Valheim mac: Valheim for Mac still in development, runs «OK»

Valheim for Mac still in development, runs «OK»

Valheim took Steam by storm when it was first released on Early Access last year. In just a few days, it conquered the top of Steam’s charts, became the best-selling game on the entire platform, and sold over 1 million copies. Not bad for an Indie game no one had ever heard of before. And the game continues to grow, recently passing 10 million copies sold.

But unlike the many hyped-up Survival games that we’ve seen, Valheim is both exceptionally good and exceptionally polished. A true feat that not many Early Access Games pull off, the excellent V Rising notwithstanding. This is why we are excited to see signs of a work-in-progress Mac version of the game.

Valheim on Mac: Soon a reality?

To be clear, Valheim is currently not supported on macOS. In fact, the game is only available on Windows and Linux.

The Mac community did get excited when curious gamers found evidence that a macOS version of the game was in the works, thanks to a leak out of Steam’s database. But the developer was quick to react and state that a Mac version wasn’t on the table.

But developer Iron Gate recently shared some encouraging news for Mac gamers. According to their latest update:

A little update: They still want do the Mac version. The question is just when. Currently, they focus on developing the Windows & Linux versions of the game (surprise, surprise – I know), and simply don’t have time to work on supporting another OS.

There’s already a Valheim Mac Depot (last updated in April 2021), and it runs OK (“Okay”) with Unity.

To be clear, this can be read as disappointing news for the Mac community, as April 2021 was a long time ago, and the game is still unavailable on macOS. However, it is still great that they still plan to release Valheim on Mac.

So what is Valheim? As described by its creator, Valheim is a survival game taking place in hostile environments where you’ll need to gather resources, build outposts and farms, and slay the monsters that stand in your way. You’ll work up your courage and strength to eventually take on the nine bosses.

Want to help out and show Iron Gate they really need to bring Valheim to Mac? Leave a comment on this Steam thread!

Valheim Mac requirements?

Again, the game is not available on macOS yet, but these are the game’s official Windows requirements:

• CPU: 2.6 GHz Dual Core Processor
• RAM: 4 GB
• Disk Space: 1 GB
• Video Card: GeForce GTX 500 series or similar

‼️ It is worth noting that the game has fairly low system requirements. An M1 Mac with integrated graphics should definitely be able to run it.
or an indie Early Access Game. This is why we are excited to see signs of a work-in-progress Mac version of the game.

Can your Mac run Valheim?

I tried to run Valheim on macOS using Crossover with the following M1 Mac:

•  13-inch MacBook Air (M1, 2020): Apple M1 chip with 8-core CPU, 8 GB RAM

The game installs just fine. The process is quick and smooth, and you can even launch the game.

Unfortunately, there is a severe visual glitch that makes the game entirely unplayable, which is a shame because frames per second were acceptable (over 30 FPS on Medium settings and 1440×900 resolution):

If you absolutely want to play this game on your Mac now, you can always try Parallels or, even better, Bootcamp (but only if you have an Intel-based Mac).

Valheim Mac download

Valheim is currently available on Steam only. But hold on before we know more about a potential Mac version before making a purchase. In the meantime, please leave a message on this Steam thread to let them know we seriously want this game on macOS!

2 Ways To Play Valheim on Mac (inc. M1 & M2 Macs)

Valheim hasn’t been released for Mac but there are still a few easy ways to play Valheim on a Mac in 2023.

Valheim is a viking inspired brutal survival and exploration game for up to 10 players that sold more than a million copies in the first week of its release on 2nd February 2021.

At the moment, Valheim is only available for Windows or Linux and there is no version for Mac, PlayStation or XBox.

The good news is there are still a few ways to get Valheim on a Mac as we’ll explain.

Quick Navigation

• Valheim For Mac: How To Play It
• 1. GeForce Now (M1/M2 & Intel Macs)
• 2. Boot Camp (Intel Macs Only)
• Can You Play Valheim in Parallels & M1/M2 Macs?
• When Is Valheim Coming To Mac?
  • Related

Valheim For Mac: How To Play It

Normally we recommend using a virtual machine such as Parallels as the best way to play Windows games on Mac like Valheim.

However, the demands of Valheim mean that there’s a lot of glitches playing Valheim using virtualization software such as Parallels.

We therefore recommend using GeForce Now because it’s by far the easiest way to play Valheim on a Mac, it’s free for limited gameplay and it works on both Intel and the latest Apple Silicon M1 & M2 Macs.

