Can you play Manor Lords on Mac?
Manor Lords is the new indie sensation that players just cannot get enough of, as it offers them a perfect blend of city building and realistic medieval strategy. Seeing how interested people are in this game, we wondered if it is playable on our Macs. Quite predictably, just like many other PC titles, Manor Lords is not natively playable on macOS. But that didn’t stop us, so we researched a little bit and came up with some viable alternatives.
The Manor Lords Mac Methods That We Tested
There are three viable Manor Lords Mac methods – the GeForce Now cloud gaming solution, emulation via CrossOver and the good old Boot Camp. We put each method to the test and will discuss our findings further down the page. However, you can directly try them out by using the instructions below.
GeForce Now
Pros
- Access to a vast library of games.
- High-quality graphics and performance.
- No need for powerful local hardware.
- Cross-platform support.
Cons
- Requires a stable and fast internet connection.
- Limited to supported games.
- Potential latency issues in online games.
- Requires a subscription for some features.
GeForce Now is a cloud gaming service that offers an accessible way to enjoy a large selection of games on your Mac.
Note: Before you use the instructions of this method, you need to own the game. Here are links to the game for different vendors: Steam; Epic Games, check for a discount on Cdkeys.com
- If you’re gaming on a Mac, GeForce Now can be really helpful. You don’t need a super powerful Mac, because all the demanding gaming tasks are performed on NVIDIA’s servers. In this way, even the oldest Macs can enjoy high-quality graphics and flawless operations. It’s even cross-platform, which means that you can play on your Mac, PC, and even a mobile device flawlessly.
- Now, here is the flip side of the matter. GeForce Now requires a strong and stable internet connection. As a result, bad and weak connections might cause visual interruptions during gaming. Furthermore, not all games are supported, so you will not be able to play your favorite games. Therefore, while GeForce Now is a great choice for a majority of people, you should consider if you have an adequate internet connectivity and whether your favorite game is included in their library.
CrossOver + the Game Porting Toolkit
Pros
- It’s free
- Unlimited compatibility
- Stable and reliable
Cons
- Takes time to set up
- Takes tons of storage
Note: Before you use the instructions of this method, you need to own the game. Here are links to the game for different vendors: Steam; Epic Games, check for a discount on Cdkeys.com
Through Apple’s Game Porting Toolkit, you can also enjoy Windows games right on your Mac. While GPTK is quite robust, setting it up for the first time is challenging because you’ll need to work with Terminal commands. Therefore, it’s preferable to use GPTK along with CrossOver. It’s a similar but more user-friendly application. It simplifies installation and setting up compatibility layers, allowing people to configure systems more easily.
1. Visit the CrossOver site by clicking the button below, and download and install CrossOver.
2. Open CrossOver and create a new Bottle from the Bottle menu.
3. Right-click the newly-created bottle, click Install Software in Bottle, and then search for and install Steam (or another game launcher if you own the game elsewhere).
4. Make sure that D3DMetal option is enabled if you are about to play a DirectX 11 or 12 game, and then launch and log into Steam, find the game in your library, install it, and click Play.
Boot Camp
Features: Provides a native Windows 11 experience. Allows running all Windows-compatible programs and games as long as the Mac’s hardware can support them.
Note: Not available for Apple Silicon models.
Pros
- It’s free
- Unlimited compatibility
- Stable and reliable
Cons
- Takes time to set up
- Takes tons of storage
- Unavailable for M1/M2
Note: Before you use the instructions of this method, you need to own the game. Here are links to the game for different vendors: Steam; Epic Games, check for a discount on Cdkeys.com
Boot Camp – this is a tool that allows a separate installation of Windows on your MacBook, creating a specific place for the software, but you will still be running the program externally on Windows 11. Any Windows application that was not initially incompatible with MacBook works with this tool.
- The main advantage of using Boot Camp is that you can play Mac games without errors, crashes, or other issues. This means that while you are using Boot Camp, you can comfortably launch and play many Windows games on Mac. In addition, Boot Camp is an absolutely free method, for which you only need to pay for the purchased game.
