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
What is this?Highball is a native macOS app (with a companion CLI) that sets up Wine, DXMT, D3DMetal and DXVK so you can run Windows games on Apple Silicon, backed by an open compatibility database that tells you what actually works.
Is this a GUI app, or is there a CLI too?Both: the macOS app and the 'highball' CLI are thin views over a shared engine called HighballKit, so the CLI can do everything the app does.
How do I install Highball and get a game running?Download the notarized .dmg (or install via Homebrew), drag it to Applications, open it and press Get started — it installs Rosetta if needed, downloads the Wine engine, prepares a Windows environment, then asks where your games are (Steam, Epic, or a Windows program).
What hardware and macOS version do I need?An Apple Silicon Mac on macOS 14 or later; Rosetta 2 is installed automatically on first run if it's missing.
Will every game actually run?No — check the open compatibility database first. Several launchers with embedded Chromium UI don't render, Rockstar is blocked, Ubisoft Connect and GOG Galaxy can't show a usable login window, Battle.net and the EA app are flaky, and kernel-anti-cheat titles are flagged as impossible before you download them.
What's the licensing like?The app, CLI and HighballKit are GPL-3.0; the compatibility recipes and database are separately licensed CC0-1.0 so anyone can reuse them freely.
Why build another Wine wrapper instead of using Whisky or CrossOver?Whisky was archived in 2025, and Highball is designed to avoid the ways these tools die: engines are assembled from pinned, SHA-256-verified upstream builds instead of custom patches, and the compatibility database itself is the product, published as open CC0 data.
How trustworthy are the compatibility verdicts in the database?Every entry is labeled by source — verified runs, community reports, or machine-derived predictions — with provenance and a lastVerified field (engine, macOS version, chip), so you know exactly how solid a given verdict is.
Can I check if a game works before installing anything?Yes, the CC0 compatibility database is browsable online at gethighball.com/database, so you can look up a game's renderer verdict and reported frame rate before downloading.
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
18.8 MB
Stars
1.6K
Updated
CommitOct 18Releasev0.10.15Oct 11
Age
1mo
Commits · 90 Days