New Solution for OS X

[mudpyr8]

Go to http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/software/ihook/

Download ihook

Drop the attached file into the HeroDesigner directory (path is irrelivant)

Double-Click and run (you may have to chmod +x on the file). This script looks in the current directory and launches HeroDesigner without a console window.

[BenKimball]

Cool!

It does seem to leave iHook running in the background, though. I wish I could easily launch HD without spawning two processes in the Dock.

[buzz]

Browsing and searching aren't helping me here, so...

Can someone give me a quick update on a) what's preventing an official MacOS X installer release, 2) what those of you who are running HD on your Mac are doing to make it work.

I've seriously been considering getting a used laptop and installing Linux so I can run HD effectively... not that such consideration gets me closer to being able to actually afford it. :)

[Simon]

Originally posted by buzz
Browsing and searching aren't helping me here, so...

Can someone give me a quick update on a) what's preventing an official MacOS X installer release, 2) what those of you who are running HD on your Mac are doing to make it work.

I've seriously been considering getting a used laptop and installing Linux so I can run HD effectively... not that such consideration gets me closer to being able to actually afford it. :)
I can answer the first part easily enough: Apple's implementation of Java 1.4.1 sucks. Badly. There are still enough issues with it that I'm not comfortable with an official release for that platform.

This is, sadly, par for the course for Apple with Java....they were showing signs of coming around with OSX, but they seem to be falling back on their old habits.

[buzz]

First off, thanks for the response!


Originally posted by dsimon
I can answer the first part easily enough: Apple's implementation of Java 1.4.1 sucks. Badly. There are still enough issues with it that I'm not comfortable with an official release for that platform.

I'm sure you've gone over this before, but what exactly does HD need Java to do that, say, PCGen (which runs mostly fine on X) doesn't?

FWIW, I'm maybe a month away from taking the Java programmer's exam, so if you want to get technical, there's a 5% chance I'll know what you're talking about. :)

[Simon]

Originally posted by buzz
First off, thanks for the response!



I'm sure you've gone over this before, but what exactly does HD need Java to do that, say, PCGen (which runs mostly fine on X) doesn't?

FWIW, I'm maybe a month away from taking the Java programmer's exam, so if you want to get technical, there's a 5% chance I'll know what you're talking about. :)
HD uses a fair number of features that were introduced in Java2 1.4.1 -- many of them would be extremely difficult to replace. Some of these features simply don't work under OSX. Others work poorly or improperly.

OSX has serious issues with redrawing the screen. You can get around this by resizing the app slightly (forcing a redraw), but that's kludgy at best.

OSX has bad issues with window placement and focus. New MODAL dialogs are placed behind the main app window. This is a horrendous pain in the ass.

There are several other issues under OSX that prevent HD from working properly as well.

It is entirely possible that some of the issues could be fixed by inserting what would be otherwise redundant code (extra calls to repaint(), etc), but that is kludgy at best and is not something that I'm interested in doing.

Until Apple decides to get their act together and release a version of Java2 1.4.1 (now one version out of date) that actually works the way it is supposed to, there is not going to be an official release of HD on the Mac.

[buzz]

Originally posted by dsimon
Until Apple decides to get their act together and release a version of Java2 1.4.1 (now one version out of date) that actually works the way it is supposed to, there is not going to be an official release of HD on the Mac.

/me hunts for a cheap PC laptop.

:D

[DocMan]

Well, last night I picked up a copy of HD from my FLGS. And I still want to load it on my Mac OS X laptop. So, could someone remind me again how to go about doing that?

Doc

[mudpyr8]

You have to get 10.2.6 installed.

Then, I prefer the iHook method discussed in this thread.

That should be it.

[BenKimball]

You'll need Mac OS X 10.2.3 or later and Java 1.4.1. Run Software Update to get the latest java release, or you can download it from http://www.apple.com/java/. Next, if the CD contains an installer, you'll need to run it in order to extract all of the necessary files into a HeroDesigner directory. (I bought the download version, so I'm not sure what's on the CD; if there's an HD directory already there that you can just copy to the PC, use that.) I used Virtual PC to run the installer, then copied the resultant HD folder onto my Mac volume.

