Professional’s Ranking
Execs
- Free, open-source app
- Works with Apple’s Recreation Porting Toolkit
- Helps DX12
Cons
- Helps fewer video games than CrossOver
- No technical help
- Requires macOS 14 (Sonoma)
Our Verdict
Video games compatibility is extra restricted than a few of its rivals, however this free open-source app is right for operating many Home windows video games.
Worth When Reviewed
Free
Greatest Costs Right this moment: Whisky
Let’s face it–the principle motive most of us wish to run Windows on our Macs is in order that we will play Home windows video games. There are, after all, many enterprise {and professional} customers who must run Home windows apps on their Macs for work – however there are tens of millions extra Mac customers who simply wish to play Diablo IV or Fortnite as a substitute. So it was a little bit of a landmark second when Apple unveiled its Recreation Porting Toolkit (GPTK) at WWDC final 12 months, as that was one of many few events in Apple’s complete historical past when it truly did one thing to assist video games builders carry their video games onto the Mac.
Whisky emerged following the launch of the Game Porting Toolkit final 12 months – in reality, it’s truly based mostly on GPTK and may be very a lot centered on operating Home windows video games somewhat than extra critical enterprise software program. Strictly talking, Whisky isn’t an emulator or virtualization program, like Parallels Desktop or UTM, that means that you can run Home windows on a digital machine. It’s rather more like CrossOver, which lets you run quite a lot of Home windows apps and software program in your Mac with out even needing to put in a duplicate of Home windows in any respect. In actual fact, CrossOver and Whisky – and even Apple’s Recreation Porting Toolkit – are all based mostly on the open-source WINE, which acts as a translation layer that converts the programming code in Home windows apps and software program into the Mac equal (a bit like Apple’s personal Rosetta software program, which interprets software program written for older Intel Macs in order that it might probably run on the newest Macs with Apple Silicon processors).
The energy of Whisky is that it combines components of each WINE and the Recreation Porting Toolkit, after which wraps them up in an interface that was designed utilizing Apple’s SwiftUI programming instruments. And the entire undertaking was developed by Isaac Marovitz who, in line with his web site (isaacmarovitz.com), is simply 17 years previous.
Simply as UTM is an open-source various to VM software program resembling Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion, Whisky is a free, open-source various to CrossOver (strictly talking, CrossOver is open-source too, however the $64 annual license charge for CrossOver is definitely paying for technical help somewhat than the software program).
Like CrossOver, Whisky works by permitting you to create bottles, that are recordsdata that act as a sort of container for the Home windows apps that you simply wish to run. The bottles present compatibility with numerous variations of Home windows, together with Home windows 10 and 11 and even go proper again to Home windows 7 and XP with a purpose to help older video games from the 32-bit period. When you’ve created a bottle, you possibly can merely press the Run button inside Whisky to launch the installer program to your Home windows recreation and that recreation then turns into a part of that bottle. And, like CrossOver, Whisky means that you can set up the Home windows model of Steam inside a bottle after which set up Home windows video games that you simply personal on Steam inside the bottle as effectively.
Whisky isn’t fairly as straightforward to make use of as CrossOver, although, and it lacks the step-by-step assist that CrossOver gives for putting in many common video games in addition to enterprise software program resembling Microsoft Workplace. It doesn’t work with the identical big selection of video games both–that’s actually the principle benefit of paying the license charge for CrossOver–however Whisky nonetheless does a powerful job for a free open-source app that was developed by only one individual.
I used to be impressed to search out that Whisky had no bother in any respect with the creepy Name Of Cthulhu from 2018, and likewise Guild Wars 2 (which stopped supporting the Mac years in the past), and each video games supplied superb efficiency on my MacBook Professional with M2 processor. Whisky additionally helps numerous Home windows video games that use Microsoft’s DX12 graphics software program, which is an space the place lots of its costlier rivals nonetheless battle. Nonetheless, it doesn’t at present work with newer video games resembling Diablo IV – and I’m afraid that Fortnite is a no-no in the meanwhile too.
However, after all, Whisky is totally free, so there’s no motive why you possibly can’t obtain it and see if it really works with the video games that you simply wish to run. There’s additionally an inventory of suitable video games on the Whisky web site which you can test earlier than you obtain the app. The one factor to be careful for is that Whisky’s use of the Recreation Porting Toolkit signifies that it solely runs on Macs with macOS 14 Sonoma.
Shopping for Recommendation
Effectively, you don’t have to purchase it, so it’s actually price downloading this free app to see if it really works together with your favourite Home windows video games. Efficiency is nice for suitable video games, however paid-for rivals resembling CrossOver could also be suitable with a wider vary of video games.
For our information to the perfect video games you possibly can play in your Mac learn: Best Mac Games.