FG on Mojave for Mac

[AAWGAMES]

I'm saddened to learn after upgrading all my computers to Mac OS Mojave that I won't be able to use Fantasy Grounds. Not only is my company a HUGE advocate of Fantasy Grounds releasing new modules all the time but in my personal gaming group we rely completely on Fantasy Grounds for our campaign. If I cannot access Fantasy Grounds we will no longer be able to play our game since every bit of information is stored in a program which is now inaccessable to me.

I'm wondering if Doug and John has a forthcoming solution. My next game happens in about one week and without FG we'll be rolling up new characters for a pencil and paper game- not a bad thing mind you, just not our preferred method of gaming.

Happy gaming to all and sending positive thoughts regarding a version of Fantasy Grounds finally designed with Mac users in mind.

Thank you,

Jonathan G. Nelson
Owner/Publisher
AAW Games

MODERATOR: Moved to a more appropriate forum

[g0ntzal]

I'm saddened to learn after upgrading all my computers to Mac OS Mojave that I won't be able to use Fantasy Grounds. [...]
Happy gaming to all and sending positive thoughts regarding a version of Fantasy Grounds finally designed with Mac users in mind.

Thank you,

Jonathan G. Nelson
Owner/Publisher
AAW Games

Hi Jonathan, I'm running FG on Mojave!!! Unity version will be native for MacOS...

[LordEntrails]

I'm saddened to learn after upgrading all my computers to Mac OS Mojave that I won't be able to use Fantasy Grounds. Not only is my company a HUGE advocate of Fantasy Grounds releasing new modules all the time but in my personal gaming group we rely completely on Fantasy Gr...
Hey Jonathan, can you give us some more details as to if it's just a misunderstanding or that after your update FG isn't working or...? Are you running through Steam or the Mac/wine installer here or through your own install of Wine/Parallels/Bootcamp?

As g0ntzal says, it can work with Mojave, let's just figure out whats going on so we can get you the solution :)

[AAWGAMES]

Hi everyone! Thanks for offering to help me. :) I really appreciate that.

When I try and open Fantasy Grounds it just doesn't open, that's all I can tell you. It started after I installed Mojave. I click it and it shows that little expanding graphic like it's going to open but nothing ever happens.

This is NOT a Steam install as that version was extremely problematic for me on both Apple computers - it kept having strange issues where it would reinstall and erase everything each time I used it. Messed around with that for a few months before using the method described on FantasyGrounds.com for installing to Mac.


Should I just remove all files (back up my campaign) and then reinstall Fantasy Grounds using the installer for Mac from FantasyGrounds.com?

Thanks again for being willing to help me!

-Jonathan

[LordEntrails]

Hi everyone! Thanks for offering to help me. :) I really appreciate that.

When I try and open Fantasy Grounds it just doesn't open, that's all I can tell you. It started after I installed Mojave. I click it and it shows that little expanding graphic like it's going to open but nothing ever happens.

This is NOT a Steam install as that version was extremely problematic for me on both Apple computers - it kept having strange issues where it would reinstall and erase everything each time I used it. Messed around with that for a few months before using the method described on FantasyGrounds.com for installing to Mac.


Should I just remove all files (back up my campaign) and then reinstall Fantasy Grounds using the installer for Mac from FantasyGrounds.com?

Thanks again for being willing to help me!

-Jonathan
If you are confident you know how to get the files out and back them up, then a fresh install is probably the fastest solution. I just don't know enough about Macs to give you any specific suggestions.

[madman]

Jonathan, I seem to remember from the past that people have had better luck with the (wine wrapper) from Fantasy Grounds website to install the program. A file backup is always a good idea when having issues. Since I have not touched a Mac since the Apple 2e, I would send Smiteworks an email for help... As I will not be of much

I am sure you have the email address!

Madman..

[damned]

Definitely backup your campaign content before reinstalling on a Mac.

[ddavison]

Hi Jonathan, I'm running FG on Mojave!!! Unity version will be native for MacOS...

g0ntzal, did you have to update the wrapper engine for the WINE wrapper or anything when you upgraded to Mohave?

@AAWGames, you might try switching the settings for the X11 or the built-in Mac graphics driver to see if that fixes your issue.

