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 | Recommended | run by Highball on Apple Silicon |
| DXMTDirect3D 11 over Metal | Untested | no report yet — send one |
| D3DMetalApple's Game Porting Toolkit | Untested | no report yet — send one |
last confirmed 2026-10-05 · engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r21 · macOS 27.0. Dated runs record the engine build and, where the reporter gave it, the macOS version.
Notes
Plays, slower on macOS 27. On macOS 26.6.2 the menu and a night ran at a steady 60 fps on DXVK, GPU about 0.5 ms, on an Apple M1 Pro (engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r2). On macOS 27.0 the office, where the nights are spent, runs at about 18 to 27 fps whatever the graphics mode: 18 on DXVK (MoltenVK's own count, no screen capture running) and 25 on Wine's own Direct3D on an M4 with engine r15, 27 on DXVK with the Wine 11 engine, and about 16 on the M1 Pro. The menu stays fast. The game's own work is the slow part, with one to two CPU cores busy, so no graphics mode, engine or sync setting changes it; a change in Rosetta on macOS 27 is the likely cause, not confirmed. It is still playable. It is a Clickteam Fusion Direct3D 9 game, so DXVK (the automatic and DXVK modes both route Direct3D 9 through it) stays the mode. A save is written under the environment, so Continue works on the next launch. On a display that is not 16:10 apply the recipe: it sets EmulateModeset for the game so Wine emulates the 1280x800 mode the game asks for and the picture fills the screen instead of landing off centre (highball#72). That setting does not change the frame rate. Re-checked on 2026-10-05 on an M4 with engine r21 (DEP kept on): the main menu comes up on DXVK as before. A player's numbers put the start of the slowdown between macOS 26.6 and 26.7: 21 fps in the office on 26.7 and 20 on 27, against 60 before (highball#400, 2026-10-22).
Known issues
The office runs at about 18 to 27 fps on macOS 27, where it ran at 60 on macOS 26, and already on macOS 26.7 (21 fps there, highball#400)
What helps None yet. It stays playable
Why Not the graphics mode, the engine, the sync mode or the display setting: all measured the same on an M4 with macOS 27.0 on 2026-09-30. The frame waits about 50 ms on something the game does, with one to two CPU cores busy. Rosetta's slow x87 maths is not what holds it: with the x87 accelerator (athei's x87sidecar 1.7.0 on the Wine 11 engine, highball#165) the CPU use halved but the office stayed at 19 to 21 fps against 22 without it
Without the recipe, on a display whose logical resolution is not 16:10: the picture sits down and to the right with black bars along the top and left, and is clipped at the right and bottom edges.
What helps The recipe (2026-09-11): one registry value, EmulateModeset=y for the game's executable, makes Wine emulate the mode change and scale the fullscreen window to the real screen. Verified by eye at 1728x1117: fills the screen, centred. No engine change, works on the default engine.
Why The game asks Wine for a 1280x800 fullscreen mode; Wine's Mac driver reports success but leaves the display as it is (measured 2026-09-07), so the game positions itself for a resolution it never got.
On a 14-inch M1 Pro the game draws small in a corner of the screen and the mouse position does not match what it clicks (reported on 0.9.12, highball#67)
What helps none confirmed. highball#72, which this pointed to, closed with the recipe, but this report comes after it. To be retested here on the current engine: a first look on 2026-09-24, with the session locked and nothing visible, found the window centred at about 90 percent of the screen rather than filling it, which settles nothing.
Why not established. The reporter has the recipe's display-mode setting applied, the same one that centred the picture at 1728x1117 here on 2026-09-11, so something else differs on their Mac.
On the Wine 11 engines (x64-crossover26.3-r11, r12) under DXVK the game runs at about 40 fps with cut sound and uneven frames, against 76 fps on the default engine's DXVK Direct3D 9 (Metal HUD, menu, M1 Pro, macOS 27.0, 2026-09-25).
What helps stay on the default engine for this game, or on a Wine 11 engine use Wine's own Direct3D. From Highball 0.9.38 the DXMT and D3DMetal modes do that on their own on r11 and r12 (the engine says so); the DXVK mode, which this row recommends for the default engine, still uses DXVK's Direct3D 9 everywhere.
Why DXVK's Direct3D 9 is slower on that tree, GPU time is under a millisecond either way. Separately, an environment where the Sims recipe was applied carries MVK_SHADOW_IMPORT=1 bottle-wide, and on those engines that stops DXVK's Direct3D 9 from drawing at all (highball#198).
One-click setup
Highball ships a recipe for Five Nights at Freddy's: open the game in your Library and apply it. The recipe carries the tested renderer and any per-game fixes, so you don't have to reproduce them by hand. Read the recipe.
Provenance
played here start to finish (highball#67)
Before installing anything, it is worth checking whether the game already ships a native Mac build.
Common questions
Does Five Nights at Freddy's work on Mac?
Five Nights at Freddy's has no native Mac build, but it is reported to run on Apple Silicon through Highball, a free open-source compatibility layer. Highball has run it on Apple Silicon (last confirmed 2026-10-05 · engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r21 · macOS 27.0).
Which renderer should I use for Five Nights at Freddy's?
DXVK. Highball can translate Direct3D through DXVK, DXMT or Apple's D3DMetal, and the right choice varies by game. The database records DXVK for Five Nights at Freddy's, and applying the Five Nights at Freddy's recipe sets it for you.
Is there a one-click setup for Five Nights at Freddy's?
Yes. Highball ships a recipe for Five Nights at Freddy's that sets the tested renderer and any per-game fixes. Open the game in your Library and apply it.
Contribute a result
This page is generated from an open database. If you have run Five Nights at Freddy's 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.