Codeweavers took to its official forums
today to announce the release of CrossOver 23.0.0, the new version of
its software that aims to make emulating Windows software and games
easier on macOS, Linux, and ChromeOS systems.
CrossOver 23 has updated to Wine 8.0.1, and it's loaded with
improvements across all its platforms. The most notable, though, is the
addition of DirectX 12 support under macOS via VKD3D and MoltenVK. This
marks the first time most Mac users have had access to software that
relies on DirectX 12; previously, only DirectX 11 was supported, and
that went for other software solutions like Parallels, too.
This new release adds "initial support" for geometry shaders and
transforms feedback on macOS Ventura. Codeweavers claims that will
address a lot of problems with "missing graphics or black screens
in-game" in titles like MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, Street Fighter V, Tekken 7, and Octopath Traveler.
All that said, steer clear if you're running the macOS Sonoma beta; the
forum post says that while CrossOver 23 technically runs in Sonoma,
"there are definitely known issues." It's worth mentioning that the
public release of Sonoma later this year will include new tools for
porting games to the Mac that could make additional apps like CrossOver
unnecessary in some specific instances.
On the Linux side, Codeweavers said it resolved the Xwayland bug,
leading to better performance for applications like those in the
Microsoft 365 suite. The EA desktop app now works on macOS and Linux,
too.
Those are the major improvements in compatibility, but there are a
plethora of bug fixes that affect a wide range of apps like Quicken or
Steam. Codeweavers says there are more than 5,000 changes in this
update. You can now uninstall applications much more easily in the
CrossOver GUI, too.
These updates are available to existing users who have active
entitlements to the software and to new users who want to fork out $74
to get some Windows applications and games running in emulation on their
machines.
Testing it out
The forum post notes that Diablo II Resurrected and Diablo IV work on macOS Ventura with DirectX 12. Before writing this article, I briefly tested Diablo IV
via CrossOver 23 on an M1 Max-equipped MacBook Pro and found that it
worked on medium to high settings at 1080p with some stuttering.
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