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MBX

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Sep 14, 2006
2,030
816
Anyone on M1/ M2 cpu's & Sonoma tested Whisky app (with GPTK) with any of these games on Steam? Do they run well?

- Red Dead Redemption 2
- Metal Gear Solid 5
- Ragnarok
- Last of Us Part 1 (Remake)
- Ratchet & Clank
- Call of Duty MWF2 (2022)
 
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MacsRgr8

macrumors G3
Sep 8, 2002
8,285
1,755
The Netherlands
I have not played around with it much yet, but the Enhanced Quake seems to be working well on my Mac Studio M1 Max.
Another game (one of the Nascar series) caused a hard reset....
Nascar 4 runs well, but no wheel support.
 
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Irishman

macrumors 68040
Nov 2, 2006
3,396
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I have not played around with it much yet, but the Enhanced Quake seems to be working well on my Mac Studio M1 Max.
Another game (one of the Nascar series) caused a hard reset....
Nascar 4 runs well, but no wheel support.

Native or … ??
 

MacsRgr8

macrumors G3
Sep 8, 2002
8,285
1,755
The Netherlands
Native or … ??
This is running Windows games through Windows Steam using Whiskey app with GPTK.
I was amazed how well enhanced Quake runs.

I am not sure if the Mac needs to support the wheel natively so that Whisky can support it... hope not. Kinda lost faith in Apple actually delivering native wheel support as promised with Ventura…

BTW, “old” games (like original Unreal) do not work well with Whisky.

Whisky (and Apple GPTK) are ”advertised” being able to run DirectX 12 games. Anyone know of that means older DirectX versions are not ”targeted to support”?

I wonder how this compares to Crossover.
 
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MBX

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Sep 14, 2006
2,030
816
What annoys me is all this BattlEye & EAC (Easy Anti Cheat) crap that we Mac users face. It's like 50% of games are not working because of it. No matter if Crossover, Whisky or Parallels. Does it really matter how games are played, I'm not aware that you can somehow cheat by using these tools.

So all the new COD games and most other FPS/ Multiplayer games can't be played on Mac for now unless they're specifically ported for Mac.
 
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Irishman

macrumors 68040
Nov 2, 2006
3,396
844
This is running Windows games through Windows Steam using Whiskey app with GPTK.
I was amazed how well enhanced Quake runs.

I am not sure if the Mac needs to support the wheel natively so that Whisky can support it... hope not. Kinda lost faith in Apple actually delivering native wheel support as promised with Ventura…

BTW, “old” games (like original Unreal) do not work well with Whisky.

Whisky (and Apple GPTK) are ”advertised” being able to run DirectX 12 games. Anyone know of that means older DirectX versions are not ”targeted to support”?

I wonder how this compares to Crossover.

Have you tried enhanced Quake 2 yet? It's a DX 12 game too.
 

jeanlain

macrumors 68020
Mar 14, 2009
2,430
933
Games that use an old version of directX don't run well at all with whisky. I'm not even sure what translation layer is used, since it cannot be D3DMetal.
I suppose crossover works better, but I never used it.

EDIT: I see in the bottle options that DXVK can be enabled. But it doesn't seem to work.
 
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jeanlain

macrumors 68020
Mar 14, 2009
2,430
933
Tried that too. There is an update of the Whisky app to 2.1.0
No changes regarding the older games (Unreal Gold I tried from GOG)
Ditto. Old games run pretty poorly.
I tried Tomb Raider 2013. I'm not sure if it uses D3DMetal, but it crashes when trying to start a game. :(
 
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Irishman

macrumors 68040
Nov 2, 2006
3,396
844
Tried that too. There is an update of the Whisky app to 2.1.0
No changes regarding the older games (Unreal Gold I tried from GOG)

Though normally I would have no reservations about recommending Steam, given their current resistance to releasing CS 2 to Mac, I am pretty close to boycotting Steam and urging everyone else to do the same.

But, inasmuch as you may not be there yet, I do know that Steam has Unreal Gold.
 
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Spaceboi Scaphandre

macrumors 68040
Jun 8, 2022
3,414
8,095
Anyone on M1/ M2 cpu's & Sonoma tested Whisky app (with GPTK) with any of these games on Steam? Do they run well?

- Red Dead Redemption 2

Doesn't work as RDR2 uses Vulkan not DirectX. I don't know if that's still the case but during the beta in the summer it didn't work.

- Metal Gear Solid 5

Yes this runs perfectly. I tried this during the beta. Runs as great as the game runs on my Steam Deck

- Ragnarok

Umm...Ragnarok isn't on PC yet. It's still a PlayStation exclusive. Did you mean God of War 2018? If you did, then yes

- Last of Us Part 1 (Remake)

Doesn't work as the game uses AVX instructions

- Ratchet & Clank

Same as The Last of Us, won't run due to AVX instructions. I'm thinking any future PS5 games that get PC ports are gonna have that issue.

