MacBUFFY

[dojoboy]

Great! Thanks. How weird is that?!

I've rebuilt the BOTM 27 start files using this configuration, and they are now available for download on the BOTM27 Release Page.

Please grab the save of your choice and see if it will load with MacBUFFY installed in /Applications/Civilization IV/Beyond the Sword/Mods/.

If all is well, I'll re-build the MacAssetsChecker based on this config, and amend the installation instructions in the first post.

Apologies for the problems, and thank you all for your patience and assistance.

Loaded. Thanks, Alan!

Is MacBuffy compatible with older 3.19 BOTMs? Such as, could a PC player with Buffy II play BOTMs that required Buffy I ~ as long as the app's version was the same?

Edit: I do see a slight problem,...no Mac files for past BOTM games.

 

[AlanH]

You have always been free to download the WorldBuilder save for any completed xOTM game (link on the Results page), drop it into the appropriate Saves/Worldbuilder/ folder, and load it up using Play a Scenario. You can play it with any mod, and any version of the relevant expansion that you like.

 

[dojoboy]

You have always been free to download the WorldBuilder save for any completed xOTM game (link on the Results page), drop it into the appropriate Saves/Worldbuilder/ folder, and load it up using Play a Scenario. You can play it with any mod, and any version of the relevant expansion that you like.

Oh.

 

[bio_hazard]

I was able to load the Adventurer start for botm 27. Looks like everything is working fine. Thanks Alan!

 

[Aldernablou]

Salut à tous
Et plus particulièrement à Monsieur Alan que je félicite et que je vénère tel un dieu pour les Mac-Civ-Gamers !!!
Son travail est tout à fait remarquable et mérite les plus hautes éloges de nous tous ...
Je viens en effet d'installer comme Alan l'explique son merveilleux MacBuffy 3.19 dans mon folder de Beyond the Sword , et miracle quelle impressionante transfiguration du jeu...
Aussitôt fait , je m'empresse de charger le dernier civ4botm27challenger_mac.CivBeyondSwordSave , niveau Immortel (pour faire honneur à notre Immortel Alan !)
Et enfin Merci merci merci mille fois Cher Alan , grâce à toi , je peux enfin faire un Botm sans que ce soit le jeu qui crash désormais , mais seulement moi pauvre noob que je suis à ce niveau !
Mais j'essaierai quand même de rendre une save ( Submissions due by March 17, 2010 ) pour que ton travail soit honnoré !

Donc , je confirme que ça marche sur mon Mac !


Par contre , ce n'est pas compatible avec les GOTMs(français) réalisés par l'Equipe de CivFr.com ...
si Alan avait un jour envie de voir comment résoudre ce problème en récupérant une save d'un gotm français , je lui érigerait un temple sur notre forum...encore merci pour tout ton travail et le temps offert à la communauté ...Respect

----------------------------------------------------------------------- translation ----------------------------------------------------------------

hi everybody

And more particularly to Mr Alan that I congratulate and that I venerate a such god for Mac-Civ-Gamers !!!
Its work is completely remarkable and deserves the highest praises of us all ...
I indeed have just installed as Alan explains it his marvellous MacBuffy 3.19 in my folder of Beyond the Sword , and miracle which impressive transfiguration of the game...
At once made, I hasten to load the last civ4botm27challenger_mac.CivBeyondSwordSave , immortal level (to make honor in our Immortal Alan!)
And finally Thank you thank you thank you thousand times Dear Alan, thanks to you , I can finally make Botm without it being the game which crash now , but only me poor noob that I am on this level!
But I will nevertheless try to return a save (Submissions due by March 17.2010) so that your work is honoured!
Therefore, I confirm that MacBuffy 3.19 work on my Mac!

On the other hand, MacBuffy is not compatible with the french gotms of civfr.com ...
if Alan had one day the time to see how to solve this problem by recovering a save of a French gotm,
I would set up a temple to him on our forum ...still thank you for all your work and the time offered to the community ... Respect

 

[AlanH]

I was able to load the Adventurer start for botm 27. Looks like everything is working fine. Thanks Alan!

