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 | Does not work | On an M4 Pro every kill froze the game and then took the WindowServer down with it (a watchdog stackshot, highball-db#204). Community reports on other chips say DXMT works; the freeze is tied to the M4 Pro's GPU driver. |
| D3DMetalApple's Game Porting Toolkit | Reported | community 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
works offline; anti-cheat softban risk online. Direct3D 11. On an M4 Pro DXMT froze the game on every kill and hung macOS's window server; D3DMetal (Apple's DirectX 12 support in the app) plays through kills there, confirmed 2026-09-25 by the reporter, so it is the mode the page recommends. A player on an M5 with the Wine 10 engine r21 rated it playable on DXMT over 38 minutes, so the freeze on kills may not happen on every Mac or engine. The page keeps D3DMetal until more reports agree.
Known issues
The game freezes when an enemy is killed, then crashes (reported on an M4 Pro, macOS 26.6.2, engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r7, DXMT, Highball 0.9.35, highball-db#204, rated 2, launches but not playable).
What helps use D3DMetal for this game (Apple's DirectX 12 support in the app). Confirmed by the reporter on the M4 Pro: kills no longer freeze it.
Why not in the game's log, which ends normally. The file the reporter attached is a WindowServer watchdog stackshot: macOS's window server stopped answering while the game ran (display state OFF at capture), which is the GPU or its driver hanging on the M4 Pro, not a fault inside Wine. Every kill triggers it for the reporter. Not reproduced on the M1 Pro here.
Provenance
community consensus (AppleGamingWiki / r-macgaming / MacPlay), unverified by Highball. A failure report on an M4 Pro (highball-db#204, 2026-09-24) is open. smalltin (highball-db#435, 2026-10-10), Apple M5, macOS 27.0.1, Highball 0.10.10, engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r21, DXMT, rated 4 of 5 after 38 minutes, the issues not described.
Before installing anything, it is worth checking whether the game already ships a native Mac build.
Common questions
Does Dark Souls III work on Mac?
Dark Souls III 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 Dark Souls III?
D3DMetal. Highball can translate Direct3D through DXVK, DXMT or Apple's D3DMetal, and the right choice varies by game. The database records D3DMetal for Dark Souls III. 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 Dark Souls III 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.