How To Port Pc Games To Mac

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One of the first things a lot of people look for, once they get over the ‘newness’ of unboxing a new MacBook and switching on OS X for the first time, is how they can play their favorite games on Mac. We’ll help you figure out how to do it.

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  2. How To Pc Game
  3. How To Download Games On Pc
  4. How To Port A Game
  5. Best Pc Game Ports

Create an account and download your games. If using a networked PC to power your games, use the same account for both your Mac mini and your PC. For a list of owned games that can run natively on macOS, Click Library Mac. Once you install your macOS native game, make certain to set your eGPU (if you have one) as the preferred device for. Of the game controllers available for home computers, only a few are officially supported on the Mac, but you can often get others, like those for the PS3, Wii, or Xbox, working just fine. If you're switching from a Mac to a PC, you'll probably need to bring all the files you've accumulated over the years with you. Here are the steps you need.

Traditionally, Macs were not known for their gaming prowess. It wasn’t uncommon for Mac owners to own a Windows-powered PC explicitly for gaming – you’d use your MacBook (or PowerBook!) for work and relaxation, then boot up your Windows PC when you wanted to sit down and shoot things. For the most part, it worked really well. A few games were ported over, but never very many. That all began to change when Apple switched the processors found inside of Mac computers. Not only could Windows be installed, but major game studios brought some of their titles over. World of Warcraft became a huge seller on the Mac.

The Best Way to Get Games for Mac? Steam.

A few years ago, Valve sent waves through the Mac world when they announced that they were planning to port their Steam video game store / distribution channel / social network to OS X. Valve pushed devs to port titles over to the Apple platform, and now there are hundred or even thousands of games running in the Mac version of Steam (of the 315 games in my Steam account, 176 of them are Mac compatible).

The easiest way to get started with a few games for Mac is to use Steam. If you’re a PC gamer, chances are you’ve bought more than a few Steam titles – and it’s likely some of those support the Mac at the same time; Valve doesn’t charge extra for non-Windows versions of their games.

But for Mac gamers, Steam is more than just a way to find Mac-compatible games. It’s also a way to play any game in your entire library, even if it’s Windows-only. It’s thanks to a newer technology from Valve known as In-Home Streaming.

Here’s the bad news, upfront: you still need a Windows PC for this to work. Preferably a good one, but any recent computer will do. In-Home Streaming works by actually running the game on your Windows PC, then routing the video over the network to your Mac.

Setting it up is actually pretty simple. Make sure your gaming desktop is attached to your network via an Ethernet cable. You want it to be plugged directly in rather than relying on wireless access. Next, download and install Steam on your Windows computer, and make sure the games you want to play are installed, configured, and have been launched at least once. Sometimes running a game for the first time causes issues when you’re trying to stream it elsewhere in the house.

Next, go to your Mac and download and install a copy of Steam there, too, if you haven’t already. Like with the gaming PC, your Mac will stream games better if it’s hardwired into your network. If that’s not possible, you can use your wireless network – but you should be running an 802.11ac network, and you should make sure you have a strong signal (even then, you might find some issues with playing really fast twitch shooters).

Log in with your Steam account credentials on both computers, and you should be good to go – if you don’t see all of your Windows games (at least, the ones that are installed on your gaming PC) available on your Mac, check the Steam settings on both computers and make sure that the ‘Enable streaming’ box is checked.

Steam’s implementation of game streaming works extremely well on most titles. First person shooters, especially if you’re into multiplayer, may prove problematic thanks to increases in latency.

Not every Mac game is available on Steam.

A number of high-profile publishers have gotten uncomfortable with the amount of power Steam was building up and decided to roll with their own game distribution services. Fortunately, many of them have their own Mac ports.

Games you won’t find on Steam, but can run on your Mac include Blizzard titles like World of Warcraft, Starcraft II, and Diablo III. Games you won’t find on Steam and are also Windows-only include most of the EA stable, with Mass Effect 3, Mass Effect: Andromeda (likely), Mirror’s Edge, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and more.

