Mac Support: Difference between revisions

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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 Mac. 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 [https://discord.gg/S9uJ794 join our Discord] and post your issues in a new thread on the <code>help</code> forum channel.
 
== Compatibility ==
Flashpoint for Mac is fully compatible with macOS Sierra & newer, and has limited support for OS X El Capitan. Older versions won't work due to the launcher and/or game server being incompatible. See the table below for a detailed support chart, or [[#Installing Flashpoint|skip to the next section to begin installing Flashpoint]].
 
{|class="wikitable"
!colspan=2|macOS Support
!Notes
|-
!≤ <abbr title="10.10">Yosemite</abbr>
!style="background:#ffe3e3;"|None
|<center>Too difficult to port<br>launcher & game server.</center>
|-
!<abbr title="10.11">El Capitan</abbr>
!style="background:#ffb;"|Partial
|<center>Wine can't be built, so<br>non-native apps don't work.<br>Ruffle also doesn't launch.</center>
|-
!<abbr title="10.12">Sierra</abbr>
!rowspan=10 style="background:#dfd;"|Full
|rowspan=3|<center>May be very slow when<br>loading/searching content.</center>
|-
!<abbr title="10.13">High Sierra</abbr>
|-
!<abbr title="10.14">Mojave</abbr>
|-
!<abbr title="10.15">Catalina</abbr>
|rowspan=7|<center>Catalina & newer can't run<br>32-bit apps, so Wine must<br>convert 32-bit calls to 64-bit.<br>Non-native 32-bit apps<br>will run slower as a result.</center>
|-
!<abbr title="11">Big Sur</abbr>
|-
!<abbr title="12">Monterey</abbr>
|-
!<abbr title="13">Ventura</abbr>
|-
!<abbr title="14">Sonoma</abbr>
|-
!<abbr title="15">Sequoia</abbr>
|-
!<abbr title="26">Tahoe</abbr>
|}


== Installing Flashpoint ==
== Installing Flashpoint ==
Line 9: Line 48:
</li>
</li>
<li>
<li>
Scroll down and double-click the Utilities folder to open it. Then open the Terminal app. <br>
Scroll down and double-click the Utilities folder to open it. Then open the Terminal app.<br>
[[File:TerminalInUtilitiesFolder.png|700px]]
[[File:MacUtilitiesFolder.png]]
</li>
[[File:MacTerminal.png]]
<li>
Copy the following command, then paste it into the Terminal and press Return: <br>
<pre>mkdir -p Flashpoint && cd Flashpoint && curl -O -k --progress-bar https://bluepload.unstable.life/flashpointinfinityformacbeta2022-06-22.zip && open ./</pre>
</li>
</li>
<li>
<li>
Wait for the download to complete. The terminal will indicate the download progress as shown below: <br>
Copy the following command, then paste it into the Terminal and press Return to download Flashpoint:<br>
[[File:TerminalDowloadingFlashpoint.png]]
<pre>curl -fL https://download.flashpointarchive.org/upload/fp14.0.3_mac.txz | tar xC ~/Downloads</pre>
[[File:MacFP14Download.png]]<br>
'''Note''': 3rd party firewalls like LuLu may block the download with a "Couldn't connect to server" or "Could not resolve hostname" error. If you have any installed, turn them off beforehand.
</li>
</li>
<li>
<li>
When the download completes, your new Flashpoint folder will open. Double-click the downloaded ZIP file to expand it.
'''Wait for the download to finish''', then open the "Flashpoint 14.0.3 for Mac" folder created in your Downloads, and run the Flashpoint application.<br>
[[File:MacFP14FlashpointApp.png]]<br>
'''Note''': '''Do not''' move the Flashpoint app to Applications or anywhere else outside of the main folder. If you do, Flashpoint will not work properly if its path is not configured to point to the main folder.
</li>
</li>
<li>
<li>
When the file finishes expanding, you will see a new folder called "Flashpoint Infinity for Mac Beta". Click the folder once to select it, then click <code>File => Add to Sidebar</code> as shown below. <br>
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:AddToSidebar.png|1000px]]
[[File:MacKeepInDock.png]]
</li>
</li>
</ol>
</ol>
'''Flashpoint is now installed!'''
'''Flashpoint is now installed!'''
== Starting Flashpoint ==
To open Flashpoint, follow the instructions below:
# Open Finder, then click the Flashpoint folder on the "Favorites" sidebar.
# 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 ==
== Troubleshooting ==
If Flashpoint does not work after installation, please read the sections below for instructions on how to resolve the issue.
=== JavaScript Error on First Launch ===
[[File:JavaScriptError.png|thumb|An example of the JavaScript error popup.]]
When first launching Flashpoint, some users may encounter a JavaScript error stating the following:
Uncaught Exception: Error: Preferences must be set before you can open a window.
If the launcher doesn't start upon pressing OK, then Flashpoint doesn't have the permissions to run properly. To fix this, move the main Flashpoint '''folder''' (not just the application) to the <code>/Applications</code> folder and relaunch. If the error persists but the launcher starts after pressing OK, it can be safely ignored.