But I will nevertheless try to return a save (Submissions due by March 17.2010) so that your work is honoured!
Therefore, I confirm that MacBuffy 3.19 work on my Mac!

Thank you both for confirming that you can now play BOTM 27

On the other hand, MacBuffy is not compatible with the french gotms of civfr.com ...
if Alan had one day the time to see how to solve this problem by recovering a save of a French gotm,
I would set up a temple to him on our forum ...still thank you for all your work and the time offered to the community ... Respect

Thanks for your kind words.

I downloaded the current civfr.com GOTM files (Fevrier, 2010) to investigate. They are locked with passwords, and they are set to use no mod. So it is not possible to open them using any mods such as MacBUFFY or BUG. The organisers of the civfr.com games would have to build the starting saves using the mod you want to use, just as we do here.

 

[Keath]

Canada wins Olympic hockey gold and MacBuffy is working! It's a great, great day! Thank you Alan!! You deserve a gold medal, too!

 

[EricRoush]

Working for me as well, now.

 

[whb]

Moderator Action: Posts relating to problems with MacBUFFY and the Steam version of BtS have been moved to this thread from the BOTM 31 pre-game thread.

Sorry for the delay, Mac players, your saves for this game are now available.

Is there any known reason why this would fail with BTS on Steam on Mac? (Fresh install, mod loads fine, but then complains "this game has been protected..." and won't open)

 

[AlanH]

Is MacBUFFY installed in the Mods folder in your /Applications/ path? I had to change this location when we discovered that the locked assets check fails if it's installed in the one in ~/Documents/.... See the note in my MacBUFFY post.

If this isn't the problem, it's possible that the Steam version has some subtle difference in its folder structure. Please can you run my Mac assets checker, attached to the bottom of the above post, and post the results?

 

[whb]

Is MacBUFFY installed in the Mods folder in your /Applications/ path? I had to change this location when we discovered that the locked assets check fails if it's installed in the one in ~/Documents/.... See the note in my MacBUFFY post.

If this isn't the problem, it's possible that the Steam version has some subtle difference in its folder structure. Please can you run my Mac assets checker, attached to the bottom of the above post, and post the results?

Sorry this is a bit rambling...

Results of poking around:

Steam does have a different install location for Civ:

~/Documents/Steam Content/common/sid meier's civilization iv beyond the sword

, but everything beneath that should be similar to stand-alone installs.

First time I installed MacBUFFY into the user mods area (the ~Documents/Civ... directory you mention) and I got the protected error message. But then I saw your note.

Second time I installed it in the program's mods area, in

~/Documents/Steam Content/common/sid meier's civilization iv beyond the sword/Beyond the Sword/Mods

. It got a little further -- it looked as if it was opening the file (progressed past the main menu screen) -- but then it everso briefly flashed up the "protected" error message, together with a "Loading failed" box, and crashed.

Mac assets checker just instantly shows an empty list. That made me suspect Mac assets checker just hadn't found the install at all; though I don't know if MacBUFFY uses the same code.

To try to get Mac assets checker to verify the mod (just to rule out the files themselves being different), I created directories /Applications/Civilization IV.app/Contents and copied the Civ content in there. I don't seem to have the directory structure underneath that right yet though. (When I create those directories, Mac assets checker complains about 12 missing directories, starting with /Applications/Skins.)

I was going to start prodding through the MacBUFFY mod itself's .py code to see if I could spot any hard-wired paths that would be problematic, but I haven't had time.

I'm actually starting to wonder if the Windows BUFFY only used to work on Windows because I happened to have a (unused) stand-alone vanilla Civ 4 install also on the disk? (I'd bought Civ 4 standalone, but BTS through Steam.) Had the BUFFY mod on Windows been carefully checking the standalone directory, while the application was actually been running from a completely different path?

