Game won't function on Mac Studio

[Giginen]

There is a flaw in it the game/Wine Wrapper, where anything over something like 80gb memory on Apple Silicon causes it to request a massive amount of textures, crashes Apple's API Metal, and not work. You'll get a black screen with music. That is the API Metal crashed, and no video working, just sound. CodeWeavers, who ports Square's FFXIV windows game client, in a Wine Wrapper for MacOS for Square (that's the official Square Enix MacOS Game), supposedly implemented a fix for this flaw in their CrossOver App, for other Apps/games, but when I asked if it would make FFXIV play on my 20 core/64gpu/128gb Mac Studio Ultra, they said no. They wouldn't say if/when they would be fixing the FFXIV MacOS game client they make for Square. The XIV on Mac team are aware of this high memory flaw, but are unable to fix their third party launcher. I've talked to them in detail about it on Discord. One of their coders has the same Mac Studio Ultra as you, and I, so they have a vested interest in fixing it.

Long and short is, the only way to play FFXIV on the 128gb Mac Studio Ultra is through a streaming cloud computer, like Shadow PC. Hopefully Square, and CodeWeavers will fix their cruddy game client, but don't hold your breath. Apple Silicon has been known about, and out for a few years now, it is impressive, and the future, and Square has made zero attempts to get FFXIV running on it. It is a shame, it could be awesome for them, with Apple enabling scalable gaming in this year's OS releases. A properly coded FFXIV could potentially run on an M1/M2 iPad Pro, as well, if they put the effort in.

I play on a Shadow PC streaming on my Mac Studio when I don't want to use my M1 16" MacBook Pro Max 32gpu/64gb memory laptop. It works well, if you have good internet.

To the person who suggested bootcamp/dual-booting windows, that is NOT an option on Apple Silicon. There is no bootcamp for these computers.

Hope this long winded response is helpful to you!