highball README

The project's README from github.com/gauthierpiarrette/highball. As one markdown file: README.md.

Highball — a highball glass with ice

Highball

Run Windows games on Apple Silicon. Free, open, and never locked to one Wine build.

License: GPL-3.0 Latest release CI GitHub stars Apple Silicon, macOS 14+

Highball’s Library: nine games in one cover grid, each with its source badge and the open database’s verdict (Verified or Community)

Highball is a native macOS app (and CLI) that sets up Wine, DXMT, D3DMetal and DXVK for you, installs Steam or connects your Epic library, and tells you honestly what runs, what doesn't, and which renderer to use.

The difference is the data. Every verdict comes from an open, CC0 compatibility database: verified runs, per-game renderer verdicts, and the kernel-anti-cheat blocklist, with provenance on every claim. It's a standalone dataset any tool can build on (highball-db, browsable at gethighball.com/database), so you can check whether your game runs before downloading a byte.

Download

Download Highball for Apple Silicon (.dmg)

macOS 14+, notarized. Drag it to Applications, open it and press Get started: Highball installs Rosetta if needed, downloads the engine and prepares a Windows environment, then asks where your games are (Steam, Epic, or a Windows program you have).

Or with Homebrew:

brew install --cask gauthierpiarrette/highball/highball

Not sure it'll run your game? Check the compatibility database →

Beta, working end to end: one-button setup → Steam login → game, with the graphics mode picked per game from the database and msync-accelerated launches. Auto-updating. Not a paid tool and not a thin wrapper: engines are assembled from pinned, SHA-256-verified upstream builds, and the compatibility data is public and free for anyone to reuse.

Will my game run?

That's the whole point of the project, so the answer lives in an open, CC0 database: a verified renderer verdict, the frame rate people actually got, and provenance on every claim. Verified runs, community reports and machine-derived predictions are labelled separately, so you always know which one you're looking at, and it flags kernel-anti-cheat titles as impossible before you download 80 GB.

Search your game in the database →

Cyberpunk 2077, for one, runs 60–82 fps on an M5 (D3DMetal + FSR 2.1). Renderer switching, 32-bit apps via Wine's WoW64, Windows runtimes, ReShade, and your Epic library via Legendary work too.

What doesn't work yet

Several store launchers with an embedded browser (Chromium/CEF) UI don't render under this Wine build. Rockstar is blocked (it needs a CrossOver-only loader patch), and Ubisoft Connect and GOG Galaxy don't render a usable login window (Ubisoft stays unpainted, GOG comes up black), so you can't sign in. Battle.net and the EA app are flaky. GOG's DRM-free offline installers can be run directly in a bottle, and Epic works through Legendary. Each case is tracked in the recipe's knownIssues.

Getting started

Requires Apple Silicon and macOS 14+, and prompts for Rosetta 2 if needed.

First run takes a while: the engine download is a few hundred MB, and Steam's first launch unpacks its own ~235 MB client. Under Rosetta that can take 15 to 25 minutes; the strip at the bottom of the window shows the step, the elapsed time and the range it usually takes. Let it finish. If it stalls, relaunch and it resumes.

Everything lives in ~/Library/Application Support/Highball/. Nothing touches /usr or /Library; deleting that folder is a full uninstall.

⌘C / ⌘V / ⌘A work inside Windows apps — the Command keys are mapped to Ctrl, and Option to Alt so Alt-based game bindings keep working. Turn it off per environment (Settings, then Environments) for Wine's default, where Command acts as Alt.

Prefer the terminal? The CLI does everything the app does. 
git clone https://github.com/gauthierpiarrette/highball && cd highball        # the app + CLI
git clone https://github.com/gauthierpiarrette/highball-db ../highball-db     # recipes + game database (CC0)
swift build -c release
.build/release/highball engine install spike/engine-manifest.json
.build/release/highball engine accept x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r0 apple-gptk-license-2023-08-17  # optional: D3DMetal
.build/release/highball bottle create play --recipe steam
.build/release/highball run play Steam

Run every command from the highball repo root. Recipe and database paths resolve relative to the current directory, with highball-db as a sibling folder.

Played something? highball report files the result to the open database (community reports already cover M4, M5 and macOS 15). The in-app Report a Problem button is for bugs in Highball itself.

