Mac install guide for Baldur's Gate EET

[1Mac]

I managed to get EET working with the Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition games for Mac. While I was able to find lots of helpful info here and other places, it was kind of scattered, and a few things I had to figure out myself. It seems a consolidated guide for installing EET on a Mac would be useful to many folks. Note that I've only tested as far as Candlekeep so far, but that alone indicates that things have gone right. It's also possible that these instructions omit something important or include something extraneous, so I'd appreciate any corrections or clarifications you may have.

I suppose it's worth mentioning what EET is. Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition Trilogy is a mod that combines the Enhanced Editions of Baldur's Gate games into a single game. You can play seamlessly with a single character and explore the full world of the Baldur's Gate series as you progress. It also takes up less space than individual versions of each game. EET supports many other mods, often with little or no more difficulty than installing over the vanilla games. Installing EET on a Mac is not quite as straightforward as it would be on a PC, but the great Infinity Engine modding community has made it a lot easier than it could have been.

For starters, you need legally owned Mac versions of Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition, the Siege of Dragonspear expansion, and Baldur's Gate 2 Enhanced Edition. I recommend purchasing these either from GOG or directly from the publisher Beamdog. Between its overlays and DRM, I believe that Steam is simply not a good platform for modded games when there are alternatives available. I recommend using GOG Galaxy to install. GOG Galaxy is just a download utility; you are not required to launch it when playing games, unlike with Steam. One thing that wasn't entirely obvious to me was that there is no separate download for Siege of Dragonspear on GOG; rather, it downloads automatically with BGEE. GOG Galaxy will prompt you to decide where you want to install your games, and you can move them somewhere else after the fact.

You will need a mod manager to install most Baldur's Gate mods. We will use the Mac Weidu Launcher application. Download it from GitHub as a zip file, then double-click to unpack it. We'll set it up in a minute. There are newer, arguably better mod managers for Infinity Engine games than Weidu, but as far as I know there is no Mac native version of these programs. You could perhaps get them to work using Wineskin, but it's probably more of a headache than is necessary.

Unless you purchased your games from Beamdog, you need to merge Siege of Dragonspear with BGEE before installing EET. Download DLC Merger as a zip and double-click to unpack it. We now need to move both DLC Merger and the Weidu Launcher to where they can be used. Right-click the Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition application (i.e., BGE1, not BGE2!) and select "Show Package Contents." Mac OS organizes programs with lots of resources like games into single packages, so this is how we see "inside" the program, in a way. Open the Contents folder, then the Resources folder. Move the DLC Merger folder into this Resources folder. Do the same with the Mac Weidu Launcher program; that is, the file inside the unzipped folder, not the folder or the zip file.

Open the Mac Weidu Launcher. This will install the weidu program automatically if it isn't there; you'll see it in your Resources folder. It will also open a simple dialogue window asking what mod you want to install. Choose DLC Merger. This will open a Terminal window. Terminal might make some users antsy or uncomfortable, but in this case it's just a matter of typing in numbers to select options and hitting Enter. In this case we just need to merge Siege of Dragonspear, so select that option and follow the directions. Be sure to hit Enter at the end to close Weidu and wrap up the installation process before closing the Terminal window.

(To clarify, merging Siege of Dragonspear is not necessary if you purchased your games directly from Beamdog. The rest of this guide applies to everyone.)

Some mods need to be installed in BG1EE before installing EET, so if you want any of these mods, this is the time to install them. Consult this compatibility list: we want to look under "Mods installed on BG:EE previous to installing EET on BG2:EE." Note that EET installs original BG1 movies by default, so you don't need the separate mod to do so. Download, unpack, and move the folders for any such mods to your BG1EE Resources folder. Again, you'll need Weidu to install mods, so if you haven't done so, unzip the Mac Weidu Launcher zip file, open the folder, and move the application to your BG1EE Resources folder as well. Then run the Weidu Launcher and install these mods, always being sure to hit Enter at the end to complete the Weidu installation process before closing the Terminal window. To be clear, none of these mods are necessary to install EET; it's just that this is your best opportunity to install them if you do want them.

Now is the time to download and install EET proper. Download it as a zip and double-click to unpack the archive, then open the folder. I recommend highlighting all the contents, right-clicking, and tagging with the color of your choice. This will help you keep track of what files belong to EET.

Navigate to your BG2EE Resources folder. This is done the same way as with BG1EE: Right-click the application, select Show Package Contents, open the Contents folder, then Resources. Drag the EET folders and files to your BG2EE Resources folder.

