I was able to make the game work quite well with the following setup.

Get the Wineskin winery for apple silicon. Follow the instructions.
https://github.com/Gcenx/WineskinServer

You will have a Wineskin Winery Wrapper app.
Click it and install WS11WineCX21.2.0 engine (a WS11 non 64bit engine, otherwise the game is quite slow). It will download it.
Select that engine and Create New Blank Wrapper. Name it Wizardry 8.

Right click the wrapper > Show Package Content > double click Wineskin.app.
Click on Install Software. Point to your Wizardry 8 GOG installer file (PC version!). It will install the game in the wrappers drive_c directory.
Go into the Wineskin.app again. Select Advanced > Tools tab > Config Utility. You will get a Wine configuration screen. At the bottom select Windows version : Windows 2000 (or XP). Press Apply then OK.

In the Wineskin Advanced options again, select Winetricks in the bottom. Search for mfc42 (dlls section). Click it and press run. When its done close winetricks.

Back to the Configuration tab. Input in "Windows app: " Browse to your game file Wiz8.exe. For me its "C:\Wizardry 8\Wiz8.exe" .
You can now close the window.

Now go to the drive_c folder, you should have your game directory (GOG/Wizardry 8) in there.
Open the 3Dvideo.cfg with Textedit and change to the following:

OpenGL
1728
1117
32
DirectSound3D Software Emulation

For the resolution, set it at your native default resolution. I have a MacbookPro M1 16inch, so the default is 1728 x 1117.
Save the settings.
The game will still crash on startup because of the movies. To disable them go to Data/Flics/Intro folder and just move them all out of the Intro folder. (I leave them in the Flics folder.)

You will get a black checkered graphics glitch so update OpenGL with this file srDD_OpenGL.dll file :
http://www.zimlab.com/wizardry/recovered/wolfie/Wizardry8BUG-FIXES.html
It goes into your Wizardry 8/Dll directory (overwrite the previous srDD_OpenGL.dll file).

Go back now to your main Wizardry 8 wrapper and double click that.
Apart from not having the movies and a few very minor graphics mouse bug (during the lockpick gameplay) everything should work smoothly.
Enjoy!

(this setup guide for the Wine wrapper can also be used to play original classic Baldur's Gate infinity engine games)

i'm up and running on an M1 mbp — thank you for this detailed guide — but i'm having issues with the final video output not showing up in the main view area, but it seems masked by certain elements. if i drag my view around, i can scan the area and look around.

the specific non-64-bit wrapper you mentioned wasn't available; i only have WS12 engines available:?

CX64Bit23.7
" " GPTK-1.1
" " Whisky-2.3.1

i'm guessing all of the above are 64-bit and causing issues.

i've tried messing further with 3Dvideo.cfg, different resolutions and renderers.
goal resolution is 2056 x 1329 (not default), and i'd prefer not to have to change up the native res.

any help appreciated. i'm gonna finish the file i started in 2014.

Yes probably an engine issue.
Try this link, it includes most older engines.
https://github.com/vitor251093/porting-kit-engines/releases/tag/wineskin

WS11WineCX21.2.0 should be there.
Download and copy it to your >Library>Application Support> Wineskin > Engines folder!

worked great — thank you very much!

mr_daruman, a followup i should have remembered — do you have wiz8fast working properly as well? would i need to go through a similar wrapper process through wineskin? currently, the .exe hangs and closes.

https://zimlab.com/wizardry/recovered/wolfie/Wiz8Fast.html

i'd be equally happy modifying a line in a cfg file too, as i think that's all this app does in the end. i just can't find where it hooks into.

appreciate your help. all my wine adventures so far have been a breeze, but W8 needs some extra care — and it's worth the trouble.

1st, pls keep in mind that idk whether the cfg file of a mac Wiz8 install has different structure!

Wiz8.cfg of a win install has 2063 bytes,
the setting for monster movement is stored at offset 51h and 52h,
so presumably as little endian.

If i pull the slider to the very end of the max setting in game,
the value in wiz8.cfg is [A0 40], if i set it to max in wiz8fast the value is [E0 42]

Note my cfg file has no other instance of [A0 40],
although that does not mean some other settings different to mine could not result in another instance of [A0 40]!
Also note that even higher values may work,
and that too high value may cause CTD, else theyd be accessible in wiz8fast