Try this:
1. Open your Applications folder and right-click (or control-click) the Fantasy Grounds.app file in Applications and choose "Show Package Contents"
2. open Wineskin.app in the folder that opens.
3. choose Advanced
4. go to the Tools tab
5. click Refresh Wrapper and let it run (DO NOT CLICK REBUILD WRAPPER!)
6. click Test Run to see if Fantasy Grounds run.
7. If the previous symptoms re-occur, do the following
8. Go back to the Advanced screen and open Set Screen Options
9. Choose "Use Mac Driver instead of X11" and click Done (or vice versa)
10. Test again.

[AAWGAMES]

HI Doug!

Thanks for the tips.

I tried the REFRESH WRAPPER and TEST RUN - nothing.
Then I tried the USE MAC DRIVER INSTEAD OF X!! and TEST RUN - nothing.

Shall I simply remove all files and do a fresh install of FG? I have backed up my campaign folder with the only files I want to keep.

Thanks again everyone for kindly helping me! :D

-Jonathan

[damned]

Yes Jonathan - double check your campaign backups and then rename the wineskin and reinstall from the website here.

[Davinci522]

I had the same problem but my computer just had to re download the mono and it started working again. I am not sure exactly what triggered it, but once that was done it started up like normal.

[CloudStrife]

Has anyone found a definitive solution for this? I run a game every other week that went on hiatus for just over a month and when we came back Mojave was a thing and now FG won't launch. I tried the steps outlined above. I have done a back up and reinstall. It launched and was fine until I tried to add stuff to the campaign and now it is broken again. As the DM it is obviously an issue if I can't make changes to the campaign. My download is from the FG website, not from Steam.

[Trenloe]

Has anyone found a definitive solution for this? I run a game every other week that went on hiatus for just over a month and when we came back Mojave was a thing and now FG won't launch. I tried the steps outlined above. I have done a back up and reinstall. It launched and was fine until I tried to add stuff to the campaign and now it is broken again. As the DM it is obviously an issue if I can't make changes to the campaign. My download is from the FG website, not from Steam.
Welcome to the FG forums.

Can you give us a bit more information on how FG is broken please?

[CloudStrife]

Thanks for the welcome. Last Saturday FG was behaving identically as the OP described. Click the icon and nothing happens. That kind of thing. Prior to that on Friday it was misbehaving by not automatically opening a finder window when clicking on the file window for things like images and maps. Prior to the update to Mojave if I clicked that window I could drag and drop things from desktop to the appropriate folder and it would appear in game. After the Mojave update it wouldn't do that and forced me to go in the long way. Not a problem really because I know where those folders live. After the day of adding to the campaign I closed out normally. Next day I went to open it and it was a dead app as previously described. I backed up my files, uninstalled and reinstalled again from the FG store. I entered my ultimate license and put my previous campaign files back where they belong. FG loads up. All of the data is where it should be it looks great. I tried to continue to edit my campaign and we are back to square one. I found this thread today, followed the wineskin app refresh instructions and it behaved like the app was going to launch at first but then nothing. Back to a completely dead app again.

[Bidmaron]

I had a cousin who had this same problem. He had to kill his integro virus protection program, and then everything worked great. I might add that I use Mojave with no problems, but I am running FG through Parallels on a virtual machine.

[CloudStrife]

Thanks for the idea. Unfortunately not applicable in this case.

[Bidmaron]

Have you tried disabling whatever your anti-virus might be?

[CloudStrife]

Yes I have.

[ddavison]

You say that it worked until you added stuff to your campaign folder? Can you describe the steps you are taking there and what sort of files you were adding? It seems strange that it would break from that. When you do that, I would recommend that you only add stuff directly into the campaign folder's images, tokens folders. If you replace stuff inside the .app at a higher level, perhaps it is replacing the WINE required files and preferences with the one from the non-working version.

[CloudStrife]

You say that it worked until you added stuff to your campaign folder? Can you describe the steps you are taking there and what sort of files you were adding? It seems strange that it would break from that. When you do that, I would recommend that you only add stuff directly into the campaign folder's images, tokens folders. If you replace stuff inside the .app at a higher level, perhaps it is replacing the WINE required files and preferences with the one from the non-working version.

Thanks for the suggestion. All I added was a battle map and an image of a village to the images folder along side all of the other images I had in the campaign folder I’ve been using for the last 6 months. Aside from the fact that the in app folder button no longer directly took me to that specific image folder I followed the same procedures to add an image that I always have. The village and the battle map did not appear in game after I added them which was strange. The token for a custom monster that I added the day prior did function properly and appeared in game. I was able to attach it to the enemy NPC I created as I always do.