- However, as a drawback, Boot Camp needs a lot of hard drive space, as it can be understood that it needs to install the whole Windows 10 operating system and the game on your Mac. In addition, Boot Camp operates only with Intel-based Macs, so you need to use other solutions to play games on an Apple Silicon Mac. Finally, the installation process of Boot Camp can be rather time-consuming – it may take a few hours.
Playing Manor Lords on Mac with GeForce Now: How good is the Cloud Gaming Experience?
With GeForce Now, you can avoid the typical macOS compatibility problems and stream Manor Lords straight to your Mac. This service is especially useful because it doesn’t require complicated setups or downloads – all you need is a reliable internet connection with a speed of at least 15 Mbps. In our testing, we used a Chrome web browser and the native macOS cloud gaming app of GeForce Now, and we had great performance, with a latency of 40–50 ms and an internet speed of 25 Mbps. The game streamed at 60 frames per second with 1080p resolution, and offered us a smooth gaming experience.
The stream occasionally became choppy, but this was mostly caused by momentary internet fluctuations. So, overall, we had a very good Mac gaming experience with Manor Lords on GeForce Now and, for us, this is a simple and efficient way to play the game.
Our Manor Lords Mac OS Experience With CrossOver
CrossOver allows you to run Manor Lords directly on your system by translating game code to something that macOs can understand. Here’s how our experience went down with this setup:
We installed the Steam version of Manor Lords on an M1 Max MacBook Pro. To get the game to run smoothly, we set up CrossOver to emulate Windows 11 and turned on DirectX translation layer. With this configuration, we were able to play Manor Lords at a 2K resolution and 50–60 frames per second while maintaining high settings. We played for about five hours, during which we ran into some stability problems, most notably four crashes, but they appeared to be connected to an in-game bug involving the location of the marketplace on the map. Putting these hiccups aside, the overall gameplay was entertaining and captivating, and the game functioned smoothly.
Manor Lords on Mac via Bootcamp
Finally, we tested the Boot Camp method for Manor Lords on Mac using a 2020 Intel MacBook Pro with 16 GB of RAM. In case you are unaware, Boot Camp is a software that enables you to partition your Mac’s hard drive for the purpose of installing and operating Windows. After we did that on our Mac, we were able to play on Medium at roughly 50 frames per second thanks to our system configuration. The MacBook did start to heat up after playing Manor Lords on Boot Camp for a little while longer, even though the gameplay was fluid. The keyboard became uncomfortably warm, and the fans began to run loudly.
In spite of that, Boot Camp worked as a workaround to run Manor Lords on Macs with Intel processors. Thus, if your Intel Mac is powerful enough, you can use this method to play Windows games with good performance.
Are there other Manor Lords Mac methods and do they work?
One well-known virtualization program that lets users run Windows on macOS is called Parallels. But even with our best efforts, we couldn’t run Manor Lords using this method because of the game’s DirectX 12 requirements, which aren’t supported by Parallels right now.
If you are looking for more cloud gaming options, Manor Lords is not yet available in the Game Library of Boosteroid but, considering the multiple requests by users, it is on the short wishlist and may be added anytime soon. Given that this cloud gaming provider offers excellent service quality in the US and Europe, it might be another great alternative.
As far as local gaming alternatives are concerned, some users on reddit have shared that they have succeeded to play Manor Lords through Whisky, which is free and open-source software developed on the same platform as Crossover.
Will Manor Lords be on Mac?
At the time of this writing, there is low likelihood of seeing an official release of Manor Lord’s version for Mac anytime soon. The primary reason behind it is that it is a one-developer project and there are limited resources to port the game to other operating systems, including Mac. However, you just learned that this does not mean you cannot play Manor Lords on your Mac. Whichever method you choose, the game will run well and smoothly, so you should not doubt its performance just because there is no official support.
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