Mac Support: Difference between revisions

From Flashpoint Datahub
Jump to navigation Jump to search
(Updated Flash Player settings popup fix)
(Switched back to opening the launcher via the app)
 
(67 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
Flashpoint's Mac support is heavily experimental. This page provides information about the current Flashpoint for Mac package.
This page provides information about the latest official Flashpoint release for macOS. For information about older releases, see the [[/Beta 2022-06-22|Beta 2022-06-22]] subpage.


Please join our Discord and provide your feedback in the <code>#flashpoint-mac-linux-help</code> channel: http://discord.gg/S9uJ794
If you have any issues running Flashpoint, please join our Discord and post your issues in a new thread on the <code>help</code> forum channel: http://discord.gg/S9uJ794


== Latest Package ==
== Compatibility ==
There are 2 variants of Flashpoint for macOS: a regular and legacy one. The regular variant is compatible with macOS Catalina and newer, while the legacy one is made for High Sierra and Mojave. If you have an earlier macOS version, you will need to use the older [[/Beta 2022-06-22|Beta 2022-06-22]] version of Flashpoint. See the table below for detailed information, or [[#Installing Flashpoint|skip to the next section]] to begin installing Flashpoint.


'''Download Beta 2019-12-15:'''
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan="2"|Supported macOS versions
|-
!<abbr title="10.12">Sierra</abbr> & older
!style="background-color:#fdb3ab;"|Unsupported
|-
!<abbr title="10.13">High Sierra</abbr>
!rowspan="2" style="background-color:#fef8c6;"|[[#Legacy Support|Legacy support]]
|-
!<abbr title="10.14">Mojave</abbr>
|-
!<abbr title="10.15">Catalina</abbr>
!rowspan="5" style="background-color:#d4f4b4;"|Full support
|-
!<abbr title="11">Big Sur</abbr>
|-
!<abbr title="12">Monterey</abbr>
|-
!<abbr title="13">Ventura</abbr>
|-
!<abbr title="14">Sonoma</abbr>
|}


http://bluepload.unstable.life/flashpointinfinityformacbeta2019-12-15.zip
== Installing Flashpoint ==
<ol>
<li>
Open Finder, then click the Applications tab.
</li>
<li>
Scroll down and double-click the Utilities folder to open it. Then open the Terminal app.<br>
[[File:MacUtilitiesFolder.png]]
[[File:MacTerminal.png]]
</li>
<li>
Copy the following command, then paste it into the Terminal and press Return:<br>
<pre>curl -fo ~/Downloads/fp13_mac.tar.xz https://download.unstable.life/upload/fp13_mac.tar.xz</pre>
[[File:MacFP13Download.png]]<br>
'''Note''': Third-party firewalls such as LuLu may block the download with a "Couldn't connect to server" or "Could not resolve hostname" error. If you have any third-party firewalls installed, turn them off before running the download.
</li>
<li>
When the download completes, the file, "fp13_mac.tar.xz", will be in your Downloads. Control-click the downloaded XZ file, then choose Open With > Archive Utility.<br>
[[File:MacArchiveUtility.png]]<br>
'''Note''': You must use the Archive Utility instead of any third-party tools you may have installed, as some of them may set a quarantine flag that will prevent Flashpoint from working properly.
</li>
<li>
When the file finishes expanding, you will see a new folder called "Flashpoint 13 for macOS". Open the folder, then open the Flashpoint application.<br>
[[File:MacFlashpointApp.png]]
</li>
<li>
After Flashpoint opens, you may optionally keep the application in the Dock by control-clicking the Flashpoint icon in the Dock, then choosing Options > Keep in Dock.<br>
[[File:MacKeepInDock.png]]
</li>
</ol>
'''Flashpoint is now installed!'''


'''Changelog:'''
== Troubleshooting ==
 
=== Flash EOL Screen ===
2019-12-15: Added <code>"wmode":"direct"</code> to the default SWFObject parameters. This fixes certain 3D Flash games which previously did not work properly.
If you see the Flash Player EOL information screen (shown below) when you try to play a game, that means that Waterfox Classic is loading your installed Flash Player plugin instead of the plugin that is bundled with Flashpoint. To fix the problem, [https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/uninstall-flash-player-mac-os.html uninstall Flash Player from your Mac] and restart Flashpoint. Games should work in Waterfox Classic now.
 
