Unofficial Mac version testing....

[doh123]

What the heck is the Unofficial Mac version?
Its a mac .app you can put the Windows version inside of, and run it on Mac OS X without having to install or use Windows! The final product looks and works like a normal Mac .app (for the most part). This download is a "wrapper" not the full game. You will have to either copy your installed version from Windows inside of it (fastest), or reinstall the game into it and do full patching and everything... More specificly, it is a WineskinSC wrapper made in Wineskin

Please see the latest 1.2beta5 version for testing... I need help testing please. version 1.1 is still the "release" version... it should have much better performance than 1.1. 1.2beta5 is 10.5+ though, no 10.4.

just a big note...

this is not made by or supported in any way by Cryptic Studios, or anyone associated with Cryptic Studios.. this is entirely fan made, by me (@doh123)... with the use of my own project called Wineskin, which uses Wine, and Xquartz to run Windows software.

System Requirements are the same as Windows version, since it uses the Windows version, but it runs on Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5, or 10.6.
Only Nvidia and ATI GPUs will work right. (ATI X1600 and X1900 can have some graphics issues)
Intel GMA950 and X3100 will not work, sorry
PowerPC Macs will also not work, this is Intel Mac only.
***Download link is at the bottom of this post in the rainbow section***

List of known issues

• Fonts have historically been messed up looking, they seem to be better lately after some Cryptic patches, and can actually be read at small UI scaling now, but still not quite as clear as Windows, but tons better than they used to be.
  
• antialiasing is not functional
  
• sun/stars nearby in the background of space missions might have texture drawing errors and get flashy when moving the camera around. Can see during the intro video easily.
  
• alt key is usually not functional on most machines... this is an Xquartz keymapping problem... newer xquartz testing versions work better, but are still unstable. For now, going to have to live without alt.
  
• due to limitations in Xquartz, Multimonitor set ups can be a hassle. The game will want to play only on the left-most monitor, wether its the primary or not. Turn on video mirroring if your going to play fullscreen. If you play in a window, it should be ok.
  
• running in the normal VIrtual Desktop window mode can have the mouse reactions go super fast while turning yourself or the camera... the farther you move the mouse... can be a bit annoying. If you want to run in a window all the time, see the manual on how to make STO run in its normal window mode, and this problem will not happen.
  
• Software Mouse turns on by itself... Sometimes it turns on, and you get a ghosty mouse (its pretty rare anymore, usually just after install). Just go in STO video options under Troubleshooting, and turn software mouse cursor off, and it'll work fine.
  
• On some machine the Installer may never finish. On every machine its very slow, and might take an hour or two. On some machines it will never actually finish... even after 2+ hours. if this is the case, you can still run the game after canceling the install, and whatever is missing will be downloaded through the patcher.... so its not totally necessary to finish the install.
  
• To download the game or the Demo... you need to make your Game or Demo account manually first, then download the torrent download of the game... and use that. The Downloader and Demo Downloader will not function.

Crashing on startup, after log in, with a cryptic Oops error??
or using an ATI card with bad graphics?
this is also explained in the manual...

right click and "show package contents" to see inside the wrapper
inside the wrapper at Contents/Resources there is a file called user.reg
you can open this in TextEdit.app.
use search and find (without the quotes) "Software\\Wine\\Direct3D"

when you find that you should see a line under it that says...
"UseGLSL"="disabled"
change the word from disabled, to enabled.... save and exit... and try again. If it still crashes, go back and change it to disabled and try again.
this is known to fix some graphics problems on some ATI cards as well... but most Macs will not run this if it is enabled... just a few that work right and actually need it. It mostly depends on the GPU, but reports have been very inconsistent.

How do I multitask in fullscreen?
You can hide STO with the normal Hide shortcut while its running... CMD+H and get back to your desktop.
Be warned though that if you had STO running at a different resolution than the one you normally run, you'll still be in that resolution.