Although Valheim is on Steam for Windows only, you can sync your Steam account with GeForce Now For Mac and play Valheim on a Mac.

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With this in mind, here are the best ways to play Valheim on a Mac including M1 & M2 Macs.

GeForce Now is NVIDIA’s gaming platform that allows you to play Windows only games in the Cloud.

Since Boot Camp is not available on Apple Silicon M1/M2 Macs and virtual machines don’t run Valheim very well, GeForce Now is by far the best way to play Valheim on an M1 or M2 Mac.

Although Valheim is only available on Steam for Windows, you can sync your Steam account with GeForce Now For Mac and play Valheim on a Mac via your linked Steam account.

It’s important therefore that you must own Valheim on Steam before you can link it to GeForce Now.

Gaming on a Mac using GeForce Now is extremely fast and you won’t notice any lag or dropped frames.

Even better, GeForce Now is free for one hour of gameplay so you can play Valheim on a Mac for up to an hour for free although if you want to play longer, you need to pay for a GeForce Now subscription.

Note that GeForce Now is available in most major regions including the USA, Europe, Japan, Russia and Australia but is not available worldwide.

If GeForce Now is not available in your country, you can also try using a VPN on your Mac which will allow you to unblock it in your region.

To play Valheim on a Mac using GeForce Now just follow these instructions:

• Download GeForce Now for Mac and install it on your Mac.

• Install GeForce Now on your Mac. If you see a warning “NVIDIA GeForce Now” is an app downloaded from the Internet. Are you sure you want to open it?” click on Open.
• Drag and drop the GeForce Now app into your Applications folder.

 

• You then need to link your Steam account to GeForce Now in order to play Valheim on your Mac. To do this, log into your Steam account and click on the chain-link to open the Game Sync options.

• It’s important that your Steam games profile is now set to “Public”. You then need to link your GeForce Now account by signing into it via Steam.

• You must then go back to the GeForce Now app and confirm that you have logged-in and synced to the Steam account. GeForce Now will then confirm you are linked to Steam and show you the number of games that are linked.

You will then see Valheim in your GeForce Now games library and can play Valheim on your Mac.

Since everything is streamed over the Cloud, GeForce Now works on any Mac made after 2009 so it even allows you to play Valheim on older Macs.

This also means you can play Valheim on both Intel Mac and Apple Silicon M1/M2 chip Macs.

GeForce Now is free for 1 hour of gameplay so you can play Valheim on your Mac for free first although you may have to wait up to an hour for a free slot first.

To skip the queue and for more than one hour’s gameplay you need to click on Upgrade or Join Now in the top right of the screen.

GeForce Now costs $9.99 per month for up to 6 hours per session and $19.99 for up to 8 hours gameplay per session.

The $19.99 RTX 3080 subscription also includes faster servers and support for 4K resolution with up to 120 Frames Per Second (FPS).

Note that for this subscription GeForce Now recommends running at least macOS 10.13.2 or later on a newer Mac such as the MacBook Pro 2016 and later, MacBook 2016 and later, MacBook Air 2018 and later, iMac 2017 and later, iMac 27″ Late 2015 or later, Mac Mini 2018 and later, Mac Pro 2019 and later, or iMac Pro.

You can find more information about GeForce Now subscriptions here.

You can check our full GeForce Now For Mac review for more.

The other way to play Valheim on a Mac is by installing Windows for free with Boot Camp.

You can then play the Windows version of Valheim on your Mac via the Steam store.

Boot Camp is a free tool in macOS that allows you to install Windows in a partition on your hard drive so that you can use your Mac as a Windows PC whenever you want.

Note that Boot Camp only works with Intel Macs and does not work with M1/M2 chip Macs.

Since Boot Camp is a free utility, and you can now install Windows 10 for free on a Mac without an activation code, the only thing you’ll have to buy is Valheim from the Steam store.

Can You Play Valheim in Parallels & M1/M2 Macs?

Parallels is a virtual environment and usually our recommended way of running Windows on a Mac as it allows you to run macOS and Windows at the same time.

It also allows you to run Windows on M1 & M2 Macs to play Windows only games like Valheim.

However, the problem is that the graphics acceleration in a virtual machine like Parallels is not good enough for a game like Valheim.

The result is that buildings and walls will not render well and the gameplay is very choppy.

You’d get killed pretty quickly by a boar chasing you in Valheim using Parallels as the gameplay is so slow.