2019-12-14: First beta available!
 
== Installation Instructions ==
# Download and unzip the latest package using the link above.
# Double-click <code>StartFlashpoint.command</code> to open Flashpoint.
#* '''Do not forget this step! You must use <code>StartFlashpoint.command</code>, otherwise Flashpoint will not work properly.'''
# Once Flashpoint is open, '''double-click''' a game on the list to launch it.
 
=== Troubleshooting ===
If Flashpoint does not work after installation, follow the steps below:
# Click the Apple menu and open System Preferences.
# Click "Security & Privacy," then click the "Privacy" tab.
# Click "Full Disk Access".
# Click the lock icon and enter your password to make changes. Then click the + button under the list of apps to add Terminal to the list.
# Click the lock icon again to save your changes. You should see Terminal in the list of allowed apps, as shown below. <br> [[File:FullDiskAccess.png|500px]]
 
==== Flash EOL Screen ====
If you see the Flash Player EOL information screen (shown below) when you try to play a game, that means that SeaMonkey is loading your installed Flash Player plugin instead of the plugin that is bundled with Flashpoint. To fix the problem, [https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/uninstall-flash-player-mac-os.html uninstall Flash Player from your Mac] and restart Flashpoint. Games should work again in SeaMonkey.


[[File:FlashTimebomb.png|200px]]
[[File:FlashTimebomb.png|200px]]


==== Flash Player Settings Popup ====
== Legacy Support ==
When you try to play a game, you might get a storage permissions popup like the one below:
For those still running macOS High Sierra or Mojave, there is a legacy variant of Flashpoint that can be installed instead of the regular one. To install it, follow all of the instructions listed in the [[#Installing Flashpoint|installation section]] until step 3, then replace the terminal command you are meant to run with the following:
<pre>curl -fko ~/Downloads/fp13_mac_legacy.tar.xz https://download.unstable.life/upload/fp13_mac_legacy.tar.xz</pre>
This will download the legacy variant of Flashpoint to your Downloads folder. Once it's finished downloading, you may follow the rest of the installation steps.


[[File:FlashSettingsPopup.png|300px]]
The only major difference between this variant and the regular one is the version of Wine bundled in. The regular variant uses a version of Wine built for macOS Catalina and newer that runs with only 64-bit libraries, while the legacy variant uses an older version that includes both 32-bit and 64-bit libraries. This is because macOS Catalina dropped support for running 32-bit programs, which many of the platforms that can be ran on Flashpoint are, such as Flash, Shockwave and other web-based plugins.


If you are unable to close this window, follow these steps to solve the problem:
== Using Flashpoint ==
# Quit SeaMonkey if it is open (SeaMonkey -> Quit SeaMonkey from the top menu bar)
[https://flashpointproject.github.io/manual/Using_the_launcher.html See the Flashpoint Manual].
# Open Flashpoint Infinity's FPSoftware folder, then find and open "SeaMonkey.app".
# Copy and paste this URL into SeaMonkey's address bar: <code>https://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager03.html</code>
# You should see the Flash Player Settings Manager. Drag the bar all the way to the right to allow Flash to store "Unlimited" data. (Don't worry, Flashpoint games won't store more than a few MB of data.)
# Click the Website Storage Settings panel link on the left sidebar of the page, or copy and paste this URL into SeaMonkey's address bar: <code>https://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html</code>.
# You will see a list of websites. Scroll down until you see the site that requested storage permission. In the above example, you would need to select <code>localflash</code>.
# Click the "Always Allow" button, ''even if it is already selected''. You should see the "Limit" value change to "Unlimited," as shown in the image below.
# Quit SeaMonkey (SeaMonkey -> Quit SeaMonkey from the top menu bar).
# Open Flashpoint again. The problem should be fixed.
[[File:FlashSettings-WebsiteStorageDialog.png]]


=== MacOS Catalina (10.15) and later ===
== Changelog ==
Because Flashpoint's applications are from an "unidentified developer," if you're using Catalina or later, you'll need to approve each application before it can run. Open your system preferences, click "Security & Privacy", then allow each of the following applications to run: StartFlashpoint.command, Flashpoint Launcher, swfbbox, and SeaMonkey. If you have trouble figuring out how to do this, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiYmUXVOlgI watch this tutorial video].