[sturtus]

I have had this occur multiple times requiring re-download and reinstall of the entire FG software, including backup and restore of my campaign data.

System log on the Mac dumps the following when searching for "Fantasy"


Apr 16 11:08:54 NYC-STURTR5 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (Fantasy Grounds.Wineskin.prefs.38960[947]): Service exited with abnormal code: 1
Apr 16 11:10:55 NYC-STURTR5 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (Fantasy Grounds.Wineskin.prefs.38960[987]): Service exited with abnormal code: 1
Apr 16 11:24:34 NYC-STURTR5 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (Fantasy Grounds.Wineskin.prefs.38960[1716]): Service exited with abnormal code: 1
Apr 16 11:26:06 NYC-STURTR5 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (Fantasy Grounds.Wineskin.prefs.38960[2115]): Service exited with abnormal code: 1

The failure is otherwise entirely silent. Opening the app, simply nothing happens. I'm no novice to Macs (20 years of Mac support experience), and could spend some time troubleshooting, but I have a full time tech job, kids, and in 3 campaigns. I use FG as a DM screen in-person, as a DM online, and as a player online. This symptom really started with Mojave.

Also: Consider that FG will probably not work on the fall macOS update, since they have warned that they are dropping all support for 32 bit apps. I know you are shooting for December release of Unity, but maybe release MVP/beta to Mac users with the caveat that the content will not be upgraded with the buffed content like LoS, etc. Otherwise, players will update or buy new computers with the new OS pre-installed, and your software won't work.

[Nylanfs]

Always right click and exit, not the close window in the upper corner.

[CloudStrife]

I have had this occur multiple times requiring re-download and reinstall of the entire FG software, including backup and restore of my campaign data.

System log on the Mac dumps the following when searching for "Fantasy"


Apr 16 11:08:54 NYC-STURTR5 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (Fantasy Grounds.Wineskin.prefs.38960[947]): Service exited with abnormal code: 1
Apr 16 11:10:55 NYC-STURTR5 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (Fantasy Grounds.Wineskin.prefs.38960[987]): Service exited with abnormal code: 1
Apr 16 11:24:34 NYC-STURTR5 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (Fantasy Grounds.Wineskin.prefs.38960[1716]): Service exited with abnormal code: 1
Apr 16 11:26:06 NYC-STURTR5 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (Fantasy Grounds.Wineskin.prefs.38960[2115]): Service exited with abnormal code: 1

The failure is otherwise entirely silent. Opening the app, simply nothing happens. I'm no novice to Macs (20 years of Mac support experience), and could spend some time troubleshooting, but I have a full time tech job, kids, and in 3 campaigns. I use FG as a DM screen in-person, as a DM online, and as a player online. This symptom really started with Mojave.

Also: Consider that FG will probably not work on the fall macOS update, since they have warned that they are dropping all support for 32 bit apps. I know you are shooting for December release of Unity, but maybe release MVP/beta to Mac users with the caveat that the content will not be upgraded with the buffed content like LoS, etc. Otherwise, players will update or buy new computers with the new OS pre-installed, and your software won't work.

I unsubscribed from FG because of the issues. I will resubscribe when the next version of FG comes out and give that a try. I play online with my friends through discord now. Works just fine. Not as good obviously but it doesn't waste my time trying to trouble shoot it all.

[Tazykat]

I am using Mojave


I'm saddened to learn after upgrading all my computers to Mac OS Mojave that I won't be able to use Fantasy Grounds. Not only is my company a HUGE advocate of Fantasy Grounds releasing new modules all the time but in my personal gaming group we rely completely on Fantasy Grounds for our campaign. If I cannot access Fantasy Grounds we will no longer be able to play our game since every bit of information is stored in a program which is now inaccessable to me.

I'm wondering if Doug and John has a forthcoming solution. My next game happens in about one week and without FG we'll be rolling up new characters for a pencil and paper game- not a bad thing mind you, just not our preferred method of gaming.

Happy gaming to all and sending positive thoughts regarding a version of Fantasy Grounds finally designed with Mac users in mind.

Thank you,

Jonathan G. Nelson
Owner/Publisher
AAW Games

MODERATOR: Moved to a more appropriate forum

[Bidmaron]

It works fine with Mojave. I am sure he meant Catalina.

The problem won’t be long. When FGU comes out it should work with any modern Mac OS.