Mac Version on Steam

[SimonC4]

I was just wondering what people's thoughts are on creating a Mac OS X version on Steam. It wouldn't take long to do this, but there's a limitation that Mac files need to be uploaded to Steam on a Mac computer. This can only be done on a Mac computer. The reason is that Mac files have special permissions, e.g. the execute permission.

I think that these file permissions will be limited to the JRE and the script that starts the application. Which means subsequent updates probably won't need to be uploaded from a Mac if the changes are just within the game files.

So I'd like to know what people's thoughts are on this. As far as I know, I'm currently the only one with a Mac so I'm not sure if this would be wise to enable Mac on Steam.

 

[Cervator]

I'm all for it. We have a few others with Macs, just need to hook one or two more for occasional testing, they don't have to be full-time DestSol contributors

I've been wanting to try a Hackintosh partition one day for the exact same reason, will that work too you think? And we can put a Jenkins agent on any available Mac system for builds, should we need it. Even if that becomes an on-demand type thing it'll allow us to stay within our existing infrastructure with a minimal amount of manual effort.

Even better if we only have to do it once.

It may take a little while to get through it the first time though. If you want to go for it I say toss it in when you have time and get a working Mac beta published, but don't feel rushed to get it ready for v1.1.0

 

[SimonC4]

I've submitted a pull request for the Mac OSX version. It contains the JRE and steam files. Once this is merged in I'll grab the build from Jenkins and upload to Steam and enable it for developer testing and beta testing if all goes well. Might be good timing with the hull branch.

I'll update the other thread with the upload instructions to include OSX once I have a repeatable process from Jenkins.

 

[Cervator]

For what it is worth my notes suggest our other Mac users (those who have revealed themselves anyway): @synopia @zproc @NanjoW and maybe @nh_99 if he still has an old Mac he mentioned long ago. Probably not good enough for Terasology but might be for DestSol.

We're bound to have more, but finding active ones able to spend some time testing tends to be tricky

Edit: This build was the first in Jenkins with the Mac JRE bundled. Then it got broken with the hull merge (as binary anyway)

 

[SimonC4]

I've uploaded the 1.1.0 build to Steam for Mac (the one prior to the hull merge) and I was able to install and play on my Mac. I've enabled it on the developer and beta testing packages, but not the release package. I think this means anyone with the beta password should be able to download this on Mac.

The steam beta password is "returnofthemac". @synopia @zproc @NanjoW @nh_99 or anyone else keen to try it out?

 

[Cervator]

Found another possible beta tester for Mac on IRC today: t|f

But a problem was encountered - since the current release of Destination Sol doesn't support Mac t|f gets an error saying it isn't compatible. So can't get the entry put in the library to right click, get properties, and enter the beta key.

@SimonC4 did you find any magic workarounds if you did manage to run the beta on Steam?

Alternatively we could push the Mac commit to the master branch, commit a version bump to v1.1.1, then just release that on Steam. What do you think? It is nicely contained, really.

 

[SimonC4]

I have requested some Steam keys which we can give to Mac testers. This should allow them to get the game to show up in Steam. This should take about a day for Valve to approve.

I did get it to show up and it was either because I was trying out the Steamworks SDK or due to in-home sharing.

 

[SimonC4]

The keys are now available so let me know if you, or anyone else needs one. They're also available within the steamworks developer site.

 

[Cervator]

v1.1.1 release prepped with Mac support, but not the big hull restructure. Ready for @SimonC4 to release at your convenience

@nh_99 is back and should be able to help test too (on a Mac)

 

[SimonC4]

Version 1.1.1 is now released on Steam and the store page has been updated.