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
Gets in game in one report on an M1. On the default engine r29 with D3DMetal it needs Media Foundation disabled for Sycamore-Win64-Shipping.exe, and runs at about 20 fps, 30 at Low settings (highball-db#868). On the Wine 11 engine r30 with D3DMetal and DLSS at Performance (Enable DLSS (MetalFX) on in the environment) it runs at 15 to 20 fps with the GPU as the limit, and the reporter finds it smoother. An Unreal Engine 5 game on Direct3D 12.
Known issues
Hangs on the loading screen at launch (M1, D3DMetal, Wine 10 r28)
What helps engine r29 got past it for the reporter (highball-db#868), who then hit the freeze below
Why not diagnosed
On engine r29 a white rectangle shows over a picture of Mars after the loading screen, and the game freezes about 30 seconds later without crashing (M1, D3DMetal from GPTK 4.0b2)
What helps disable Media Foundation for the game's Unreal exe, Sycamore-Win64-Shipping.exe in Sycamore\Binaries\Win64, not fortsolis.exe: in winecfg add that exe on the Applications tab, then on the Libraries tab add mfplat and set it to Disabled. That got the reporter in game (highball-db#868, 2026-11-06, credit udance4ever). Setting it on fortsolis.exe alone left a black screen with the title music. On the Wine 11 engine r30 the game got past the video without the override (highball-db#868, 2026-11-07), but ran at about 8 fps there. On r30 the white box shows on the title screen without the override but the game goes on, and the box goes away with the override (highball-db#868, 2026-11-08)
Why a video. The log ends with Metal's 'MTLTextureDescriptor has invalid pixelFormat (0)' assertion, the error The Last Caretaker hit when its menu video went through Windows Media Foundation into D3DMetal, and disabling Media Foundation for the game's exe gets past it
A launch right after a working one ended after about a minute and a half without reaching the game (M1, D3DMetal, Wine 10 r29)
What helps not known. It didn't happen again on a later launch (highball-db#868, 2026-11-07)
Why not diagnosed
On the Wine 11 engine r30 with D3DMetal it ran as a slideshow at about 8 fps (M1)
What helps turn on Enable DLSS (MetalFX) in the environment and DLSS at Performance in the game: 15 to 20 fps on an M1, about 60 ms of GPU time a frame with MetalFX scaling 960x540 up to 1920x1080 (highball-db#868, 2026-11-08, credit udance4ever)
Why not diagnosed. That environment had Enable DLSS (MetalFX) on, and the game keeps its graphics settings per environment, so the Low preset set in the Wine 10 one didn't apply there. Either may explain it, neither is checked (highball-db#868)
Resolutions below 1920x1080 shrink the picture and change the Mac's display mode (M1, Wine 11 r30)
What helps keep 1920x1080. With DLSS at Performance the game already draws at 960x540 and MetalFX scales it up
Why not diagnosed
Provenance
Reported by udance4ever (highball-db#868, 2026-11-01), Apple M1, macOS 27.2, Highball 0.10.23, engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r28, D3DMetal, rated 1 of 5 after 1 minutes: the loading screen hangs at launch and a helper seems to crash. The backtrace attached to the report is Civilization III's (highball-db#867), not this game's, the GOG copy. Not verified by the maintainer. udance4ever again in a comment on highball-db#868 (2026-11-03), engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r29, whose D3DMetal is GPTK 4.0b2 per the Metal HUD: past the loading screen to a picture of Mars with a white rectangle in the middle, then a freeze without a crash about 30 seconds later. That run's log ends with Metal's assertion 'MTLTextureDescriptor has invalid pixelFormat (0)'. udance4ever again in a comment on highball-db#868 (2026-11-05), r29 with mfplat set to Disabled in winecfg: while loading, the game stops for 10 to 15 seconds, then comes back to a black screen with the title music. That run's log still ends with the same Metal assertion, so a video still reached D3DMetal through Media Foundation. The environment wasn't restarted before that launch because another program was still running. udance4ever again in a comment on highball-db#868 (2026-11-06), r29, D3DMetal, with mfplat disabled for the game's Shipping exe: in game, at about 20 fps with stutter, 30 fps with the graphics settings at Low. The next launch, with nothing changed, ended after 87 seconds with exit code 15 before the game loaded its NVIDIA Streamline plugins, which the first run did. Both logs have 'mfplat.dll (which is needed by mf.dll) not found', the expected trace of the override, and both runs started without restarting the environment because another program was still running. udance4ever again in a comment on highball-db#868 (2026-11-07): the exe that needs Media Foundation disabled is Sycamore-Win64-Shipping.exe in Sycamore\Binaries\Win64. On a Wine 11 engine (revision and mode not stated, no log) the game ran as an 8 fps slideshow. Back on Wine 10 r29 it ran at about 20 fps up to the point the player gets control, without crashing, and the failed second launch didn't happen again. udance4ever again on highball-db#868 (2026-11-07T17:36Z), the log of the 8 fps Wine 11 run: engine x64-crossover26.3-r30, D3DMetal (the D3DMetal 4 line), with Enable DLSS (MetalFX) on in that environment, which the Wine 10 runs didn't have. Media Foundation wasn't disabled in that environment (Wine's mfplat loads in Sycamore-Win64-Shipping.exe) and the log has no Metal error, so on r30 the video didn't freeze it. Nothing in the log explains the 8 fps. udance4ever again on highball-db#868 (2026-11-08), the Wine 11 engine r30 with D3DMetal (GPTK 4.0b3 by the HUD), Enable DLSS (MetalFX) on in the environment and DLSS at Performance in the game, the other settings at their lowest, 1920x1080: 15 to 20 fps in game, which feels smoother to the reporter than Wine 10's 20 fps without DLSS. The Metal HUD shows MetalFX temporal scaling from 960x540 to 1920x1080 and about 60 ms of GPU time per frame (screenshots), so the M1's GPU is the limit. The game's Frame Generation setting is greyed out. The white box on the title screen went away once mfplat was disabled for the Shipping exe in this environment's own winecfg. Resolutions below 1920x1080 shrank the picture and changed the Mac's display mode. A DualSense works, with PlayStation button glyphs.
Before installing anything, it is worth checking whether the game already ships a native Mac build.
Common questions
Does Fort Solis work on Mac?
Fort Solis 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 Fort Solis 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.