asunderbulkierm Reviews

Game runs OKish on D3DMetal, considering it uses UE5, without perceivable glitches in the first area tested. Some graphic glitches on DXMT and crashes with DXVK.

Update:
Good news, with GPTK4 it seems the memory leak is not a big problem anymore, I see RAM sitting between 19 to 25 GB, still higher usage but it does not increase indefinitely.

Original review:
Good performance overall, can squeeze 4k but I prefer using in-game DLSS Quality (Metal backend) . The caveat is that most of these Naughty Dog PC ports have memory leaks that are more evident when translating via Wine/GPTK. RAM usage will increase indefinitely until it starts going into swap and becomes a stuttering mess, making you having to restart the game. I recommend having at least 24GB of RAM for this one.

It runs great via VMware Fusion, better than Crossover (probably due to being originally a 32-bit binary translated to 64-bit). Limit refresh rate to 60Hz and enable V-sync to avoid physics issues. For other optimizations, fixes and enhancements to this game check its pcgamingwiki page.

Crashes at startup with any settings.

Runs ok, but since it's an OpenGL game performance is not what it should be. Resolution matters less, you can increase in-game resolution to 4K and have similar performance since it becomes CPU bound due to the lack of proper OpenGL/CL drivers (thanks Apple).

I noticed that macOS screen compositor can get finicky when connected to an external 4k display and running non-Metal applications. So to avoid performance loss in this scenario, set your external display with macOS resolution to 1080p (low) to have less buffer overhead than native 4k or 1080p default (still 4k). It makes a difference in performance. Just increase resolution in-game, it'll look better and have similar performance.

Game runs fine for the most part, but in all methods there are perfomance drops when multiple particles and other effects are on screen. D3DMetal is the most stable.
The muted dialog audio is due to the game forcing/expecting a 5.1 audio device, when most people will be using stereo.
There is a way to fix the dialog, but it envolves using apps like Blackhole (great, free) and Loopback (best, paid, but there must be other options).
Create a 16ch virtual device with Blackhole. In Audio Midi Setup configure the speakers to 5.1 (screenshot). Set the virtual device as a source device in Loopback and associate it to 2.0 channels. Set your real output device as audio monitor (screenshot).
In your Crossover Bottle, go to Wine Configuration and set your audio output to the Blackhole device you created.
Launch the game and dialog should be heard as normal.

On macOS Tahoe Steam version runs fine, DXMT is more performant than D3DMetal and DXVK.
Frame rate above 105 fps can create sound glitches so cap at 60 or your preferred refresh rate. For DXMT open cxbottle.conf in your bottle root folder and add to [EnvironmentVariables]:
"DXMT_CONFIG" = "d3d11.preferredMaxFrameRate=60"
Recommended mods: Alias Isolation (TAA), remove item glow, skip save confirmation, upscaled 4k movies, PS5 controller buttons.

The FPS limit can be set in the Config. ini file by going to the game folder, right-clicking the app and showing package content.

Metal HUD can make the test window freeze during loading, so disable it before opening the application.

Steam version crashes at start, despite having no anti-tamper software. Cracked version works with good performance using DXVK, which has better performance than D3DMetal and DXMT, just having a bit more initial shader compilation stutter, but it soon gets stable. It's possible to inject TAA (Alias Isolation mod) to immensely improve image quality, as well as other mods, just put the mod files in the main game directory and add the .dll name in Wine Configuration > Libraries (native, builtin) inside your bottle. Controller works but I had to disable Hidraw in Crossover

Runs reasonably well considering the hardware, while at the same time providing a lot of customization for the user. I personally play at 1200p at around 40fps (v-sync locked), which can be lower in some scenes, with a blend of medium and high settings, MetalFX Quality and no RT of course. SSR and AO can be some of the most demanding settings beside RT, so keep them at low or medium.

