Apple’s DX12 Emulator Runs Diablo 4 At 70 FPS

The Apple DX12 emulator within the macOS Sonoma’s game porting toolkit further paves the way for gaming on the macOS Sonoma operating system. It is apparently able to run Diablo 4 at a framerate of 70 FPS. A Redditor on the r/macgaming subreddit showcased a video of the title’s gameplay using Apple’s DX12 emulator. The video shows the action RPG running flawlessly on macOS.  

Diablo IV on M2 Max using macOS Sonoma and game porting toolkit
by u/just_reload_it in macgaming

Apple introduced the game porting toolkit for macOS Sonoma this week at WWDC 2023. The game porting toolkit incorporated DX12 emulation, showing the gaming potential of Apple operating systems. It was released as a tool for developers to evaluate their games on macOS giving them the incentive to release more titles for the platform. 

Christina Warren, a developer at GitHub, was impressed by the toolkit and claimed that “This is essentially Proton but for macOS,” praising the capabilities of the emulator. The smooth performance of Diablo 4 using the game porting toolkit shows that Apple’s macOS system can run all the latest AAA titles if the developers choose to port them. 

This is essentially Proton (Valve’s Wine thing for Linux/SteamOS and DX12) but for macOS. This is massive.

— Christina Warren @ RenderATL (@film_girl) June 6, 2023

The M2 Max chip greatly increased the performance of the macOS Sonoma operating system, making it more adaptable to gaming. Furthermore, the Game mode was introduced, further enhancing the capability of Apple computers for ensuring a smooth game performance. It boosted CPU and GPU performance during gameplay and limited tasks running in the background. 

The license of the toolkit does not allow the developers to use it commercially. So, gaming franchises will not be using the emulator to develop and ship games directly with the toolkit. However, individuals can now make a wrapper with a Windows game and emulate it on macOS. More showcases of Windows titles are expected in the coming days using the DX12 emulator. 

Diablo 4 is an AAA title released on June 6, 2023, for various platforms, including Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. The toolkit shows how the entry could be emulated flawlessly on macOS, which raises the hopes for macOS users to get more games ported on the platform. The Apple operating systems have been lying low in the gaming industry, but things now seem to be changing.