Any Macintosh players out there?

[jelricle]

Is there a thread for Macintosh users?

Any Macintosh users out there?

I was wondering if there is any hgx.exe equivalent for Macintosh, or if they can only use the main nwn executable (whatever that looks like on mac)
Is the modding/patching tricky on a Mac?

I have a friend who only has a Mac and I was thinking of getting him NWN and then get him onto HG.

[chirality]

I played HG on an old macbook for a few years, until I knocked such a large and full cup of coffee over onto that it flooded the entire inside of the machine and fried everything. I think maybe 2014ish-2107ish.

Honestly, it's a bit of a blur and I really can't remember very much about the setup I eventually stuck with. I know that I tried several different approaches and did a lot of research along the way. I do recall that whatever I settled on worked absolutely fine and was accomplished for free, which were the two requirements I had. I believe there was an obstacle involving my ancient macbook pro and the version of macos at the time, which was difficult to overcome. Your friend shouldn't have any issues with given the improved support for this sort of thing in later macos versions. Bootcamp doesn't work on M1 machines, though.

There are several threads here that you can find by searching, and there is a huge amount of information elsewhere online. Unfortunately, threads from the old bioboards are no longer available or difficult to find. However, since most/all of that would only be relevant if your friend also has a very old mac, it shouldn't be a problem.

I didn't/still don't use HGX so I can't offer anything about that, other than that it's not going to be an option to run natively. They would have to be running HG thru windows anyway.

As for NWN/HG, you would want to get the information about which version of macos (and other things on their system) your buddy is using. There's a fair bit of explanation to go over just on this note, such as different macos versions supporting different options. If they have a very newer macbook, bootcamp isn't an option, as mentioned above, and they'd have to jump an entirely different set of hoops to get windows running through a different vm.

If you wanted to do some pre-emptive research before gifting the game, find out what what machine they're using. Without knowing what they are running, there's no way to say for sure which options would be available for them.

They can definitely get HG working, and it shouldn't be "too" tricky...maybe. It will require some effort and research, although there are very detailed guides written for people that have no idea what they're doing, so she should be fine.

[Yojimbo]

I will check my old game info but I think the original game when released had official Mac support though I think it was a "different" copy of the game sold and I am not sure if what GOG.com has available includes the Mac compatible option. If you can get the proper installers for Mac you should be fine to use the keys regardless though given the age of the game you can probably run it through emulation just as easily w/ little to no issues though HGX is still unlikely to be supported.

[jelricle]

Jan 20, 2023 12:51:58 GMT chirality said:

I played HG on an old macbook for a few years, until I knocked such a large and full cup of coffee over onto that it flooded the entire inside of the machine and fried everything. I think maybe 2014ish-2107ish.

. . .

As for NWN/HG, you would want to get the information about which version of macos (and other things on their system) your buddy is using. There's a fair bit of explanation to go over just on this note, such as different macos versions supporting different options. If they have a very newer macbook, bootcamp isn't an option, as mentioned above, and they'd have to jump an entirely different set of hoops to get windows running through a different vm.

Thanks chirality.  I was just wondering about one clarification.  Did you play a mac version of NWN with the HG haks, or did you use a VM to play a PC version of NWN with the HG haks?

(Yes, that is how little I know about Macs)

[chirality]

this was before EE and there was no mac version (no clue how EE mac version works and I haven't touched a mac since EE was released). the options were either running windows thru a vm or using a bottler like wineskin. i did the latter because bootcamp wasn't an option and i wasn't going to pay for a vm.

as for haks, not sure what you mean. there is only one hak required to play hg, which is cep, but it is required; you can't log in without it. if you mean the other recommended HG-approved:tm: custom files, these are not haks.

to be clear, although the name of the .hak extension is derived from the word "hack," "hak" is not shorthand for hack or customization; it refers specifically to the integrated "hak pack" system of packaging custom content built into NWN. on the other hand, HG's Team-Approved:tm: custom files are not haks, and are completely optional...although playing nwn without them sucks. if you mean other stuff like hgx; as above, no, and it wouldn't work without running thru vm anyway without someone creating a bottler for it.

tldr, no, i didn't play without HGE or the modified executable, and yes i was able to use them with a bottled dependency mac install (aka, yes, i was able to use them running nwn without a virtual machine, although this is the part i'm fuzzy on and required some research/testing, so i'd probably recommend your friend just run a vm/bootcamp if possible).

[Yojimbo]

chirality there was a version of the original game released on disc labeled and sold as Mac. Though digging it looks like unless you are on old hardware and older Mac OS you won't be able to use that version.
NWN Wiki about Mac OS X

jelricle Looks like your best bet is to invest a little time into setting up/installing through a VM or Wine to get NWN, CEP, HGE, and possibly the Modified EXE going though I would probably not invest the time in HGX as it may not even be possible to make it function.

[chirality]

ok, my mistake. either never knew about that or forgot if i did

[kusin111]

Played on my mac for over a decade. Best option I found was to install a virtual machine with a significant partition, then install windows on the virtual machine and use normal mods.

[TJ]

ive only played in bootcamp (RIP) but it worked well in there. would be similar to a VM i suppose. you will probably have more issues on an M1/M2 mac though, i am not sure if NWN is compiled for arm64 chips

[Yojimbo]

IIRC bootcamp still works if you have an Intel based Apple computer but yes for a M1/M2 Mac you would have to rely on virtualization.

[jelricle]

Thanks. I will see if he knows how to do that.

[casing]

This is rather late to the thread and you probably have it sorted out now, but I use a virtual machine (Parallels) with Windows 10 installed. Then just the normal install of NWN Diamond with the HGE, CEP, and modified executable (and some of the other custom stuff). I run it in windowed mode. It took some fussing to get the resolution set right. Selecting a resolution option via the NWN in-game options won't work properly, you'll need to just put the resolution you want in the ini file. The key combinations for switching hotbars in game is slightly different (SHIFT + CTRL combinations), but not obtrusive. I haven't bothered trying to get HGX running, but sometimes I feel like I want to make the effort. I never do though, because I don't want some of the required stuff installed.