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 | Reported | 1 report |
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 on an M2 Pro on the Wine 10 engine r29, choppy for about 30 seconds after it starts, then the tutorial played through. Starting the tutorial restarts the game, and Highball's session count stopped at 8 minutes while the player played over an hour.
Known issues
Choppy for about 30 seconds after the game starts (M2 Pro, Wine 10 r29)
What helps none known
Why not diagnosed
Provenance
Reported by DerReparator (highball-db#1168, 2026-11-12), Apple M2 Pro, macOS 27.2.1, Highball 0.10.26, engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r29, D3DMetal by the report (the environment's mode is WineD3D), rated 4 of 5 after 8 minutes: choppy for about 30 seconds after it starts. The player says the session count is wrong: starting the tutorial restarts the game, and the tutorial was played through in over an hour, with anti aliasing set to 4x. Not verified by the maintainer.
Before installing anything, it is worth checking whether the game already ships a native Mac build.
Common questions
Does Sid Meier's Civilization IV work on Mac?
Sid Meier's Civilization IV 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 Sid Meier's Civilization IV 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.