FFXIV for macOS?

[RitsukoSonoda]

You could also just run it through bootcamp or a virtual machine like parallels.

While the file structure looks similar there are likely some hidden changes in the actual files here and there just because Apple likes use gimmicks to hook people into buying their price inflated hardware then make it annoying in some way shape or form to use software not acquired from their app store. Since a majority of the people that bought their devices aren't technically sound it makes them stick with their products because switching away from apple appears far too difficult to them.

[reiichi]

You could also just run it through bootcamp or a virtual machine like parallels.

While the file structure looks similar there are likely some hidden changes in the actual files here and there just because Apple likes use gimmicks to hook people into buying their price inflated hardware then make it annoying in some way shape or form to use software not acquired from their app store. Since a majority of the people that bought their devices aren't technically sound it makes them stick with their products because switching away from apple appears far too difficult to them.

No, it is literally running on a proprietary fork of wine formerly called Cedega/Cider/TransGaming. There are some quirks and tweaks specifically for macOS, but a normal build of Wine usually has newer features and probably would run better. We do know SE does some weird shit with Wine detection though because for a while, all Linux users playing the game with Wine ran into an issue where the launcher assumed they must have been using the macOS version instead. But that was all based on some basic Wine detection and Browser info. There's likely nothing unique about the files at all.

At the same time, running Windows in a VM on macOS would result in absolutely abysmal performance because there's poor graphics acceleration support. Which is basically the same for -all- VM technologies that can't passthrough a hardware device. Bootcamp would be the best option, followed by a relatively recent Linux installation. But it's also a hassle to reboot for games, so the Mac client isn't really -that- bad. We'll probably see things really start to improve once the Wine people finished their own direct to vulkan support, as DXVK isn't supported on macOS.