It's a good idea to install Weidu for BG2EE at this time. Once again unzip the Mac Weidu Launcher zip file, open the folder, and drag the application to your BG2EE Resources folder. Yes, this means you will have two copies of Weidu, one for BG1 and one for BG2. I am not sure if Weidu is strictly necessary to install EET, but you will need it to install other mods.

Open the setup-EET.command file. This will again launch Terminal. Follow the directions. When prompted for the location of Baldur's Gate 1, navigate to your BG1EE Resources folder as before. Click and drag the "data" folder to the Terminal window, and you should see the file path appear. Delete the word "data" at the end, then hit Enter. (Really, you could have done this step with any file in the Resources folder. This is just the easiest way to make sure the file path has been properly entered.) Don't forget to hit Enter again when the installation is done before closing the Terminal window.

This process will create two new files: setup-EET_gui.command and setup-EET_end.command. You can color-tag these to match other EET files if you like. The latter we will need to run to finalize our EET setup. Before we do this, this is our chance to install more mods. Again, consult this compatibility list: this time we want "Mods installed after EET main component on BG2:EE." I recommend installing EET Tweaks, if only for the increased FPS compatibility patch. Use the Weidu launcher to install these and other mods. Just follow the prompts in Terminal, and remember to hit Enter once the installation is done before closing the Terminal window.

Optionally, you can also open the setup-EET_gui.command file. This will give your UI the same black-obsidian theme as Siege of Dragonspear. It may conflict with other UI mods.

When you are done installing mods, run the setup-EET_end.command file. This step is necessary to make sure EET and mods work together. You can continue to install mods, so long as they needn't be installed on BG1EE before installing EET. Just make sure you then run setup-EET_end.command every time after doing so. The first time you run it, select (I) for Install; select either (R) for Reinstall or number (1) for subsequent installs.

You should now test to see if EET installed correctly. Navigate back to the folder your BG2EE application is in. If you are in the BG2EE Resources folder, just clicking the < back key in the Finder window once or twice should suffice. Double-click to launch. From the main menu you should see an option to "Select Campaign," where you can select either Baldur's Gate 1 or 2. Select BG1, create a character, and see if you wind up in Candlekeep. If so, congratulations! You have successfully installed Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition Trilogy on your Mac!

Other things to consider: After launching, BGEET will create a "Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition Trilogy" folder in your user/Documents folder. This folder contains your save files and the Baldur.lua file. This file is a configuration file that includes some options not accessible from the game. You may consider setting Maximum Frame Rate to something higher than 30, which among other things will change how fast your party moves (45 seems nice). You would think that disabling the various Movies settings would disable movies would disable intro movies, but it doesn't seem to work like that.

You can also turn on UI Scaling, either in the Baldur.lua file or through the in-game Options menu. This will keep the UI elements the same size no matter your Mac's resolution settings, which on some resolutions looks very tiny. Unfortunately, I find that scaled UI is too big. There doesn't seem to be a way to change the game's resolution either. Changing your Mac's resolution (via Displays, via System Settings) before playing will work, but that's a pretty clunky solution. I'm looking into the whether any UI mods could solve this issue to my satisfaction.

You can change the name of your Baldur's Gate 2 application to Baldur's Gate EET or similar. You can also change the icon: Highlight the program and hit command-I, or right-click and select Get Info. Search for a Baldur's Gate icon online and copy your favorite. Or, use Get Info for Baldur's Gate 1, select the icon in the top-left corner, and copy that using command-C. Whichever icon you've copied, select the BG2 icon in the BG2EE Get Info panel and hit command-V to paste the new icon.

After you've installed EET, you may delete BG1EE if you wish by putting it in the Trash. The advantage to doing so is saving disk space and cleaning up your games folder a bit. The disadvantage is that if you ever want to install mods for EET that must first be installed for BG1EE, you'll have to reinstall it and repeat the first several steps of this guide. If disk space isn't an issue for you, it may be prudent to keep your copy of BG1EE just in case.

Edited March 23, 2020 by 1Mac

[subtledoctor]

A couple notes:

On 3/22/2020 at 9:21 PM, 1Mac said:

Open the setup-EET.command file. This will again launch Terminal. Follow the directions.

It's nice that EET supplies .command files for Mac users, but if you are using the Mac Weidu Launcher they are unnecessary and might tend to create clutter.  If you prefer, you can leave the .command files where they were and only put the EET folder into your resource directory.  Double-click the Mac Weidu Launcher and choose "EET"/"setup-EET" from the list (however it shows up), and it should be functionally identical to running setup-EET.command. 

