Apple’s ‘new day’ for Mac gaming could actually work

digitaltrends.com:

At WWDC 2022, Apple said it’s starting “a new day” for gaming on Mac. That starts with two key new features that should help improve performance on Apple’s devices — most of which don’t have a discrete GPU — and a new application programming interface (API) that brings faster loading times to games. But will it work?

It’s no secret that Mac gaming isn’t where it should be. Even the list of best Mac games are missing several key titles, and most Apple devices aren’t configured or tuned to offer high performance in the latest AAA games. But Apple hasn’t been resting on its laurels, and its lineup of new processors, modern gaming features, and broader game support could push Mac gaming over the edge.

Outside of the new MacBook Air M2, there were two major gaming announcements coming out of WWDC: MetalFX Upscaling and the Fast Resource Loading API. Apple was light on details as usual, but MetalFX Upscaling sounds like an upscaling feature in the vein of Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS). In short, it boosts gaming performance by rendering the game at a lower resolution before upscaling to your monitor’s resolution. That increases performance while maintaining as much image quality as possible.

We don’t know much about the new Fast Resource Loading API, which is said to bring faster game loading times to games. This is likely similar to Microsoft’s DirectStorage and AMD’s Smart Access Storage, which leverage GPU file decompression to get loading times as low as 1 second. Apple says it “minimizes wait time by providing a more direct path from storage to the GPU.”

Those new features are exciting for developers, but Apple also mustered a few game announcements. It said that No Man’s Sky, Grid Legends, and Resident