DOWNLOAD LINK BELOW!!!
**********************************************
Click here to download Star Trek Online Unofficial Mac Version 1.1 Direct download link hosted through Dropbox.com
The download comes with directions on how to use this wrapper
double click the .zip file to unzip it, it will give you a folder with the wrapper, and directions.
**********************************************

Backup Download Link at Mediafire-->STO Unofficial Mac Version 1.1 backup download

__________________________________________________
New version beta testing! 7/31/10)
please help test new versions!
I'm putting up STO UMV 1.2beta5, I need as many people to help test this as possible.
List of improvements since 1.1

• newer Wine version with improvements for DirectX (Wine 1.3.0)
• newer Xquartz version for slightly improved performance (an xorg server 1.9 RC5 version)
• GLSL enabled by default for better graphics. (need reports ASAP if this is causing a crash for any machines)
• Higher average frame rates... less huge dips in frame rate, especially on ground.
• Alt button now works in game! (no Xmodmap fiasco like earlier betas... it just works)
• sun/stars shouldn't have the blocky black shapes appearing all over them (as badly, unless you disable GLSL)
• web links in the login/patcher should now open the link in your default Mac web browser. (cstore links don't seem to)

download link -> STO UMV 1.2beta5 download
__________________________________________________

Tutorial Video
crazyhooligin put together a video showing how to use Beta4 of this wrapper. You can see it at this Youtube Link
This video is for 1.0 beta4, and not 1.1 or the 1.2 betas, but its very similar.

NOTE:
I have no idea how to get this to work with a Steam version. I designed it for use with the normal version of STO that works on its own... people have said you can get the steam version working, but I do not know the exact steps myself. If someone wants to test it out and get it working and let me know the exact steps, I can list them here.

THANKS!
we all need to give thanks to some people....

Cryptic Studios for making the great game.... they've even been very helpful in running it under Wine for Mac and Linux users. They even helped fix our graphics smearing issue....

Codeweavers for Wine development. They made a couple of patches which fixed issues so that STO could run right under Wine. They also help run the Wine project and develop Wine, which they use in their Crossover Product for Mac and Linux.

and a big thanks to all my early testers, who helped out finding bugs and testing fixes, in game or reporting back here... as well as anyone else who still assists. I want to keep making this better over time if at all possible. Its also been a good test bed to help me improve Wineskin a lot, which should help Mac gamers benefit for playing other games as well.

[ClingingMars]

Clean it up a bit (read: sound) and I might be interested. Right now up unitl this patch. bootcamp STO has worked well.

[doh123]

Originally Posted by ClingingMars

Clean it up a bit (read: sound) and I might be interested. Right now up unitl this patch. bootcamp STO has worked well.

thats the plan.. but its nice if people help test things since I do not own every Mac configuration out there to test on myself... which is why I stated its just for testing, and its an alpha...

[Treel]

HI doh123

Thanks for this one and for your answer on the other thread.

I downloaded the link and followed your steps.
1. i must set up the exe
2. the login screen in IE is weird
3. the game started in fullscreen but the view was only on the left top corner i think 1024x768px
4. no sound
5. the font is strange i have tested crossover games the font there was ok
6. nothing at this time more while the server is down i came only to the character selection.

my mac is mac book pro 17" , 3.06GHz CPU, 8 GB RAM, MAC OS X 10.6.2

[doh123]

Originally Posted by Treel

HI doh123

Thanks for this one and for your answer on the other thread.

I downloaded the link and followed your steps.
1. i must set up the exe
2. the login screen in IE is weird
3. the game started in fullscreen but the view was only on the left top corner i think 1024x768px
4. no sound
5. the font is strange i have tested crossover games the font there was ok
6. nothing at this time more while the server is down i came only to the character selection.

my mac is mac book pro 17" , 3.06GHz CPU, 8 GB RAM, MAC OS X 10.6.2

yes... see the thing I wrote about resolution changing. Xquartz doesn't support proper RANDR so the game tells Wine to change resolutions, and Wine tells Xquartz, and Xquartz says "huh wha?" and doesn't do anything.

Make sure your in game resolution setting is the same as the WineskinSettings.app resolution setting, and it will take up the whole screen. if you run STO in 1024x768, set WineskinSettings.app Screen options to be fullscreen 1024x768, and it'll change the resolution right when it launches... if you change it in game again later, you have to log out and change it again.... its a PITA, but its all I got right now with Xquartz limitations.

the IE screen is messed up looking i know.. but it does work.... i can get it better looking using Winegecko, but the launching button and patching doesn't work right.

