Tears of the Kingdom Mac port reaches 90 fps in gameplay
The MacNativeGames project targets Apple silicon, with reported support for 1440p resolution and PlayStation and Xbox controllers.
A Mac recompilation of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has reached gameplay frame rates of 90 fps on the MacBook Air M4 and Mac mini M4, Notebookcheck reported. The MacNativeGames project targets ARM64 processors, and developer liyong has shared footage showing its progress.
Menu performance reaches 120 fps, according to the report. The port supports 1440p resolution as well as PlayStation and Xbox controllers. It uses Apple’s Metal 4 API and MetalFX upscaling, though entering unfamiliar areas of Hyrule can still produce hitches despite automatic shader compilation. Optimization remains in progress.
The project is available through GitHub, but the download excludes game files. Users must provide their own Tears of the Kingdom Switch ROM, using either XCI or NSP format. Setup also requires Xcode development tools and a sequence of command-line entries.
A separate PC recompilation demonstrated by NotRexed recorded 32-59 fps with an Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti, Notebookcheck reported, with optimization also continuing. That project offers another alternative to emulation, although its reported frame rates were below those of the Mac version.
