The World of Mac Gaming: A Mixed Bag of Opportunities and Obstacles

As we explore the world of gaming on Mac, it's clear that there's a wide range of experiences to be had. From the beautifully designed Lego Builders Journey, a gorgeous puzzle platform about creativity and parenthood, to the addictive cartoon Grindstone, which challenges players to eliminate things on a grid style game, there are countless options to choose from. Alternatively, you could spend your time playing numerous incredible Indie hits that have been imported to the platform, such as Chicory: A Colorful Tale, an adventure puzzle that explores the insecurities and self-doubt that comes with being an artist. Oh, and Disco Elysium - man, there's not a week that goes by where I don't think about that philosophical alcoholic cop simulator.

Or how about Tunic? The one part Zelda, one part Dark Souls isometric adventure game that promises to deliver a unique gaming experience. And then there's Wildermyth, the procedurally generated tactical RPG that combines strategy and storytelling in a way that's both exciting and unpredictable. Wait, where are you going? Or Timberborn, which brings SimCity-style city-building gameplay to the table with a beaver-themed twist? It seems like no matter what your gaming interests are, there's something out there for you on Mac.

Obviously, with the ability to play so many Indies on Mac, the gaming situation isn't as dire as Apple's reputation would lead you to believe. But it could be much better. Could it, though? If we think about it, what's in it for Apple? As massive as the gaming industry has become, 52% of the revenue comes from mobile, where the boys from Cupertino already score 30% of all revenue on their platform, earning them more gaming profit than the biggest actual gaming companies combined. The truth is this model is so profitable that if Apple had their way, you wouldn't be able to get Mac OS apps in games outside of the app store either. Steam, gone, browser apps, nope.

And as far as I can tell, Apple only allows this kind of freedom on the Mac because it's an already existing precedent for their computers. But while it's partly about the money, it's also about control. And when Apple can't have control, well, they can get pretty petty. You cannot use an Nvidia GPU on your $50,000 Mac Pro just because of a long-lasting spat between the two companies. Apple actually went out of their way to block Nvidia's drivers. In fairness, Nvidia is also notoriously difficult to work with, and it seems that released those drivers just to spite Apple.

But apple also stifles development in other ways by continuously refusing to support cross-platform APIs, all in the name of that precious, precious control. They won't support Vulkan, and they deprecated openGL and OpenCl with macOS Mojave, leaving support for those standard technologies as they were over a decade ago. So now your only option for games on M1 are games that can support, or at least be translated to Apple's own proprietary Metal API. And that's done using a tool like MoltenVK, a compatibility layer between Vulkan and Metal. A development effort that we wouldn't need at all if Apple would just support Vulkan.

You could argue that game studios should pick up the slack, but frankly, why should a game developer spend the money to go through the expensive process of converting their game to Metal when the only people affected are 15% of the market at best? But in reality, only a subset of those users would have devices with the GPU horsepower to run a AAA game. Only a subset of those users are interested in gaming on their laptops. And only a subset of those users wouldn't be happy with cloud gaming services or some of the other things we've already talked about.

So really, it's a story that's getting a bit tired these days. Apple engineers incredible hardware, sells at high prices, and finds new and inventive ways to make the experience worse for their customers. Like non-user removable monitor power cables and SSD compatibility high jinks. And until Apple decides that they wanna make a real investment in opening their platform, I mean, seriously, Rosetta2 alongside Vulkan would make developing games for Mac very approachable.

Or a serious investment in devouring game studios, all of Microsoft and Sony kind of like what they've done with Apple TV+, then Macs will remain great gaming devices whose potential will never be fully realized. Oh, there's potential to segue to our sponsor, who is of course WarThunder for this video, one of the few excellent competitive games that you can actually play natively on the Mac, not to mention with great performance even all the way down to the M1-based MacBook Air.

