Superposer

Getting started

The Windows runtime and graphics translator

Two parts do the heavy lifting:

  • The Windows runtime (Superposer's build of Wine) runs Windows programs.
  • Apple's D3DMetal translates DirectX 11 and 12 into Metal. The open-source DXMT covers older and 32-bit games.

Most copies of Superposer carry both and install them on first launch. If yours doesn't:

  • Windows runtime: click Download & Install… on its Setup card. Superposer downloads it (about 200 MB), checks its signature and checksum, and installs it into its own folder. If the connection drops, click it again: the download continues where it stopped. Choose File… installs a runtime file (Superposer-Runtime-….tar.xz) you already have, without the internet.
  • D3DMetal: click Get D3DMetal from Apple on its Setup card. Apple's Game Porting Toolkit page opens in your browser; sign in with your free Apple Account and click Download. Superposer is watching your Downloads folder (and the folder Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc or Firefox is set to use), so when the disk image has finished it opens it read-only, checks Apple's signature on D3DMetal, copies only the D3DMetal parts, closes the disk image and offers to move it to the Trash. Nothing to open, choose or type; the import is listed in Changes to Your Mac and can be undone. A disk image that is already in Downloads is used at once. You can also drop the disk image on the card, or use Choose File… (that is the way if Safari saves downloads somewhere other than Downloads). If CrossOver is on your Mac and carries a D3DMetal at least as new as Apple's, the card offers Use the Copy in CrossOver first: no sign-in or download, for this Mac only. Without D3DMetal your games still run on DXMT (open source, included), which handles DirectX 11 and older games; DirectX 12 games, and some DirectX 11 ones, run best with D3DMetal. If something is wrong the card says so in a sentence: not the Game Porting Toolkit, Apple's signature didn't check out (download it again), a version older than 2 or newer than this Superposer knows, no free space, or a cut-off download. Superposer keeps a short log of the steps in ~/Library/Logs/Superposer/d3dmetal-download.log.

New runtime versions arrive with app updates. Older ones are tidied away by themselves, except a version a game is set to use (see Per-game settings).