(This was originally a pinned thread on the MOUL forum)
Contents
TL;DR version: as a first option, I suggest you get my premade wrappers: Gehn, Minkata (Alpha), The Open Cave; you should not need to do more than get an account on the respective shards (see below for the links). I have also one for Uru: CC (you will of course need to provide your own installer), but the 25th anniversary update brought an official port.
If you get a “.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 dmg archive into the Terminal window, then press Enter.
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 the solution for Wineskin.
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.
(Probably outdated) About macOS 10.13 ‘High Sierra’: in some cases, this update broke wrappers (see post 1, post 2).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.
Following from my macOS tutorial, in this post I will note my experiences in the additional steps required to run the various Shards with the Wineskin wrapper method. Currently I use Wine CX21, which seems to work quite well with all shards, with the unofficial Wineskin 2.9.
Previously, I used Wineskin 2.6.2 with Wine 1.5.21, except for The Open Cave shard, which required at least the 1.7.18 engine, and the Gehn shard, which required at least the 1.9.2 engine (see below). In my experience the 1.5.21 version was a bit more responsive on older machines.
You can get my premade wrappers from here and ignore most of the instructions related to DLLs below.
Again, “pointing the wrapper to” stands for: right-click (ctrl-click) on the wrapper, select Show Package Content, launch Wineskin, click on Advanced, then Browse, select Program Files/(Uru Live/)<exe/msi/bat file> and click on Choose, then on Done, and close the window.
Most shards can download the MOULa data files, but copying the data files from an existing Uru Live folder will of course take less time.
Also, you may need to install the Visual C++ 2013 libraries. vcredist_x86.exe does not work with Wineskin, however, so you will need to install it with Winetrick (vcrun2015 or vcrun2013). If you followed the instructions from my other tutorial, or are using my premade wrappers, you should already have them.
If the wrapper crashed and you cannot relaunch it again, it is likely that Wine itself got stuck. To close it, launch the Wineskin program inside the wrapper (any wrapper, it makes no difference). Click Advanced > Tools > Kill Wineskin Processes. As the notice will say, this will close every wine process, not just those from the wrapper itself.
Gehn Shard
You can get my premade wrapper here. If it crashes, try running it once with “/repair” in the EXE Flags field to patch all the data files. Gehn.22+ requires the Visual C++ 2015 libraries, which are now supported by the latest versions of Wine(skin). Wrappers are being tested and discussed in the GoW thread.
Recommended Winetricks packets for manual install: d3dx10, vcrun2015, crypt32.
The ‘Wineskin’ method in my macOS tutorial is taken almost directly from Deledrius’ original post on the GoW; since then, a new installer was made capable of installing this shard even from scratch. Therefore you can follow Deledrius’ tutorial to the letter, by pointing the wrapper to the Gehn installer, follow its instructions and then pointing the wrapper to UruLauncher.exe.
Starting with Gehn.20, this shard requires the Visual C++ 2013 libraries to run (currently Visual C++ 2015; see above). If you still get the “UruExplorer.exe has encountered a serious problem and needs to close” error message, you will need to use the 1.7.18 engine (you can download it from Wineskin Winery, and update the wrapper with Advanced > Tools > Change Engine Used).
Minkata
You can get my premade wrapper here (or here for the alpha version).
The instructions in the Play page can be followed to the letter.
In the past, you could have used the Cider wrapper, by changing the server status URL. However, the game now requires a more recent version of PhysX, so Cider will not work.
Recommended Winetricks packets for manual install: d3dx10, vcrun2012.
The Open Cave
You can get my premade wrapper here; it already includes both the Visual C++ libraries and the required dat files (see below).
This Shard too has now an automated installer, but you will need to add the Visual C++ 2013 libraries to run (see above). Also, the launcher may fail to fully update, because it expects a specific set of game files. If that’s the case, you can get the correct files from PodHopper’s page or from my archive; to add them, right-click on the wrapper, select Show Package Content, then navigate to Contents/Resources/drive_c/Program Files/TOC-MOUL/ . Decompress the archive and replace the avi, dat and sfx folders; make sure server.ini and UruCrashHandler.exe are also present. You can delete the rest once you know things work.
Starting from version 2.17, you will need at least the 1.7.18 engine (see the instructions for the Gehn shard). Once you have done that, the process is the same as for the Gehn installer. If you have already installed the legacy PhysX component, you can skip the PhysX install that might show up.
Recommended Winetricks packets for manual install: d3dx10, vcrun2013, crypt32.
Destiny Shard
Warning: this client is not intended for regular play, it can break things if you are not careful!
Follow the instructions in the post, but point the wrapper directly to plClient.exe and type “ /localdata” (with a space before) in the Windows path field, after the path to plClient.exe.
Recommended Winetricks packets for manual install: d3dx10, vcrun2015, crypt32.
Skydiving Client
This client is currently, and possibly forever, broken. The following notes are kept for the record.
Follow the instructions in Lyrositor’s post (but use this libeay32.dll instead) and point the wrapper to UruSkydiving.exe. Alternatively, you can use the Cider wrapper.
Recommended Winetricks packets for manual install: d3dx10, vcrun2013, crypt32.
Uru: Complete Chronicles
The anniversary update brought an official macOS port (wrapper) for Uru: CC. However, there is an issue with avatars if you modify the port for Deep Island or Drizzle: the sav folder (and a few other game files) is not in the wrapper itself, but in the user Library/Application Support/Uru Complete Chronicles folder. Because a modified copy will still identify as the official port, once the modfied version is launched your saved avatars will get converted and become unusable for offline play.
A wrapper made with Wineskin will play independently of Uru CC, keeping your saved avatars safe. I have premade wrappers for Uru CC ready for use with Drizzle, Deep Island and The Open Cave (PotS); obviously they are empty, you will need to put the 25th Anniversary app in the same folder and run the included script, as described in the readme file or in this video.
If you have an older Windows-only version, the installer should work with a wrapper, with a similar procedure as MOULa (point the wrapper one time to the installer, then once it is done to Uru.exe or UruSetup.exe). Note that the GOG installer put the Uru folder in a GOG Games folder inside drive_c, outside Program Files; you can just leave it there or move it inside Program Files.
Older versions of Wineskin had an annoying audio bug in Relto and near Zandi’s trailer, where you hear loud white noise; possible solutions have been discussed here (in short, use engine 1.5.0 or ≥3.0. Premade wrappers: mine, Ainia’s).