You guys can learn more about War Thunder at the link in the video description. As much as this video might have been a bit of a downer, thanks for watching. If you're interested in learning more about the world of gaming on Mac, be sure to check out our other videos and tutorials for all your gaming needs.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Pound four pound.These are some of the most powerfulgaming computers on the market.But this man, he won't let it happen.Holding your own hardware hostage.Hey Tim, that's a cowardly move.What's the matter?Are you scared of us?But for real though.Apple's most recent computersare absolutely incredible.Their custom silicon has elevated Armfrom mobile to monstrous.And it's an open secretthat these M1 series chipshave powerhouse GPS in them.So why don't they showoff cool stuff anymorelike PlayStation emulators for Mac?- Again, our goal is to havethe best game machine in the world.- Why Tim?Is Mac gaming really that bad?Well, War Thundersponsored this video todayto help us explore that.And we're gonna start witha look at a handful of gamesthat were made with the Mac in mind,or at least ported to the platform.Let's start off with thethin and light category,where we're gonna comparethe baseline M1 MacBook Airagainst an HP Envy x360.War Thunder gives usone of our best results,which makes sense given thatit was specifically madeusing Apple's own Metal API.We managed playable framerates at 1200P on high,though our poor M1 wasreaching pretty scary temps,and as expected it handily beatour comparably pricedand sized HP Envy 360 X.A clear win for the M1.But getting into moregraphically intensive AAA games,like Shadow of the Tomb Raiderand Deus Ex: Mankind Divided,we see the M1's seven GPUcourse start to strugglejust barely scrapingtogether enough framesfor these games to be playable.In fairness it still beats the HP,but by a considerably smaller margin,probably owing to the Air'slack of a cooling fan.Another thing worth notingis that the M1 wouldget absolutely dunked onby any comparably pricedmachine with discreet graphics.But those aren't exactly thin and light.Let's step up then to the $2,000M1 pro equipped MacBook pro.We chose the baseline modelwith an eight core CPU and 14 core GPUsince that's the cheapest pro modelthat gives us extra GPU cores.And that translated to respectablenumbers in War Thunder,then in Deus Ex andShadow of the Tomb Raiderwe observed performance thatwas two times and four timesthe passively cooled M1 respectively.Unfortunately these numbersdo pale in comparisonto a gaming focused Windows machinelike the $1,850 Lenovo Legion7i with a 3060 mobile GPU.The graphs kind of speakfor themselves here.Ouch.Now I can hear your cherryblues clicking away.Click bait.I thought you said thesewere gaming machines.But hear me out for a second.The baseline 14 inch MacBook promight not get the most FPS per dollar,but it is still one of, if not the bestall around machines on the marketwith an amazing screen,track pad and speakers.And it really says somethingthat even running throughtranslation layersand with such low power consumptionthat these games run at all,let alone at playable frame rates.It's a testament to thecapability of Apple silicon,capability that on the M1Ultra will match an RTX 3090if Apple is to be believed.Spoiler, we don't believe them.Subscribe if you don'twanna miss our coverageon the new hardware.The big issue here is support.There just aren't that many gamesbeing developed for Mac specifically.But there are some very usableways to fill in the gaps,like game streaming.Stadia, xCloud and GeForce now,all work brilliantly inChromium based browsers.And the choice really comes downto whether you prefer the rotating lineupand value of Xbox game pass,or if you prefer to ownyour games more permanentlylike with Nvidia service.PlayStation now will also hopefullybe a contender in the future.But that won't happen until Sony releasesa version of their appfor Arm or browsers.The biggest considerationswith streaming gamesis your proximity to thenearest the data centerand the quality of yourinternet connection.Also you'll probably wanta USB C to ethernet donglefor the best experience,and to sign up for anotification on lttstore.comif you wanna be the firstto get our new screwdriver and backpack.For those who prefer theirgames running locally,well, there are surprisinglygood options there too.Starting with parallel, whichis the only way to run Windowson these M1 chips, atleast until Microsoftloosens the reins on Windows on Arm.The good news is that I was flooredby the sheer number ofgames that are working,not just working but working well,even if you do end up leavingsome performance on the tabledue to virtualization limitations.Another option isCrossOver by Codeweavers.You could think of it kindof like the Linux Windowscompatibility and intermediary Proton,except for our Mac.In fact, Codeweaverscollaborated with Valveto develop Proton andour big sponsors of Wine.So we really like whatthis company is doing.The issue with both ofthese solutions thoughis A, that they're paid,and B, that compatibilityis spotty at best.Codeweavers at least will makespecial game specific tweaksto help improve the situation,but there are only so manyprograms one company can support.Thankfully, there are manyincredible games and experiencesthat do not require translation layers.Let's go to Adam's game cornerand talk about native Mac gaming.