For this latter category, Steam may yet be able to help you out. For any games distributed via EA’s Origin service, you’ll need to download and have the Origin client installed and running – but you can still add them to your Steam library. Steam lets gamers add these non-Steam titles to their library for a couple of reasons: it gives them access to the Steam overlay and web browser in full-screen mode, and it lets your friends see what games you’re playing.

In-Home Streaming isn’t officially supported on non-Steam titles that you add to your library, but some games will work fine; you’ll need to experiment and see. To add some of these non-Steam, non-Mac titles, go up to the ‘Games’ menu on your gaming PC, and select ‘Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library’. A window will pop up listing a bunch of programs from your computer; scroll through to find the one you want, click on it to highlight, then click OK.

Depending on which Apple computer you’re using, you might wish to add non-Steam games to your Steam library and try to stream them even if they have native Mac clients; your gaming PC is likely going to play them at a much higher quality.

Don’t forget: Your Mac is an excellent Windows PC.

A common refrain you’ll find among tech sites is that an Apple MacBook or iMac will often be one of the best Windows computers you can buy. Thanks to Apple’s Boot Camp assistant, it’s actually pretty easy to install Windows on your Mac, and use either Windows or OS X, depending on what it is you want to do.

It’s a great way to run software that is Windows-only and can’t be virtualized, which is an apt way to describe many modern games. It might be a good idea to try even if you want to play an app that has a Mac client: some tests have shown a substantial frame rate increase by running the Windows version of a game over the Mac version – even on the exact same computer.

The company has a great support page (here) detailing how to go about installing Windows 10 on your MacBook or iMac. It boils down to updating your Mac software, installing Windows, and then updating drivers – pretty simple, in all.

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Windows Migration Assistant transfers your contacts, calendars, email accounts, and more from a PC. It migrates this data to the appropriate places on your Mac. After migrating data to your Mac, authorize your computer for iTunes Store purchases. It’s important to authorize before you sync or play content that you download from the iTunes Store.

If you're migrating from one Mac to another Mac, follow the steps to move your content to a new Mac.

Before you begin

To prepare for a smooth migration:

  • Make sure that Windows is up to date. Migration Assistant works with Windows 7 and later.
  • Make sure that you know the name and password of an administrator account on your PC.
  • Connect your Mac and PC to the same network, such as your home Wi-Fi network. Or connect an Ethernet cable between the ports on your Mac and PC to create a direct network connection. Some Mac models require an Ethernet adapter, such as the Belkin USB-C to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter or Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter.
  • If you're using Microsoft OneDrive on your PC, follow Microsoft's instructions for uninstalling OneDrive before continuing. You can reinstall OneDrive after migration is complete.

Then use the check disk (chkdsk) utility on your PC to make sure that your Windows hard drive doesn’t have any issues:

  1. Right-click the Start button, then click Run.
  2. Type cmd and press Enter. Command Prompt opens.
  3. At the prompt, type chkdsk and press Enter.
  4. If the utility reports that it found problems, type the following, where drive is the letter that represents your Windows startup disk, such as D:
  5. Press Enter.
  6. At the prompt, type Y, then restart your PC.
  7. Repeat this process until the check disk utility reports no issues. If the utility can't fix every issue that it finds, you might need to have your PC serviced. Then migrate your data to your Mac.

Move your data

This section guides you through migration, post-migration, and what to do if the steps don’t work for you.