 

[AlanH]

The standard Mac DVD installation of the application, with added MacBUFFY, has the following folder structure:

Applications
	Civilization IV
		Civilization IV.app (application package)
		Assets
		Manual
		Mods
		Public Maps
		Read Me
		Resource
		Shaders
		Beyond the Sword
			Civilization IV Beyond the Sword.app (application package)
			Assets
			Mods
				MacBUFFY-3.19.003
					Assets
					GameSetupCheck
					Info
					...
			Public Maps
			Resource
			Shaders
		Warlords
			Civilization IV Warlords.app (application package)
			Assets
			Mods
			Public Maps
			Resource
			Shaders

The Mac Assets Checker asks the operating system to give it the path to an application called "Civilization IV.app". Once it has identified that application's parent folder, the assets checker looks inside it for the above sub-folder structure and reports differences. It sounds as if your system can't tell Mac Assets Checker where the Civ4 application is, so it can't get to first base. Do you have Civilization IV.app on your system, and if so, have you ever run it? [It may need to run once in order for the OS to know where it is and register it in its list of applications].

Is Steam's BtS a standalone product, or is Civilization IV vanilla a prerequisite? If it's standalone, then it has to contain all of the Civ4 assets as well as the BtS ones, so where are they stored? If Civ4 is a prerequisite then where is that on your system?

There's no point in rummaging around in MacBUFFY's Python. The locked assets check is performed inside the Civ4 game code, and is not in MacBUFFY. If MacBUFFY is loading OK, and can start a random game with all its features, then it's finding the stuff it needs.

 

[whb]

The Mac Assets Checker asks the operating system to give it the path to an application called "Civilization IV.app". Once it has identified that application's parent folder, the assets checker looks inside it for the above sub-folder structure and reports differences. It sounds as if your system can't tell Mac Assets Checker where the Civ4 application is, so it can't get to first base. Do you have Civilization IV.app on your system, and if so, have you ever run it? [It may need to run once in order for the OS to know where it is and register it in its list of applications].

I've manually replicated the structure you posted (by copying the content from where Steam keeps its Civ4,BTS content into /Applications etc). I've attached the results of running Mac assets checker on the copied content: View attachment macassetscheck.txt

From what I can see, there's a file size difference in CvExoticForeignAdvistor.py, and the only other discrepancies are in Warlords (not BTS).

Is Steam's BtS a standalone product, or is Civilization IV vanilla a prerequisite? If it's standalone, then it has to contain all of the Civ4 assets as well as the BtS ones, so where are they stored? If Civ4 is a prerequisite then where is that on your system?

Steam actually delivers a fully functioning BTS that doesn't require a separate Civ4 install. (I believe I had to own Civ4 in order to purchase BTS via Steam, but on opening Steam on Mac it delivered a fully functioning Mac BTS without needing to install Mac Civ 4).

The folder structure for the Steam version is:

~/Documents/Steam Content/common/sid meier's civilization iv beyond the sword/
    Assets/
    Beyond the Sword/
        Assets/
        Civilization IV Beyond the Sword.app
        Mods/
            MacBUFFY-3.19.003/
            ...
        PublicMaps/
        Resource/
        Shaders/
    Civilization IV Beyond the Sword  (54 byte document)
    Civilization IV Warlords   (40 byte document)
    Manual/
    Mods/
    PublicMaps/
    Read Me/
    Resource/
    Shaders/
    Warlords/

-- in other words, everything for all three versions (except the .app files for vanilla Civ4 and Warlords).

There's no point in rummaging around in MacBUFFY's Python. The locked assets check is performed inside the Civ4 game code, and is not in MacBUFFY. If MacBUFFY is loading OK, and can start a random game with all its features, then it's finding the stuff it needs.

Yes, it can start a random game fine. (With usual warning about Mac games not being eligible for HOF)

 

[AlanH]

Thanks. That's very interesting.

I can probably modify Mac Assets Checker to handle the Steam structure you describe. It appears that BtS doesn't require the presence of the Civ4 executable, which is the starting point used by Mac Assets Checker to find the rest of the product.

The file size difference in CvExoticForeignAdvisor.py may be the only issue. I wonder how that got corrupted. I suggest you download MacBUFFY again and compare the two copies of that file using GetInfo. If they are different, then replace the existing one with the fresh copy and see if that fixes the problem.

