CXEx Tutorial Creating mac Ports of Games & Applications | The Porting Team

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CXEx Tutorial Creating mac Ports of Games & Applications

5,203 views 0 comments Welcome to the Tutorial for making mac Ports of Windows Games and Applications with CXEx. If you dont know what the CXEx Wrapper System is, read all about it here. Also be sure to visit the CXEx Tips & Tricks Page here. . Here i will demonstrate how to install Windows Games and Applications inside the CXEx Wine Wrapper, and how to configure the Wrapper to look like a normal mac application. In this Tutorial, i will use the Game Space Siege: Demo Version as an example. .

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A complete Port with CXEx can be done in under 5 Minutes once you get the hang of it, but well go into the details here since this is a Tutorial 1. Preparations. The first thing we do is we head over to the WineHQ Database to check out if the Game is compatible with Wine. We go here and search for Space Siege. Looking a the color codes or Ranks the people at the WineHQ Database gave the Game, you can tell if the Game is portable or not. Platinum / Gold / Silver /Bronze = The Game may work great/good/ok, but the Game will not run if it has a Garbage Rating.

Reading through each listing there will also let you know if there is some patching involved to get the Game running. . Lets continue to working with the actual tools and files for porting the Game. The newest builds of the required porting Tools are always available in the Forum, in the CXEx (Member Project) Section. If you havent got a free account already, sign up and grab the CXEx Porter Package, then install it. We also need the actual Game for porting, usually its either from a CD or a digital download. Because we are working with a free Demo of the Game Space Siege here, we can just grab it of the Internet.

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Wait until the Space Siege Demo Setup file finishes downloading. . 2. Wrapper Creation and Installation Now run The CXEx Porter located in your Applications Folder.

(on the first start you have to wait a few Minutes until the Engine Cache builds up) When we are in the main Menu of the CXEx Porter application youll notice some options for creating a Wrapper for the Game. Always start with the newest Wine Version at the top (top = newest, bottom = oldest) or the Wine version the Game has an entry for in the WineHQ Database.

Now we select the CXEx Ebony Wrapper, which has currently the newest Wine version, and the CXEx Ebony Wrapper will be created on your Desktop. Another Window pops ups up and asks for the Setup file.

http://portingteam.com/CXExProject/Tutorial/

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Navigate to your freshly downloaded Space Siege Demo Setup file and select it. The Setup dialogue will appear. Press Setup and wait a few moments until the Main Installer shows up.

Press Next & Accept the Agreement if necessary, then Next again until it installs. Sometimes the Installers also want to install various Junk like other apps and Demos, deselect any
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CXEx Tutorial Creating mac Ports of Games & Applications | The Porting Team

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suspicious options you come across. After the Installation finishes, deselect any Junk options here as well (like we need no shortcut on the Desktop, we have the actual Game), and press Finish.

The Game is now installed inside the Wrapper, but there are some additional steps we need to do to make it work. . 3. Setting up the starting options. After the Installation has finished were back to the Contents Folder of the CXEx Wrapper. Now we need to know where the Game was installed to. Open the root Folder inside the Wrapper and then navigate to the drive_c Folder. Lets find out where the Installer has put our Game executable in the virtual c: drive Folder, and write down the full path to it. In this case the Space Siege Demo has been installed to /Program Files/Sega/Gas Powered Games/Space Siege Demo/SpaceSiege.exe This is our executable String, so lets note that down somewhere. Lets go back to the Contents folder of the CXEx Wrapper, and open the Info.plist file.

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or Depending if you have a Plist Editor installed or not, you may see different Windows here. Fear not, everything works the same way. Apples PlistEditor Layout is pictured the left, and if you havent got it installed, open the Info.plist file with TextEdit (pictured on the right) Here we see two Strings, one with the the full path the the exe file and one without the exe file. (the first one is the executable path, the second one the Working Folder.) /Program Files/ExplorerXP/ExplorerXP.exe /Program Files/ExplorerXP/ Lets change that to our executable String from our Space Siege Demo Game. Edit both lines so that they look like this: /Program Files/Sega/Gas Powered Games/Space Siege Demo/SpaceSiege.exe /Program Files/Sega/Gas Powered Games/Space Siege Demo/

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or Save & Exit, then close all Windows. . 4. Testrun As it now is, the Space Siege Demo will now run already without further modification. So lets close all Windows and take our new Port for a Test run. Launch the CXExBony.app Wrapper.