How to move your information from a PC to your Mac

  1. On your PC, download and install the appropriate Windows Migration Assistant, based on the version of macOS on your Mac:
    • Windows Migration Assistant for macOS Big Sur
    • Windows Migration Assistant for macOS Mojave and macOS Catalina
    • Windows Migration Assistant for macOS Sierra and High Sierra
    • Windows Migration Assistant for OS X El Capitan or earlier
  2. Quit any open Windows apps.
  3. Open Windows Migration Assistant, then click Continue.
  4. Start up your Mac. Setup Assistant automatically opens the first time you turn on your Mac. If you’ve already set up your Mac, open Migration Assistant, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
  5. On your Mac, follow the onscreen prompts until you get to the migration pane of the assistant. Select the option to transfer your information “From a Windows PC,” then click Continue.
  6. When prompted, enter an administrator name and password.
  7. Click Continue to close any other open apps.
  8. In the migration window on your Mac, select your PC from the list of available computers. Then wait for the PC to show the same passcode that your Mac shows.
  9. When both computers display the same passcode, click Continue on your PC and Mac.
  10. Your Mac scans the drives on your PC to build a list of information to migrate. When the scan completes, select the information that you want to migrate to your Mac and click Continue. Learn about some of the data that you can transfer.

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You can watch the progress and estimated time remaining on both the PC and your Mac. They tell you when migration is complete.

After you move your data

When migration completes, close Windows Migration Assistant on your PC. Then log in to the new user account on your Mac. The first time you log in to a user account migrated from your PC, you’re asked to set a password. You can use the same password that you used on your PC, or create a new password.

After logging in to the user account that you migrated, authorize your computer for iTunes Store purchases. It’s important to authorize before you sync or play content downloaded from the iTunes Store.

If you have issues moving your data

  • Quit all open apps on your PC, then try migrating your content again. For example, you can press Alt-Tab to choose an open application, then press Alt-F4 to quit it.
  • If your PC doesn't appear in the Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant window on your Mac, make sure the computers are connected to the same network. You can create a network by connecting a single Ethernet cable between your Mac and PC. If that doesn't help, check for firewall software on your PC and turn it off. After migration completes, you can turn firewall software on again.
  • If Migration Assistant doesn’t open on your PC, turn off any antivirus software on your PC. Then try to open Migration Assistant again. After migration completes. You can turn that software on again.
  • If you still can't migrate your information successfully, you can use an external drive or file sharing to manually copy important data to your Mac.

What data can I transfer?

Migration Assistant lets you choose the data to move to your Mac. Here’s what moves over for specific apps and data types:

Email, contacts, and calendar information
Email messages, email-account settings, contacts, and appointments move based on which version of Windows you're using and which accounts you have.

Outlook1
Data from 32-bit versions of Outlook in Windows 7 and later move as follows:

  • People move to Contacts2
  • Appointments move to the Calendar app
  • IMAP and Exchange settings and messages move to the Mail app
  • POP settings and messages move to Mail2
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Windows Live Mail
Data from Windows Live Mail in Windows 7 and later moves as follows:

  • IMAP settings and messages move to Mail
  • POP settings and messages move to Mail2

Windows Mail
Data from Windows Mail in Windows 7 and later (excluding Windows 8) move as follows:

  • IMAP settings and messages move to Mail
  • POP settings and messages move to Mail2
  • People move to Contacts

Bookmarks
Bookmarks from Internet Explorer, Safari for Windows, and Firefox move to Safari.

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System settings
Language and location settings, and custom desktop pictures move to System Preferences. Your web browser homepage moves to Safari preferences.

Pictures
Photos and other images move to your home folder. You can then add them to Photos, or open Photos and let it search your Mac for photos to import.

iTunes content
Migration Assistant transfers your iTunes media as follows: music to the Apple Music app, videos to the Apple TV app, podcasts to the Apple Podcasts app, and audiobooks to the Apple Books app.

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Other files
Migration Assistant also moves these files:

  • Files from the top-level folder of the currently logged-in user’s home directory
  • Non-system files located in the Windows or Program Files folders
  • Top-level folders located on the Windows system disk and other attached disks

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1. Migration Assistant doesn’t support 64-bit versions of Outlook. You can manually migrate Mail, Contacts, or Calendars from Outlook 2013 or Outlook 2016 by signing in and entering the content on your Mac manually.

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2. Migration Assistant transfers only the Mail or Contacts data that belongs to the logged-in Windows user. To transfer data from another user account, use Migration Assistant again while you’re logged in to another Windows account. Each time you migrate, your Mac creates a new user account.