Meanwhile, I'll try to set up a replica of your Steam installation this evening and see if it will start up the BOTM 31 start file here.

 

[AlanH]

UPDATE

I downloaded Portal a little while ago, so I already had a ~/Documents/Steam Content/ folder. I created common/ in there, and made a duplicate of my Civilization IV application folder within it. I removed the Civilization IV.app bundle from that copy and launched the copy of Beyond the Sword.app. It started up, loaded MacBUFFY, and I was able to load the BOTM 31 contender start file. So it looks as if the application and the mod have no problem with this setup.

I'm updating MacAssetsCheck to deal with this configuration.

 

[whb]

UPDATE

I downloaded Portal a little while ago, so I already had a ~/Documents/Steam Content/ folder. I created common/ in there, and made a duplicate of my Civilization IV application folder within it. I removed the Civilization IV.app bundle from that copy and launched the copy of Beyond the Sword.app. It started up, loaded MacBUFFY, and I was able to load the BOTM 31 contender start file. So it looks as if the application and the mod have no problem with this setup.

I'm updating MacAssetsCheck to deal with this configuration.

Thanks so much for looking into this -- I appreciate the time you've put into it.

I've tried copying across the CvExoticForeignAdvisor from a Windows Steam install (on an old computer) that used to work... oddly the assets checker still complains it has the wrong length after I've copied it across. I'm not sure quite why this is, but I'll let you know as soon as I've found out.

If worst comes to worst (eg, if it's some kind of file encoding that is getting altered during the copy to a Mac [or from a Steam Mac install] but somehow isn't in a DVD Mac install), I might need to ask for a copy of someone's existing Mac CvExoticForeignAdvisor file (the one from BTS rather than the mod, as that seems to be the one that's erroring).

 

[AlanH]

Whoops! Yes, that file is in BtS, not in MacBUFFY.

Here is my copy.

 

[AlanH]

I have updated the MacAssetsCheck utility in the first post. It should now find your Civ4 or Warlords or BtS installation, even if it doesn't contain the vanilla application. If it fails to find it, or picks up the wrong one, you can drag and drop the correct folder onto its window and it will check that one for you.

 

[whb]

Whoops! Yes, that file is in BtS, not in MacBUFFY.

Here is my copy.

Thanks. MacBUFFY indeed reports that one as being fine. Here's the diff between the files (the version I had and yours):
Steam version is >

177c177
< #											 "GLANCE", \
---
> 											 "GLANCE", \
348c348
< 				if nFavoriteCivic != -1:
---
> 				if (nFavoriteCivic != -1) and (not gc.getGame().isOption(GameOptionTypes.GAMEOPTION_RANDOM_PERSONALITIES)):
450c450
< 			ltPlusAndMinuses = re.findall ("[-+][0-9]+", szAttitude)
---
> 			ltPlusAndMinuses = re.findall ("[-+][0-9]+\s?: ", szAttitude)
453c453
< 				nAttitude += int (ltPlusAndMinuses[i])
---
> 				nAttitude += int (ltPlusAndMinuses[i][:-2])
855c855
< 						if (activePlayer.canTradeItem(iLoopPlayer, tradeData, False)): # wants
---
> 						if (activePlayer.canTradeItem(iLoopPlayer, tradeData, False) and activePlayer.getTradeDenial(iLoopPlayer, tradeData) == DenialTypes.NO_DENIAL): # wants

 

[whb]

I have updated the MacAssetsCheck utility in the first post. It should now find your Civ4 or Warlords or BtS installation, even if it doesn't contain the vanilla application. If it fails to find it, or picks up the wrong one, you can drag and drop the correct folder onto its window and it will check that one for you.

Just to let you know that a Steam update has now moved the location of the steam content, to:
~/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/sid meier's civilization iv beyond the sword

(Apparently this is after many Mac users' complaints that storing the apps in the Documents folder was causing it to get caught in automatic backup utilities -- adding many gigabytes to people's backups)

http://store.steampowered.com/news/3857/

Dragging the folder into Mac Assets Check works fine however.