1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:08,000 this is a gaming PC and I'm not talking about the slow trickle of afterthought 2 00:00:05,520 --> 00:00:13,120 releases that make PC ports look good by comparison thanks to Apple's new game 3 00:00:10,519 --> 00:00:18,400 porting toolkit not only will the process of porting games to Mac be much 4 00:00:15,519 --> 00:00:25,720 simpler for developers but Gamers can play PC games today right now on Apple 5 00:00:22,760 --> 00:00:30,960 silicon Max who' have thought it after all these years of giving zero cares 6 00:00:28,439 --> 00:00:35,320 whatsoever about gamers is Apple finally bringing the fight to Microsoft and 7 00:00:32,719 --> 00:00:40,840 gaming is it any good am I about to make the switch to talking about our sponsor 8 00:00:38,120 --> 00:00:45,200 build Redux is building a PC not in your wheelhouse no problem let the experts at 9 00:00:43,239 --> 00:00:49,079 build Redux help you out just pick the parts and they'll do all the hard work 10 00:00:47,239 --> 00:00:52,480 check them out at the link down below our setup which Emily is just putting 11 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:57,760 the finishing touches on right now is an M1 Ultra Max studio with 128 gigs of 12 00:00:55,719 --> 00:01:01,879 unified memory we're running macOS Sonoma which works best with the game 13 00:00:59,960 --> 00:01:07,280 supporting toolkit right now and we actually need to use two versions of 14 00:01:04,159 --> 00:01:10,240 steam the Mac native one and the Windows 15 00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:15,040 one the Mac version is easy that's it theoretically this is working now but 16 00:01:12,759 --> 00:01:18,000 the Windows version of steam must be run from the command line for reasons that 17 00:01:16,560 --> 00:01:22,560 we're going to get into in a bit more detail later of course there's no window 18 00:01:20,759 --> 00:01:27,400 snapping on Mac because why would there be you can just pay for that if you want 19 00:01:24,439 --> 00:01:32,439 it you can it's a nice app you know what it doesn't matter the point is we're 20 00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:37,759 going to try TR some games sear puny 21 00:01:32,439 --> 00:01:40,079 sear puny yeah cyber Punk hey hey who 22 00:01:37,759 --> 00:01:45,320 okay I know you did most of the work before I came here and obviously it's 23 00:01:42,320 --> 00:01:47,719 not that easy but like it's working it 24 00:01:45,320 --> 00:01:52,719 would have been more easy if the uh the guey method worked but uh it should be B 25 00:01:50,399 --> 00:01:58,039 much easier in the future instructions say adjust graphic settings and 26 00:01:55,280 --> 00:02:02,240 resolution and see what happens to frame rate I see looks like right now we're at 27 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:05,600 about 20 let's go to something more reasonable medium is this likely to 28 00:02:04,479 --> 00:02:09,560 actually complete or are you just trolling me well I mean there's only one 29 00:02:07,640 --> 00:02:13,280 way to find out I mean if you hit the space bar it might proceed one way to 30 00:02:11,800 --> 00:02:22,239 find out is to ask you if you're just trolling me oh it's running uh 11 FPS uh 31 00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:26,959 it does not look great well I mean it looks okay as long as you only look at 32 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:31,319 like still frames uhhuh yeah the still frames don't look great well we're at 33 00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:38,959 720p you could boost the resolution I uh I mean I 34 00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:41,159 could wait it's not running any worse 35 00:02:38,959 --> 00:02:45,879 the truth is I'm kind of speechless right now it's not perfect the 36 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:48,440 performance obviously sucks and at times 37 00:02:45,879 --> 00:02:52,760 steam Andor the game might crash or become unresponsive but this is still 38 00:02:50,599 --> 00:02:57,720 amazing and there are workarounds if you do experience a crash just open the 39 00:02:54,959 --> 00:03:02,680 activity