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
Launches, not playable. The game's pre-launcher (settings.exe, 32-bit) shows, and Play rarely brings the main window. The launch log has DXVK's 'Failed to create surface' twice and a stack overflow in settings.exe. A Direct3D 9 game, so in the D3DMetal and DXMT modes it goes through DXVK's Direct3D 9 on the default engine; Wine's own Direct3D for this game (the game's own graphics mode on its page) is untested and the natural next try. ProtonDB has it working with GE-Proton on Linux.
Known issues
The main window rarely opens after the pre-launcher's Play, and when it does the ship moves very slowly
What helps none known. Untested: the game's own graphics mode set to Wine's own Direct3D
Why not diagnosed; the log shows DXVK failing to create its presentation surface and a stack overflow in the pre-launcher
Provenance
Reported by udance4ever (highball-db#493, 2026-10-15), Apple M1, macOS 27.0.1, Highball 0.10.16, engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r26, D3DMetal environment, DXVK async on, AVX advertised, Metal HUD, recipes steam, controller-sdl, corefonts, dotnet48, vcrun2022, bloody-spell and xact, rated 2 of 5: the pre-launcher shows, the main window opens about one time in twenty, and the ship then moves very slowly. Not verified by the maintainer.
Before installing anything, it is worth checking whether the game already ships a native Mac build.
Common questions
Does Velocity Ultra work on Mac?
Velocity Ultra 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 Velocity Ultra 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.