Because Adobe Director Projectors are 32-bit applications, [[SPR for Mac]] will not work on MacOS Catalina or later. This means that Flashpoint for Mac does not support Shockwave games on Catalina or later versions of MacOS.
2024-06-27: Brought back the ability to open Flashpoint with the application, and reduced the download's file size.


=== MacOS Big Sur (11.0) and later ===
2024-06-25: Fixed an issue preventing Waterfox from launching.
To use Flashpoint with Big Sur and later versions, a few modifications are required. Follow the steps below:
# Download SeaMonkey 2.53.4 for MacOS x64 from [https://www.seamonkey-project.org/releases/2.53.4 here]. After the file finishes downloading, open it and copy the "SeaMonkey.app" file somewhere that you'll remember.
#* '''Make sure you download the correct version; 2.53.4 is the only SeaMonkey version that will work with Flashpoint!'''
# Open Flashpoint Infinity's FPSoftware folder, then find the old "SeaMonkey.app" there.
# Right-click the old SeaMonkey.app and click "Show Package Contents."
# Open the <code>Contents</code> folder, then within that folder, open the <code>Resources</code> folder.
# Find the folder called <code>plugins</code> and ''copy'' it.
# Find the new "SeaMonkey.app" file that you downloaded in Step 1. Right-click it and click "Show Package Contents."
# Open the <code>Contents</code> folder, then within that folder, open the <code>Resources</code> folder.
# ''Paste'' in the <code>plugins</code> folder that you copied earlier.
# Go back outside of the new "SeaMonkey.app" package and ''copy'' it.
# Open Flashpoint Infinity's FPSoftware folder, then ''paste'' the "SeaMonkey.app" file that you just copied. Replace the original file when prompted.


=== MacOS Monterey (12.0) ===
2024-06-22: Flashpoint 13 for macOS is now available!
MacOS Monterey no longer ships with PHP, so you will need to manually install PHP 7.4. The instructions for doing so are below.


First, open the terminal and follow [http://osxdaily.com/2018/03/07/how-install-homebrew-mac-os/ these instructions] to install Homebrew. Keep the terminal open and run these commands in order:
2022-08-25: Bundled dependencies with Flashpoint to make Homebrew unnecessary in many cases. Updated install scripts appropriately.
brew tap shivammathur/php
brew install shivammathur/php/[email protected]
brew link --overwrite --force [email protected]
For more information about installing PHP on MacOS Monterey, see [https://wpbeaches.com/updating-to-php-versions-7-4-and-8-on-macos-12-monterey/ this article].


=== Apple Silicon Macs ===
2022-08-17: Flashpoint 11 Infinity for Mac is now available!
To run Flashpoint on Macs with the new M1 chip, you'll need to install Rosetta by following [https://osxdaily.com/2020/12/04/how-install-rosetta-2-apple-silicon-mac/ these instructions]. Once you've done that, follow the instructions in the previous sections to get Flashpoint working.
 
=== Installing Java ===
To add support for Java games, you'll need to install the Java Development Kit. Follow the steps below:
# Download JDK version 8u212 from here: https://github.com/frekele/oracle-java/releases/download/8u212-b10/jdk-8u212-macosx-x64.dmg
# Open the DMG file and run the installer. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the JDK.
 
=== Installing Wine ===
Running games in Wine is not yet supported, but we hope to add support for this in a future build. If you'd like to contribute to our efforts, you can learn more about installing Wine on MacOS from [https://github.com/Gcenx/wine-on-mac here].
 
=== Using Flashpoint with Automator (optional) ===
You can start Flashpoint without having to click on <code>StartFlashpoint.command</code> by using Automator using the below steps:
# Choose File > New.
# Select "Application", then click Choose.
# Drag the Run Shell Script action into your workflow.
# Enter <code>open /Users/[YOUR USERNAME HERE]/Downloads/Flashpoint\ Infinity\ for\ Mac\ Beta/StartFlashpoint.command</code> in the command field.