 

On 3/22/2020 at 9:21 PM, 1Mac said:

It's a good idea to install Weidu for BG2EE at this time. Once again unzip the Mac Weidu Launcher zip file, open the folder, and drag the application to your BG2EE Resources folder. Yes, this means you will have two copies of Weidu, one for BG1 and one for BG2. I am not sure if Weidu is strictly necessary to install EET, but you will need it to install other mods.

Weidu is necessary to install mods (and EET is a mod like any other); but basically every mod comes with it's own instance of Weidu.  You don't need to "install" Weidu by itself. 

Moreover, the Mac Weidu Launcher has its own copy of Weidu and doesn't need the ones that come with individual mods (including EET).  So when using the MWL, you only need to copy the mod folders into your resource directory - not any of the extraneous files like "setup-modname" and "setup-modname.command."  The function of the .command files and the no-extension "setup-______" files are taken care of by the MWL itself.  (Also, it will sort mods into what I hope is a good, compatible install order.  Just install one by one from top to bottom.

Edited March 25, 2020 by subtledoctor

[1Mac]

Thank you for the feedback! I was already beginning to realize that Weidu was less a mod manager and more a mod installation tool. I guess I was filtering it through TES modding concepts. (The launcher seems to have some mod manager functionality, if you squint.)

For whatever reason, I was having no luck installing EET via the Weidu Launcher. I thought I tried the method you suggested, but perhaps I didn't! So with the Weidu Launcher + Weidu itself, all one really needs to install EET are the EET and EET_end folders (EET_gui optional), and that these should be put in the Resources folder? That seemed to at least run the appropriate installer when I tried that approach just now.

Also, this makes me think that what Weidu is doing is interpreting the contents of mod folders into commands for installation. Maybe there's an additional document in the mods folder that tells Weidu what to do? This is quite a bit different from how TES modding works, so I'd like to do my best to understand how it works.

[Jarno Mikkola]

1 hour ago, 1Mac said:

Maybe there's an additional document in the mods folder that tells Weidu what to do?

Not a document, but command line input called setup-*modname*.tp2, that can then be expanded with other .tp -files, like .tpa, .tpb and so forth, as long as they are include -commanded in the primary file. And yes, at least on Windows, you can run the weidu.exe and it's a command line tool as such, so the rename is for this reason actually.

Also, what subtledoctor forgot to tell is that as the Mac Weidu Launcher (MWL from now on, in this topic at least from me) is far more likely to hold the latest and so most uptodate weidu utility inside it, rather than the ones the mods hold, ... which at least on Windows side is dealt with auto-updating if multiple versions are detected in the game folder, but the process might not always be perfect in at least Windows side, it was a wreck after the primary programmer exited, so holding only one weidu utility during install removes the frustration of F-ed things gone aray, most of the time. And in Windows Mega moding ... they just deal with it similarly, by mass copying over the files with their own one.

Edited March 25, 2020 by Jarno Mikkola

[1Mac]

Okay, thanks, that's helpful!

[subtledoctor]

It's a bit to wrap your head around if you're coming from TES modding.  BG modding is very different.  Here's the way I see it, as someone with zero computer science/programming experience but fairly extensive experience with BG modding:

"Weidu" is really two things: a program, and a programming language.  (According to my limited knowledge of such things, it is a scripting language - to whatever extent it matter that is different from other kinds of programming languages.  The upshot is, BG mods are installed via scripts, which do one thing, then another, then another, in sequence.  Very different from TES mods where you can dump a bunch of mods together simultaneously, and only the load order is important.)

A typical mod will have three important parts: 1) a .tp2 file, 2) a folder full of various other files (generally the .tp2 file is contained inside this folder), and 3) the Weidu program itself.  When you run the Weidu program, it reads the script in the .tp2 file and then, as instructed by the script, performs various operations that usually involve the other files in the mod folder.

I think this is the part that can be confusing:  "setup-EET.exe" and setup-stratagems.exe" and "setup-spell_rev.exe" are all identical.  They are all copies of the exact same program; those .exe files (or, on a Mac, the extensionless file) have no content related to the mods they are downloaded with, except for their names.  The name of the executable points the program to which .tp2 script it should read.  If you wanted to, you could copy a bunch of mod folders into your game directory, and only a single instance of the Weidu program.  You could name it "setup-EET" and running it would install EET; then name it "setup-spell_rev" and running it would install Spell Revisions; then name it "setup-strategems" and running it would install SCS.  For the sake of convenience, because Weidu is such a compact program, each mod supplies its own pre-named copy and your game directory will be littered with dozens of copies of the program.

