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 perfect on Wine's own Direct3D on the Wine 11 engine r11 with the frame rate limit at 60, after a short session on an M4. Nothing was measured here. A second M4 report: crashes loading a neighbourhood on 0.10.3, runs on 0.10.10 with default settings once some in-game settings are lowered.
Provenance
Reported by kabilza (highball-db#238, 2026-09-27), Apple M4, macOS 26.5, Highball 0.9.33, engine x64-crossover26.3-r11, Wine's own Direct3D, AVX advertised, frame rate limit 60, the steam and vcrun2022 recipes, rated 5 of 5 after 6 minutes. Not verified by the maintainer. AlecAcosta (highball#249): on 0.10.3 (engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r19, Wine's own Direct3D) the game crashed while loading any neighbourhood on an M4 with macOS 27.0.1; after reinstalling with 0.10.10 and default settings it runs, a bit slow until some in-game settings were lowered (2026-10-08).
Before installing anything, it is worth checking whether the game already ships a native Mac build.
Common questions
Does The Sims 2 Legacy Collection work on Mac?
The Sims 2 Legacy Collection 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 The Sims 2 Legacy Collection?
wined3d. Highball can translate Direct3D through DXVK, DXMT or Apple's D3DMetal, and the right choice varies by game. The database records wined3d for The Sims 2 Legacy Collection. Highball uses it automatically when the game has a row; to set it by hand, open Settings, then Environments.
Contribute a result
This page is generated from an open database. If you have run The Sims 2 Legacy Collection 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.