Apple is (finally) making a big difference to AAA games on the Mac

The Mac has never been a gaming platform, although that may change soon. During WWDC 2022, the technology company has announced MetalFX, a new graphics scaling technology that will let you run AAA games on Mac and other company devices. MetalFX is very similar to NVIDIA DLSS technology and uses algorithms to scale frames without losing quality.

From a practical point of view, A Mac can run graphics-intensive games without a dedicated GPU.like it does on PC. An example is Resident Evil Village, the latest game from Capcom that runs seamlessly on the Apple Silicon Mac. Masaru Ijuin, director of advanced technical research at Capcom, said that survival horror Runs smoothly on MacBook Air at 1080p or Mac Studio at 4K thanks to MetalFX.

The technology renders smaller frames to which high-quality spatial scaling algorithms are applied and smoothing. Scaling is a technique that is gaining momentum in the gaming industry thanks to NVIDIA DLSS. games like Control, Death Stranding or the same Cyberpunk 2077 can be enjoyed in high quality without sacrificing performance using medium or budget equipment.

Frame scaling produces amazing results

“This was previously only possible on high-end consoles and gaming PCs,” said Masaru Ijuin. “Now we can offer it on every Mac with an Apple processor,” he said. MetalFX will be available for all Apple Silicon devices such as the iPad Air. Nobody’s sky It will arrive on Mac and iPad later this year and will take advantage of this technology.

In addition to MetalFX, Apple also announced a new API for Metal 3 that will allow faster loading of resources in games. This technology, similar to Microsoft’s DirectStorage technology, will provide a direct link between storage and a unified storage system. Thus, the GPU will have access to high-quality textures and models in less time.

The presence of video games in Apple’s keynotes is nothing new, but WWDC 2022 announcements offer a different picture. The advent of Apple Silicon bridges the gap that existed between mobile devices and desktop computers. The newly announced M2 not only outperforms Intel’s 10-core chip, but is also more efficient.

The presence of scaling technology that allows you to run AAA-level games such as Resident Evil Village on a Mac it’s great, however it’s only half the equation. For next-generation games to make it into the Apple ecosystem, the company must give them the value they deserve. Those from Cupertino will have to convince other high-level developers carry more games.

New day for Mac gaming?

Playing games on a Mac has always been considered bad manners. thanks to late releases and Steve Jobs’ lack of interest in the video game industry. In a post posted on his Facebook, John Carmack, co-founder of id Software and creator of rocksaid that Jobs never had a good gaming experience.

Steve didn’t have a high opinion of games and always wished they weren’t as important to his platforms as it turned out.

John Carmack

Carmack intended to convince Apple to adopt OpenGL as their 3D graphics API, but it was not easy. One of the most memorable presentations came at Macworld 2001 in Tokyo, when Steve Jobs invited Carmack on stage to show a demo of Doom 3 running in OpenGL on Mac OS X. Years later, the id Software genius showed off the id.Tech 5 engine at WWDC. 2007 works on Mac.

John Carmack was the first to see the potential of the iPhone as a portable console. “A gigantic (at the time) full color GPU display! We could do amazing things with him,” he said. Unfortunately, statements taken out of context upset Steve Jobs, who denied him prior access to the iPhone SDK.

More than a decade after the death of Steve Jobs, it may be time for Apple to make the decision to give due attention to an industry that generates billions of dollars in revenue thanks to the App Store.