It runs great via VMware Fusion, better than Crossover (probably due to being originally a 32-bit binary translated to 64-bit). Limit refresh rate to 60Hz and enable V-sync to avoid physics issues. For other optimizations check the pcgamingwiki page.

It's playable on M1 Pro but with uneven framerate (probably due to being originally a 32-bit binary translated to 64-bit) via D3DMetal or DXMT, crashes with DXVK. It runs much better and stable via VMware Fusion.

It runs great via VMware Fusion, better than Crossover (probably due to being originally a 32-bit binary translated to 64-bit). Limit refresh rate to 60Hz and enable V-sync to avoid physics issues. For other optimizations check the pcgamingwiki page.

It runs OK via D3DMetal and DXMT, crashes on DXVK. Playable but performance is uneven all around (probably due to being originally a 32-bit binary translated to 64-bit), it's much smoother via VMware Fusion.

It runs great via VMware Fusion, better than Crossover (probably due to being originally a 32-bit binary translated to 64-bit). Limit refresh rate to 60Hz and enable V-sync to avoid physics issues. For other optimizations check the pcgamingwiki page.

Steam version crashes at start, despite having no anti-tamper software. Cracked version works with good performance using DXVK, which has better performance than D3DMetal and DXMT, just having a bit more initial shader compilation stutter, but it soon gets stable. It's possible to inject TAA (Alias Isolation mod) to immensely improve image quality, as well as other mods, just put the mod files in the main game directory and add the .dll name in Wine Configuration > Libraries (native, builtin) inside your bottle. Controller works but I had to disable Hidraw in Crossover

Good, with vanilla Crossover it would crash at start, could only run with CXPatcher, and did without any perceivable graphical glitches and with reasonable performance most of the time with controller and k/m support. If using external displays, these need to be set as main Display, otherwise the game may crash for some reason. Turned on D3DMetal, MSync and High Resolution Mode.
I have not tested with latest versions of Crossover.

No MetalFX, could probably increase resolution a bit but this is a good balance for performance / image quality. Runs smooth on most M-Series and has HDR.

Good, vanilla Crossover 24.0.3 would crash at start or after first cutscene, could only run with CXPatcher and did it without any perceivable graphical glitches and with reasonable performance most of the time, supports controller and k/m. Turned on D3DMetal, MSync. When exiting a fullscreen playthrough, it can stay at black screen, so play with Borderless Fullscreen or CMD+option+ESC to force quit if the game freezes.
Have not tested with latest versions of Crossover.

Good, vanilla Crossover 24.0.3 would crash at start or after first cutscene, could only run with CXPatcher and did it without any perceivable graphical glitches and with reasonable performance most of the time, supports controller and k/m. Turned on D3DMetal, MSync. When exiting a fullscreen playthrough, it can stay at black screen, so play with Borderless Fullscreen or CMD+option+ESC to force quit if the game freezes.
Have not tested with latest versions of Crossover.

No MetalFX, could probably increase resolution a bit but this is a good balance for performance / image quality. Runs smooth on most M-Series and has HDR.

Boots normally into the main menu but crashes when starting a new game or continuing a save game . Same occurs with VMware Fusion.

No MetalFX as I find the spacial upscaling underwhelming. UE5 is not particularly well optimized for Mac, so don't expect to enable features like Lumen and have good performance, but with some fiddling it's playable and it's a great game.

Good optimization, 1080p60 High 99% of the time without the need for MetalFX as I find the upscaling quality underwhelming.

Maybe because it's a somewhat old x86 OpenGL game, it seems to demand a lot from the CPU and/or there's a lot of unoptimized code as it's translated through Rosetta 2. Can't get a stable 60 fps on M1 Pro no matter the resolution and graphics settings.
Anti-aliasing is broken, options have not much effect in image quality and it looks awfully distracting. On the PC version you can inject TAA to make it better but not sure about the Mac port.
SSAO can cause performance dips, so consider disabling it. Considering the already dark environments, there's not much difference in image fidelity.