== Technologies ==
== Technologies ==
Currently, only Flashpoint Infinity is available for macOS. We plan to also create a Flashpoint Ultimate package for macOS in the future. To do this, we will need to set up Apache for use on macOS, including all of its required modules.


Currently, only Flashpoint Infinity is available for Mac. However, it should be fairly simple to create a Flashpoint Ultimate package for MacOS as well. Let us know in our Discord if you can help!
Thanks to the work of volunteer [https://github.com/LindirQuenya/ LindirQuenya (Ardil)], we now have an equivalent to FlashpointProxy for Mac, aptly named [https://github.com/FlashpointProject/FlashpointProxyMac FlashpointProxyMac]. This allows us to use the native standalone projectors for most Flash games and eliminates nearly all of the Flash-related bugs that plagued previous Flashpoint Mac builds.
 
No equivalent to the Flashpoint Proxy currently exists for MacOS. MacOS also does not provide any native way to set per-application proxy settings. In Flashpoint for Mac, the proxy settings for each supported technology must be set separately. This rules out using the Flash projectors, since they do not have configurable proxy settings. In Flashpoint for Mac, all Flash games run in a browser.
 
The [http://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/faq/ Flashpoint FAQ] contains a list of all web game technologies ("Platforms") supported in the Windows version of Flashpoint. The Mac version currently supports a small subset of these platforms. This is explained in detail below. The list of supported platforms includes an unscientific estimate of the percentage of games supported by our method.
 
=== Supported Platforms ===
* Flash: Supported using the SeaMonkey web browser, with a Flash plugin included. Games that use a Flash Player version other than 32 are not yet supported.
** ~95% of games supported.
* Shockwave: Supported with [[SPR for Mac]]. Because LeechProtectionRemovalHelp is only available for Windows, the majority of Shockwave games will not work properly.
** ~30% of games supported.
** Requires a 32-bit compatible OS; Catalina is not supported.
* HTML5: Supported using the SeaMonkey web browser. WebAssembly support is enabled in Flashpoint's SeaMonkey profile, so it should be compatible with nearly all of the same games as Basilisk.
** ~99% of games supported.
* Java Applets: Supported natively using the JDK. Java in the browser is not supported yet.
** ~99% of games supported.


=== Unsupported Platforms ===
Flashpoint for macOS supports several web technologies ([[Platforms]]), including:
* Unity Web Player: Has not been attempted yet. We would need to track down the Mac builds of all 12 versions of Unity Web Player that we support on Windows. Needless to say, this would be a huge challenge.
* Flash: Supported natively with standalone projectors.
* PopCap Plugin: As far as we know, there is no version of PopCap Plugin for modern Macs.
** Flash in the browser is supported natively with [https://classic.waterfox.net/ Waterfox Classic].
* Authorware Web Player: Authorware is incompatible with all Intel Macs.
* HTML5: Supported natively with Waterfox Classic and Chromium.
* GoBit Plugin: As far as we know, there is no version of GoBit Games Plugin for modern Macs.
** Games that use Flashpoint Launcher's Browser Mode are [[#Known Issues|not supported yet]].
* Silverlight: Silverlight for Mac is available [https://www.microsoft.com/Silverlight/ here], but as explained in [https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/348822/does-silverlight-for-macos-support-64-bit this StackExchange answer], Microsoft Silverlight for Mac is 32-bit only, even though the Windows version has 64-bit and 32-bit versions. This is a problem because no major browser for MacOS has a 32-bit version, and MacOS Catalina drops support for 32-bit programs entirely. As such, Silverlight is unusable on Mac.
* Java Applets: Supported natively with the Java Development Kit.
* 3DVIA Player: As far as we know, there is no version of 3DVIA Player for modern Macs.
** Java in the browser is not supported yet.
* 3D Groove GX: 3D Groove is incompatible with all Intel Macs.
* Shockwave: Fully supported with Wine, including Shockwave in the browser.
* ActiveX: ActiveX is a Windows-only technology.
* ShiVa3D: Supported with Wine and the help of custom shell scripts.
* ShiVa3D: The Windows version of the ShiVa3D Player is available in the free [https://shiva-engine.com/get/ ShiVa Web Edition]; this is where we obtained it. However, no Mac version of the ShiVa Web Edition is currently available, so we haven't been able to find a Mac version of the ShiVa3D Player. It's possible that we could extract a Mac version of the player from a Mac version of a ShiVa3D game. Or maybe we could obtain the Mac runtime from the Windows version of ShiVa3D Web Edition, since it has the capability of publishing for Mac.
* 3DVIA, Authorware, GoBit, PopCap, Vitalize, Tcl, DeepV, LiveMath, AnimaFlex, Visual WebMap, Squeak, WebAnimator, iPix: All supported in Flashpoint Navigator with Wine!