I'll try the fix for sound when I can

The fonts in the log in i can fix, thats just font smoothing disabled.... its the in game fonts I'm mainly worried about that are ugly.

[Viper358]

Great job doh123, I'm downloading right now and will test this out sometime tonight.

[doh123]

ok.. thanks to someone else who found out the way to fix the sound bug in Wine....

I now have a version with working sound!!

it still has the graphics bug that happens in some places, that ones gonna take longer to figure out... just remember it happens the most in sector space... opening closing windows (inventory or whatever) can help.... and I know the fonts are still ugly.

I'll update the link in the main post to show all the versions I make

I need to know if there is a LONG start up time, at least the first time... apparently there might be font config issues and WIne is having to index fonts... which makes initial start up really slow.

but Alpha 2 is up, same as alpha 1 but has working sound.

oh and for a tip.. for normal fullscreen, if you want to multitask easy, the easiest way is to Hide the game with CMD+H .. then clicking on it in the dock will get it back.

[Viper358]

Alright I ran into a problem. It ran the installer fine but after install when I open the Star Trek Online.app a Microsoft DirectX installer pops up. If I choose to continue it installs some .dll files and says its finished however on clicking the finish button the cursor turns into an X and the application closes, if I choose to not install I get the X cursor and the app closes.

My system specs are:
Mac Pro, 2 x 3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon, OS 10.4.11, 5GB RAM, ATI X1900 XT

Edit: I'm re-installing from scratch as I think I missed a step.

Update: I got the launcher to open after install, it kept giving me IE script errors but I just selected yes to running the script and it started patching. It patched to about 200 MB and the launcher closed, when I reopen Star Trek Online.app I get the same DirectX install thing as before.

[doh123]

Originally Posted by Viper358

Alright I ran into a problem. It ran the installer fine but after install when I open the Star Trek Online.app a Microsoft DirectX installer pops up. If I choose to continue it installs some .dll files and says its finished however on clicking the finish button the cursor turns into an X and the application closes, if I choose to not install I get the X cursor and the app closes.

My system specs are:
Mac Pro, 2 x 3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon, OS 10.4.11, 5GB RAM, ATI X1900 XT

Edit: I'm re-installing from scratch as I think I missed a step.

Update: I got the launcher to open after install, it kept giving me IE script errors but I just selected yes to running the script and it started patching. It patched to about 200 MB and the launcher closed, when I reopen Star Trek Online.app I get the same DirectX install thing as before.

X1600s and X1900s are known WIne graphics issues.. so don't expect too much...

I have never seen it prompt for DirectX... if it does, you do NOT want to install it, even if it works, Wine will run faster using its own directx files, and not MSes.

Answering yes to the script errors is needed... I forgot about that...

I also noticed a bug when i tried to do a full install from scratch, that occasionally the patcher would disconnect and close... it was odd... but when starting again i never had DirectX pop ups.

If you had it install any DirectX files, you need to start over again with a clean version of the wrapper... do not let it install anything DirectX related if it prompts.

[lifecast]

You are to be commended. This really works very very well. I was impressed.

I have a new Macbook Pro unibody, and everything works. I even tweaked it to allow sound.

I'm a huge world of warcraft player. To say that I was disappointed in Cryptic's lame managerial decision to exclude Macs is an understatement.

My name is John, and for several years I worked at Zimbra and then Yahoo.. so I understand technology pretty well. I also know what reasons are real, and which ones are dumb excuses that hold no water when investigated.

For several years, we didn't support CentOS officially because of various (stupid) reasons solely made by managers.

Cryptic's exclusion of the Mac community is disappointing. I hate when companies just don't get it...and they don't. They just don't get it. And that will probably cost them dearly.

You have single handedly given me hope that perhaps this will work.

If Cryptic's offices are anything like the rest of the world, most employees are probably awesome and really are mac fans. It's the managers that don't get it.

As far as issues, I had only one: The ghosting issue while in space. Otherwise, it performed WAY better than VMWare fusion (which ironically now owns Zimbra).

Controls, sound, video, speed were all very acceptable.

Great work!!

john h