Boot Camp allows you to dedicate all of your Mac’s graphics card to running Windows and Valheim so the performance is much better.

The same applies to Crossover which is a different type of Windows emulation software but suffers the same problems running Valheim as Parallels.

As a result, the best way to play Valheim on Mac on both Intel and Apple Silicon M1/M2 Macs is by using GeForce Now.

When Is Valheim Coming To Mac?

At the moment, there is Valheim for Mac release date but the developers of Valheim Iron Gate have stated that:

A Mac-version will be released if there is any significant demand for it.

At the moment, there is a Change.org petition to get a port of Valheim made for macOS so if you’re desperate to play it on macOS you can add your name to the list.

How to play Valheim on Mac

Can I play Valheim on Mac?

Valheim is a new survival game set in the times of Scandinavian myths and Vikings. Allowing up to 10 players to play at the same time, Valheim offers an exciting adventure on the scale of a picturesque world. The sheer amount of references that occur during the game will remind you of the most memorable things you’ve heard about the Vikings. Plenty of enemies, resources, bosses and more will keep the journey flowing throughout the challenging missions. The game was developed by Iron Gate AB and published on February 2, which attracted a lot of attention from the gaming community. Since Valheim embodies the more casual and iconic graphics of the survival genre, the game can also be played on a low PC configuration. At the same time, Mac users were again left without the opportunity to play. Regardless, we know how to fix this problem and run Valheim on macOS anyway. Scroll down to see the steps.

System Requirements

Minimum	Recommended
OS: Windows 7 or later 64-bit	OS: Windows 7 or later 64-bit
Processor: 2.6 GHz Dual Core or equivalent	Processor: i5 3 GHz or better
RAM: 4 GB	RAM: 8 GB
Video card: GeForce GTX 500 series or equivalent	Video card: GeForce GTX 970 series or equivalent
DirectX: from version 11	DirectX: since version 11
Disk space: 1 GB	Disk space: 1 GB

Play Valheim on Mac with Parallels

Valheim doesn’t require a lot of PC resources, and if you have a powerful enough Mac (iMac, iMac Pro or Mac Pro) Parallels Desktop can be the solution. It is Windows virtualization software for Mac with full support for DirectX and GPUs. It allows you to install Windows 10 on your Mac with a couple of clicks and instantly switch between MacOS and Windows. You can run Windows like you would on a normal PC, install Steam and enjoy playing Valheim on Mac.

Download Parallels Desktop

Recommended devices for running demanding games: MacBook Pro (models with an Intel processor, discrete graphics cards and 16 GB of RAM or more), iMac (models with an Intel processor, discrete graphics cards and 16 GB of RAM or more), iMac Pro (all versions), Mac Pro (all versions are suitable). Parallels on Macs with M1 chips (M1 Pro, M1 Max) may not support the latest games. Games that require DirectX 12 and later are not currently supported by Parallels.

Install Windows 10 on Parallels (step 1)

Install Windows 10 on Parallels (step 2)

Install Windows 10 on Parallels (step 3)

Install Windows 10 on Parallels (step 4)

Play Valheim on Mac using Boosteroid or Nvidia GeForce Now (USA)

Update: Boosteroid and Nvidia GeForce Now fully support Valheim! Play the advanced game on Mac, old Windows PC and even Android!

If you have an older Mac or it doesn’t meet the Valheim system requirements, there is a simple solution. Cloud gaming provides you with enough cloud resources for a fixed fee. All you need is a browser or a small client program and a good internet connection of at least 15 Mbps. There are some great services that provide this, some of the best being Boosteroid, Shadow.tech, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Google Stadia, and Nvidia GeForce Now. Among them, only Boosteroid and Nvidia GeForce Now have Valheim in their catalog of games, and you can play on any Mac computer (starting with MacOS 10.10) and even on Android! Boosteroid and Nvidia GeForce Now can stream games in high resolution (1080p), each service has its pros and cons.

Play Valheim on Mac with BootCamp

Macs with the new Apple Silicon (M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max) do not currently support BootCamp. In this case, please use the options above to run Valheim on Mac.

This method is simple but time consuming. If your Mac meets the system requirements above, this is probably the best way to play Valheim right now. You need to set up Windows and Mac dual boot via BootCamp. BootCamp allows users to select which system to work on at startup, however you won’t be able to switch between systems like you can with Parallels. You will need to restart your computer every time you switch from Mac to Windows and vice versa. Remember that a Mac is just a computer that uses conventional processors, RAM, disks, and other components. Thus, you can install Windows on a Mac with at least 64 Gb of disk space (to be able to run Windows and a couple of games). To set up Windows through BootCamp, follow these steps:

For OS X El Capitan 10.11 or later

Please note that for versions of MacOS prior to OS X El Capitan 10.11, you will need to create a bootable Windows USB.