== Launcher Issues ==
An attempt was made to support Unity Web Player, but it is not working right now. See [[#Known Issues|Known Issues]].
A number of Flashpoint Launcher issues affect the experience of using Flashpoint Launcher on MacOS. Unfortunately, none of our Launcher developers currently have access to a Mac, so updates for the Mac version of Flashpoint Launcher will not be available in the foreseeable future. We will be unable to release a Mac version of Flashpoint 7.0 until a new version of the Launcher is built for MacOS. If you have access to MacOS and are able to build Flashpoint Launcher, please let us know!


The current issues with the Mac version of Flashpoint Launcher are listed below.
== Known Issues ==
* Errors are shown in the log when services are missing from the <code>services.json</code>. These services are unnecessary for Flashpoint on Mac, so the errors can be ignored.
* [https://github.com/FlashpointProject/launcher/issues/333#issuecomment-1218457380 Launching HTML5 games that use Flashpoint Launcher's Browser Mode fails and shows an error popup].
* Flashpoint Launcher cannot find its own Version file, even if it is present in the Launcher's folder and app package.
* Unity Web Player games will get stuck on the loading screen. Audio will play but the graphics will not initialize. We are currently trying to diagnose the cause of this problem.  
* The Theme dropdown menu on the Config tab does not work properly. To select a theme, you must manually type the path to the theme's CSS file.
* Clicking a link inside a Flash game that launches your default web browser may also crash the browser. This is because the Flash projector is launched with an environment variable telling it to load FlashpointProxyMac, and it passes the variable to its child processes. But the variable value is a relative path to the FlashpointProxyMac library, and the relative path will not resolve correctly for applications in other locations, such as your default web browser. Thus the browser will fail to load the library and will crash.
* A popup appears if the user attempts to start a Windows executable from Flashpoint. This popup tells the user to install Wine, and points them to the [[Linux Support]] page, even though the Launcher is running on Mac.
** This only happens if the browser is not already open because when launching a new instance of an existing process, it inherits the environment of the existing process.
* If a shell script is specified in <code>execs.json</code> as an alternative to a batch script, the Launcher will attempt to launch the shell script defined for Linux, even if a different shell script is defined for Darwin (MacOS).
** We considered avoiding the problem by referring to the FlashpointProxyMac library with an absolute path, but this would force the launched browser to use Flashpoint's proxy, which is not ideal either.
* Flashpoint Launcher attempts to load the hidden resource forks of certain files as separate files. These files are not visible in the MacOS Finder, and have filenames beginning with <code>._</code>.
** It seems like older Flash projector versions do not have this issue, so we are considering using the Adobe Flash Player 29 projector by default on macOS if no better solution is found.
** If any Platform XML has a resource fork, all of the Platform XMLs will fail to load, causing a "No games found" error.
* Flash games that use Waterfox Classic may not work in mainland China due to Adobe's geolocation restrictions, which we have not patched out of the macOS browser plugin yet. A workaround would be to use Wine to play the games instead. To switch to Wine, click the Config tab of the launcher, scroll down and click the "Native Platforms" dropdown, and uncheck Flash.
** If any localization JSON file has a resource fork, a "NotValidJSON" error will appear in the logs.
* HTML5 games may perform poorly in Waterfox Classic on Apple Silicon Macs because Waterfox Classic is an Intel binary. In the future, we plan to run HTML5 games using a different browser such as Chromium. Or we may switch from Waterfox Classic to our own build of Flashpoint Navigator for macOS, if we are able to get that working. Either way, we may need a launcher extension to choose which browser to launch based on a game's Platform, because both Flash and HTML5 games use Basilisk on Windows.
* When Wine is started from Flashpoint Launcher, it uses >70% CPU for several minutes without ever starting the intended executable. This is despite Wine working fine when started from the terminal. This issue needs to be investigated and solved before Flashpoint can support launching games through Wine.
* By default, Flashpoint Launcher will attempt to read and modify <code>config.json</code> and <code>preferences.json</code> inside its own app package. Since Mac applications are not allowed to modify their own app packages, this will fail. For this reason, Flashpoint Launcher must be opened with a shell script command <code>StartFlashpoint.command</code>. This script sets the current directory to the Flashpoint Launcher folder so that the Launcher accesses the <code>config.json</code> and <code>preferences.json</code> in the correct location. However, this unusual way of opening the Launcher may be the cause of the previously mentioned Wine bug.


