The cross-company research organization, The Khronos Group, is bringing its Vulkan API to both iOS and MacOS, making it possible for gamers on both platforms to enjoy the boosts to performance and efficiency it can bring. However, Apple hasn't been part of that transition and has instead been trying to push its own API, Metal, over the OpenGL replacement.
To bring Vulkan over to the Apple platforms, a new, open-source release of MoltenVK -- a MacOS and iOS runtime -- has been developed with full implementation of Vulkan by utilizing Metal. MoltenVK should allow developers building games on the Vulkan API to publish them across Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android and more platforms all in one go, potentially opening up new audiences for games that have previously been Windows exclusives.
As ArsTechnica points out, one of the earliest adopters of Vulkan through MoltenVK was Valve, and it showed huge improvements over previous Apple gaming efforts. In some cases, Vulkan was able to deliver as much as 50 percent greater frame rates over the use of Apple's own traditional OpenGL API.
That should mean that gaming on Apple platforms could improve considerably in the year to come, with developers not only able to easily port their games to MacOS and iOS, but also enjoy the performance benefits without having to convert their game to an entirely different API. If their game is already Vulkan compatible, then the transition should be simple.
They'll have to deal with sub-standard graphical hardware, but that's another debate for another day.
An exciting development that could further expand Mac gaming in the future is MoltenVK's potential support for DirectX12. The API would run on top of the Microsoft API, making it possible to play those games on Apple systems. Although not many games support DirectX12 as of late, it could open the door to a much greater library of Mac games in the future.
