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 | Untested | no report yet — send one |
| D3DMetalApple's Game Porting Toolkit | Untested | no report yet — send one |
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
Unplayable for the one report so far: the GPU device is lost on DXVK, and in a DXMT environment (where Direct3D 9 still goes through DXVK) it needs -oldgameui and runs at about 5 fps. The device loss is the same Metal error Portal 2's HDR exposure pass caused, which Source's mat_tonemapping_occlusion_use_stencil 1 fixed there; untested on Black Mesa.
Known issues
GPU device lost (MoltenVK Internal Error 0000010d) on DXVK
What helps none confirmed. Untested: mat_tonemapping_occlusion_use_stencil 1 in the game's autoexec.cfg, as Portal 2's fix does
Why not diagnosed here; the same error came from Source's HDR exposure pass in Portal 2
About 5 fps, and the game needs -oldgameui to start, in a DXMT environment
What helps none known
Why not diagnosed
Provenance
Reported by Swiss-Mac-User (highball#385, highball#386, 2026-10-18), Apple M5 Pro, macOS 27.2, Highball 0.10.19: on the Wine 11 engine r27 with DXVK the GPU device is lost (MoltenVK 'Internal Error (0000010d)', the error Portal 2's HDR pass caused), and on the default engine r28 in a DXMT environment the game needs -oldgameui in Steam's launch options, loads for a couple of minutes and runs at 5 fps at most. Not verified by the maintainer.
Before installing anything, it is worth checking whether the game already ships a native Mac build.
Common questions
Does Black Mesa work on Mac?
Black Mesa 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.
Contribute a result
This page is generated from an open database. If you have run Black Mesa 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.