09-28-2016, 04:16 PM
When creating a custom port with the Porting Kit (aka, a Wineskin wrapper), one of the first things you have to decide is which engine you are going to use.
First, some important concepts that you must know:
- Wineskin: our ports are made with Wineskin technology, which is based on Wine. Basically, Wineskin creates a wrapper (.app file; basically a Mac application), which inside has a complete Wine, with its binaries, drive C, etc, etc. Since all the files will be inside that wrapper, that also makes the games very easy to uninstall in case of failure; you just need to trash the wrapper. Installing Wineskin Winery you can create your own Wineskin wrappers.
- Engines: Wine had many releases among the years, and each one of these releases in what we call ''an engine''. Every time Wine updates something it has a minor chance of crashing another, so basically most parts of the Windows applications should work with the latest engines (including games), but some will just work correctly with specific old engines.
- Winetricks: If a Wine engine doesn''t support certain Windows libraries it''s still possible to make an app that need them to work: winetricks. Usually, a winetrick install a Windows dependency which might be necessary in order to run an application. You should only install a winetrick if it''s absolutely needed. Installing multiple winetricks for no reason might crash your wrapper and will make it gigantic.
- WineHQ: aka, your best friend. No, seriously, WineHQ is very useful during porting. It''s a website where Linux users reported if a game worked correctly with a certain Wine engine or not. Many Platinum and Gold ratings means that you probably won''t have difficulties in creating a wrapper; Silver and Bronze ratings means that it might be hard to create; but if you only find Garbage ratings, forget it for now. Some applications, like the first The Sims, simply still doesn''t work with Wine.
Simply answer the questions and that guide will show you which is the best engine(s) for your port. So, let''s start:
1. THE APP THAT YOU WANT TO INSTALL USES ANY ONLINE DRMs? (Steam, Origin or Uplay)
YES: Jump to question 2.
NO: Jump to question 5.
2. THE APP THAT YOU WANT TO INSTALL IS FROM STEAM?
YES: Item B.
NO: Jump to question 3.
3. THE APP THAT YOU WANT TO INSTALL IS FROM ORIGIN?
YES: Item A.
NO: Jump to question 4.
4. THE APP THAT YOU WANT TO INSTALL IS FROM UPLAY?
YES: Item C.
NO: Jump to question 5.
5. THE APP THAT YOU WANT TO INSTALL IS 16-BIT BASED?
YES: Jump to question 7.
NO: Jump to question 6.
6. THE APP THAT YOU WANT TO INSTALL REQUIRES THE CD/DVD IN THE DRIVE IN ORDER TO WORK?
YES: Item F.
NO: Item E.
7. THE APP THAT YOU WANT TO INSTALL (16-BIT BASED) REQUIRES THE CD/DVD IN THE DRIVE IN ORDER TO WORK?
YES: Item G.
NO: Item D.
[size=16pt]OPTIONS:[/size]
A) Use the Originbuild
In order to run the Windows''s Origin in a Mac you need 2 patches in the engine and 6 winetricks. The Originbuild port is available in the Porting Kit, already has these patches, and will install the needed winetricks for you. Unless the app is an Origin exclusive game, I recommend you to look for other sources.
B) Use latest CrossOver or Wine engine with Steam; if none of them works, use the Steambuilds
With the Porting Kit, create a custom port with one of these engines installing Steam. Some games should work out of the box, while others might need some extra winetricks. In case you are not experienced with winetricks and the game doesn''t work, I recommend you to use one of the Steambuilds. In case all these options fail, you will have to go to item H.
C) Use latest CrossOver or Wine engine and install crypt32, gdiplus_winxp, msxml3 and winhttp
With the Porting Kit, create a custom port with one of these engines and install these winetricks. These are the required winetricks to run Windows''s Uplay on Mac. In these engines fail go to item H, but keep installing these winetricks.
D) Use WS9Wine1.5.20 or older engine
Like said here, somewhere between WS9Wine1.5.20 and WS9Wine1.5.26, Wineskin lost the 16 bit support due to compilation problems. Considering that, you need to use an older engine in order to run that application.
E) Use latest CrossOver or Wine engine
With the Porting Kit, create a custom port with one of these engines. If it fails, go to item H.
F) Use WS9Wine1.8 and WS9WineCX15.0.0 or superior engines
From these engines on, Wine and CrossOver had a better support to CD/DVD copy protection system, so have more chances of making your app work without the need of a no-CD/DVD patch with these engines. If they still require you to insert the disc while it''s in your CD/DVD drive (or if you don''t have a CD/DVD drive) go to item E and use a no-CD/DVD patch to solve that error.
G) Use WS9Wine1.5.20 or older engine with no-CD/DVD patch
Like said here, somewhere between WS9Wine1.5.20 and WS9Wine1.5.26, Wineskin lost the 16 bit support due to compilation problems. Considering that, you need to use an older engine in order to run that application. Also, since it requires the CD/DVD, you probably will need a no-CD/DVD patch to make it run.
H) Let WineHQ help you
Visit WineHQ, look for the app that you are trying to install, and check if some engine has good results with it (look from the best ones to the worse ones: Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze; ignore the Garbage tests), and test with that engine. If that fails too, go to item I.
I) Try, and try, and try
This is probably your last option. You will need to test multiple engines until you discover which one will make it work. My recommendation is the following: take the engine the had better results during your tests until now and check the ones near it. Example: If 1.5.30 gave a better result, try 1.5.29 and 1.5.31. If it fails with both, test with the one closest to the one that had better results, unless both were worse than 1.5.30. I know, it will take a really long time. If you are an experienced user, you can go to item J in case it fails.
J) Custom Engine
Sometimes you will need to download the source of a certain Wine version, patch it, and then create a Wineskin engine with it; these engines are called Custom Engines. In case a patch is needed, that will be said in the app respective WineHQ page.