- Call of Duty MWF2 (2022)

Won't launch due to Ricochet Anti-Cheat. Ricochet only allows the game to run on Windows. It blocks it from running on Linux too.
 
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MBX

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Sep 14, 2006
2,030
816
Won't launch due to Ricochet Anti-Cheat. Ricochet only allows the game to run on Windows. It blocks it from running on Linux too.
But what does it matter if the game is played on Mac or Linux? I really don't get this anti-cheat stuff.
 

Spaceboi Scaphandre

macrumors 68040
Jun 8, 2022
3,414
8,095
But what does it matter if the game is played on Mac or Linux? I really don't get this anti-cheat stuff.

The way anticheats work is they check the environment the game is running in to make sure it wasn't tampered with that the player isn't running any cheat software in the background that gives them an unfair advantage, such as an aim assist hack that does aiming for them or wall hacks that allow them to see where other players are at all time, among other hacks. If the anticheat cannot run those checks, it blocks the game.

Mac apps are sandboxed and environment checks require permissions, permissions that are generally blocked because of the software security built into the OS. So since the anticheat can't easily scan for cheat software on Mac (as well as Linux) compared to Windows, it blocks the game from even launching.
 
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dmccloud

macrumors 68030
Sep 7, 2009
2,978
1,706
Anchorage, AK
What annoys me is all this BattlEye & EAC (Easy Anti Cheat) crap that we Mac users face. It's like 50% of games are not working because of it. No matter if Crossover, Whisky or Parallels. Does it really matter how games are played, I'm not aware that you can somehow cheat by using these tools.

So all the new COD games and most other FPS/ Multiplayer games can't be played on Mac for now unless they're specifically ported for Mac.

The sad part is that if it weren't for the PC gamers trying to find ways to cheat, there would be no need for any anti-cheat measures, and it doesn't just screw over Mac users as a result. AMD just had to pull a GPU driver update because the way they implemented anti-lag was causing CS2 players to get flagged as cheaters.
 
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skylamar

macrumors newbie
Dec 9, 2011
19
9
Hi all. I'm not much of a gamer but last year I tried X-Box Gamepass on my Mac for two months just out of curiosity to see how well game streaming works and if there are any games I like. One game I liked is an indie game called Planet of Lana which is also available for PCs via Steam. Here's the games website: https://planetoflana.com

Anyway, this week I learned about Whisky, so I installed it on my M1 Max Mac Studio, then installed the Windows version of Steam and then I paid $13.99 for Planet of Lana, not sure whether it would work or not. But to my delight, it works perfectly.

So I'm trying to find out if there are any other Steam games worth trying. Can anyone recommend any? I've seen some scattered posts online about a few games that work with Whisky but not a comprehensive list. For instance, I hadn't seen anywhere that Planet of Lana works with Whisky.

I also tried searching on the Crossover website for various games, because I figured if the games work with Crossover, they may also work with Whisky. But unless I missed it, I'm not seeing a simple of list of Steam games that work with it.

Thanks.
 

skylamar

macrumors newbie
Dec 9, 2011
19
9
Hi, it's me again. I just bought another game on Steam using Whisky and it also seems to work fine. The game is Super Mega Baseball 4. I generally like video baseball games and Super Mega Baseball seemed like the best one available that might work. I had played MLB The Show 23 on X-Box Gamepass but from what I've read online it doesn't work with Crossover. However, I did see on the Apple Gaming Wiki website that Super Mega Baseball 3 works with Crossover.

So I then went onto Steam and saw that Super Mega Baseball 4 is on sale until February 20th for $19.99 (it normally sells for $49.99). So, I bought it hoping that it would work. And it does!

I've only played a few innings but it seems pretty smooth. I've noticed a few very minor glitches in which the graphics seem a little "wavy" but it's hardly noticeable and doesn't impedes gameplay. I'll definitely play the game more because I don't really know how to play it yet. I was guessing at the controls.

However, I will say that the game definitely doesn't seem worth $49.99. It feels like a $20 game to me.
 

skylamar

macrumors newbie
Dec 9, 2011
19
9
Me once more. I realized that MLB The Show is not available for PC. So I guess Super Mega Baseball is the only real choice for an arcade-style baseball game on personal computers.

I would love to get Madden Football which is available on Steam, but I have no idea if it will work. It's currently also on sale for $20.99. Is it worth buying to see if it works? I may buy it and see what happens.
 

skylamar

macrumors newbie
Dec 9, 2011
19
9
So, I bought Madden NFL Football 24 since it was on sale with the hope of another nice surprise, but it wouldn't install. Maybe it will work in the future.
 
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