=== Flash EOL Screen ===
=== No Working Sources ===
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.
Some users, especially after [[#JavaScript_Error_on_First_Launch|doing the above fix]], may receive this error upon attempting to download a game:


[[File:FlashTimebomb.png|200px]]
[[File:NoWorkingSources.png|300px]]


=== PHP Error on MacOS Monterey (12.0) ===
There may also not be an Update button on Flashpoint's Home tab. To fix this, quit Flashpoint and delete <code>preferences.json</code> from the main Flashpoint folder. Reopening the Flashpoint app will then regenerate the preferences file to a working state using a hidden default file. The Update button should then reappear on the Home tab, and game downloads should now work.
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 the instructions in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOjSNB7F2m4 this tutorial video] to install [https://brew.sh/ Homebrew]. Keep the terminal open and run the following command to install PHP:
=== Flash EOL Screen ===
brew install php
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.


=== Apple Silicon Macs ===
[[File:FlashTimebomb.png|200px]]
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].
 
== Optional Enhancements ==
The sections below explain how to add additional features to Flashpoint.
 
=== Using Flashpoint with Automator ===
You can start Flashpoint without having to click on <code>StartFlashpoint.command</code> by using an Automator workflow. Follow the below steps to set it up:
# Choose File > New.
# Select "Application", then click Choose.
# Drag the Run Shell Script action into your workflow.
# Enter <code>open /Users/[YOUR USERNAME HERE]/Flashpoint/Flashpoint\ Infinity\ for\ Mac\ Beta/StartFlashpoint.command</code> in the command field.
 
=== 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.
 
==Changelog==
 
2022-06-22: Updated SeaMonkey to work in MacOS Big Sur and later.


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.
== Using Flashpoint ==
[https://flashpointproject.github.io/manual/Using_the_launcher.html See the Flashpoint Manual].


2019-12-14: First beta available!
== Changelog ==
[https://download.flashpointarchive.org/upload/fp_mac_changelog.txt See the Flashpoint for Mac changelog file].


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


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].
Flashpoint for Mac supports several [[Platforms|web technologies]], including:
* Flash: Supported natively with standalone projectors. Installed by default.
** Flash in the browser is supported natively with [https://classic.waterfox.net/ Waterfox Classic].
* HTML5: Supported natively with Waterfox Classic and Chromium. Installed by default.
** Games that use Flashpoint Launcher's Browser Mode are [[#Known Issues|not supported yet]].
* Java Applets: Supported natively with the Java Development Kit. Installed by default.
** Java in the browser is not supported yet.
* Shockwave: Fully supported with Wine, including Shockwave in the browser. Installed by default.
* ShiVa3D: Supported with Wine and the help of custom shell scripts.
* Various other web platforms that run via Flashpoint Navigator with Wine.
** For a full support list, see README.txt in the main folder extracted from the downloaded archive file.


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.
An attempt was made to support Unity Web Player in Wine, but it is not working right now. See [[#Known Issues|Known Issues]].


=== Supported Platforms ===
== Known Issues ==
* 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.
* [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].
** ~95% of games supported.
* Unity Web Player games in Wine 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.  
* Shockwave: Supported with [[SPR for Mac]]. Because LeechProtectionRemovalHelp is only available for Windows, the majority of Shockwave games will not work properly.
* 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.
** ~30% of games supported.
** 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.
** Requires a 32-bit compatible OS; MacOS Catalina and later are not supported.
** 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.
* 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.
** 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 Mac if no better solution is found.
** ~99% of games supported.
* 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 Mac 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.
* Java Applets: Supported natively using the JDK. Java in the browser is not supported yet.
* 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 Mac, 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.
** ~99% of games supported.
* All content running through Wine opens in the background, behind the Flashpoint launcher, on modern macOS versions. It is currently unknown which version this started occurring in.
 
=== Unsupported Platforms ===
* 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.
* PopCap Plugin: As far as we know, there is no version of PopCap Plugin for modern Macs.
* Authorware Web Player: Authorware is incompatible with all Intel Macs.
* GoBit Plugin: As far as we know, there is no version of GoBit Games Plugin for modern Macs.
* 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.
* 3DVIA Player: As far as we know, there is no version of 3DVIA Player for modern Macs.
* 3D Groove GX: 3D Groove is incompatible with all Intel Macs.
* ActiveX: ActiveX is a Windows-only technology.
* 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.
 
== Launcher 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 it is difficult for them to diagnose and fix launcher issues.
 
The current issues with the Mac version of Flashpoint Launcher are listed below.
* 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.
* Flashpoint Launcher cannot find its own Version file, even if it is present in the Launcher's folder and app package.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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).
* 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>.
** If any Platform XML has a resource fork, all of the Platform XMLs will fail to load, causing a "No games found" error.
** If any localization JSON file has a resource fork, a "NotValidJSON" error will appear in the logs.
* 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 ==
* 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.
* Because Adobe Director Projectors are 32-bit applications, Shockwave games will not work on MacOS Catalina or later.
* 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 [[#PHP Error on MacOS Monterey (12.0)|MacOS Monterey]].
 
