Mac OSX: Is it supported? + How to play BM on Mac

Black Mesa Archive Help!
#1

Well hello there.

I’ve been waiting for so long to be able to play HL1 and I don’t have a working PC, the console needed to play HL1, and my Mac can’t handle windows until I get a RAM upgrade and an SSD, then I find out about this mod and I literally cried in happiness. Then I realize, “Hey, that’s a exe file to download this”, and I immediately go to post this. So does anybody know if there’s either a download for this that isn’t an exe file, or a program to open exe files on a Mac. If so, PLEASE respond to this as I’ve wanted to play HL1 since I found out about Steam and HL2.

#2

The answer to this could’ve been found in exactly the forum you are posting right now :wink:
https://forums.blackmesasource.com/showthread.php?t=12633

Or in the FAQ :slight_smile:
https://wiki.blackmesasource.com/General_FAQ#Will_Black_Mesa_be_ported_to_Xbox360.2C_Mac_or_another_platform.3F

#3

BEWARE: playing it in OS X is NOT officially supported. YMMV. if everything else fail you can always try bootcamp.
BEWARE: graphics/cpu minimum requirements are very high i.e. I wouldn’t even try with integrated graphics.

the short version:
install WineSkin, create a wrapper (I suggest using a CXG engine), install Steam in it, install & copy SDK and BMS, enjoy!

the long version:

  1. install WineSkin from https://wineskin.urgesoftware.com and open WineSkin Winery
  2. click “+”, select the latest “CXG” from the drop down list, “Download and Install”. I used “WS8WineCXG10.3.0”, but feel free to experiment.
  3. from “Installed Engines” select the one you just installed, click “Create New Blank Wrapper”. if the button is grayed out, click on the “Update”, wait for the download and try again.
  4. pick a name e.g. SteamWine, click OK, wait a bit, view wrapper in Finder (I’m assuming it’s going to be ~/Applications/SteamWine.app)
  5. in Finder: control-click ~/Applications/SteamWine.app, select “Show Package Contents” from the menu, it should show a Wineskin app inside SteamWine, open it
  6. download windows installer for steam at https://cdn.steampowered.com/download/SteamInstall.msi
  7. click “Install Software”, “Choose Setup Executable”, browse to the SteamInstall.msi you just downloaded, click thru install. login in Steam, quit.
  8. open again the Wineskin app inside SteamWine, click “Advanced”. make sure the “Windows EXE” field is set to “/Program Files/Steam/Steam.exe”. quit.
  9. click “Install Software”, “Choose Setup Executable”, browse to the BlackMesa-Setup.exe you downloaded earlier (of course, from https://www.blackmesasource.com/download.html), click thru install. do NOT select “run black mesa”. ignore “Oops” dialogue. quit.
  10. open ~/Applications/SteamWine.app. sign in Steam, go to “Library”, select Black Mesa, Play. it will ask you to install the SDK. next, next, wait for the whole thing to download.
  11. done! play “Black Mesa”

hope it helps.

P.S.: as far as I can tell Bootcamp is the only way to play BMS natively on your mac. for a limited time you can also get Windows 8 release preview for free.

#4

I was wondering if anyone had a VERY detailed description as to how to install Black Mesa Source on Mac. I’ve tried a couple different times using various guides and programs like Wine and PlayOnMac, but cannot get it to work. I’m unfamiliar with both of these programs and was hoping someone would be able to help.

#5

I found this, but have encountered a problem. Moving the mouse only makes you look down. If you can fix this great. The below is instructions. FOllow them and you should have it running in no time.

Okay, first you’re going to need a few programs:
Wine/Winebottler- for installing programs and running .exe files
Play on Mac- This one is (probably) optional but since I already had Steam installed through it I chose to run it through this program. Also I think you need Wine to run Play on Mac
Xquartz- I’m pretty sure this comes with Play on Mac
Any program that can open .zip files, I don’t remember if Archive Utility comes with the machine or not

  1. Install Steam through Play on Mac. Open up the configuration to install DirectX drivers onto the virtual drive in PlayOnMac
  2. Assuming you’ve already downloaded the .zip package for BMS, unzip it and open the subsequent folder. Open BlackMes-Setup.exe WITH WINE. I don’t know why but when attempting to open the file with Play on Mac it could not locate the utility files associated with the setup
    Also go to Finder and open your user files. Go to PlayOnMac’s virtual drives -> drive -> drive_c -> Program Files -> Steam -> steamapps -> sourcemods. From there create a new folder titled “BMS”
  3. Go through the setup until you reach the point where it asks you to install the files to a specific folder. Install it to the folder you just created:
    Z:/Users/[your user name]/PlayOnMac’s virtual drives/drive/drive_c/Program Files/Steam/steamapps/sourcemods/BMS
    Then finish the installation.
  4. Open Steam and run the game, it will tell you to download Source SDK base 2007. Once that’s installed have at it!
    I also installed a couple other drivers to my Steam virtual drive, but I don’t know if that’s inconsequential or not. Let me know if this works for you
    EDIT: Seems the heads up display doesn’t work on my copy and it is subject to freeze during the opening train ride for some reason. Other than that it’s been fine for me
#6

Turn off the HUD postprocessing.
So BM can run under Wine, it seems. Should try that on Linux.

#7

Your Mac can handle running OS X, but it can’t handle running Windows 7 without a RAM/SSD upgrade? Win7 runs better with low resources than OS X does…

Playing BM Source on my late-2011 MacBook Pro 15" with 8 GB RAM, Sandy Bridge i7, Radeon HD 6770M, 8 GB RAM, and BootCamped Win7 Enterprise x64. Works great!