Why Highball is built this way

This niche has a cautionary tale: Whisky was archived in 2025. Highball is built to avoid the ways these tools tend to die:

Architecture in one paragraph

highball (CLI) and the app are thin views over HighballKit: an engine is a manifest-defined bundle (Wine + runtime dylibs + renderer overlays) laid out under engines/<id>; a bottle is a WINEPREFIX plus bottle.json; renderers (WineD3D / DXMT / D3DMetal / DXVK) are directory overlays selected per launch via WINEDLLPATH_PREPEND; recipes are declarative JSON steps (installer, registry, winetricks, sync, renderer, pin, note) applied to a bottle. D3DMetal is gated behind explicit acceptance of Apple's Game Porting Toolkit license and is never redistributed in this repository.

Contributing

Licensing

App + CLI + HighballKit: GPL-3.0 (LICENSE). Recipes and database: CC0-1.0 (in highball-db). Wine is LGPL; DXMT is MIT/LGPL; DXVK is Zlib; D3DMetal is Apple-licensed (non-commercial, downloaded separately, never modified). Highball has no paid tier and never will: the app is GPL-3.0 and the data CC0, so anyone can rebuild and redistribute it for free, and a locked paid tier could never hold.

Credits

Standing on: Wine · Gcenx (the entire free Mac Wine supply chain) · 3Shain's DXMT · Sikarugir · Apple's Game Porting Toolkit · Whisky, whose honesty about its own limits shaped this design.

highball (gauthierpiarrette/highball)

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1.6K ·GitHub
Highball
Что это?Highball — нативное приложение macOS (с компаньоном-CLI), которое настраивает Wine, DXMT, D3DMetal и DXVK, чтобы вы могли запускать Windows-игры на Apple Silicon; подспорьем служит открытая база совместимости, подсказывающая, что реально работает.
Это GUI-приложение, или есть ещё и CLI?И то и другое: приложение macOS и CLI 'highball' — тонкие оболочки над общим движком HighballKit, так что CLI умеет всё то же, что и приложение.
Как установить Highball и запустить игру?Скачайте нотаризованный .dmg (или поставьте через Homebrew), перетащите в Applications, откройте и нажмите Get started — он при необходимости установит Rosetta, скачает движок Wine, подготовит Windows-окружение, а затем спросит, где ваши игры (Steam, Epic или Windows-программа).
Какое железо и версия macOS нужны?Mac на Apple Silicon с macOS 14 или новее; Rosetta 2 при отсутствии установится автоматически при первом запуске.
Запустится ли на деле каждая игра?Нет — сначала сверьтесь с открытой базой совместимости. Несколько лаунчеров со встроенным интерфейсом Chromium не отрисовываются, Rockstar заблокирован, у Ubisoft Connect и GOG Galaxy не выходит показать пригодное окно входа, Battle.net и приложение EA работают с перебоями, а игры с античитом уровня ядра помечены как невозможные ещё до скачивания.
Как там с лицензиями?Приложение, CLI и HighballKit — под GPL-3.0; рецепты совместимости и база отдельно лицензированы CC0-1.0, так что любой может свободно их переиспользовать.
Зачем делать ещё одну обёртку Wine вместо Whisky или CrossOver?Whisky был заархивирован в 2025 году, и Highball устроен так, чтобы избегать того, как умирают подобные инструменты: движки собираются из закреплённых, проверенных по SHA-256 апстрим-сборок, а не из собственных патчей, а сама база совместимости и есть продукт, опубликованный как открытые данные CC0.
Насколько можно доверять вердиктам о совместимости в базе?Каждая запись помечена по источнику — проверенные запуски, отчёты сообщества или машинные предсказания — с указанием происхождения и полем lastVerified (движок, версия macOS, чип), так что вы точно знаете, насколько прочен конкретный вердикт.
Можно ли узнать, работает ли игра, до установки чего-либо?Да, база совместимости CC0 доступна онлайн на gethighball.com/database, так что вердикт по рендереру и заявленную частоту кадров игры можно посмотреть ещё до скачивания.
What are similar projects?Whisky, NotProton, OpenEmu, Proton, recall, sharpemu, TheSimpsonsGameRecomp, WallpaperMachine
Which topics is it in?wine, compatibility-layer, steam, emulation, metal, swiftui, dataset, app, gaming, apple-silicon, swift, database
Creator
gauthierpiarrette
Size
18.7 MB
Stars
1.6K
Updated
CommitOct 16Releasev0.10.15Oct 11
Age
1mo
Commits · 90 Days