1. Download Windows ISO
2. Open Boot Camp Assistant (go to Applications > Utilities )
3. Determine the size of the Windows partition, select the downloaded Windows ISO file
4. Format the Windows partition and go through all the steps of installing Windows.
5. When Windows boots for the first time, follow the on-screen instructions to install. Boot Camp software and Windows support (drivers)

Valheim | Wiki | Fandom

Valheim

Genre

Survival, Vikings, Adventure, Action

Developer

Iron Gate AB

Publisher

Coffee Stain Publishing

Release date

February 2, 2021

Platform(s)

Windows, Mac OS X, SteamOS/Linux

Valheim is a game where you have to explore a huge fantasy world steeped in Norse mythology and Viking culture. Your adventure will begin in the heart of Valheim, a rather peaceful place. But beware, because the further you advance, the more dangerous the world around you will become. Fortunately, along the way, not only dangers await you — you will also more often find valuable materials that will be very useful for creating deadly weapons and strong armor. Build fortresses and outposts around the world! And over time, build an indestructible longship and set off to conquer the endless oceans in search of foreign lands… But try not to swim too far…

Game Features[]

• Flexible house and base building system.
• Intuitive item creation menu (weapons, armor, food, etc.).
• Huge generated world.
• Hit and block based combat system with a wide variety of weapons.
• Boss fights and unique trophies.
• Fascinating nutrition and health system.
• Ability to build and move on ships.
• Multiplayer mode (with an emphasis on playing together).
• Dedicated server.

System requirements[]

OS	Minimum	Recommended
Windows 64-bit processor and operating system preferred	OS: Windows 7 and newer Processor: 2. 6 GHz Dual Core or similar RAM: 4 GB RAM Video card: GeForce GTX 500 series or equivalent DirectX: Version 11 Disk space: 1 GB	OS: Windows 7 and newer Processor: i5 3GHz or better RAM: 8 GB RAM Video card: GeForce GTX 970 series or better DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband internet connection Disk space: 1 GB
SteamOS/Linux 64-bit processor and operating system required	OS: Any current Processor: 2.6 GHz Dual Core or similar RAM: 4 GB RAM Video card: GeForce GTX 500 series or equivalent Disk space: 1 GB	OS: Any current Processor: i5 3GHz or better RAM: 8 GB RAM Video card: GeForce GTX 970 series or equivalent Network: Broadband internet connection Disk space: 1 GB

Version history[]

