Apple launches Games app and Metal 4 with path-tracing, frame interpolation

Apple is scaling up its gaming efforts by launching a new Games app. The company's gaming API is also being upgraded; Metal 4 can handle frame interpolation and path tracing in games like Cyberpunk 2077.

The Games app will launch this fall on iPhone, iPad and Mac with iOS 26, iPadOS 26 and macOS Tahoe.

The app will serve as a hub for everything gaming-related, allowing users to discover new and existing games. It features Game Center integration for easy multiplayer and friend challenges. Users can view leaderboards, achievements, events and much more.

 Also read: Apple unveils tvOS 26 for Apple TV with new 'Liquid Glass' user interface

To begin with, the company has opted not to expand the app to Apple TV and Apple Vision Pro, which are both less developed platforms for gaming. However, it seems likely this will happen later. Both Apple TV 4K and Apple Vision Pro are equipped with Apple's own chips – and will receive upgraded gaming software this year.


 Apple's new Games app will initially launch on Mac, iPad and iPhone. Photo: Apple

Metal 4 with path-tracing
Metal 4 replaces Metal 3 as Apple's gaming API. It is not a game engine like Unreal Engine or Unity, but rather the underlying toolkit that communicates with the GPU, similar to Vulkan and DirectX for Windows. Metal 4 works in conjunction with the game engine.

While Metal 3 introduced MetalFX Upscaling (AI-based game upscaling) in 2022, Metal 4 builds on this so Apple Silicon devices can utilize path-tracing and AI-based frame interpolation, which generates extra frames in real-time to increase frame rates. MetalFX Denoising enables path-tracing in practice. This is comparable to Nvidia's DLSS 3.5 and AMD's FSR 4 technologies.

- "Metal 4 is designed exclusively for Apple silicon, and sets the stage for the next generation of games on Apple platforms with support for advanced graphics and machine learning technologies. Developers can now run inference networks directly in their shaders to compute lighting, materials, and geometry, enabling highly realistic visual effects for their games. MetalFX Frame Interpolation generates an intermediate frame for every two input frames to achieve higher and more stable frame rates, and MetalFX Denoising makes real-time ray tracing and path tracing possible in the most advanced games," announced Apple.

Metal 4 no longer works with any Intel-based Mac computers. Metal 4 is supported on the following Apple devices:
iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV with A13 Bionic or newer
Mac with M1 or newer
Apple Vision Pro with M2 or newer
However, hardware-accelerated tracing – calculating the path of light in-game to create realistic lighting and shadow effects – is only supported on devices with A17 Pro and M3 or newer.

Metal 4 is the first gaming API to enable path-tracing on mobile devices. Path-tracing, which is essentially a more advanced form of ray-tracing, is not currently used on consoles due to hardware limitations and is only sparsely used in PC games on the latest hardware.


 Apple's new gaming API, Metal 4, takes ray-tracing to the next step with path-tracing

Lead-up to Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 was set to arrive on Apple platforms in early 2025. The delay seems linked to Metal 4, as the game was repeatedly used during WWDC to demonstrate what Metal 4 makes possible.

- "You can scale your workloads for even higher resolutions, and frame rates, by using MetalFX Upscaling. And if you want to go even further, you can now use the new MetalFX frame interpolator. The latest games, like Cyberpunk 2077, offer a very realistic, real time path tracing. These expanded capabilities in real time rendering can be achieved with the new awesome features in Metal 4," explained Matias Koskela, Machine Learning Engineer at Apple.

 Apple presented Metal 4 with Cyberpunk 2077 demos
Apple added that upcoming games like Crimson Desert and InZOI will also use technologies like MetalFX Upscaling and ray-tracing.

The following titles were confirmed for at least macOS:
Cronos: The New Dawn
Architect: Land of Exiles
Dead Island 2
EVE Frontier
Escape from Duckov
Hitman World of Assassination
Lies of P: Overture
Sniper Elite 5
Where Winds Meet

 Some of the games coming to Apple platforms

New Games Overlay menu
A new in-game menu called Game Overlay will launch for iPad and Mac as an extension of Apple's Game Mode.

The menu can be pulled down from the top-right corner and offers quick access to game-related features, similar to the game menus many TV makers have introduced in recent years.

 The new Game Overlay menu in iPadOS 26 and macOS Tahoe looks like something that could also be useful on Apple TV 4K
Upgraded Game Porting Tool
Finally, Apple announced an upgraded version of its Game Porting Tool, designed to help game developers "translate" and evaluate the performance of games developed for x86 (Windows/console) so they can be ported to ARM-based Apple Silicon.

Game Porting Tool 3.0 integrates with Metal 4 so developers can also translate game code to also use MetalFX Frame Interpolation and Denoising to enable ray/path-tracing. In other words, a greater focus on bringing major console titles to Apple platforms.

However, porting games to Apple's platforms will still require effort from developers, so it will take time for the results to show  – assuming developers are even willing.

Before Apple TV 4K can run advanced console games, new hardware is required. Rumor has it a new box will launch later in 2025.

 Also read: Our wishlist for the next Apple TV and tvOS

 Apple's Game Porting Tool 3.0 will make it easier for developers to port games from PC (x86) to Apple platforms (Apple Silicon)