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 | Reported | 1 report |
| 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
Direct3D 12 only (Cobra engine), so D3DMetal, and it needs a Wine 11 engine. On the Wine 10 engines it crashes within seconds: the game reads the current fiber at gs:0x20, where macOS keeps the thread's scheduling priority (0x8ff and 0x20ff in a reporter's minidumps, highball#537), and the Wine 11 engines' patches 0008 and 0009 put the real fiber pointer there. The recipe no longer turns on Metal's validation layer (the Cellar workaround), which froze two Macs. Reported about 55 fps in the menu on an M5 there, with large parks CPU-bound under Rosetta. Denuvo, Steam must be online. Nothing measured here yet. Two reports with the full configuration in place got no window at all: an M3 Pro (Wine 11 r9, D3DMetal 3, a Mac freeze on Stop) and an M5 Pro (r18 with D3DMetal 4 and r19 with D3DMetal 3, the Mac growing unresponsive within minutes without Stop). No report with this recipe has worked yet, so it stays unconfirmed. A third report on an M5 Pro (highball#537, 2026-10-28) gets past the Wine 10 crash on Wine 11 and then hangs: a black window at 0% CPU on r26 (D3DMetal 4 beta 3), an exit after about 100 seconds with an empty dump on r27 (D3DMetal 3).
Known issues
Crash dialog at launch offering to send diagnostics to the developer
What helps the planet-coaster-2 recipe, which asks for the Wine 11 engine and D3DMetal (it no longer sets Metal's validation layer)
Why DXMT has no Direct3D 12, and on the Wine 10 engines the game reads the Mac's thread scheduling priority where Windows keeps the current fiber (gs:0x20), which our Wine 11 patches 0008 and 0009 fix
Nothing visible for five minutes with the full recipe configuration on an M3 Pro, and a forced reboot after stopping it
What helps none confirmed; recorded as not working on an M3 Pro, macOS 26.6.2, Wine 11 r9
Why not diagnosed; the working report behind the recipe was on an M5
The game process starts and stays alive, but no window ever appears, and after several minutes the whole Mac becomes unresponsive and needs a restart (highball-db#356, Apple M5 Pro, macOS 27.0.1, Highball 0.10.10, engine r18 with D3DMetal 4 and r19 with D3DMetal 3, the recipe's variables confirmed by 'Metal API Validation Enabled')
What helps none known; avoid running it until there is something new to try
Why not diagnosed; the same shape as the M3 Pro report in highball-db#115. Steam's web helpers throw setDisplaySyncEnabled: exceptions under D3DMetal 4 at the same time, which is known from other games and does not stop them
On Wine 11 the game starts and then hangs: a black window at 0% CPU for over four minutes on r26 (D3DMetal 4 beta 3), an exit after about 100 seconds with an empty crash dump on r27 (D3DMetal 3). The Mac stayed responsive (M5 Pro, macOS 27.0, highball#537)
What helps none known
Why not diagnosed, no error lines in the Wine log
One-click setup
Highball ships a recipe for Planet Coaster 2: 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
Reported not launching by cgp9cvzk52-max (highball-db#115, 2026-09-18) on DXMT then D3DMetal, Apple M3 Pro, macOS 26.6.2, engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r2, Highball 0.9.12: the game's own crash dialog at start. The working configuration comes from the Cellar project's published profile for this game (D3DMetal, Wine 11, MTL_DEBUG_LAYER=1), playable there on an M5. Not run here. lucadev7 (highball#537, 2026-10-28), Apple M5 Pro 24 GB, macOS 27.0, Highball 0.10.22, engines x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r3 and r28, x64-crossover26.3-r26 and r27, with minidump disassembly of the Wine 10 crash.
Before installing anything, it is worth checking whether the game already ships a native Mac build.
Common questions
Does Planet Coaster 2 work on Mac?
Planet Coaster 2 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 Planet Coaster 2?
D3DMetal. Highball can translate Direct3D through DXVK, DXMT or Apple's D3DMetal, and the right choice varies by game. The database records D3DMetal for Planet Coaster 2, and applying the Planet Coaster 2 recipe sets it for you.
Is there a one-click setup for Planet Coaster 2?
Yes. Highball ships a recipe for Planet Coaster 2 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 Planet Coaster 2 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.