First, some important concepts that you must know:
- Wineskin: our ports are made with Wineskin technology, which is based on Wine. Basically, Wineskin creates a wrapper (.app file; basically a Mac application), which inside has a complete Wine, with its binaries, drive C, etc, etc. Since all the files will be inside that wrapper, that also makes the games very easy to uninstall in case of failure; you just need to trash the wrapper. Installing Wineskin Winery you can create your own Wineskin wrappers.
- Engines: Wine had many releases among the years, and each one of these releases in what we call ''an engine''. Every time Wine updates something it has a minor chance of crashing another, so basically most parts of the Windows applications should work with the latest engines (including games), but some will just work correctly with specific old engines.
- Winetricks: If a Wine engine doesn''t support certain Windows libraries it''s still possible to make an app that need them to work: winetricks. Usually, a winetrick install a Windows dependency which might be necessary in order to run an application. You should only install a winetrick if it''s absolutely needed. Installing multiple winetricks for no reason might crash your wrapper and will make it gigantic.
- WineHQ: aka, your best friend. No, seriously, WineHQ is very useful during porting. It''s a website where Linux users reported if a game worked correctly with a certain Wine engine or not. Many Platinum and Gold ratings means that you probably won''t have difficulties in creating a wrapper; Silver and Bronze ratings means that it might be hard to create; but if you only find Garbage ratings, forget it for now. Some applications, like the first The Sims, simply still doesn''t work with Wine.
Simply answer the questions and that guide will show you which is the best engine(s) for your port. So, let''s start:
1. THE APP THAT YOU WANT TO INSTALL USES ANY ONLINE DRMs? (Steam, Origin or Uplay)
YES: Jump to question 2.
NO: Jump to question 5.
2. THE APP THAT YOU WANT TO INSTALL IS FROM STEAM?
YES: Item B.
NO: Jump to question 3.
3. THE APP THAT YOU WANT TO INSTALL IS FROM ORIGIN?
YES: Item A.
NO: Jump to question 4.
4. THE APP THAT YOU WANT TO INSTALL IS FROM UPLAY?
YES: Item C.
NO: Jump to question 5.
5. THE APP THAT YOU WANT TO INSTALL IS 16-BIT BASED?
YES: Jump to question 7.
NO: Jump to question 6.
6. THE APP THAT YOU WANT TO INSTALL REQUIRES THE CD/DVD IN THE DRIVE IN ORDER TO WORK?
YES: Item F.
NO: Item E.
7. THE APP THAT YOU WANT TO INSTALL (16-BIT BASED) REQUIRES THE CD/DVD IN THE DRIVE IN ORDER TO WORK?
YES: Item G.
NO: Item D.
[size=16pt]OPTIONS:[/size]
A) Use the Originbuild
In order to run the Windows''s Origin in a Mac you need 2 patches in the engine and 6 winetricks. The Originbuild port is available in the Porting Kit, already has these patches, and will install the needed winetricks for you. Unless the app is an Origin exclusive game, I recommend you to look for other sources.
B) Use latest CrossOver or Wine engine with Steam; if none of them works, use the Steambuilds
With the Porting Kit, create a custom port with one of these engines installing Steam. Some games should work out of the box, while others might need some extra winetricks. In case you are not experienced with winetricks and the game doesn''t work, I recommend you to use one of the Steambuilds. In case all these options fail, you will have to go to item H.
C) Use latest CrossOver or Wine engine and install crypt32, gdiplus_winxp, msxml3 and winhttp
With the Porting Kit, create a custom port with one of these engines and install these winetricks. These are the required winetricks to run Windows''s Uplay on Mac. In these engines fail go to item H, but keep installing these winetricks.
D) Use WS9Wine1.5.20 or older engine
Like said here, somewhere between WS9Wine1.5.20 and WS9Wine1.5.26, Wineskin lost the 16 bit support due to compilation problems. Considering that, you need to use an older engine in order to run that application.
E) Use latest CrossOver or Wine engine
With the Porting Kit, create a custom port with one of these engines. If it fails, go to item H.
F) Use WS9Wine1.8 and WS9WineCX15.0.0 or superior engines
From these engines on, Wine and CrossOver had a better support to CD/DVD copy protection system, so have more chances of making your app work without the need of a no-CD/DVD patch with these engines. If they still require you to insert the disc while it''s in your CD/DVD drive (or if you don''t have a CD/DVD drive) go to item E and use a no-CD/DVD patch to solve that error.
G) Use WS9Wine1.5.20 or older engine with no-CD/DVD patch
Like said here, somewhere between WS9Wine1.5.20 and WS9Wine1.5.26, Wineskin lost the 16 bit support due to compilation problems. Considering that, you need to use an older engine in order to run that application. Also, since it requires the CD/DVD, you probably will need a no-CD/DVD patch to make it run.
H) Let WineHQ help you
Visit WineHQ, look for the app that you are trying to install, and check if some engine has good results with it (look from the best ones to the worse ones: Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze; ignore the Garbage tests), and test with that engine. If that fails too, go to item I.
I) Try, and try, and try
This is probably your last option. You will need to test multiple engines until you discover which one will make it work. My recommendation is the following: take the engine the had better results during your tests until now and check the ones near it. Example: If 1.5.30 gave a better result, try 1.5.29 and 1.5.31. If it fails with both, test with the one closest to the one that had better results, unless both were worse than 1.5.30. I know, it will take a really long time. If you are an experienced user, you can go to item J in case it fails.
J) Custom Engine
Sometimes you will need to download the source of a certain Wine version, patch it, and then create a Wineskin engine with it; these engines are called Custom Engines. In case a patch is needed, that will be said in the app respective WineHQ page.