Version	Description
0. 207.15 (public test)	Mountain caves (new dungeons, will only appear in areas not yet explored): New enemies: Ulf, Cultist, Bat New Materials: Red Jute, Fenring Wool, Fenring Claw New Fenring Wool Armor (with set bonus) New Weapon: (Unarmed Skill): Flesh Rippers New building elements: Red jute rug, red jute curtain, standing brazier New event: “You stirred the cauldron” Fixes and improvements: Pause function added to solo play Signs can now be built without a workbench Armor Rack now supports shield styles and halberd placement FPS limiter setting and option to reduce GPU load when the game is minimized, FPS is limited to 60 frames Various improvements and additions to console commands, for details, type help in the console Fixed some parts of dungeons not rendering correctly The «Nomap» mode («No map») has been improved: an alternative to vegvisers has appeared, you can set this mode for the entire server, you can adjust the direction of rotation of objects called by the spswn command, the noportals command) Screen resolution is now shown only when «Full screen» is forced Various interface fixes Disabled ability to build Yule tree, Jack-o-turnip and New Year gift boxes Quality of life: The construction marker has been reduced and now indicates where the figure is rotated Deadman’s Run now grants a carry weight bonus to compensate for Megingjord Creating stackable items is now possible with a full inventory if there is space left in the stack Fixed a bug due to which stacking items were sometimes not taken from chests when having a full inventory and clicking «Take All» Chat can now be closed with the [esc] key, mouse or [B] button on the gamepad Gamepad support: Full gamepad support! Steam Deck: Loading default settings suitable for Steam Deck. Location: Improvements and additions for some languages.
0.206.5 (current)	Fixes: Biome Music Spawn and loot for abomination Localization update (Russian not affected) Thrones are positioned more correctly when placed Improvements: Troll Animation Tamed animals are no longer afraid of fire Tamed wolves no longer howl Filter for servers with obscene words in the name New: Armor stand Yule tree
… a bunch of intermediate versions …
0.148.6	Campfire,Bonfire & hearth take damage when dealing damage Reinforced chest inventory space increased to 6×4 All boss drops can now float on water Sunken crypt entrance tweaked (to stop tombstones from getting stuck) Fixed rotation of Wood tower shield on item stands Deathsquito & Drake trophy drop rate increased 1 & 2 Star creature HP fix Night-spawning wolves should be easier to tame now (should stop trying to run away & despawn after starting to tame) Harpoon does not work on bosses anymore Ingame console disabled by default (add launch argument «-console» to enable) The console command for enabling developer/debug commands has been changed to “devcommands” from “imacheater” and a warning message has been added. Improved enemy projectile reaction system Battle ax tweaks (hits multiple enemies easier) Player knockback force is affected by equipment speed modifiers (IE heavy gear will reduce the knockback from enemies) Blackforest stone tower tweaks Ward system fixes (You can no longer place a new ward where an enemy ward overlaps) Comfort calculation fixed «Failed to connect» error message fixed Serpent trophy stack fix Missing Moder spawn location in some worlds fixed (NOTE: For existing worlds «genloc» command needs to be run manually in a local game with dev commands enabled to generate new, this is only needed if your specific world locations has this issue, this is not very common) Megingjord item-collider fix Added a slight use-delay on Hammer, Hoe & Cultivator Hammer remove auto-repeat added Better network bandwidth handling (should work better on low bandwidth connections & also use higher data rate if possible) Dolmen location fixes (Stop top stone from falling for no reason) Fixed removing item from item-stand not always syncing item stats Server list refresh button can be pressed before the entire list has been downloaded0106 Better bad connection detection Fixed issue causing server to send more data the longer a client was connected Localization updates
0. 147.3	Hello, Walheimers! This patch has made big changes to dedicated servers. Dedicated servers now always use direct connections instead of Steam Datagram Relay (SDR). This should result in much less latency for most players. Private dedicated servers are enabled by adding «-public 0» to the server’s command line (see Server Manual PDF). You can only connect to private dedicated servers using the «Join IP» button. We really hope this patch fixes a lot of the connectivity issues introduced in last week’s patches (due to socket switching). In addition to these dedicated server fixes, Valve is also working on fixes for the SDR system (used when connecting to non-dedicated servers) and we believe a Steam beta client is already available that fixes some of these issues. Thanks everyone!! Localization updates Made a smoother head turn Haldor Network interpolation of objects is skipped if the object is far away, an issue with network players flying through the air when entering dungeons and exiting portals, etc. has been resolved. Updated Join IP button for LAN connection (dedicated servers only) and added DNS support Dedicated servers use direct IP connection instead of SDR, solve problems with slow steam relays in some regions of the world Updated PDF manual for dedicated server Preventing item pickup when entering portals The reproduction of wolves has slightly decreased Reduced chance of talking about boss trophy
0.146.11	A patch to quickly fix some network problems. Have a nice weekend everyone! Fixed the counter of connected players (correct termination of authentication sessions) Fixed an instant disconnect issue some players were experiencing.
0.146.8	There are a few major changes in this patch, the biggest change is an updated socket backend that should improve connectivity issues for many players. Vulkan support has been enabled in Windows builds and can be enabled for now by adding «-force-vulkan» as a launch option in Valheim’s Steam properties. This may fix some random crashes related to GPU drivers. Fixed world corruption caused by logging out and pressing ALT + F4 at the same time. Some balance tweaks have been made to the bosses to make them more challenging (you guys are killing them way too fast). NOTE: Due to changes to character save data, once a character has been loaded and saved in this new version, it can no longer be loaded into an earlier version of Valheim. Item creation bug fix Player’s ragdoll fixed Bonemass, Moder, Yagluth difficulty changes Moder music updated Tombstone bug fix (though probably doesn’t fix disappearing tombstones) Fixed world corruption caused by pressing ALT + F4 while logging out. Deathsquitos have a slightly larger sound range Adjusted sound on blast furnace and spinning wheel Global map position setting saved for each world Updated network statistics (F2) Building destruction fix Vulkan support in Windows builds Network disconnection fix Updated socket-backend
0. On 15 мая, 2023 By alexxlab Sonstig