monitor search for wine select all processes then click the arrows in 40 00:03:00,319 --> 00:03:08,200 the top right and click force quit wait a second wine how does a piece of Linux 41 00:03:05,760 --> 00:03:13,000 software that is not an emulator figure into all of this here's the thing game 42 00:03:11,159 --> 00:03:17,840 porting toolkit is essentially a distribution of code Weaver's crossover 43 00:03:15,239 --> 00:03:22,680 flavor of wine with what appears to be the dxvk translation layer for DirectX 9 44 00:03:20,519 --> 00:03:28,360 through 111 and then Apple's own Homespun d3d metal translation wrapper 45 00:03:25,519 --> 00:03:33,480 for directx12 which isn't without controversy thing is apple has a history 46 00:03:31,239 --> 00:03:39,200 of using open-source tools to enrich their own proprietary Solutions like 47 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:43,840 cups for printing and the khtml browser engine that became Safari's web kit and 48 00:03:41,439 --> 00:03:49,159 ultimately Chrome and like these other situations game porting toolkit is 49 00:03:46,280 --> 00:03:53,239 perfectly legal but is understandably rubbing some members of the open source 50 00:03:50,879 --> 00:03:57,560 Community the wrong way given both Apple's restrictive licensing agreement 51 00:03:55,040 --> 00:04:03,680 for the toolkit and their historically narrow contributions back to open source 52 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:06,360 software now my notes Here only say move 53 00:04:03,680 --> 00:04:11,959 on at your discretion of the nine games installed five of them work correct okay 54 00:04:09,480 --> 00:04:17,680 I want to play Civ a fine how about Hollow 55 00:04:14,319 --> 00:04:19,280 name let's go Hollow night what are the 56 00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:25,160 controls for this game on a keyboard and mouse I truthfully have no idea holy 57 00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:30,360 crap this is running at 60 FPS and actually 58 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:33,720 feels I mean I suck but but other than 59 00:04:30,360 --> 00:04:35,160 that it feels fine input lag hard to say 60 00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:39,039 even though this is a bit of a Twitchy game I find it kind of forgiving in 61 00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:43,199 terms of input leg I didn't have trouble playing it on the Logitech g-cloud for 62 00:04:40,639 --> 00:04:47,600 example it seems pretty good I would say it seems pretty darn good uh I mean it 63 00:04:45,120 --> 00:04:52,199 seems like from the sound to what I'm seeing on screen it seems pretty decent 64 00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:57,160 like maybe there's a little bit but it's definitely usable compatibility is a 65 00:04:54,840 --> 00:05:01,840 mixed bag then which makes sense given the similarity to valve's proton 66 00:04:58,919 --> 00:05:05,880 compatibility for Linux and also makes sense considering the extra step that's 67 00:05:04,160 --> 00:05:11,440 going on here of running through the Rosetta translation layer which handles 68 00:05:07,919 --> 00:05:13,919 running x86 code on Apple silicon and 69 00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:17,440 unlike proton very few support packages are installed by default which can make 70 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:22,080 things problematic if you're trying to use it like proton it's also worth 71 00:05:19,759 --> 00:05:26,759 noting that while d3d metal is closed Source crossover is gaining support for 72 00:05:24,199 --> 00:05:32,080 direct X12 this year too so game porting toolkit might not be the only option for 73 00:05:29,240 --> 00:05:37,960 gamers on Mac though of course it's not really intended to be let's go F1 let's 74 00:05:36,400 --> 00:05:42,759 go a your version of Windows is older than 75 00:05:40,759 --> 00:05:48,240 the minimum version required yes I wish to continue oh we're sorry but you can't 76 00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:51,400 there is no fraking way that Halo infinite runs I mean you're not 77 00:05:50,039 --> 00:05:55,000 currently running Halo