== Packaging Flashpoint for 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]].


== Running Windows on your Mac ==
== Running Windows on your Mac ==


For a better experience, you may want to use the [https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/downloads/ latest version of Flashpoint for Windows] instead of the current Mac beta. There are two main options for doing so:
{{:Running Windows on your Mac}}
* You can run Windows directly on your Mac using [https://support.apple.com/boot-camp Boot Camp].
* You can use virtualization software such as [https://www.parallels.com/ Parallels], [https://www.virtualbox.org/ VirtualBox] (which is free), or [https://www.vmware.com/products/fusion.html VMWare Fusion].
 
If you have enough disk space, Boot Camp is the most reliable option.
 
If you'd like to use Flashpoint in Parallels, here are the steps to set it up:
# [https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/downloads/ Download Flashpoint] if you haven't yet.
# Within your Windows environment in Parallels, run the Flashpoint installer. When it opens, type <code>C:\Flashpoint</code> into the "Extract to" box. <br> [[File:ExtractFlashpoint.png]]
# Click the "Extract" button. After Flashpoint is done extracting, open the Windows File Explorer.
# Click "This PC" on the left sidebar. Double-click the C: drive, then find and double-click the "Flashpoint" folder within it.
# Double-click the "Start Flashpoint" shortcut to start playing!


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

Latest revision as of 05:21, 25 November 2025

This page provides information about the latest official Flashpoint release for Mac. 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.

Compatibility

Flashpoint for Mac is fully compatible with macOS Sierra & newer, and has limited support for OS X El Capitan. Older versions won't work due to the launcher and/or game server being incompatible. See the table below for a detailed support chart, or skip to the next section to begin installing Flashpoint.

macOS Support Notes
≤ Yosemite None
Too difficult to port
launcher & game server.
El Capitan Partial
Wine can't be built, so
non-native apps don't work.
Ruffle also doesn't launch.
Sierra Full
May be very slow when
loading/searching content.
High Sierra
Mojave
Catalina
Catalina & newer can't run
32-bit apps, so Wine must
convert 32-bit calls to 64-bit.
Non-native 32-bit apps
will run slower as a result.
Big Sur
Monterey
Ventura
Sonoma
Sequoia
Tahoe

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 to download Flashpoint:
    curl -fL https://download.flashpointarchive.org/upload/fp14.0.3_mac.txz | tar xC ~/Downloads

    MacFP14Download.png
    Note: 3rd party firewalls like LuLu may block the download with a "Couldn't connect to server" or "Could not resolve hostname" error. If you have any installed, turn them off beforehand.

  4. Wait for the download to finish, then open the "Flashpoint 14.0.3 for Mac" folder created in your Downloads, and run the Flashpoint application.
    MacFP14FlashpointApp.png
    Note: Do not move the Flashpoint app to Applications or anywhere else outside of the main folder. If you do, Flashpoint will not work properly if its path is not configured to point to the main folder.
  5. 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

JavaScript Error on First Launch

An example of the JavaScript error popup.

When first launching Flashpoint, some users may encounter a JavaScript error stating the following: 

Uncaught Exception: Error: Preferences must be set before you can open a window.

If the launcher doesn't start upon pressing OK, then Flashpoint doesn't have the permissions to run properly. To fix this, move the main Flashpoint folder (not just the application) to the /Applications folder and relaunch. If the error persists but the launcher starts after pressing OK, it can be safely ignored.

No Working Sources

Some users, especially after doing the above fix, may receive this error upon attempting to download a game:

NoWorkingSources.png

There may also not be an Update button on Flashpoint's Home tab. To fix this, quit Flashpoint and delete preferences.json from the main Flashpoint folder. Reopening the Flashpoint app will then regenerate the preferences file to a working state using a hidden default file. The Update button should then reappear on the Home tab, and game downloads should now work.

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

Using Flashpoint

See the Flashpoint Manual.

Changelog

See the Flashpoint for Mac changelog file.

Technologies

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

Thanks to the work of volunteer LindirQuenya (Ardil), we 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 Mac supports several web technologies, including:

  • Flash: Supported natively with standalone projectors. Installed by default.
  • HTML5: Supported natively with Waterfox Classic and Chromium. Installed by default.
  • Java Applets: Supported natively with the Java Development Kit. Installed by default.
    • Java in the browser is not supported yet.
  • Shockwave: Fully supported with Wine, including Shockwave in the browser. Installed by default.
  • ShiVa3D: Supported with Wine and the help of custom shell scripts.
  • Various other web platforms that run via Flashpoint Navigator with Wine.
    • For a full support list, see README.txt in the main folder extracted from the downloaded archive file.

An attempt was made to support Unity Web Player in Wine, 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 in Wine 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 Mac 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 Mac 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 Mac, 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.
  • All content running through Wine opens in the background, behind the Flashpoint launcher, on modern macOS versions. It is currently unknown which version this started occurring in.

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 version. 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!
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