How to Install MO:UL on MacOS and Linux – The Guild of Messengers

(This was originally a pinned thread on the MOUL forum)

There is (or was) a wealth of informations on how to run Myst Online: Uru Live on macOS and Linux on the forum, but it is a bit scattered, so we thought to consolidate it in a single tutorial. We probably missed something, so if you have any suggestions, please let us know so we can update this post.

Installation on macOS
Installation on Linux

Installation on macOS

TL;DR version: The best option on macOS is currently the Wineskin wrapper; it already has all it needs, except ~1.2 GB of data files that will be downloaded once you launch them. To install other shards, see the other tutorial.

If you get a “Uru Live.app is damaged and can’t be opened” error, you will need to launch the Terminal, type “xattr -c ” (with a space at the end), drag the Uru Live.dmg archive into the Terminal window, then press Enter.

The Cider wrapper no longer works (including the MacPorts one): the OpenUru#159 update raised the PhysX version required, and the one bundled with the Cider wrapper is in practice impossible to update.

A native macOS client is being developed by Colin “Maccodemonkey” Cornaby.

About Apple Silicon: in mid-2020 Apple announced yet another processor transition, this time to the ARM-based M1. Fortunately, Codeweavers’ Crossover ≥20 appears to run well, and the Gcenx fork of Wineskin has already started to implement that solution.

About macOS 10.15 ‘Catalina’: starting from this version of macOS, support for 32 bit applications has been completely removed. This means that many of the solutions listed here will stop working. Codeweavers has found a solution, implemented in Crossover 19, and released the solution so that WineHQ and related projects can benefit from it.

Fortunately, the Gcenx fork of Wineskin seems to works fine! For more info on why it is difficult to run Wine on macOS ≥10.15, see the WineHQ forum thread.

About macOS 10.13 ‘High Sierra’ (outdated for recent versions of Wineskin): in some cases, this update broke wrappers (see post 1, post 2). In short, Cider can have troubles updating UruLauncher.exe. Wineskin requires to disable Auto Detect GPU Info for Direct3D (see Wineskin); occasionally Wineskin crashed before this option could be set.

If you cannot reach the lower portion of the screen while in fullscreen, first switch to windowed mode (⌘↵), then move the resolution slider (F4) to the right, close the settings then switch to full screen again.
If you start the game in windowed mode an its top half is beyond the screen, click on Apple Menu > System Preferences > Displays; under Resolution check that Scaled is selected, then select a resolution at random. This will force the window back in, so you can drag it. Change the resolution setting back to the previous settings.

CrossOver

Codeweavers’ CrossOver is the main sponsor for Wine, the software behind all the solutions listed here, so it is certainly a recommended option, and one that usually require less fiddling than the others. There is an installation guide here (you will need a 32-bit bottle).

You will eventually have to pay to continue using it however, and an argument could be made that since MOULa is free, so should be a MacOS wrapper. For that reason, we list a few more options below.

Wineskin & Porting Kit

You can get a premade wrapper from my archive, from PaulTheTall or from AllThingsUru. These wrappers already have the needed libraries installed, so if you get one of them, start from point 6 but click on Install Software, then Choose Setup Executable, pointing to the MOULa installer location. If you use mine, then you can just launch it, you will not need any installer.

Porting Kit uses Wineskin internally (it has a few more helper tools on top), so everything mentioned here should be valid for Porting Kit too.

Please avoid using the audiochat, your voice will come out annoyingly distorted on other people’s clients.

Building from scratch (click to expand)

You are going to need the PhysX Legacy component and of course the MOULa installer;
The original Wineskin software is no longer in active development; I suggest using the unofficial version (you just copy Wineskin Winery e.g. in the Applications folder);
From Wineskin Winery click the + on the left of “New engine(s) available!”; from the list that appear select WS9Wine3.0, then “Download and Install”;
From Wineskin Winery click Create New Blank Wrapper, name it (e.g. “Uru Live”) and let the program work; eventually you should have, in /Applications/Wineskin, a wrapper of ~300 MB (tip: backup it, you could use it for other Windows programs);
Right-click, select Show Package Content and launch Wineskin. Under macOS 10.13 High Sierra, click Set Screen Options, then under Other Options deselect Auto Detect GPU Info for Direct3D. Click Done;
Now click Advanced, then Configuration > Browse, select the PhysX Legacy component and click Choose ((I will refer to this operation as “pointing the wrapper to” in the following). Click Test Run and install PhysX, using the default settings;
Ignore the logs, point the wrapper to the MOULa Installer and click Test Run again (this will take a while);
Once the Installer is done, ignore the logs again, click Browse, select UruLauncher.exe and click Choose. Check that the wrapper is using “/Program Files/Uru Live/UruLauncher.exe” (you can also just type that line in the Windows EXE field) and close Wineskin. You can now use the wrapper as a standard application.
The first time you will launch it, it will take some time, as the Launcher will download about 1.2 GB of data.
Optional cosmetic tips: from the Advanced panel (see point 5), type e.g. “Uru Live” in the Menubar Name field and “1.918” in Version (as a reminder of the current version); from Set Screen Option uncheck Decorate windows (as sometimes this option hides alert boxes). Drag the Extra Gamma Correction cursor to the right you you want to brighten up the environments.