Next, you'll need to launch the `java` app with the appropriate command-line arguments to start HD. You can either use the iHook method detailed earlier in this thread, or the command script method. The latter involves creating a text file with the extension ".command" (e.g., "hd.command", or "Hero Designer.command") and putting a shell script in there. It should look like this (each paragraph is a separate, continuous line):

<tt><p>#!/bin/tcsh</p><p>cd /Applications/HeroDesigner/</p><p>java -cp "update.jar:Hero Designer.jar" -Xmx128m -Xdock:name=HeroDesigner:icon=/Applications/HeroDesigner/HeroDesigner.ico com.hero.HeroDesigner &<p></tt>

...assuming you put your HD directory into the Applications folder and named it "HeroDesigner". Finally, double-click on your new .command file to launch HD.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Cheers,
Ben

[mudpyr8]

What Ben said. The advantage of iHook is that it is aware of the directory it is launched in so the iHook script that is posted will launch it no matter where you put HD.

[buzz]

Originally posted by BenKimball
Let me know if you have any questions!

How does it run? What anomalies do you have to deal with, other than what dsimon already mentioned?

Oh, and you might want to edit the message. The formatting for the shell script makes the thread about three feet wide. :)

Thanks!

[BenKimball]

I find that on my Power Mac G4 (MDD) dual 1 GHz and on my TiBook G4/800 it runs very quickly except when sorting a powers list (this appears to be a common complaint across platforms). On the Mac, the only significant glitch I've noticed is when building powers, occasionally the pop-up dialog for adding power modifiers doesn't disappear after you click "OK". The power is modified, but the window remains stubbornly open and in front of the main app. What I do in that situation is move the offending window down off the screen and continue working. During the course of a long game, the bogus windows will sometimes start to pile up (my character has a VPP, so I often add powers during a session). Then I'll just quit and relaunch to clear all of them off the screen.

Apart from that mostly cosmetic issue I'm having terrific luck with HD on Mac OS X. The latest versions (since 1.41 or so) even seem to have fixed the screen redraw problem (don't ask me how), so I no longer have to manually resize the screen by a pixel or two to get an initially-loaded character to appear onscreen. (There aren't any other redraw problems I've run into, just the initial display of a newly-loaded character.)

Updating the software couldn't be easier; just click the "Check for Updates" feature, download the latest update.jar file, drop it in your HD directory, and relaunch HD. Painless.

Cheers!
Ben

[DocMan]

Okay... some odd things happened.

I put the CD in the drive on my Wallstreet... and it promptly ejected my wireless card and my USB card and stopped recognizing both the trackball and the trackpad.

I put the cards back in and restarted, and things seemed to be working, except the trackball and trackpad seem to be stuck on the minimum tracking settings.

Despite this handicap, I brought up Virtual PC and installed HD. I installed iHook, ejected the CD and restarted again. At least now my computer seems to be working normally again.

I dropped the iHook file into the folder, then double-clicked it and HD comes up. Yay! Now, since this is version 1.0, I need the updates. So I choose Check for Updates, and it tells me that it can't get through my firewall.

Now, my firewall is set up to allow anything outgoing, but block all incoming attempts. What port does the update function need to find and download the updates? I don't have any problems using other applications to dowload data, just HD. If I'm stuck doing manual updates, where do I get them? I saw the announcement on this board for the 1.44 update being available, but there's no information on where to get the files. I haven't been following this stuff.

Doc

[Simon]

Originally posted by DocMan
Okay... some odd things happened.

I put the CD in the drive on my Wallstreet... and it promptly ejected my wireless card and my USB card and stopped recognizing both the trackball and the trackpad.

I put the cards back in and restarted, and things seemed to be working, except the trackball and trackpad seem to be stuck on the minimum tracking settings.

Despite this handicap, I brought up Virtual PC and installed HD. I installed iHook, ejected the CD and restarted again. At least now my computer seems to be working normally again.

I dropped the iHook file into the folder, then double-clicked it and HD comes up. Yay! Now, since this is version 1.0, I need the updates. So I choose Check for Updates, and it tells me that it can't get through my firewall.

Now, my firewall is set up to allow anything outgoing, but block all incoming attempts. What port does the update function need to find and download the updates? I don't have any problems using other applications to dowload data, just HD. If I'm stuck doing manual updates, where do I get them? I saw the announcement on this board for the 1.44 update being available, but there's no information on where to get the files. I haven't been following this stuff.

Doc
Go to the free stuff section.