price range for powerful performance, great portability and battery life, Apple Apps for content creation purposes, and the best ecosystem features for iPhone users.
But where Apple, unfortunately, lacked was gaming. Most games were only compatible with Windows PCs, hence causing users to choose it over Mac for this reason. Mac users who love gaming would have to make a sacrifice here. In the recently concluded WWDC 23, Apple launched a software toolkit to solve this and finally lure more users into buying Mac.
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But Wait, What Is Software Porting?
Porting software is the process of adapting software to run on a different platform, such as a different operating system, processor, or hardware architecture. This can involve making changes to the code, data structures, or even the user interface. You could also call software porting similar to porting a SIM, where users switch to a different carrier without changing their phone number. Whereas in software porting, users can run the same kind of software, usually limited to a single OS on multiple different OSs.
For example, the internet browser Mozilla Firefox has been ported to around 60 platforms (Android, Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.).
Also, one of the most played games, Minecraft, was ported to Mac in 2011. As Minecraft was built on Java which is a cross-platform coding language, it was relatively easier to port.
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How Does Apple Games Porting Toolkit Work?
In simple words, the Apple Games Porting Toolkit allows developers to take pre-existing DirectX 11 and DirectX12 games and run them through a translation layer to be able to play games on MacOS.
In order to make games work on Mac, the Games porting toolkit runs the game through Wine, a compatibility layer that allows Mac users to run Windows software on Mac.
Here’s how you can make the Apple Games Porting toolkit work:
- Make sure your Mac is updated to the latest version.
- Follow the instructions on this page in order to run the necessary codes and prepare for the toolkit installation.
- Go to the Apple Developers Site and download the Apple Game Porting Toolkit from here.
- Follow further instructions from this link in order to run the Wine software to enable compatibility.
- Next, you can now download and install gaming services like Steam, Battlenet, Epic, etc and play Windows games on your Mac.
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How is the Apple Games Porting Tool Beneficial For Users? (And Well, For Apple)
The Apple Games Porting Toolkit and finally be the cherry on the cake for most users. How? Most users who love working and playing games would finally be able to play games on a Mac. This eliminates the need for users to spend more money by having a Mac for work and a Windows PC for gaming.
Users can instead now get a Mac for almost all their needs, be it work, content creation, or gaming. Macs have been the best in terms of work-only-based usage scenarios. But the Apple Games Porting Toolkit could make casual gamers switch to Mac to work and play on one device. Users can now play most Windows-based games on Mac OS. Plus, the games may also be played offline (independency from game streaming platforms!).
This could also lead Apple to get a better market share of the PC space and bring in more users than ever. In the future, there’s also scope to see new games to be compatible on Apple silicon Mac too.
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What Are The Limitations For Now?
Since the Apple Games Porting Toolkit is in its early stages of post-launch, things may not be picture perfect. Here are a few limitations for now:
- There may be compatibility issues for certain games, causing them to not be playable.
- Since the toolkit is in its early stages, there will be bugs and issues which should be solved through further updates and developments
- The toolkit is comparatively new, hence it may be complicated to use for most users and developers out there.
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My Thoughts
Apple has indeed struck the right nail with the introduction of Apple Games Porting Toolkit. In my opinion, I expect more casual gamers to switch to Mac in the near future. Apple has really done a genius move to literally grab users who literally did not switched for the lack of portability, which appears to be a resolved issue now. Even though the setup is still a hiccup and involves lot of processes even now, the trial is totally worth it for seamless experience offered by Macbook. Expect that to change in a few year’s time as the Apple Games Porting Toolkit gets better over the years!
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