> In other words, don't expect Steam Deck-esque levels of compatibility with Windows games just yet.

Valve and CodeWeavers have done a ton of work to create Proton[0], the Windows compatibility layer that Steam Deck uses. Besides their own patches, they're relying completely on the foundation that Wine provides. And of course there's everyone behind Arch Linux (SteamOS 3), and Debian before them (SteamOS 1-2).

CodeWeavers did a lot of work on Proton[1], so it makes sense that they're also looking at macOS.

For me, however, I've almost completely abandoned macOS for games. I've got a Steam Deck, dock, and appropriate adapters so that I can use my monitor & sound bar. Logitech makes keyboards and mice that let you select which source you want to use, so it's now really easy to switch from computer to Steam Deck.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_(software)

[1]: https://www.codeweavers.com/about/news/press/20220225

The mention of MoltenVK implies this isn't DX12-to-Metal, but rather DX12-to-Vulkan-to-Metal. That's probably the best way to leverage existing open source work but jeez, it sounds like a house of cards.

I’m glad someone’s seriously working on this, and the CodeWeaver team are absolute guns who could pull it off better than almost anyone, but I’m still a little sad about this news since Apple work fairly closely with CodeWeaver - this indicates Apple has investigated doing this themselves and decided against it. Which means we won’t get something miraculous like Rosetta 2.

(I still hold out hope that one day Apple will release a translation layer that seamlessly and efficiently converts DirectX/Vulkan to Metal; the raw GPU power sitting in any given M1 or M2 laptop blows any integrated graphics laptop out of the water, competes with high-end discrete GPU gaming laptops, and the Ultra M1/M2s can go toe-to-toe with pretty much every PC GPU except the 3090 and up. So much potential…)

I wish they'd make a handheld console