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 | Reported | 1 report |
| D3DMetalApple's Game Porting Toolkit | Untested | no report yet — send one |
last confirmed 2026-10-07 · engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r3 · macOS 27.0. Dated runs record the engine build and, where the reporter gave it, the macOS version.
Notes
Works under DXVK with HDR on, as on Windows, and the Portal 2 recipe sets it up. Source's HDR path draws its auto-exposure occlusion queries into a render pass with no attachments, which made the Mac's GPU lose the device, so every map load froze or crashed while menus looked fine. For a month the recipe turned HDR off (mat_hdr_level 0), at the cost of Source's HDR lighting, bloom and haze. From Highball 0.10.14 it sets mat_tonemapping_occlusion_use_stencil 1 instead, Source's own switch that runs that pass on the stencil buffer, and HDR loads and plays. Checked with nine map loads across four maps on an M4 with macOS 27.0, portals included. Players who applied the recipe before get HDR back with Re-apply the Portal 2 fix on the game's page. Keep the bottle on DXVK. With HDR off, the intro map ran at 138-147 fps at 1728x1117 on an M1 Pro (macOS 26.6.2, DXVK, async off).
Dynamic shadows (sunlight through the blinds, lamps, the shadows furniture and objects cast) are missing with the defaults. Portal 2's renderer only turns on shadow maps when the graphics card reports an NVIDIA, AMD or Intel vendor ID, and the Direct3D 9 every engine uses reports Apple's. The row passes -force_vendor_id 0x1002 -force_device_id 0x73BF on Play, Portal 2's own switch for its GPU identity, so the game takes its AMD path and draws them. Half-Life 2's renderer has the same check, and with Apple's ID its console shows its flashlight shadows turned off (M4, 2026-10-07), so other Source games probably lose them the same way.
Texture detail: Portal 2 picks its lowest Model / Texture Detail on its first start because Wine reports 0xFFFFFFFF bytes of video memory through WMI and the game reads that as -1. The recipe has Wine report 2047 MB to portal2.exe, and the game then picks High (checked on an M4, 2026-10-06). With HDR on and without the stencil switch, the map loaded to a white screen on the M4 (2026-10-06).
Known issues
No dynamic shadows. Furniture, objects and characters cast no shadows from lamps or sunlight (reported on an M3 Pro, Discord 2026-10-05)
What helps Highball's Play passes -force_vendor_id 0x1002 -force_device_id 0x73BF (from the next version). By hand, put the same in Portal 2's launch options in Steam.
Why Portal 2's shaderapidx9.dll sets up shadow depth textures only for vendor IDs 0x10de, 0x1002 and 0x8086 and switches them off for any other. DXVK's Direct3D 9 in the engine reports Apple's vendor ID (0x106b), so the game runs with no shadow maps. Seen on an M4, macOS 27.0, engine r21, DXVK, 2026-10-06.
Textures softer than the original, Model / Texture Detail on Low (reported on an M3 Pro, Discord 2026-10-06)
What helps the portal-2 recipe sets Wine's VideoMemorySize to 2047 for portal2.exe (re-apply it from the game page). For a config saved before, set Model / Texture Detail to High in Options, Video, Advanced.
Why Wine reports AdapterRAM 0xFFFFFFFF through WMI, Portal 2 reads it as -1 video memory and its first-start autodetect saves the lowest texture level.
One-click setup
Highball ships a recipe for Portal 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
verified locally on Apple Silicon (M1 Pro), engine sikarugir-10.0_6, Highball 0.7.18, macOS 26.6.2 (25G83), 2026-09-02; first verified on macOS 14.6 with Highball 0.7.13, 2026-08-28; shadows checked on an M4, macOS 27.0, engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r21, DXVK, 2026-10-06: the Relaxation Vault at the start of sp_a1_intro1 has no dynamic shadows with the GPU's own vendor ID and full shadows with the AMD one (same frame, compared side by side)
Before installing anything, it is worth checking whether the game already ships a native Mac build.
Common questions
Does Portal 2 work on Mac?
Portal 2 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 2026-10-07 · engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r3 · macOS 27.0).
Which renderer should I use for Portal 2?
DXVK. Highball can translate Direct3D through DXVK, DXMT or Apple's D3DMetal, and the right choice varies by game. The database records DXVK for Portal 2, and applying the Portal 2 recipe sets it for you.
Is there a one-click setup for Portal 2?
Yes. Highball ships a recipe for Portal 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 Portal 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.