What are the capabilities of the Apple Silicon Windows 11 ARM graphics card?

[Tony_Pitman]

I know there is probably a lot that will not be supported, but I thought I would ask anyway.

DXDiag shows that Windows 11 ARM64 in Parallels is DirectX 12. There are still many games that don't work. I also can't really see a "driver" other than sometihng pretty generic.

My question is whether Parallels is actively working on making their virtual machine "hardware" and "driver" provide more capabilities that will support more games?

We all know the new M1 Max chip (which my computer has) can more than run many current games it is more of a driver reason that they don't. Will this change?

I would like to run Star Citizen, but the launcher doesn't even open or give any errors. I would like to run Red Dead Redemption 2, but I get an error about a very generic "can't init graphics". I would like to run SteamVR, but Oculus won't even run saying it needs SSE2 (which is an intel thing).

Will this ever change? Is there something parallels can do to emulate / translate some of these things so that Windows 11 for ARM thinks these things exist?

 

[MikeH27]

It's not on Parallels.

Pure performance, the OG M1 is around a GTX 1050. The Pro and Max scale up from there, to supposedly a mobile GTX 3080.

DX11 titles now, use some backend shit that translates it to Apples Metal. Until Apple updates Metal to support similar features to DX12, DX12 games won't run. There isn't anything Parallels can do until Apple updates Metal, or adopts something like Vulkan (highly unlikely).

So, give it a while.. I suspect (if) Apple does, it won't be until the next release of macOS (next fall). Mac gaming is in a piss poor state because of numerous reasons.. it'll take a bit to reverse 15 years of bad decisions on Apples part.

 

[zmodem]

I know there is probably a lot that will not be supported, but I thought I would ask anyway.

I would like to run Star Citizen, but the launcher doesn't even open or give any errors. I would like to run Red Dead Redemption 2, but I get an error about a very generic "can't init graphics". I would like to run SteamVR, but Oculus won't even run saying it needs SSE2 (which is an intel thing).

Have you done a windows update? After updating Windows the Oculus app does not give me the SSE2 error and installs now but gives an error about reaching oculus service. If I use Virtual Desktop i can run the demos tried a few games.. a couple worked and the others gave me an error from SteamVR as well as saying headset is not tracking. I just got this so haven't had much time to check the settings but its a start.

 

[Chuck6]

Have you done a windows update? After updating Windows the Oculus app does not give me the SSE2 error and installs now but gives an error about reaching oculus service. If I use Virtual Desktop i can run the demos tried a few games.. a couple worked and the others gave me an error from SteamVR as well as saying headset is not tracking. I just got this so haven't had much time to check the settings but its a start.

I have patched all updates in the setting-update in windows 11 arm, but it still shows Oculus requires a CPU with SSE 4.2 support. What have you done specifically to avoid this error?

 

[zmodem]

I have patched all updates in the setting-update in windows 11 arm, but it still shows Oculus requires a CPU with SSE 4.2 support. What have you done specifically to avoid this error?

What build are you on? Mine is Win 11 pro insider preview build 22533. Both my Macbook Pro M1 16" and Macmini M1 on that build stopped giving me that error. Before that I was getting that message about requiring CPU with SSE 4.2 support. I didnt do anything else to get rid of that message.

 

[Chuck6]

What build are you on? Mine is Win 11 pro insider preview build 22533. Both my Macbook Pro M1 16" and Macmini M1 on that build stopped giving me that error. Before that I was getting that message about requiring CPU with SSE 4.2 support. I didnt do anything else to get rid of that message.

Mine is 22000.469. I guess your 22533 is more recent than mine? I checked update again and received no further update.

 

[Chuck6]

You are running the latest build of the retail/OEM version. Build 22533 is an Insider Preview build. You can register for the Insider program and get 22533 from the Dev Channel. Be aware that Dev Channel builds can be unstable (they are pre-beta) and to return to regular Windows you will need to make a clean install.

Thanks for the information. I switched to the DEV channel just now. SSE 4.2 error did disappear, but I still could not manage to install Oculus Setup. It failed again asked me to reboot and try again, which is in a loop.
I checked the error log. It says 'DaybreakNative.dll' is denied. I used admin mode and tried again, but no luck succeeding.
Now, I am creating a brand new DEV channel windows 11 virtual machine, and figure crossed.

