Vratislav Holub Macs have improved significantly by switching to their own chips from the Apple Silicon family. The new models are significantly more powerful and economical, which makes them perfect partners for work. Such a change understandably opened a long-standing discussion on the topic of gaming on Macs, or is the arrival of Apple Silicon the salvation for playing video games on Apple computers? But the situation is not so rosy.
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But now there was a flash of better times. On the occasion of the WWDC 2022 developer conference, Apple presented us with new operating systems, including macOS 13 Ventura. Although the new system focuses primarily on continuity and is intended to help apple growers with their productivity, the giant has also honed in on the aforementioned topic of gaming. In particular, he boasted a new version of the Metal 3 graphics API, which offers greater efficiency and, in general, significantly better handling of games thanks to a number of new functions. As the apple company says, the combination of Apple silicon and Metal 3 elevates gaming to a level we've never been before.
Salvation for gaming or just empty promises?
From what Apple told us at the conference itself, we can only conclude one thing - gaming on Macs is finally moving to a respectable level and the situation will only get better. Although this optimistic view is beautiful at first glance, it is necessary to approach the statements with more caution. Even so, the shift on Apple's part is indisputable, and the truth remains that Macs will really get a little better thanks to the new macOS 13 Ventura operating system. Moreover, the Metal graphics API itself is not bad in itself and can achieve great results. In addition, since it is a technology directly from Apple, it is also well connected with Apple hardware, and on the aforementioned Macs with Apple silicon, it can offer really solid results.
Optimized games can run smoothly
But there is a rather fundamental catch, because of which we can practically forget about gaming anyway. The core of the whole problem lies in the graphics API itself. As we mentioned above, this is a technology directly from Apple, which also does not allow other alternatives for its platforms, which makes the work of developers quite difficult. They use completely different technologies for their game titles and more or less ignore Metal, which, after the operating system itself, is the main reason why we don't have full-fledged games available on Macs. In the end, it's also logical. There are significantly fewer Apple users, and it is also clear to everyone that they are not particularly interested in gaming. From this point of view, it would be pointless to waste money and time to prepare a game running on Metal, and therefore it is easier to wave your hand over apple platforms.
Alternative for Metal
In theory, this whole problem has a relatively simple solution. In the end, it would be enough if Apple brought support for another technology to its platforms, and the multi-platform Vulcan interface could be a fairly solid candidate. But it is not from Apple, and the giant therefore has no control over it, and that is why it is making its way with its own solution. This puts us in a never-ending loop - Apple doesn't respect the alternative approach, while game developers don't respect Metal. Whether these problems will ever be resolved is unclear for now. Unfortunately, the development so far does not give much indication of this, and it is therefore a question whether we will ever see the desired change.
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