== Other Notes ==
== Running Windows on your Mac ==
* Some keyboard controls such as the spacebar or WASD keys may not work in some games. This is a known problem with the NPAPI Flash plugin on MacOS. We plan to resolve this problem in the next build of Flashpoint for Mac by using the PPAPI plugin instead.
* When you launch games, you may see a red bar stating that "Your copy of SeaMonkey is old and probably has known security flaws." It asks you to update SeaMonkey - don't do that! Flash Player does not work anymore in the latest version of SeaMonkey. And since [[How Flashpoint Works|Flashpoint does not access the open internet]], you do not need to worry about security issues.
* Flash games with URLs pointing to filenames with special characters will not work. This is because <code>nosamuEmbedSWF.sh</code> does not properly handle special characters when it converts URLs to paths, so it cannot copy the game's HTML to the correct location in <code>htdocs</code>.
* Some Shockwave games may not close when you quit them from the menu. If this occurs, click inside the Message Window next to the game. Then type <code>quit</code> and press Enter to close the game.
* Flashpoint for Mac uses exec mappings to determine what native executable to run based on the specified Windows application path. For example, <code>flashplayer_32_sa.exe</code> is mapped to <code>nosamuEmbedSWF.sh</code> for MacOS. To add more exec mappings, navigate to Flashpoint's <code>Data</code> folder and open <code>execs.json</code> in a text editor. The exec mappings use "darwin" to refer to MacOS.
* Flashpoint for Mac uses <code>swfbbox</code> to determine the width and height of an SWF file. <code>swfbbox</code> is part of the <code>swftools</code> homebrew package. To install <code>swftools</code>, first [http://osxdaily.com/2018/03/07/how-install-homebrew-mac-os/ install homebrew]. Then type <code>brew install swftools</code> in the terminal.
* Flashpoint for Mac requires that PHP and cURL are installed and enabled on your system. These components should already be set up, unless you are on [[#MacOS Monterey (12.0)|MacOS Monterey]].


== Packaging Flashpoint for Mac ==
{{:Running Windows on your Mac}}
Here are some steps to keep in mind when packaging Flashpoint for Mac. This assumes that you are using the current package as a base and modifying it.
* You can follow [[Extended FAQ#GameDeleted|these instructions]] to update Flashpoint's XMLs to the latest version.
* You can follow [[Extended FAQ#UpdateRouter|these instructions]] to update Flashpoint Router to the latest version.
* Use <code>update-spr.sh</code> in the <code>FPSoftware</code> folder to update SPR to the latest version. To get the latest version of SPR for Mac, see [[SPR for Mac]].
* If you would like to distribute a modified SeaMonkey profile, be sure to clear the cache, cookies, and other data. In SeaMonkey, click <code>Tools -> Clear Private Data</code>.
* If you would like to add a plugin to SeaMonkey, first install the plugin normally. Then, follow these steps:
*# Navigate to <code>/Library/Internet Plug-Ins</code> in Finder and copy the files for the plugin you want to add.
*# Navigate to Flashpoint's <code>FPSoftware</code> folder. Right-click <code>SeaMonkey.app</code> and choose "Show Package Contents."
*# Inside the app package, navigate to <code>/Contents/Resources/plugins</code>. Paste the plugin files that you copied in Step 1.
* Before running or distributing Flashpoint, you should run the <code>dot_clean</code> command inside the Flashpoint folder to remove resource forks. Flashpoint Launcher may not work properly if Flashpoint files have resource forks, as explained in [[#Launcher Issues|Launcher Issues]].