You could also have a single copy of the program called "Weidu" and, rather than renaming it, open the Terminal and run each program manually by specifying it in the command line.  Something like (on MacOS): 

./weidu setup-EET.tp2
./weidu setup-spell_rev.tp2
./weidu setup-stratagems.tp2

This is, more or less, what the MWL does.  Copies a single version of the Weidu program into the game folder, then scans for any .tp2 files and presents you with the list, and then executes a Terminal command invoking the Weidu program and the chosen .tp2 file.  This keeps clutter to a minimum in your game folder. (It even tucks the .debug logs away in a subfolder.)

Edited March 26, 2020 by subtledoctor

[SamD]

Hi there 1mac

Just wondering what version of OSX you are using? I am using High sierra (older mac can't update anymore) and your method of placing the relevant files and installers within the enclosed resources folder does not work. If I place them in the main folder within my applications directory it all goes swimmingly until about 5 mins in to the installation of EET when it craps out because it cant't find  "baldur's Gate II executable". Any Idea what this file might be as it's clearly not the obvious one that i'd click to launch the game or surely EET setup would find it as they are in the same folder?

Any help appreciated, thanks

Sam

[subtledoctor]

On 5/22/2022 at 9:51 PM, SamD said:

5 mins in to the installation of EET when it craps out because it cant't find  "baldur's Gate II executable"

  

Honestly this is kind of why I don't love the way EET has been developed. k4thos is modifying the game executable in some way, I don't know how or why; and the EET .tp2 script has a little script that says basically,

if the OS is macOS,
the path to the executable is [yadda yadda]
now patch the executable at path [yadda yadda]

The problem is 1) the various retailers who sell BGEE and BG2EE on macOS set very different paths to the game executable; and 2) those retailers have changed the path to the game executable when they have updated to new game patches. And EET does not encompass all possible paths or all the changes that retailers have made, and so it fails. And because k4thos is not around and/or cannot/will not test on macOS, now EET cannot be installed on macOS.

Venting for a minute: I really don't understand why this has to be this way. A decade prior, with no nice new EE versions, BGT was able to be installed in a single step, on multiple different platforms. I don't understand why EET has to use this complicated multi-step install process, and why is has to muck around with the game executable, and why it has to muck around with the UI, and why it has to biff things. None of that should be necessary... but here we are, with an overly complicated mod made by a single author who is no longer around, and nobody was brought to help or consulted so now nobody knows how to fix or improve this thing.

it is frustrating.

Honestly, my advice is this: open EET/EET.tp2 with a text editor, and look at the ".exe patching" and "biffing" sections between lines 2506 and 2665. Put a " /* " at the top and a " */ " at the bottom to comment out that whole bit. Save the file, then try again to install it.

[argent77]

Exe patching has been removed from the latest EET version.

Quote from EET 13.1 changelog:

Quote

• removed binary (executable) patching (fixes installation on Mac OS and makes the mod compatible with mobile devices)

 

[Graion Dilach]

On 5/27/2022 at 10:01 PM, subtledoctor said:

I don't understand why EET has to use this complicated multi-step install process, and why is has to muck around with the game executable, and why it has to muck around with the UI, and why it has to biff things. None of that should be necessary...

The multistep install process is required for the continuous NPCs (it would make the NPC modders life hellish if they would have needed multiple specialcasing and doing the merging themselves, EET_End collects and merged the dialog files appropriately). The DAYNITE/NITEDAY videos had to be mucked to keep them separated in the two games but they have hardcoded aspects which is worked around in the latest versions via substituting them with dummy videos and scripting the actual ones along (classic movies then revert this a bit, so that'll need an update). The UI needs to be mucked to add the campaign selection menu without nuking an option (unlike BGT which repurposes the tutorial button to launch BG2). EET-GUI is not a hard requirement, it's just a rough port of the SoD skin, EET and EET-end will obviously work with the BG2 GUI if you don't want that or an alternative one installed. Only the biffing is not necessary but keeping the files loose would make it really hard to track what added what.

But almost all of this are even explained in the supplementary documentation. Excluding daynite/niteday, I knew these before I started writing my own mods even.

