WWDC 2022 announces that MacBooks can finally handle video games, starting with Resident Evil Village.
Among the slew of news coming out of Apple's WWDC 2022 keynote is the new Metal 3 graphics API. In a nutshell, that means gaming is more of a thing on MacBooks. The platform has never been one that prioritizes video game performance, although the Pro models can be commandeered for the job.
But now, MetalFX Upscaling will use the power of Apple silicon to render low res graphics and upscale them in a similar way to Nvidia DLSS. So games will run more efficiently while looking more high-res.
Apple silicon's unified architecture across devices means that devs can scale the quality and performance of their titles across the product lineup; from iPhone, to iPad, to the M1 Ultra.
Resident Evil Village will be taking advantage of the new API, so you can take on the statuesque Lady Dimitrescu on your MacBook. Expect high quality textures at 1080p resolution on MacBook Air, and up to 4K on Mac Studio. Masaru Ijuin, manager of Capcom's advanced technical division, popped his head in to talk more about Resident Evil Village on MacBook.
"With its incredible performance now the Mac with Apple silicon is a great platform for games. And with our support for new Metal 3, our game screams on Apple silicon, from the MacBook Air to the blazing-fast Mac Studio."
We got a sneak peek at the game running with Metal 3, with "high-quality textures, geometry, and complex shaders" on show.
No Man's Sky will also be coming to macOS and iPad as one of the first games to use MetalFX Upscaling. We'll see frame rate increases for a more responsive feel, and quicker game loading. The latter is thanks to Metal 3's fast resource loading API. It minimizes wait time by "providing a more direct path from storage to the unified memory system," so the GPU can access high-res textures faster. That translates to more immersive visuals, faster performance, and quicker loading.
And Baldur's Gate 3 fans will be pleased to know that the graphics-intensive title is going to run a lot faster on the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with M2. In fact, it'll run a whopping 40% faster (nearly) than on the previous 13-inch MacBook Pro. And if you're upgrading to Apple Silicon from a model without it, Baldur's Gate 3 will run 3.3 times as fast.
We don't have a date for Resident Evil Village and No Man's Sky's macOS debut just yet. All we know for now is that they're slated to arrive later this year.