#8

I was having a hard time finding a detailed step-by-step about installing Steam and Black Mesa through Wineskin until I came upon this one:

It does helps a lot until I was installing Steam. I have gotten lost at STEP 5/6 with selecting “/Program Files/Steam/Steam.exe” from the drop-down list. Keep in mind that was after STEP 5, which said to click through installation process (which I did).

I have not seen anything about the drop-down list and about selecting “/Program Files/Steam/Steam.exe” after the STEP 5.

Can you be more specific regarding STEP 5 to 10, please?

#9

Sure. Slightly different instructions, but they should be easier to follow.
5. in Finder: control-click ~/Applications/SteamWine.app, select “Show Package Contents” from the menu, it should show a Wineskin app inside SteamWine, open it
6. download windows installer for steam at https://cdn.steampowered.com/download/SteamInstall.msi
7. click “Install Software”, “Choose Setup Executable”, browse to the SteamInstall.msi you just downloaded, click thru install. login in Steam, quit.
8. open again the Wineskin app inside SteamWine, click “Advanced”. make sure the “Windows EXE” field is set to “/Program Files/Steam/Steam.exe”. quit.
9. click “Install Software”, “Choose Setup Executable”, browse to BlackMesa-Setup.exe you downloaded, click thru install. do NOT select “run black mesa”. ignore “Oops” dialogue. quit.
10. open ~/Applications/SteamWine.app. sign in Steam, go to “Library”, select Black Mesa, Play. it will ask you to install the SDK. next, next, wait for the whole thing to download.
11. done! play “Black Mesa”

hope it helps.

#10

How does playing Black Mesa under Wine compare to running it natively under Windows on the same hardware, performance-wise?

#11

Obviously it’s worse - and not supported. As far as I can tell BlackMesa is playable w/ Wine but YMMV. My suggestion: if you have Windows, then play BlackMesa natively; if you don’t, then give Wine a try. And let us know how good/bad it was!

#12

I’ve heard they’ve been working hard on their DirectX implementation; I haven’t used it to try to game in a few years (my last test case was, coincidentally enough, the original Half-Life).

I gave it a go under Parallels Desktop 7 with Win7 Enterprise x64 but that stuttered too much to be playable at full settings so I just BootCamped it.

#13

Yes, anything that didn’t run on native platform will not perform perfectly. I knew this even when I want to play Black Mesa via Wineskin.

Your added details to the existing instruction are extremely helpful and got me through all of the necessary steps. I have downloaded the SDK 2007 and is able to run Black Mesa bit smoothly so far (only just rode through the first part of game, will see if the game crashes in the later chapters).

All in all, I am saving your instructions forever :smiley: big thanks, Skitch!

Oh and on the side note… I don’t have Window and I don’t have any Window OS Installation, which is why I was very curious and eager to try this route when I first heard about Wineskin only a few days ago.

EDIT2: a couple of crashes. Well, that’s because I am trying on with slightly higher-than-recommended graphic settings. I shall set them down to little above the bare minimum. Still enjoying the game, though!

I know this is double posting, but I got some good tips on how to keep Black Mesa on WineSkin as stable as possible and that involves running some Wine Tricks.

AFTER you install Steam through WineSkin and BEFORE you install Black Mesa, you should run these Wine Tricks:

  • Steam
  • d3dx9
  • d3dcompiler_43
  • d3dxof
  • d3dx9_43
  • vcrun2005
  • win7
  • vsm=hardware
  • orm=fbo
  • psm=enabled
  • ddr=gdi
  • OPTIONAL: Enable Multisampling

So far, I haven’t experience even a single crash from Black Mesa Inbound to the beginning of We Got Hostiles. Of course, my graphical settings are kinda low to begin with, but even Black Mesa was crashing on those low settings without Wine Tricks.

Try it out!

And be warned!

I suffered some bad crashes during some intense effects such as huge dynamic area and every helicopter fights. I had to fight as fast as possible to beat them before I could suffer any more crashes.

Didn’t helps that the helicopter fights were ridiculous :expressionless:

#14

I followed this step by step, and even installed the SDK. When I went to run Black Mesa, I realized that it wasn’t in my games library and I can’t find it anywhere. I’ve tried installing it several times.

#15

Some Windows users are having this problem too… try this:
https://forums.blackmesasource.com/showpost.php?p=501362&postcount=2
Just make sure you’re using “SteamWine.app” and not “Steam.app”.

Let us know how it goes.

#16

I just want to say thank you. I followed the simple directions here and am running Black Mesa on my iMac without installing “wine tricks” or anything like that. It hasn’t crashed once and is an enjoyable game. This is the first time I’ve used wineskin, and am looking forward to playing other Windows games using this wineskin for steam. So now I can just purchase anything with this wineskin version of steam and play it just like Black Mesa? This is awesome, thank you.

#17

On Step #3, I was unable to “Create New Blank Wrapper” because the button was unclickable (unbolded). Any idea what I should do?

#18

I’ve done this and black mesa is running great. I’m just wondering, now that I have Steam up and going in a wrapper, can I buy any windows game I want from their store and install it from within Steam running in the wrapper? It seems like you can navigate their store, download, and install software.

#19

It probably says there is an update available. You need to download that first :slight_smile:

#20

How do you install Wine Tricks?

EDIT: I figured it out, a lot simpler than I thought it was. Thank you so much!! I hate dealing with low texture settings and force closes.

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.