Help
Superposer Help
Everything in Superposer's built-in help, also on the web. In the app: Help › Superposer Help (⌘?).
Start here
- What Superposer isSuperposer lets you play the Windows games you own on Steam on a Mac with Apple silicon, from the normal Mac Steam app.
- How Superposer worksWhat happens between pressing Play in Steam and the first frame, and which part does what.
- The setup assistantFirst launch gets Superposer ready by itself; Setup shows anything your Mac still needs, one card per step.
- Steam integration, explainedHow Steam is set up to offer and run Windows games, what is changed in it, and why Steam updates stay on.
- Will it work? Compatibility and TestEvery game shows a Will it work status: Works, Maybe, Doesn't work or Untested.
- Using a controllerConnect your controller to the Mac as usual (Bluetooth or USB) before or during the game.
- Save backupsA copy of each Windows game's saves after every session and before anything risky; restore any version from the game's page.
- Troubleshooting indexFind your problem by what you see, and jump to the fix.
Browse by chapter
Getting started
Set Superposer up once, then play your Windows games from Steam like any other game. Nothing here asks you to use Terminal.
- What Superposer isSuperposer lets you play the Windows games you own on Steam on a Mac with Apple silicon, from the normal Mac Steam app.
- How Superposer worksWhat happens between pressing Play in Steam and the first frame, and which part does what.
- Steam integration, explainedHow Steam is set up to offer and run Windows games, what is changed in it, and why Steam updates stay on.
- Which graphics layer runs my game?What D3DMetal, DXMT, DXVK and WineD3D are, which one a game gets, and how to change it.
- What you needAn Apple silicon Mac with macOS 15 Sequoia or later (tested on 27), Rosetta 2 and the Mac Steam app.
- The setup assistantFirst launch gets Superposer ready by itself; Setup shows anything your Mac still needs, one card per step.
- The Windows runtime and graphics translatorSuperposer's Windows runtime runs the games and Apple's D3DMetal draws their graphics; most copies install both for you.
- Turning on Steam integrationThis is the step that lets Steam install and play Windows games.
- Coming from CrossOver, Whisky, Not Proton or Game Porting ToolkitComing from CrossOver, Whisky, Not Proton or Game Porting Toolkit: bring your Steam games, their settings and saves over.
- Changes to your Mac, and undoing themSuperposer records every change it makes outside its own folders, with how to undo it.
- Your privacyWhat stays on your Mac, which servers the app talks to, and that nothing is sent unless you choose to send it.
- Updates and faster start-upChecking for updates, and two switches that make the first game after an update start in seconds.
Playing games
Install and play from Steam as usual; Superposer's library, game pages and Compatibility page help you pick games and tune them.
- Playing from SteamInstall and press Play in Steam, or press Play in Superposer; the first launch takes a little longer.
- When Steam asks you somethingSome games make Steam ask a question before they start: a licence agreement (EULA) to accept, which launch option to use, a notice, a Steam Cloud conflict, a CD key and so on.
- Stopping a gameSteam's Stop button works: confirm "Exit game?" and the game and everything it started end within a few seconds, even while the game is still loading.
- The menu bar extraAn optional Superposer icon in the menu bar with the running game's quick controls, Steam integration and recent games.
- Steam launch optionsMac Steam runs launch options without a shell, so the Linux habit VAR=1 %command% (common in ProtonDB tips) stops the game from starting ("OS Error 260").
- Per-game settingsEach game's Settings tab: translation layer, resolution and upscaler, frame rate, presets and more.
- Will it work? Compatibility and TestEvery game shows a Will it work status: Works, Maybe, Doesn't work or Untested.
- Sharing your resultsWhen your copy of Superposer has a results server, How did it run for you?
- Games from other stores (beta)Other Stores in the sidebar lists Windows games from GOG, Epic and itch.io, and games you add yourself.
- Special setupsTwo people on one Mac, a shared or external Steam library, Steam Families and Steam's offline mode.
In game
Superposer's tools inside a running game: the overlay, controllers, the Performance HUD, performance presets and frame generation.
- The in-game overlay and shortcutsThe quick panel (Shift+F10), the full overlay (the Xbox button or Right Shift+Tab), Steam's overlay and every in-game shortcut.
- Using a controllerConnect your controller to the Mac as usual (Bluetooth or USB) before or during the game.
- The Performance HUDThe HUD shows how the game is running, in a corner of the screen.
- Performance presetsQuality, Balanced, Battery or Custom: resolution, upscaler and frame rate set for your Mac in one choice.
- Frame generationFrame generation draws an extra frame between every two real ones, so motion looks smoother: a game running at 30 frames per second shows 60.
- Low latency and adaptive syncLow latency keeps fewer frames waiting for the display; adaptive sync shows frames as soon as they're ready.
Storage and uninstalling
How Superposer keeps its disk use small, and how to remove a game or Superposer itself cleanly.
- Storage: how Superposer saves spaceSuperposer shares, compresses and tidies its files by itself; Settings › Storage shows what it saved you.
- Save backupsA copy of each Windows game's saves after every session and before anything risky; restore any version from the game's page.
- Uninstalling a gameRemove a game and everything Superposer made for it, keeping your saves if you like.
- Uninstalling SuperposerUndo every change Superposer made, remove its files and leave Steam as it was.
- If you deleted the appDragged Superposer.app to the Trash without uninstalling? Steam keeps working; here's what happens and what's kept.
Troubleshooting
When something doesn't work: where to look first, how to send a report, and the known problems with their fixes.
- Troubleshooting indexFind your problem by what you see, and jump to the fix.
- Reporting a problemWhere to look first, and how to make a report you can check before you send it.
- Controller problemsWhat to try when a game doesn't see your pad, or the Xbox button opens the wrong overlay.
- Steam Cloud saves don't syncWhat to check when saves don't move between your computers.
- A game says it can't reach SteamLoad errors and games that close at once because they can't talk to Steam.
- Steam: "someone else is using it"Steam is open in another person's session on this Mac.
- Another user's Windows environmentA game in a shared Steam library whose Windows environment another person on this Mac made.
- Steam says "An error occurred while installing"In Windows mode Steam only installs a Windows-only game that is set to run with a compatibility tool.
- Steam wants to download my Mac games againIn Windows mode Steam forgets installed Mac games that aren't mapped to Superposer's Mac tool.
- A game shows as installed but never downloadedMac Steam sometimes marks a Windows game as installed although it downloaded nothing: the size is 0 and Play does nothing.
- Steam updated itself and Windows games stopped workingYou never need to block Steam's updates: a normal update leaves Superposer's settings in place.
- Denuvo and other copy protectionDenuvo (used by Hogwarts Legacy, for example) counts each "new" computer it sees and can hit a daily activation limit when things change.
- Anti-cheatGames with kernel-level anti-cheat (Easy Anti-Cheat or BattlEye without Mac or Wine support, Vanguard and similar) won't work, and Superposer doesn't try to get around them.
- Graphics problemsBlack screens, glitches or a blurry picture: try another translation layer or set the game resolution.
- Rosetta and macOS 28Superposer's Windows runtime runs through Rosetta 2.