Guide: How to Install FGII on OS X using Wine

Here is a short guide for Installing Fantasy Grounds II on OS X using the open-source software Wine. Wine effectively allows you to run Windows applications under Linux and OS X. It works by creating a wrapped runtime environment that mimics common Windows environments. No licenses including operating system (aside from OS X) are required. Note: Not all applications at present will work with Wine (mainly .NET based applications are problematic) however Fantasy Grounds II works incredibly well. :)

The easiest way to get the latest Wine releases installed onto OS X is to use MacPorts.

MacPorts is an open-source community initiative to design an easy-to-use system for compiling, installing, and upgrading either command-line, X11 or Aqua based open-source software on the Mac OS X operating system. Follow the instructions for your release of OS X here to get MacPorts installed. Note: MacPorts depends on the XCode development tools which are also required to be installed.

Installing Wine 1.4.1

• With MacPorts installed - open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app
• Make sure you have updated MacPorts' software tree by running the following command (note you will be prompted for the administrative password of the system)
  
  Code:

  ---

  sudo port -v selfupdate

  ---

• Once updated, we can now install Wine
  
  Code:

  ---

  sudo port install wine

  ---

• The last step will take some time as the dependent packages for Wine and subsequently Wine itself is installed. If all goes well, you can proceed onto installing Fantasy Grounds II
• Once completed, navigate your users home folder - wine will by default create a .wine folder in your home folder, under which it creates the pseudo windows environment. Programs will be installed to the ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/ folder by default.
  
  Code:

  ---

  cd ~/

  ---

• Finally, confirm Wine is installed correctly by testing it with the default Internet Explorer application. IE should open and load the WineHQ website. If not something has gone wrong. Recheck each step watching for errors.
  
  Code:

  ---

  wine .wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Internet\ Explorer/iexplore.exe

  ---

Installing Fantasy Grounds II

• Open Terminal.app (under /Applications/Utilities), if not still open
• Open Safari or another Web browser and download the FGWebInstall.exe from the Fantasy Grounds web site (Downloads page). Note the location of the downloaded file (on my systems its ~/Downloads)
• In the Terminal window, enter the following
  
  Code:

  ---

  wine ~/Downloads/FGWebInstall.exe

  ---

• A dialog window will appear displaying the FG EULA. Click "I agree" to proceed.
• A second dialog window will open entitled Settings. Note the paths for the App and Data folders, particularly the data folder as you will need it later for adding images/tokens/portraits/modules to your campaigns.
• Enter your license/upgrade key information into the appropriate fields - this is not mandatory step as not entering any key information will result in an Unregistered install.
• Make sure the Cross-platform compatibility mode for Linux and Mac option is checked
• If you have a registered account on the FGII forums/store, enter your user name in the User Name field and click the Update button. A small username/password window will appear. On successful verification, you should see a list of FGII products appear in the Products window.
• Make sure the Live option is selected under Mode - this will install the latest general release of Fantasy Grounds II (currently 2.9)
• Click OK, the FGII updater window will open and it should automatically begin downloading the latest updates. The initial setup will take a few mins as all the base rulesets and latest binaries are downloaded.
• Once completed the familiar Fantasy Grounds II Launcher window will appear and you can start/create your campaign game or join one.
• FGII will be installed (by default) in ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Fantasy Grounds II/, the FGII App Data folder will be created (by default) in .wine/drive_c/users/<your user name>/Application Data/Fantasy Grounds II/

Notes

• Once started, it is not uncommon for lots of messages to be displayed to the terminal window - this is normal output
• You can can use OS X's Automater.app to create an App wrapper which uses Shell/Applescript to start Fantasy Grounds II. This will enable a GUI based method for luanching FGII through Finder/Desktop.
• When you click the close window control of the main FGII app, X11 will still be running. X11 is closed independently.