To install a shard, you will have to duplicate the wrapper and follow the shard’s instructions; typically, you will need to rename the Uru Live folder to the name used by the shard, point the wrapper to the installer, let it work and point the wrapper again to UruLauncher.exe.

Any shard can be installed with this method. Also, if you have an unsupported graphic card, it might be that with the Cider wrapper you will not see the avatar, while with the Wineskin one you could.
On the other hand, audio can be broken, even badly, and trying to use the audiochat produces horrible noises.

Note that the original Wineskin is no longer available and likely will not work on macOS >10.13. Gcenx’s unofficial fork works for macOS ≥10.9.

Wine (MacPorts)

WineHQ stopped supporting macOS Catalina 10.15 or higher for the time being, since support for 32 bit applications has been completely removed. The last released version (5.0) is now far behind Wine’s current version. However, Gcenx is maintaining a (semi-official) working fork.
Wineskin has adopted Crossover’s wine32on64 solution, so you should be able to use Wine through that.

You will need Wine (the software, not the beverage); WineHQ has an official package for macOS 10.8–10.14. You may need to install the Winetricks packets winhttp, d3dx10 and vcrun2012 (./winetricks winhttp d3dx10 vcrun2012).

Once you have done that, you should be able to launch the MOULa installer as if it were a Mac application. The Program folder (where Uru Live will be installed) is in the c_drive folder inside the prefix (by default in in the invisible folder .wine inside your Home folder; use the shortcut ⌘⇧G, then type “.wine” and click Go).

Shards may need vcrun2015 or vcrun2013 instead of vcrun2012, plus crypt32. See my other tutorial for the specific requirements. Audio can be broken (see Wineskin).

For MOULa specifically, a simpler procedure is to install MacPorts, open the Terminal as admin and type the command sudo port install mystonline-cider (for the Cider version, see below) or sudo port install mystonline-wine (for the standard Wine version).

Note that macOS 10.14 ‘Mojave’ no longer supports building 32-bit code, so the MacPorts option only works for older versions.

The Cider version uses a modified wrapper with the data files moved in /opt/local/share/mystonline/data/, shared with the Wine version.

PlayOnMac

The functionality of PlayOnMac on the latest versions of macOS is uncertain, there have been reports of Wine packages not showing up in the download list.

PlayOnMac (soo-to-be-known-as Phoenicis) is a free software that can help you install and use numerous games and software designed to work on Windows. It is somewhat like Wineskin, but it guides you throughout the installation process. Works for MOULa and for shards too.

I prepared a few scripts that should automate the installation process; they should work, but they are in permanent beta.

Cider

There is a bug in full screen mode that prevents one to reach the icons in the lower part of the screen; a possible solution is to switch to windowed mode (⌘↵), change the resolution (F4) by moving the slider to the right (be sure not to set it larger than the native resolution of the screen!), close the settings then switch to full screen again.

You can get a ready-made version from my archive, from Ainia or from BobLishman. The following procedure is left for completeness’ sake and for those who still would like to try it out.

Building from scratch (click to expand)

You will need the GameTap Cider wrapper and the new version of UruLauncher.exe (both available from here);
Once you copied it somewhere, right-click (or ctrl-click) on the Cider wrapper and substitute the UruLauncher.exe executable in Contents/Resources/Myst Online.app/Contents/Resources/transgaming/c_drive/Program Files/Uru Live/ with the new one;
When you launch the wrapper, it will start updating files, about 1.2 GB of stuff. Once it is done, you will be ready!
Optional: to update the server status update, which otherwise will not show anything, again inside the Cider wrapper you will have to look for these files:
- Contents/Resources/Myst Online.app/Contents/Resources/transgaming/c_drive/Program Files/Uru Live/Cider/URU Live Login.app/Contents/Info.plist
- Contents/Resources/Myst Online.app/Contents/Resources/transgaming/c_drive/Program Files/Uru Live/Cider/URU Live Updater.app/Contents/Info.plist
and in both substitute: “http://support.mystonline.com/serverstatus/urulivelive.php”

with: “http://support.cyanworlds.com/serverstatus/moullive.php”

(This could reset if you delete the TOC.txt file).

Basically only the Minkata shard can be installed with this method.

Installation on Linux

A simple option is using Lutris.

Another simple option is using PlayOnLinux (planned to at some point become Phoenicis): I prepared a few scripts that should help with the installation process. They work for me, but they are in permanent beta.

If you still prefer to try to do things manually:

You will need Wine (preferably from WineHQ, as the repositories in many distros are usually outdated), then (with some caveats) you will be able to install Uru Live and shards like in Windows. Wine ≥3.0 seems to work quite well with all shards.

Just running the MOULa installer under Wine should be enough. If something goes wrong, you may need to install the Winetricks packets winhttp, d3dx10 and vcrun2012 (winetricks winhttp d3dx10 vcrun2012).

Shards may need vcrun2015 or vcrun2013 instead of vcrun2012, plus crypt32. See my other tutorial for the requirements (ignore the macOS-specific ones).

Also, on the first run the resolution change might hide most of the screen; you can reset the resolution usually by pressing F8 (the one with the empty screen), then setting it in-game.

Sources

“MO:ULagain specs/Mac-friendly?”, post by Shoom’lah
“MO:ULagain specs/Mac-friendly?”, post by rainbow
“Installing Gehn Shard on OSX”, post by Deledrius
“Common Problems and How To Solve Them”, post by Mac_Fife

(Korov’ev)

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