<noinclude>[[Category:Technologies]]</noinclude>
<noinclude>[[Category:Technologies]]</noinclude>

Latest revision as of 06:47, 27 June 2024

This page provides information about the latest official Flashpoint release for macOS. For information about older releases, see the Beta 2022-06-22 subpage.

If you have any issues running Flashpoint, please join our Discord and post your issues in a new thread on the help forum channel: http://discord.gg/S9uJ794

Compatibility

There are 2 variants of Flashpoint for macOS: a regular and legacy one. The regular variant is compatible with macOS Catalina and newer, while the legacy one is made for High Sierra and Mojave. If you have an earlier macOS version, you will need to use the older Beta 2022-06-22 version of Flashpoint. See the table below for detailed information, or skip to the next section to begin installing Flashpoint.

Supported macOS versions
Sierra & older Unsupported
High Sierra Legacy support
Mojave
Catalina Full support
Big Sur
Monterey
Ventura
Sonoma

Installing Flashpoint

  1. Open Finder, then click the Applications tab.
  2. Scroll down and double-click the Utilities folder to open it. Then open the Terminal app.
    MacUtilitiesFolder.png MacTerminal.png
  3. Copy the following command, then paste it into the Terminal and press Return:
    curl -fo ~/Downloads/fp13_mac.tar.xz https://download.unstable.life/upload/fp13_mac.tar.xz

    MacFP13Download.png
    Note: Third-party firewalls such as LuLu may block the download with a "Couldn't connect to server" or "Could not resolve hostname" error. If you have any third-party firewalls installed, turn them off before running the download.

  4. When the download completes, the file, "fp13_mac.tar.xz", will be in your Downloads. Control-click the downloaded XZ file, then choose Open With > Archive Utility.
    MacArchiveUtility.png
    Note: You must use the Archive Utility instead of any third-party tools you may have installed, as some of them may set a quarantine flag that will prevent Flashpoint from working properly.
  5. When the file finishes expanding, you will see a new folder called "Flashpoint 13 for macOS". Open the folder, then open the Flashpoint application.
    MacFlashpointApp.png
  6. After Flashpoint opens, you may optionally keep the application in the Dock by control-clicking the Flashpoint icon in the Dock, then choosing Options > Keep in Dock.
    MacKeepInDock.png

Flashpoint is now installed!

Troubleshooting

Flash EOL Screen

If you see the Flash Player EOL information screen (shown below) when you try to play a game, that means that Waterfox Classic is loading your installed Flash Player plugin instead of the plugin that is bundled with Flashpoint. To fix the problem, uninstall Flash Player from your Mac and restart Flashpoint. Games should work in Waterfox Classic now.

FlashTimebomb.png

Legacy Support

For those still running macOS High Sierra or Mojave, there is a legacy variant of Flashpoint that can be installed instead of the regular one. To install it, follow all of the instructions listed in the installation section until step 3, then replace the terminal command you are meant to run with the following: 

curl -fko ~/Downloads/fp13_mac_legacy.tar.xz https://download.unstable.life/upload/fp13_mac_legacy.tar.xz

This will download the legacy variant of Flashpoint to your Downloads folder. Once it's finished downloading, you may follow the rest of the installation steps.

The only major difference between this variant and the regular one is the version of Wine bundled in. The regular variant uses a version of Wine built for macOS Catalina and newer that runs with only 64-bit libraries, while the legacy variant uses an older version that includes both 32-bit and 64-bit libraries. This is because macOS Catalina dropped support for running 32-bit programs, which many of the platforms that can be ran on Flashpoint are, such as Flash, Shockwave and other web-based plugins.

Using Flashpoint

See the Flashpoint Manual.

Changelog

2024-06-27: Brought back the ability to open Flashpoint with the application, and reduced the download's file size.