I can also vent for a minute: macOS is the shittiest OS out there. It's a paywalled ecosystem which blackmails devs to force all applications into a live service model, while also moves away from industry-standard technology to internal standards (OpenGL is depreciated, Vulkan is rejected, Metal or nothing) it can use to blackmail with. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple develops an ARM extension instruction set just to wall the platform further. I am pretty sure that Beamdog's own issues with Mac rollout is caused by the nonsense Apple requires to actually result with a program which doesn't need special permissions to run - even Windows doesn't prevent running an executable just because it isn't signed with an a dev license... Mac does. Even if you just spin up a cloud VM to do the compilation and use libraries which allow cross-OS development, you still need to tax a yearly license just to allow your program being run on a Mac. And unlike Win/Linux/Android, you can't even run it in a local VM.

I wouldn't even bother with Mac myself, that poison shouldn't be tolerated, let alone embraced. And I am already looking into EET, I just still haven't experimented enough with weidu to pick it up. Gimme another year and I probably will be able to manage it, I am already planning to wrap up the EE Fixpack compat if k4thos doesn't pop up around the first release.

[subtledoctor]

22 hours ago, Graion Dilach said:

Excluding daynite/niteday, I knew these before I started writing my own mods even.

You mean excluding the thing that’s relevant to the topic? 

And I’m still curious, how did BGT manage to handle day/nite transitions in 2006 without .exe hacking, that EET couldn’t replicate in 2022? 

22 hours ago, Graion Dilach said:

can also vent for a minute: macOS is the shittiest

Relevance? You don’t like Apple’s policies about virtualization? Beamdog has problems rolling out the game because macOS wants apps to be signed to run them? Aren’t Beamdog professional developers? Can’t they get a dev license?

Bigger question: da fuk does any of that have to do with the topic at hand? You hate Apple so the OP should have a hard time installing a mod? You hate Apple so EET should be designed to frustrate people who happen to own a Mac? It’s fucking 2022. BGEE works on Win/Mac/Linux. So does Weidu. And NI. And Sox, and tisunpack, and biffing and… everything. This shit is on fucking Nintendo now. It’s fucking 2022 and you’re still on about platform rivalries? Who the fuck cares? 

Go look at the BGT forum. I see a lot of communication there. Collaboration. People helping each other out. You know what happens here every time I’ve asked for help here? Stone fucking silence. I’ve never asked for anyone to make this for me. I’ve asked for information to help me investigate how to solve problems on my own, but information is apparently too much to ask. I complain this project doesn’t have the same level of communication and collaboration and you pop up out of nowhere to shitpost about Apple vs. Microsoft? What is it, 1998? Take that BS somewhere else.

Edited May 29, 2022 by subtledoctor

[Graion Dilach]

Your ad hominems do not change anything on the issue https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/pull/17652#issuecomment-584314449 showcases. Oh, and that is a platform, where recompiling is actually advised to modders.

But because you were nicely asking - BGT also hexedits the game to disable the default movies to externalize them into scripts. See https://github.com/SpellholdStudios/BGT-WeiDU/blob/master/bgt/bgt.tp2#L6814 and onwards.

Edited May 29, 2022 by Graion Dilach

[SamD]

If I'd known my question was gonna cause a dust up I'd never have posted...

Anyway thanks to Subtledoctor for your idea. setup is running as we speak so i'll let you know if it works out. If it does maybe it will of use to other poor beleaguered macOS users, poor fools that we are.  

[SamD]

Hi Subtledoc, 

Sadly that didn't work. It does allow EET to install but when I open the game up to start a new campaign there is no option to start BG EE from BG2 launcher and if I try to start a SoA campaign I just get a weird loop where selecting new game takes you back to the main menu, so who knows. Clearly the stage I commented out is important to make this work. Oh Well thanks for your help. 

Just noticed that the executable file its looking for is named differently in the EET.tp file than it is within the application itself, For some reason the exec file is named BaldursGate-macos not BaldursGateIIEnhancedEdition which is what the installer is looking for... so I've changed the name of the exec...

... and that does not work either. Gonna try editing the EET.tp file to match the naming conventions and file path of my system and see what that does.

 

Regards

Edited May 29, 2022 by SamD
additional info.

[SamD]

Well my edits to EET.tp2 allow the installer to finish and install (with warnings) but for some reason i cannot  fathom i simply cannot begin a new EET campaign. The main menu loads up with Standard BG2 EE options (SoA, ToB, etc,.) but I just get this weird loop from main menu to new game so i give up.

EET does not want to work on Mac OS high Sierra.