Definitive guide to installing Fallout 2 with Restoration Project and sfall on macOS with Wine

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korri123

First time out of the vault
Hey there, after encountering numerous issues, and tracking down ways to fix those issues to play Fallout 2 on my MacBook with mods I decided to make this guide to save other people time and frustration.

The guide will allow you to run Fallout 2 with mods.
This guide uses the GOG version of Fallout 2. When writing this guide the latest version available of Porting Kit is used (3.0.4).

Installation Guide
  1. Purchase Fallout 2 on GOG.com and download the installer for the game (be careful not to download the installer for GOG Galaxy client, instead select the second option for the installer for the actual game)
  2. Download and install Porting Kit (http://portingkit.com/en/)
  3. Open Porting Kit, select the Library tab
  4. In the right pane with the icons, search for Fallout 2 in the search bar, select the Fallout 2 preset and let Porting Kit guide you through the installation of the game
    1. During the installation, if you get a runtime error message or some error relating to global vars, just press OK and ignore it.
  5. After installation, you should see Fallout 2 in your Porting Kit library (left pane)
  6. Download the Windows installer for Fallout 2 Restoration Project (http://killap.net/)
  7. In Porting Kit, right click Fallout 2 in the library pane, select Install Mod/Patch, and select the F2_Restoration_Project_2.3.3.exe installer in your Downloads folder
  8. In the select destination location step, click browse and navigate and select the Fallout 2 folder (should look like this: C:\GOG Games\Fallout 2)
  9. Go through the installer and ignore the warning message about Mac and the Hi Res patch, just click next and use the latest version for the Hi Res patch
  10. Finish installation for Restoration Project
    1. Do NOT run the game at this point or you will have to reinstall the mod
  11. Right click Fallout 2 again in Porting Kit, select Wineskin Tools > Wine Configuration
  12. In the configuration window that opens, open the Libraries tab
  13. In the New override for library input box, type ddraw.dll and press on the Add button
    1. This allows sfall to load and fixes the notorious error loading cities bug
  14. Right click Fallout 2 again in Porting Kit, select Open C: drive
  15. In the Finder window that opens, navigate to /GOG Games/Fallout 2/data/proto/
  16. For both the critters and items folders, do the following:
    1. Select all the files that have the .pro file extension (using finder list view is recommended)
    2. Right click them and select Get Info
    3. Select the "Locked" checkbox under General
    4. Explanation: This fixes the black screen map bug in The Den and other maps created/changed by RP. If you run Fallout 2 before doing this step, the game will delete the before mentioned files, and you have to redo step 7-10. In Windows, the files are by default set to read only which is why we only have to do this on Mac.
  17. The game is now ready to play! Launch the game through Porting Kit to test.
However, for optimal performance and CPU usage, I will recommend you to also do these steps. If not done, the game will max out one of your CPU cores, even during the main menu and cutscenes.

100% CPU Fix
  1. Right click Fallout 2 in Porting Kit, select Open C: drive
  2. Navigate to /GOG Games/Fallout 2/
  3. Open f2_res.ini in a text editor
  4. Find and set the variable GRAPHICS_MODE to 1 (GRAPHICS_MODE=1). Direct Draw 7 works best with Wine, allows you to tab out of the game and doesn't use much processing power unlike DirectX9 (which seems to max a CPU core with Wine). Save the file.
  5. Open ddraw.ini in a text editor
  6. Find and set ProcessorIdle to 1 (ProcessorIdle=1). Save the file.
Other stuff to consider
Fo2tweaks (https://github.com/BGforgeNet/FO2tweaks) has really enhanced my enjoyment of the game, especially the highlighting module, which lets you highlight items, npcs, doorways and unempty containers. Installing it is easy, just download the latest version (https://github.com/BGforgeNet/FO2tweaks/releases), and drag the files to the Fallout 2 folder. Make sure to replace the ddraw.dll with the newer version fo2tweaks provides.
 
Latest rpu stuff from @burn uses the /mods/ folder which means setting all this proto read only stuff isn't necessary anymore.
 
Installation Guide For Restoration Project Updated (latest version of RP)

1. Purchase Fallout 2 on GOG.com and download the installer for the game (be careful not to download the installer for GOG Galaxy client, instead select the second option for the installer for the actual game)
2. Download and install Porting Kit (http://portingkit.com/en/)
3. Open Porting Kit, select the Library tab
4. In the right pane with the icons, search for Fallout 2 in the search bar, select the Fallout 2 preset and let Porting Kit guide you through the installation of the game
5. During the installation, if you get a runtime error message or some error relating to global vars, just press OK and ignore it.
6. After installation, you should see Fallout 2 in your Porting Kit library (left pane)
7. Right click Fallout 2 again in Porting Kit, select Wineskin Tools > Wine Configuration
8. In the configuration window that opens, open the Libraries tab
9. In the New override for library input box, type ddraw.dll and press on the Add button
10. Download RPU (https://github.com/BGforgeNet/Fallout2_Restoration_Project/releases)
11. Right click Fallout 2 in Porting Kit, select Open C: drive, navigate to Fallout 2 directory
12. Drag and replace all the files from the RPU folder to the Fallout 2 folder
13. Open rpu-install.sh in a text editor
14. Replace everything with the content of this pastebin file:
1. The reason for this is there is a unix command that behaves a bit differently in BSD/MacOS than in Linux, for which the original sh file was written in, that needs to be changed.
15. Rename rpu-install.sh to rpu-install.command. Be sure to change the file extension.
16. Double click and open rpu-install.command
17. The game is now ready to play! Launch the game through Porting Kit to test.
 
Last edited:
korri123 said:

The reason for this is there is a unix command that behaves a bit differently in BSD/MacOS than in Linux, for which the original sh file was written in, that needs to be changed
Click to expand...
I'd suggest creating ticket in RPU about that anyway. Both scripts are nearly the same, so maybe it would be better to add some cmdline argument to enable slightly different behavior on mac? Always better to have stuff like that included in mod itself, in case of future changes.
 
Samira said:
I'd suggest creating ticket in RPU about that anyway. Both scripts are nearly the same, so maybe it would be better to add some cmdline argument to enable slightly different behavior on mac? Always better to have stuff like that included in mod itself, in case of future changes.
Click to expand...
I have already created a GitHub issue on the RPU repo. There is also another bug in there that I fixed, the path of the music folder is wrong in the .sh script, so music won't work unless you use the pastebin (as of now).
 
Well, I'll try to install Et tu now, although I really have no idea what I'm doing. Will report or ask for more advice later.

edit: followed the instructions in the op, got everything installed, even the Et tu mod. Got an error due to resolution used, changed it to windowed and the game works, except that I can't actually get the mod to work. All exes, both the main fallout2.exe and the one in the mod folder start up the regular fallout 2 game, not the modded one. Can't quite figure out what's wrong.
 
Last edited:
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