Macs and TES

[Cassandra]

Hey everyone,

I've been wanting to play morrowind for a while now, but I only have a mac. I've heard that you can download the game and use a wineskin, but:
1. What is a wineskin?
2. How do you get a wineskin?
3. How do you use a wineskin?

Thanks!(as you can tell, I'm not a very tech-savvy person)

[MetaCthulhu]

What version of Morrowind do you have? CD? GOG? Steam? I use Wine for Linux, so I have an idea how to install Morrowind, but it might take a bit of finagling on your end because I've never used a mac.

[Cassandra]

If I can figure out wineskins, I would get it on Steam.

[legoless]

You can try OpenMW if you can't figure out Wineskin.

[MetaCthulhu]

In that case you have a few options:

1. You can use base Wine to run Morrowind (The wiki has a guide on it here, it is for Linux, but it should also work for mac)

2. You can use OpenMW to run Morrowind (This is personally what I use, and it works very well)

3. You can use Wineskins to run Morrowind (This one will take me a while because I have to do research on it. I've also never used it before)

I'm willing to help with any of the above, but I have limited knowledge on several of these options.

P.S. As an opponent of DRM, I am morally obligated to point out that the GOG version has no DRM, while the CD and Steam version both do. Just something of which you should be aware.

Edit:ninja'd

You can try OpenMW if you can't figure out Wineskin.

[Cassandra]

OpenMW looks great! I'll be sure to try it out when I get the chance.

Sorry, but what is DRM? Does it affect anything if I get a version with/without it?

Thank you!

[MetaCthulhu]

Digital Restrictions Management is the practice of imposing technological restrictions that control what users can do with digital media. When a program is designed to prevent you from copying or sharing a song, reading an ebook on another device, or playing a single-player game without an Internet connection, you are being restricted by DRM.

It's a thorny issue and I sit squarely on one side of the fence. Discussing it further might get close to the "no politics" rule, so I'll leave it at that. DefectiveByDesign has a FAQ if you're interested.

[legoless]

DRM certainly isn't politics, although it might be better to discuss in another thread. If you're comfortable with Steam then go with Steam, but the GOG copy is probably better value if DRM is a concern for you.

[MetaCthulhu]

^There's a lot of voting and politicians involved, but your right, subject for a different thread.

@CassandraThe GOG version would be harder to install (because you won't be able to use the Steam CMD) with Openmw.

With enough patience Openmw can be run on almost anything.

[Cassandra]

How much harder to install? I'm not great at computery stuff, but if someone could talk me through it I could try. On that topic, how hard is the Steam version to install? (this would all be using OpenMW)

[MetaCthulhu]

Using Steam, the steps are:

Hidden:

Using the Terminal type:

mkdir ~/steamcmd

(This makes a new directory (directory is a fancy name for folder))

cd ~/steamcmd

(This puts you into that directory)

curl -O https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/ ... osx.tar.gz

(This downloads SteamCMD into the directory)

tar -xvzf steamcmd_osx.tar.gz

(This unpacks the downloaded file)
To run SteamCMD, type into the terminal

cd ~/steamcmd

(Puts you into the directory, you don't have to do this if you're already inside the directory)

./steamcmd.sh

(Runs the SteamCMD)
It might update, then you should type:

login <your steam account login name>

(Obviously remove the "<>" arrow things when you type in your login)
After you've logged in, type:

@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType windows

Then:

force_install_dir <where you want to download the game files>

app_update <game's appid> validate

(The appid is a unique identifer for the game which, for Morrowind, is 22320)
From there, the easy bit! Just:

Install OpenMW
The (easier) Binary Way
Simply get the right archive for your OS here :https://openmw.org/downloads/
Extract it
Launch "openmw-launcher.exe" if you are under Windows, or "openmw-launcher" if you are under Linux/Mac
Play!

Sources: OpenMW, Reddit, SteamCMD site

[Cassandra]

Wow. Okay, I'll try my best.

I just want to say thank you so much! I've wanted to play Morrowind for such a long time but couldn't figure out how. It is so helpful to have the steps laid out for me.

[MetaCthulhu]

It should be easier than it looks. If you have form of problem let me know and I'll try to troubleshoot it.

A few of the guys at OpenMW helped me for almost a year (support thread opened in April 2015, latest post was 4 days ago) with getting Morrowind running on my computer, so at this point I'm just paying it forward.