 

[zmodem]

Thanks for the information. I switched to the DEV channel just now. SSE 4.2 error did disappear, but I still could not manage to install Oculus Setup. It failed again asked me to reboot and try again, which is in a loop.
I checked the error log. It says 'DaybreakNative.dll' is denied. I used admin mode and tried again, but no luck succeeding.
Now, I am creating a brand new DEV channel windows 11 virtual machine, and figure crossed.

Try this... Open command prompt find the oculussetup.exe and run oculussetup.exe /diagnostic (possibly /diagnostics, pretty sure its diagnostic)

Once it installs you will get a pop up saying its in "diagnostic mode and click ok when done". Don't click OK. either kill the installer/or it shows is running that message or just reset the virtual machine. If you hit OK it will delete the install. If you kill it or reset, it will leave it installed.

 

[GregoryL6]

Try this... Open command prompt find the oculussetup.exe and run oculussetup.exe /diagnostic (possibly /diagnostics, pretty sure its diagnostic)

Once it installs you will get a pop up saying its in "diagnostic mode and click ok when done". Don't click OK. either kill the installer/or it shows is running that message or just reset the virtual machine. If you hit OK it will delete the install. If you kill it or reset, it will leave it installed.

I tried this, and it allowed me to make progress, but only to encounter a dead end. After the 'diagnostic' install, I still had to install the Oculus VR Runtime Service and start it. This allowed me to open the Oculus app on the Windows 11 (Dev build 22563.1). I connected to my Facebook account, could see the Rift store and purchase history. I tried connecting my Quest to Parallels via USB-C cable, connecting the MacBook USB port to Parallels, but it wasn't recognized. AirLink wouldn't work either, as although the Quest saw my Windows 11 VM running in Parallels, it ultimately sat waiting for the Oculus app in Parallels to respond, which it never does. Finally, I tried Virtual Desktop, which wouldn't work before the successful 'diagnostic' install and Runtime Service installation, but ultimately SteamVR fails, with error 461. I reached out to Guy Godin, creator of Virtual Desktop, who said, "You need a Windows VR ready PC to stream VR games. Its not going to work through Parallels on a Mac. Parallels can't emulate DirectX 11 for what VR needs." It's a generic statement, but I trust Guy, and I think I'm ceasing any further effort. I feel like we're almost there, but suspect there's always going to be another error message to address, and maybe it's just best to call it quits. For those interested, I had success with ShadowPC and Virtual Desktop, and think that's likely the best option for PC VR without a Windows VR capable PC (at least as of this writing). It was a lot less work and fantastic once I addressed my latency issues by cabling my WAPs (instead of repeating).

 

[Izzard]

It is now possible to play some Oculus games using Virtual Desktop - at least the demo apps included when you install the Oculus software work.

 

[ParallelsU961]

I installed Star Citizen today on parallels and the game does not work. My computer is a Mac M1 and the game can be installed completely but the launcher does not start.
Maybe it's the ARM64 and directx maybe the Easy Anti Cheat, for me is basically only interesting if from Parallel a possibility to play is created?

 

[JamesF23]

I know there is probably a lot that will not be supported, but I thought I would ask anyway.

DXDiag shows that Windows 11 ARM64 in Parallels is DirectX 12. There are still many games that don't work. I also can't really see a "driver" other than sometihng pretty generic.

My question is whether Parallels is actively working on making their virtual machine "hardware" and "driver" provide more capabilities that will support more games?

We all know the new M1 Max chip (which my computer has) can more than run many current games it is more of a driver reason that they don't. Will this change?

I would like to run Star Citizen, but the launcher doesn't even open or give any errors. I would like to run Red Dead Redemption 2, but I get an error about a very generic "can't init graphics". I would like to run SteamVR, but Oculus won't even run saying it needs SSE2 (which is an intel thing).

Will this ever change? Is there something parallels can do to emulate / translate some of these things so that Windows 11 for ARM thinks these things exist?

The developers of the games that you are looking to play are probably financed by PC component companies so they have a vested interest in not making the games capable of playing on Macintosh even those today's Macintosh outperforms all but workstation class machines (≈ $20,000).