Homecoming Hero Designer on macOS

[TXG Sync]

EDIT: I don't recommend 2.6.0.2 in 64-bit WINEPREFIX on MacOS at this time. Use 2.6.0.1 in a 32-bit WINEPREFIX. 2.6.0.2 on macOS, trying to load any character files you've created results in "Unable to read data - Bad Format. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007000B)". Similarly, trying to save data under dotnet472 in 64-bit mode in Wine also fails.  So HHD "runs" but doesn't do anything useful yet in 64-bit mode.  Gotta figure this out 😄

 

Quick-and-dirty update with the new version. Download the Hero Designer Rel2 version...

 

1. Install Wine & winetricks (I use Homebrew, but this can be lots of things)
2. Run Terminal.
3. cd to /some/directory/containing/HHD2.6.0.2/extracted
4. export WINEPREFIX=~/.wine64
5. export WINEARCH=win64
6. winetricks -q remove_mono winxp win2k dotnet472
7. ./Hero\ Designer.exe

 

Gonna see about bundling this up tomorrow in another installer, this time one that avoids the necessity of Homebrew which seemed to be causing the double-install issues you saw.

 

Tech note: the key to getting it running on 64-bit macOS compatible with Catalina seems to be removing Mono, doing a switch of the OS from winxp to win2k, and installing dotnet472 in "quiet" mode (no GUI, no dialogs) rather than via the normal installer.

Edited August 14, 2019 by TXG Sync

[TXG Sync]

Progress so far this week: Got Homecoming Hero Designer to build/run with 64-bit Mono, but WinForms lacks proper 64-bit support so it segfaults on startup. 32-bit Mono gets a little bit further, but still segfaults due to native Windows libraries that don't work on Mac.

 

Going to try some experiments using Cocoa 64-bit experimental libraries and hack on the source a bit, but if I can't get a native port I'm just gonna revise the directions to continue to require Wine.

[ParaBruce]

Belatedly, thank you very much!

 

[Flannel Salmon]

@TXG Sync, a WinRAR is you my friend!

 

For others like myself (former Windows poweruser that made the switch to MacOS), you may have your settings requiring your password prior to any installations. If that is the case, you will need to open the .App with a 'right click' to 'Show Package Contents' in order to run the Terminal/Shell script. Once that is running, you will need to enter your password at two different points in order to install everything.

 

For others, if you don't have Homebrew installed you will need to run the .App twice (I think this may have been mentioned before).

[Siphonic]

Hi all,

 

When I download the zip file attached to the first post, this is what I get – any ideas?

[TXG Sync]

No idea. The "installer" is just a directory that contains a single file, named "Hero Designer Mac Installer". Here's the actual contents. You can run it by hand from Terminal. In fact, various reports in this thread suggest if you don't already have "homebrew" installed, running it by hand works better.

 

#!/usr/bin/env zsh

# We're just gonna install brew for users...
if [ -f /usr/local/bin/brew ]; then
    echo "Homebrew found, proceeding..."
else
    echo "Homebrew not found. Installing..." 
    /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
    exit 1
fi
# Install Wine & Winetricks...
brew install winetricks wine
# We're pretending to be Win2k, 32-bit edition.
export WINEARCH=win32
export WINEPREFIX=${HOME}/.wine32
# Turn off most of the fixme: debug messages...
export WINEDEBUG=-all
export DOWNLOADLOC=${HOME}/Downloads/
export DOWNLOADURL="https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer/releases/download/2.6.0.1/HeroDesigner_Release_Net20_2.6.0.1_2019.07.21.00.zip"
echo "If the download fails, please grab PHDInstaller.exe to ${DOWNLOADLOC} from"
echo "https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,5099.0.html"
curl -L -o ${DOWNLOADLOC}PHDInstaller.zip $DOWNLOADURL
echo "If you've already installed PHD, you might get an error from mkdir. This is normal."
mkdir -p $WINEPREFIX
echo "Installing .Net20 and .Net40..."
winetricks -q dotnet20 dotnet40
echo "Now running Pine's installer..."
mkdir -p ${WINEPREFIX}/drive_c/Program\ Files/Hero\ Designer
cd ${WINEPREFIX}/drive_c/Program\ Files/Hero\ Designer/
unzip -o ${DOWNLOADLOC}/PHDInstaller.zip
echo "Creating the app link..."
APPNAME="Homecoming Hero Designer"
DIR="${HOME}/Desktop/${APPNAME}.app"
mkdir -p "${DIR}"
export HHDLINK="${DIR}/${APPNAME}"
echo "#!/usr/bin/env bash
export WINEPREFIX=${HOME}/.wine32
export WINEDEBUG=-all
export WINEARCH=win32
/usr/local/bin/wine ${WINEPREFIX}/drive_c/Program\ Files/Hero\ Designer/Hero\ Designer.exe" > $HHDLINK
chmod +x "${DIR}/${APPNAME}"
echo "${HOME}/Desktop/$APPNAME.app"
echo "Now running Pine's Hero Designer..."
wine ${WINEPREFIX}/drive_c/Program\ Files/Hero\ Designer/Hero\ Designer.exe

 

[fyrfytr30]

Wow, it's like you all are speaking a different language. I did manage to get so far as having an icon on my desktop that says Homecoming Hero Designer; however, when I attempt to open it I get this:

[Redlynne]

There's something bizarro going on with the installer.

