Highball
Which renderer to use
Highball can run each game through three different Direct3D translation layers. This is what the database knows for this title — empty rows are open questions, not failures.
| Renderer | Verdict | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| DXVKDirect3D 9-11 over Vulkan | Untested | no report yet — send one |
| DXMTDirect3D 11 over Metal | Reported | 2 reports |
| D3DMetalApple's Game Porting Toolkit | Reported | 3 reports |
No dated Highball run yet. When one lands it records the renderer, the engine build and the macOS version it was seen on — which is what stops a verdict quietly rotting. Send one.
Notes
Reported playable at 40-60 fps on an Apple M4 with the bottle set to D3DMetal, installed through Steam inside the bottle and launched from Highball. No workarounds, launch options or DLL overrides were needed. BeamNG probes for Direct3D 12, finds no usable device and falls back to Direct3D 11 on its own, so it does not depend on the D3D12-only path. Reported on Highball 0.7.14 with game Alpha v0.39.4, windowed at 1470x934, 6 GB reported to the game as video memory. DXMT is untested on this hardware: the earlier DXMT note came from the DXMT changelog rather than a run. A second, short report on an M5 with DXMT rates it playable, with the laptop heating up at once and story mode unable to generate a seed. On D3DMetal the game now picks DirectX 12, where the terrain does not load (highball-db#474), so Play passes -gfx dx11 to keep it on DirectX 11. Frame spikes come from the CPU side under Rosetta rather than the GPU. With more than one vehicle on the map performance drops even at the lowest settings on an M4 (highball-db#508).
Known issues
Story mode cannot generate a seed
What helps none known yet (highball-db#329)
Why reported once (DXMT, M5, engine r19), not diagnosed
Provenance
community report with logs and a screenshot (highball-db#5, Michael-Liendo), unverified by Highball. Second report by imluculent-eng (highball-db#329, 2026-10-05), Apple M5, macOS 26.6.2, Highball 0.10.3, engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r19, DXMT, rated 4 of 5 after 7 minutes: the laptop heats up at once, and generating a seed for story mode fails. Third report by Random-Storm (highball-db#378, 2026-10-07), Apple A18 Pro (MacBook Neo), macOS 27.2, Highball 0.10.10, engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r21, DXMT, frame cap 60, rated 4 of 5 after 7 minutes, some stuttering (about 25 to 30 fps on low settings, he said on Discord). Reported by DJTheron (highball-db#474, 2026-10-13), Apple M3 MacBook Air, macOS 27.0.1, Highball 0.10.15, engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r26, D3DMetal, rated 4 of 5 after 4 minutes. The terrain did not load on DirectX 12 and loaded with -gfx dx11. Reported by tajrk800 (highball-db#475, 2026-10-13), Apple M5, macOS 26.6, Highball 0.10.15, engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r24, DXMT, rated 3 of 5 after 7 minutes, with the frame rate dropping while new buildings load and the game running in slow motion at times. HagdudeWVU (highball-db#506, 2026-10-15), Apple M2, macOS 27.0.1, Highball 0.10.15, engine r26, rated 5 of 5 after 6 minutes; a later start in the same environment showed a washed-out white world with only a car and the sky, which went away once the game ran on DXMT (DirectX 11 on Metal). CarlJakoblich (highball-db#508, 2026-10-16), Apple M4, macOS 26.7.1, Highball 0.10.15, engine r26, DXMT, rated 4 of 5 after 38 minutes: performance with more than one vehicle is poor even at the lowest settings. Not verified by the maintainer.
Before installing anything, it is worth checking whether the game already ships a native Mac build.
Common questions
Does BeamNG.drive work on Mac?
BeamNG.drive has no native Mac build, but it is reported to run on Apple Silicon through Highball, a free open-source compatibility layer. This comes from community reports rather than a Highball test run, so treat it as a reasonable expectation rather than a guarantee.
Which renderer should I use for BeamNG.drive?
D3DMetal. Highball can translate Direct3D through DXVK, DXMT or Apple's D3DMetal, and the right choice varies by game. The database records D3DMetal for BeamNG.drive. Highball uses it automatically when the game has a row; to set it by hand, open Settings, then Environments.
Contribute a result
This page is generated from an open database. If you have run BeamNG.drive on Apple Silicon, working or not, a report takes a minute and fills in the empty rows above. Send a report, or read how the data is put together.