Uru for macOS is a full Metal port native to both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. It was first demoed at Mysterium 2022. The Mac client is entirely native with no emulation or translation layers. Support has been added for Retina displays, and variable/high refresh rates.
The game client and patcher also have a new, native Mac UI designed in collaboration with Mario Guzman.
This is the only Myst game to never see a native Mac release! It’s been an amazing experience bringing this missing piece of the franchise home to the Mac.
What’s it like porting a game to Apple Silicon and Metal?
I’ll be writing some content on my experiences porting the underlying Plasma engine to Metal-cpp. Nothing has been posted yet. Stay tuned!
Future of the Mac client
I’m working on this project in co-ordination with the H’uru project – a group of developers focused on improving and modernizing the Uru client.
Mysterium 2022 also brought announcements on bringing changes from H’uru into the official Cyan client. I’m hopeful that in the near future these changes will be part of the official Myst Online release, bringing a native experience to Mac developers for the first time.
When can I get it?
Myst Online for Mac is in a closed beta – but the source is available from my GitHub profile. The client is only cleared for use on the H’uru preproduction server – because it is the first client running on the new cross platform network socket code. Eventually it will become available to the H’uru public player server – and hopefully eventually the official Cyan servers.