- First up is Apple Arcade.The program is more focusedon touch screen based experiences,something that Applecould better accommodateif they would just put atouch screen in their laptops,but there's still a ton of great gamesthat you can get for the price.Like Fantasian, a classicJRPG from Hironobu Sakaguchi,the creator of Final Fantasythat takes place onthese handmade diagrams,and they look so beautiful.Or Lego Builders Journey,a gorgeous puzzle platformabout creativity and parenthood.How about the addictive cartoon,king of eliminate things on agrid style games, Grindstone.And honestly there's a lot more.Or you could spend your timeplaying numerous incredible Indie hitsthat have imported to the platform,like Chicory: A Colorful Tale.An adventure puzzle that exploresthe insecurities and self-doubtthat comes with being an artist.Oh, Disco Elysium.Man, there's not a week thatgoes by where I don't thinkabout that philosophicalalcoholic cop simulator.Or how about Tunic?The one part Zelda, one part Dark Soulsisometric adventure game.Or Wildermyth, the procedurallygenerated tactical RPG.Wait, where are you going?Or Timberborn.It's SimCity, but with beavers,and don't forget youcan emulate on Dolphin.- Obviously, with the abilityto play so many Indies on Macthe gaming situation isn't as direas Apple's reputationwould lead you to believe.But it could be much better.Could, if it wasn't for onebig obstacle, Apple themselves,whose apathy towards gaming onMac, couldn't be more clear.It kind of makes sensethough, if you think about it.What's in it for Apple?As massive as the gamingindustry has become,52% of the revenue comes from mobile,where the boys from Cupertinoalready score 30% of allrevenue on their platform,earning them more gaming profitthan the biggest actualgaming companies combined.The truth is this model is so profitablethat if Apple had their wayyou wouldn't be able to get Mac OS appsin games outside of the app store either.Steam, gone, browser apps, nope.And as far as I can tellApple only allows thiskind of freedom on the Macbecause it's an already existing precedentfor their computers.But while it's partly about the money,it's also about control.And when Apple can't have control,well, they can get pretty petty.You cannot use an NvidiaGPU on your $50,000 Mac Projust because of a long lasting spatbetween the two companies.Apple actually went out of their wayto block Nvidia's drivers.Now in fairness,Nvidia is also notoriouslydifficult to work with.And as far as I can tell,released those driversjust to spite Apple,but apple also stiflesdevelopment in other waysby continuously refusing tosupport cross-platform APIsall in the name of thatprecious, precious control.They won't support Vulkan,and they deprecated openGLand OpenCl with macOS Mojave,leaving support for those standardstanding as they were over a decade ago.So now your only option for games on M1are games that can support,or at least be translatedto Apple's own proprietary Metal API.And that's done usinga tool like MoltenVK,a compatibility layerbetween Vulkan and Metal.A development effort thatwe wouldn't need at allif Apple would just support Vulkan.You could argue that gamestudios should pick up the slack.But frankly, why should a game developerspend the money to gothrough the expensive processof converting their game to Metalwhen the only people affectedare 15% of the market at best?But in reality only asubset of those userswould have devices with the GPU horsepowerto run a AAA game.A subset of those usersare interested in gaming on their laptops.And a subset of those userswouldn't be happy withCloud gaming services,or some of the other thingswe've already talked about.So really it's a storythat's getting a bit tired these days.Apple engineers incredible hardware,sells at high prices,and finds new and inventive waysto make the experienceworse for their customer.Like non-user removablemonitor power cablesand SSD compatibility high jinks.And until Apple decidesthat they wanna make a real investmentin opening their platform,I mean, seriously, Rosetta2 alongside Vulkan,would make developing gamesfor Mac, very approachable.Or a serious investmentin devouring game studios,all of Microsoft and Sonykind of like what they'vedone with Apple TV+,then Macs will remain great gaming deviceswhose potential willnever be fully realized.Oh, there's potentialto segue to our sponsor,who is of course, WarThunder for this video,one of the few excellent competitive gamesthat you can actuallyplay natively on the Mac,not to mention with great performanceeven all the way down tothe M1 based MacBook Air.You guys can learn more about War Thunderat the link in the video description.As much as this video mighthave been a bit of a downerthanks for watching.If you're interested in learning moreabout the performance of these laptops,check out our reviews ofthe M1 16 inch devices.(upbeat music)\n"