infinite you're running I'm not running Halo infinite 78 00:05:53,160 --> 00:06:00,000 cuz I don't think that's going to run I'm trying to find ones that will run 79 00:05:57,080 --> 00:06:07,240 hey I think I found one the last total war game I played was Rome Total War the 80 00:06:04,199 --> 00:06:10,639 remake or the original the original hey 81 00:06:07,240 --> 00:06:15,080 this is running uh oh my God oh my God 82 00:06:10,639 --> 00:06:17,319 okay let's go Gamers oh crap well I suck 83 00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:21,759 this overlay in the corner here shows us how much performance we're leaving on 84 00:06:18,840 --> 00:06:28,039 the table due to translation layers and not emulation it's a lot we're using 85 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:32,599 about 20% of our GPU right now and apple knows that but that's okay because the 86 00:06:30,520 --> 00:06:37,240 general idea behind this tool and apple was very clear about it is that a 87 00:06:34,759 --> 00:06:42,479 developer using a common framework like Unity or Unreal Engine can simply 88 00:06:39,759 --> 00:06:46,960 compile a Mac version of their software without having to rewrite the graphics 89 00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:52,360 audio or input routines that they've already written for Windows they're not 90 00:06:49,280 --> 00:06:56,800 supposed to just use it like this and 91 00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:58,879 all of that sounds great but as we know 92 00:06:56,800 --> 00:07:03,000 it's not always that simple in the real world before we talk about that though 93 00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:07,919 let's discuss the advantages of this approach with the biggest one being the 94 00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:13,960 it just works Simplicity but unfortunately that's about it I mean in 95 00:07:11,039 --> 00:07:18,440 theory it does make it easier to create a native version of your game as well 96 00:07:16,520 --> 00:07:22,960 but if the way things are going on Linux is anything to go by the translation 97 00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:27,400 layer forever approach is the more likely outcome so then let's talk about 98 00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:32,360 the drawbacks of that the first is that performance should in theory be pretty 99 00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:37,360 close to proton on Linux so usually worse than Windows though sometimes 100 00:07:34,520 --> 00:07:41,520 equal or even better and the second is that if developers are not motivated to 101 00:07:39,360 --> 00:07:48,199 create true native ports this compatibility and performance is always 102 00:07:44,440 --> 00:07:50,800 going to be behind and by more than non- 103 00:07:48,199 --> 00:07:57,000 gamer Apple Executives probably realize the thing is even a compatible game 104 00:07:54,159 --> 00:08:01,560 might have dependencies that are not created by the developer like say for 105 00:07:59,240 --> 00:08:07,240 examp example anti-che the developers of which have very little incentive to Port 106 00:08:03,840 --> 00:08:09,360 their software to these Rando not 107 00:08:07,240 --> 00:08:14,759 properly supported platforms let's see if we can find one like that like say 108 00:08:12,120 --> 00:08:18,360 Halo infinite yeah okay that didn't take long see you later buddy I mean I don't 109 00:08:17,240 --> 00:08:21,879 actually know that that's because of anti-che but it almost certainly isn't 110 00:08:20,319 --> 00:08:26,120 helping but you told me there was an anti-che one that you did manage to get 111 00:08:23,840 --> 00:08:30,800 working and I assume it's this because this is all that's left yes Elden ring 112 00:08:28,639 --> 00:08:36,000 is the only one that I got to work with antiche so the idea behind it though is 113 00:08:33,479 --> 00:08:40,159 that instead of doing anything special what you do is you rename the anti chees 114 00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:43,560 executable because it starts up and then scans things and then it launches the 115 00:08:42,159 --> 00:08:50,720 game you rename that executable then