Run the installer twice ... and if at all possible have the 2.6.0.1 version using .net 2.0 downloaded, unzipped and ready to go from the same folder location that you're doing all of your installing from (you can move everything to where you ultimately want them to be later after installs are done and the program launches successfully).

[fyrfytr30]

On 8/31/2019 at 1:30 PM, Redlynne said:

There's something bizarro going on with the installer.

Run the installer twice ... and if at all possible have the 2.6.0.1 version using .net 2.0 downloaded, unzipped and ready to go from the same folder location that you're doing all of your installing from (you can move everything to where you ultimately want them to be later after installs are done and the program launches successfully).

More of the same. No change. 

What do you mean "have the 2.6.0.1 version using .net 2.0 downloaded, unzipped and ready to go" Isn't that what I'm already installing? Is this something different from the installer?

[Redlynne]

https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer/releases/tag/2.6.0.1

 

https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer/releases/download/2.6.0.1/HeroDesigner_Release_Net20_2.6.0.1_2019.07.21.00.zip

[fyrfytr30]

Well that doesn't help. When I click on the link it downloads a folder of stuff and nothing happens. When I open the folder and select the .exe file to start (Hero Designer) my unzip program opens and it says it's not a compressed file, which I knew already. Am I supposed to open another file? There are no other .exe files in the folder.

[TXG Sync]

Issues trying to get HHD running on macOS Catalina persist. Basic issue: the .Net 4.0 installer is a PE32 executable:

 

$ file dotnet40.exe 
dotnet40.exe: PE32 executable (GUI) Intel 80386, for MS Windows

 

And Catalina disallows any execution of 32-bit code. So even the installer itself for Microsoft's .Net has a 32-bit dependency.  I think my workaround might need to be a VM that's running an older version of macOS -- even Mojave is OK -- to create the installed WINEPREFIX for Homecoming hero Designer, and have a gigantic download.

 

Other paths I've played with: trying to build it in Mono, trying to build on Windows in pure 64-bit mode, using only the .Net 2.0 installer in 64-bit, and more. So far no joy for me.

 

Whenever I reach a point in software development that I'm resorting to such hackish workarounds, I usually need to stop & rethink my approach. I recently got hacking around importing the data from HHD's source code into a little SwiftUI app. I can't do much more than display drop-downs of powersets right now, but maybe the right approach here is to leverage the hard work of the HHD team but with a native UI of some sort. Not sure I'm up to that task, but I'll keep fiddling with it.

 

SwiftUI is the bomb. Makes it really intuitive even for an old UNIX graybeard like myself to build elegant, beautiful, and functional user interfaces on iOS.

Edited September 11, 2019 by TXG Sync

[arcane]

Any status update here as far as making a Mac version that people without IT degrees can use? Much of our PvP community absolutely refuses to post build text as opposed to just build files and data chunks, which is extremely frustrating...

Edited November 22, 2019 by arcaneholocaust

[WanderingAries]

Haven't been in here in a while, but I'd suggest changing the thread title to be more in line with the related Hero Designer.

[TXG Sync]

@WanderingAries Fair observation on the title. Crossover just released a new Wine update today that addresses some 32-bit compatibility challenges on macOS Catalina. I'll adjust the title and -- assuming the new Wine release works as I assume it does -- an updated howto some time next week.

 

@arcaneholocaust: Thanks for the feedback. The next logical step would be for me to bundle the Wine bottle with the Homecoming Hero Designer app so that it's easier to install than a bunch of commands in Terminal. I need to figure out where to store & allow downloads of the release that doesn't cost me much money. "Wine bottles" are kind of notoriously large. I have next week off, so I should have a little time to help out again & figure that part out.

[Kryss]

hi all i would like to know why all the app of the univers can be installed with a drag and drop on a mac and for everything related to city of heroes we need a phd from the MiT to install wine , wine HQ , homebrew , virtual box and all the command lines in the terminal before do anything ? lol 🙂 

[EpochParadox]

Looks like this has been abandoned for awhile now... Is there a newer thread that I'm missing? It would be really great to get something that works for me. Thanks!

[Bopper]

26 minutes ago, EpochParadox said:

Looks like this has been abandoned for awhile now... Is there a newer thread that I'm missing? It would be really great to get something that works for me. Thanks!

 

[Techulon]

There was also some momentum on discord for a while, I too am looking to see how its going.