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Isnt that great? Time to kick some alien Butt! . . . Nope! Not yet, we still have a few things to do and to customize the Wrapper to let it look like a normal mac Game. Sometimes Games (like this one) cant detect Screen Resolutions properly, thats why the Mac Menu Bar and/or the Dock are still visible. Fear not, a quick visit to the Games Video options will fix that.

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See? Much better. Note: Its also a good idea to set the Screen Resolution to the standard 1024 x 768 before you share the Wrapper/Port with others, since not every mac can display widescreen or big resolutions. Trust me, with 1024768, you cant go wrong. . 5. Additional Software & Testing Testing Testing While the Game may appear to run good, its probably a good idea to make it run better. Lets open up the Wrapper contents again by either: right-click the CXExEbony.app Icon and selecting Show Package Contents then open the Contents Folder or hold the option Key down and double-click the CXExEbony.app application. (shortcut)

We need to update DirectX, to use a newer and better Version that the Game Installer installed with the Game. You might heard of DirectX before, its the advanced Software API Layer which MS Games and Apps use. So lets start the CXWinetricks Application. A dialogue should pop up, and from here we choose directx9 and press OK. If you havent done this before, then the Installer for DirectX is not on your System, so it needs to download it from the Internet first.
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While it may seem that nothing happens now, the DirectX installer will download from the Internet. Youll get a message when its done. Press Yes Accept and Next and so on to let the DirectX Installer update the Wrapper. Close the Log Window when done. Other games may need other packages from here, may it be a Video Codec Package, .net Frameworks or additional Fonts; this usually is listed in the WineHQ Database for the individual Application. Some additional Testruns of the Game are now in Order, to look for additional Bugs like missing Graphics or crashes.

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Heres a Bug. Looks like the Game has problems with Shadows. Turning them off might help.

Heres another one. Shouldnt there be a Person in this Status Window? Some Bugs cannot be fixed with regardless of what you throw at them. Remember, Wine is a a Work in Progress Software, not a 100% compatible Translation Tool. . 6. Customizing the Wrapper Since the main Part of the actual porting Process is now behind us, its time to customize the Game Wrapper, to make it indistinguishable from a mac app. First, set the Name of the Wrapper right. Rename the Wrapper from CXExEbony.app to Space Siege.app Now, open the Wrapper Contents again and go to the /MacOS Folder and rename the CXEx Wrapper.app also to Space Siege.app (or it will show up in the Dock as CXEx Wrapper)
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Next, well use a proper Icon for the Game. Either google for Space Siege Icon or make one yourself from a Graphic. If you found a Icon that suits the Port, make a mac native Icon from it (.icns file) I recommend Img2icns for making quick and easy Icons of Images, or Apples own Preview app. (Save as > .icns format) Then rename the Icon CXExIcon.icns, and put it in the Port Information Directory (not in Resources, but in the Port Information folder), replacing the old CXExIcon.

You can also search for a Game Icon in our Game Icon Archive. Inside the Port Information Folder there are also two files to edit. These two files are required for the Startup Screen of the Port. Text file: Edit the Port Info.rtf Readme file and fill out the fields like this example (estimated guesses about the Hardware specifications) Dont include a picture in this Textfile, or it will show up blank later. Picture: Edit the Port Banner.png This is the logo that will be displayed above the the textile in the Startup app. Pick something Game specific as the logo, like a Game Banner. Dimensions for the Banner should be 538pixel x 100pixel. If you dont want to edit the standard Banner, leave it as it is. Should look like this when its finished:

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Also be professional in editing these two files, mindless Blogspam doesnt really look that good. You can view how it looks later on other mac by starting the Port Information app. For the last and most important Part, well move back to the Info.plist again and edit the last (but very important) bits of info. Open the Info.plist file inside the Wrapper Contents again, and edit the following keys: Key: String: CFBundleName (Bundle Name) edit String to -> Space Siege CFBundleIdentifier (Bundle identifier) edit String to -> com.portingteam.SpaceSiege The CFBundleName Key is important to let the Startup Screen show up on other macs and the CFBundleIdentifier Key gives the Application a valid Preferences File.

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or IMPORTANT: DO NOT PUT SPACES INTO THE IDENTIFIER TAG! so: com.portingteam.SpaceSiege - good com.portingteam.Space Siege - bad ongoing. (the Tutorial is a work in progress) The free Demo Port of the Game Space Siege, which was used as the example for this Tutorial, can also be found here. Space Siege and the Space Siege Logo are copyrighted by SEGA Corporation and Gas Powered Games Corp. Posted by devilhunter @ 10 December 2010 0 comments

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