you rename the game's executable to that executable name so then steam just 116 00:08:47,839 --> 00:08:54,839 launches the game the problem is that from there you don't have any online 117 00:08:53,040 --> 00:08:59,640 support whatsoever does that matter in Elden ring I mean depends on how you 118 00:08:57,160 --> 00:09:02,120 play the game ring you need online you do there's actually quite a bit of 119 00:09:00,600 --> 00:09:06,920 multiplayer in ring or you could just not do that wow oh wait oh okay no no 120 00:09:04,880 --> 00:09:11,200 that worked I swear the first time I whacked one of those pots there was a 121 00:09:08,760 --> 00:09:14,320 delayed reaction for it to crumble it might have been Shader compilation that 122 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:20,519 makes sense okay that wasn't on me I had that 123 00:09:18,200 --> 00:09:26,640 lined up I swear it do you see that I can't really see 124 00:09:23,160 --> 00:09:28,640 much just no don't lie you saw that from 125 00:09:26,640 --> 00:09:36,279 this angle all I see is just a bunch of gray blob no I editor help me out 126 00:09:33,279 --> 00:09:38,079 here I was lined up with the big one I 127 00:09:36,279 --> 00:09:44,480 have no idea what you're talking about oh hey did you notice the FPS row no it 128 00:09:41,600 --> 00:09:51,760 was at like 15 now it's like 37 what shut up that can't be running at 37 FPS 129 00:09:48,399 --> 00:09:53,880 ooh no way Elden Ring's actually running 130 00:09:51,760 --> 00:10:00,079 kind of okay I guess it needed to warm up the shaders 131 00:09:56,279 --> 00:10:03,519 interesting 30 FPS Elden ring 132 00:10:00,079 --> 00:10:06,640 I mean at what resolution though 1080p 133 00:10:03,519 --> 00:10:09,440 maximum qual and we got those results 134 00:10:06,640 --> 00:10:14,240 with the GPU at 20% and before even hydrating with this water bottle from 135 00:10:11,040 --> 00:10:16,320 LTT Store.com it's empty whatever 136 00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:21,920 doesn't matter the point is it's a very mixed bag and not everyone wants to just 137 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:27,120 buy and try random games and there's no proton DB for Mac yet but what there is 138 00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:31,320 is a community curated Google sheet that is full of lots of interesting nuggets 139 00:10:29,519 --> 00:10:36,000 here are some interesting ones Halo infinite crashed on the crossover wine 140 00:10:33,760 --> 00:10:41,079 that is used in GPT and I don't mean chat GPT I mean game porting tool kit 141 00:10:38,160 --> 00:10:45,440 but it works with proton and given its anti-che and Microsoft account 142 00:10:43,079 --> 00:10:49,519 dependencies I suspect that that's only the case because valve had to do some 143 00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:53,720 special sauce to get that working and I have to say I wonder if Apple will be 144 00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:57,880 willing to put in the work probably not given that their stated purpose is for 145 00:10:55,760 --> 00:11:04,000 developers to be the one to do the work how optimistic more on that later also 146 00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:08,560 any game that requires AVX or avx2 instructions will fail Apple silicon 147 00:11:06,760 --> 00:11:12,760 doesn't support it and neither does their Rosetta translation layer vsync 148 00:11:11,079 --> 00:11:16,839 also appears to be enforced by the compositor regardless of the in-game 149 00:11:14,600 --> 00:11:21,079 settings so you will only ever get your displays refresh rate in FPS also 150 00:11:19,399 --> 00:11:26,079 getting it to work is a pain involving terminal commands and the x86 version of 151 00:11:23,399 --> 00:11:29,959 Homebrew Isaac maritz the person who posted the infamous video of running 152 00:11:27,639 --> 00:11:33,680 cyberpunk on a Mac modified his whiskey app to support the game porting toolkit 153 00:11:31,959 --> 00:11:36,959 but the most recent version as of us recording this doesn't work though I 154 00:11:35,560 --> 00:11:40,760 suspect by the time we released this video it will be patched so keep an eye 155 00:11:39,200 --> 00:11:44,760 on that back to that developer conversation though Apple's going to 156 00:11:42,440 --> 00:11:49,760 have to support and promote this tool heavily to overcome their reputation 157 00:11:46,720 --> 00:11:51,560 among game developers they have a long 158 00:11:49,760 --> 00:11:55,959 history of ignoring the gaming industry dating back to Steve Jobs according to 159 00:11:53,480 --> 00:11:59,480 programming Legend John carac Gabe new of valve claimed that Apple kept coming 160 00:11:58,079 --> 00:12:04,320 to them talking about supporting in games but just nothing would ever come 161 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:08,519 of it and so far no major developers that I could find have publicly 162 00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:13,079 expressed support besides hideio kajima who Apple had present during their WWDC 163 00:12:10,920 --> 00:12:17,720 2023 keynote where the game porting toolkit was announced some high-profile 164 00:12:15,720 --> 00:12:22,680 releases have been coming to Mac recently like Resident Evil Village and 165 00:12:20,079 --> 00:12:26,519 no man's sky and there are some mac native games in fact we've got a couple 166 00:12:24,680 --> 00:12:30,760 of them installed so I guess the question that this raises now is if all 167 00:12:28,680 --> 00:12:35,040 went according to plan what kind of performance improvements might we see we 168 00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:39,040 don't get an FPS counter but I'm expecting the performance to be markedly 169 00:12:37,760 --> 00:12:44,160 better than when we were running with the translation layer and it looks like 170 00:12:41,760 --> 00:12:50,000 weird camera bug aside it looks like it's a lot smoother the performance is 171 00:12:47,360 --> 00:12:54,600 way better like even if it's just 60 versus 60 the frame pacing is a lot 172 00:12:51,720 --> 00:12:59,839 better right here you can tell much better and the latency is markedly 173 00:12:57,639 --> 00:13:03,519 better as well um okay I'm going to win this fight this time though oh come on 174 00:13:01,680 --> 00:13:06,720 we have more stuff to shoot today uh that's true okay I don't have time to 175 00:13:05,079 --> 00:13:12,160 win this fight but I do have time to talk about the different kinds of native 176 00:13:09,040 --> 00:13:14,920 games that run on macOS Total War is 177 00:13:12,160 --> 00:13:19,959 running on ARM but uses Rosetta for some of the multiplayer whereas shadow of the 178 00:13:16,680 --> 00:13:22,560 Tomb Raider actually uses Rosetta for 179 00:13:19,959 --> 00:13:27,199 the port so from a CPU standpoint it's actually using the same tools that is 180 00:13:25,120 --> 00:13:32,279 Rosetta as the game porting toolkit the difference then would be 181 00:13:29,600 --> 00:13:37,320 basically this is running bare metal ha haha using the metal API whereas the 182 00:13:35,800 --> 00:13:41,440 game porting toolkit version would be using d3d metal the translation layer so 183 00:13:39,800 --> 00:13:45,639 that gives us some idea of how much we're losing to the translation layer 184 00:13:44,199 --> 00:13:49,839 yeah it's a lot worse than running on metal API but that shouldn't matter 185 00:13:48,279 --> 00:13:53,920 because if Apple can stop paying lip service to gaming and actually throw 186 00:13:52,040 --> 00:13:58,720 their hat into the ring the game porting toolkit could be a game changer in the 187 00:13:57,040 --> 00:14:04,560 way that they're presenting it as it is right now now though it's a curiosity at 188 00:14:01,600 --> 00:14:09,320 best for end users and time will tell if this is actually a useful tool that will 189 00:14:07,320 --> 00:14:14,360 motivate developers to Port their games natively which is yeah going to be 190 00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:18,800 necessary for a good experience just like this good experience telling you 191 00:14:16,320 --> 00:14:23,360 about our sponsor Micro Center this summer Micro Center is opening their 192 00:14:20,519 --> 00:14:27,880 first store in8 years in Indianapolis with two more stores set to open by 2025 193 00:14:26,279 --> 00:14:32,680 they're so 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