2024-06-25: Fixed an issue preventing Waterfox from launching.

2024-06-22: Flashpoint 13 for macOS is now available!

2022-08-25: Bundled dependencies with Flashpoint to make Homebrew unnecessary in many cases. Updated install scripts appropriately.

2022-08-17: Flashpoint 11 Infinity for Mac is now available!

Technologies

Currently, only Flashpoint Infinity is available for macOS. We plan to also create a Flashpoint Ultimate package for macOS in the future. To do this, we will need to set up Apache for use on macOS, including all of its required modules.

Thanks to the work of volunteer LindirQuenya (Ardil), we now have an equivalent to FlashpointProxy for Mac, aptly named FlashpointProxyMac. This allows us to use the native standalone projectors for most Flash games and eliminates nearly all of the Flash-related bugs that plagued previous Flashpoint Mac builds.

Flashpoint for macOS supports several web technologies (Platforms), including:

  • Flash: Supported natively with standalone projectors.
  • HTML5: Supported natively with Waterfox Classic and Chromium.
  • Java Applets: Supported natively with the Java Development Kit.
    • Java in the browser is not supported yet.
  • Shockwave: Fully supported with Wine, including Shockwave in the browser.
  • ShiVa3D: Supported with Wine and the help of custom shell scripts.
  • 3DVIA, Authorware, GoBit, PopCap, Vitalize, Tcl, DeepV, LiveMath, AnimaFlex, Visual WebMap, Squeak, WebAnimator, iPix: All supported in Flashpoint Navigator with Wine!

An attempt was made to support Unity Web Player, but it is not working right now. See Known Issues.

Known Issues

  • Launching HTML5 games that use Flashpoint Launcher's Browser Mode fails and shows an error popup.
  • Unity Web Player games will get stuck on the loading screen. Audio will play but the graphics will not initialize. We are currently trying to diagnose the cause of this problem.
  • Clicking a link inside a Flash game that launches your default web browser may also crash the browser. This is because the Flash projector is launched with an environment variable telling it to load FlashpointProxyMac, and it passes the variable to its child processes. But the variable value is a relative path to the FlashpointProxyMac library, and the relative path will not resolve correctly for applications in other locations, such as your default web browser. Thus the browser will fail to load the library and will crash.
    • This only happens if the browser is not already open because when launching a new instance of an existing process, it inherits the environment of the existing process.
    • We considered avoiding the problem by referring to the FlashpointProxyMac library with an absolute path, but this would force the launched browser to use Flashpoint's proxy, which is not ideal either.
    • It seems like older Flash projector versions do not have this issue, so we are considering using the Adobe Flash Player 29 projector by default on macOS if no better solution is found.
  • Flash games that use Waterfox Classic may not work in mainland China due to Adobe's geolocation restrictions, which we have not patched out of the macOS browser plugin yet. A workaround would be to use Wine to play the games instead. To switch to Wine, click the Config tab of the launcher, scroll down and click the "Native Platforms" dropdown, and uncheck Flash.
  • HTML5 games may perform poorly in Waterfox Classic on Apple Silicon Macs because Waterfox Classic is an Intel binary. In the future, we plan to run HTML5 games using a different browser such as Chromium. Or we may switch from Waterfox Classic to our own build of Flashpoint Navigator for macOS, if we are able to get that working. Either way, we may need a launcher extension to choose which browser to launch based on a game's Platform, because both Flash and HTML5 games use Basilisk on Windows.

Running Windows on your Mac

For a better experience, you may want to use the latest version of Flashpoint for Windows instead of the current Mac beta. There are two main options for doing so:

If you have enough disk space, Boot Camp is the most reliable option.

Once you have Windows up and running, follow these steps to install Flashpoint:

  1. Download Flashpoint if you haven't yet.
  2. Within your Windows environment, run the Flashpoint installer. You don't need to change any options, though you can if you want to.
    FlashpointInstaller.png
  3. When you're ready, click the "Install Flashpoint" button.
  4. After Flashpoint is done installing, double-click the new Flashpoint shortcut on your Windows desktop to start playing!
Retrieved from "https://flashpointarchive.org/w/index.php?title=Mac_Support&oldid=10477"