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
Starts, but a player on an M2 had frame drops and freezes outside cutscenes in DXMT mode. It's a Direct3D 9 game, which DXMT mode runs through DXVK, so the stutter is most likely shaders compiling as they first appear. Not measured here.
Known issues
Frame drops and freezes outside cutscenes (M2)
What helps Turn on DXVK async shader compilation in the environment's settings, untested here
Why most likely Direct3D 9 shaders compiling on first use, not measured
Provenance
Reported by crowntwo (highball-db#824, 2026-10-30), Apple M2, macOS 27.0.1, Highball and engine not given (newest), DXMT and the default mode, rated 2 of 5 after 5 minutes: frame drops and freezes everywhere but the cutscenes. Not verified by the maintainer.
Before installing anything, it is worth checking whether the game already ships a native Mac build.
Common questions
Does Call of Duty: Black Ops work on Mac?
Call of Duty: Black Ops 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 Call of Duty: Black Ops 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.