FantasyGroundsUpdater on macOS is still Intel-only

[jaharmi]

I noticed today that the FantasyGroundsUpdater executable on macOS is Intel-only.

Until this is recompiled as a Universal Binary for macOS, it will not run natively on Apple Silicon Macs. Installation and updates of Fantasy Grounds, which is itself Universal (and thus native on Intel and Apple Silicon), still require Rosetta because of this. If Rosetta is not installed or the user chooses not to install it, FGU cannot be installed or updated.

This is important because:


All installations of Fantasy Grounds on Apple Silicon Macs currently require that the optional Rosetta translation framework be installed.
All installations of Fantasy Grounds on Apple Silicon Macs also require that Rosetta is installed and remains installed.
Use of Rosetta translation has a performance and disk storage impact on macOS, which could affect users on slower Macs or those with smaller disks. While they aren’t exactly slow, the well-received MacBook Neo is not configurable with more than 512 GB storage.
Rosetta is an optional install and Mac users may choose to not install it.
Apple has already announced (last year) that macOS 27 will not support Intel Macs.
Apple has also announced that macOS 27 will not have general support for Rosetta. It will be limited/restricted to use in specific situations / for specific apps/games.


Suggestions:


Compile FantasyGroundsUpdater as Universal on macOS to complement the existing Universal FantasyGrounds and FGUpdaterEngine executables.
Update existing installations with the Universal version of FantasyGroundsUpdater.
Update the FGUWebInstall.pkg from the product downloads to include the Universal FantasyGroundsUpdater, so that new installs don’t require Rosetta for it and/or they will work when Rosetta is not installed/available.


Thanks!

[Moon Wizard]

The FantasyGroundsUpdater binary is a very small program that just launches other programs (main updater engine); so it's not necessary to port at this time.
We will resolve any issues as they arise to make sure everything is still working.

The main client and updater applications are already universal MacOS binaries.

Regards,
JPG

[jaharmi]

If FantasyGroundsUpdater is the executable that launches other things, including the Universal updater engine, then it is a weak link.

If it remains Intel-only on macOS and continues to serve the function you describe, users on Apple Silicon Macs will no longer be able to use it by this fall with macOS 27.

Starting on Monday, you may also hear from FG customers who — for better or worse — update to the macOS 27 beta and cannot install/update/run Fantasy Grounds under it if FantasyGroundsUpdater is in the critical path. (I would not recommend people install a beta OS on their only Mac, fwiw.) Apple traditionally releases their platform OS betas on the first day of their World Wide Developer Conference. Even though it’s not really a conference anymore, this still happens. Monday is the first day of WWDC 26.

Even though vendors shouldn’t feel obligated to support their products on pre-release/beta OSes, this could be a relatively easy fix (compared to other sorts of problems that may involve SDK and framework changes and so on). It could enable well-meaning people to at least install/test their own existing software like FantasyGrounds on the upcoming OS.

If FantasyGroundsUpdater is built with Apple developer tools, it is possible it is “just” a checkbox to compile it as a Universal binary. (Yeah, I know, hence the quotes.)

I wasn’t tracking processes when I installed in a test VM (for completely unrelated reasons) on Apple Silicon today. I wasn’t able to finish the FG install until I accepted the Rosetta installation. I am passing along that experience, because that already seems sub-optimal for some of your customers.

I am a Mac user and FGC/FGU license holder, having started by running FGC via WINE back in the day.