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 | Untested | no report yet — send one |
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
Reported working well on an M1, with short lags when new areas load. An earlier report on an A18 Pro with an older Highball sat on synchronization for 20 minutes and is not resolved. No measurement here yet.
Provenance
OneKQuad (highball#237, 2026-10-02): Apple A18 Pro, macOS 27.0, Highball 0.9.39, engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r11, DXMT, stuck on synchronization for at least 20 minutes, not confirmed since. v1kk5 (highball#237, 2026-10-07): an M1 with 8 GB, "works very good, no errors, perfect sound and image", short lags while loading new data. Not verified by the maintainer.
Before installing anything, it is worth checking whether the game already ships a native Mac build.
Common questions
Does S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl work on Mac?
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl 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 S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl 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.