D2 for Macs: a User's Guide

D2 for Macs: a User's Guide

Hello. Seeing as there have been a number of questions regarding D2 usage on the Mac, I thought I would write up a brief guide. This is my first guide, so please bear with me.

First, a few general comments about macs.

Almost all of the keyboard commands and shortcuts are identical from pc to mac, with one difference. PCs use the ctrl key, Macs use the Command (cmd) key the one just to the left and right of the space bar). Thus, where "select all" on a PC is ctrl-a, on a mac it's cmd-a. Likewise with cut, copy, paste, etc. (I know this is true for the most common keyboard shortcuts, but I expect there are others that don't work so well.)



Most of this guide applies only to Mac OSX, since I have very little experience with the Classic environment.



Muling for Macs

ATMA does not work . Fortunately, and thanks to silospen, we have GoMule! Since GoMule is written in java, it works for everyone and even reads/writes to ATMA d2x and org files.

D2 with Mods, and Timetravel

This is relatively easy.

• start with a vanilla install. It will be located in the "Diabo II Folder" folder in 'Applications.'


• Rename this folder "Diabo II Vanilla 1.12" (or whatever version it is, or any name you like)


• Create a new folder in Applications. Call it "Diablo II Mod 1.12".


• Copy the entire contents of the "Diablo II Vanilla 1.12" folder into the new folder. (To accomplish this, click on one of the items in the original folder, hit cmd-a, hold down the 'option' key, and drag the contents to the new folder. Alternately, select all the files, hit cmd-c, then click on the new folder and hit cmd-v.)


• Then add the patch that contains RWM/RRM. You'll likely get a warning message, but just click 'OK'. No worries.


• Rename the D2 Application files to reflect their modded/vanilla/patch status if you want to place shortcuts in the dock or on the desktop or wherever you store application links.

(This does, admittedly, take up a bit of hard drive space (+/- 1.8Gb per install), and I suspect there's an easier way. I took a look at TrenShadow's Version switcher, but I don't think it works with mac. If you have some ideas, pleas let me know and I'll add it to the guide. Thanks!)



Now, you have a Vanilla install and a Modded install!

Repeat this process with patches to later versions.



For RWM/RRM on macs, see here.



For expansion patches (1.10-present), see here. Be sure you download only the files labelled OSX or Carbon. There are patches available for 1.10b, 1.11 and 1.11b, and 1.12a. Remember that in order to play any version prior to 1.12a, you will need the LoD disc.

Note: You must use the Carbon Installer to install D2 in OSX. The Carbon Installer automatically patches D2 to 1.10. At present, there is no known way to play earlier versions under OSX.

Note: you can not go back in time. In other words, you will need to start with a clean install of the earliest possible version of D2 or LoD, which will unfortunately always be 1.10 due to the Carbon Installer.



For earlier patches, you will need a Classic install of the MacOS (OS 9 or earlier), and in order to have a Classic install of the OS, you'll need a mac with a PowerPC processor, since Intel macs will not run classic at all.* So, unless you have an old lampbase iMac lying about, or old PowerBook, or old G3 or G4 or whatever, you're sort of out of luck, as far as I can tell. Earlier patches are available here. (I was unable to download anything from this mirror, but you could try your luck anyway.)

Note: At the present, it seems that Diablo 2 under Classic is somewhat painful. It is difficult to get the graphics to work properly, and you may have trouble finding a two-button mouse that will work. Further testing will be required.

If you wish to connect to BattleNet for whatever reason, be sure to use your Vanilla install, otherwise you risk a ban or, if you're playing earlier patches, a forced update to the current patch.

*Note: there are Classic Emulators available for Intel macs. I have been unable to test earlier versions of D2 under Classic Emulation. I will update with findings as they come available.



Multiplaying with yourself

So far as I know, the multiple instance dll does not work with mac, but I'll keep checking. However, there is a way to self-multiplay that is ludicrously easy.

(Thanks to BMFV for this tip!) Note: this is only viable in OSX 10.5 Leopard and (presumably) later.

1. Open Terminal (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal).


2. At the prompt, type "open -u" and drag the D2 game app from Applications to the terminal window. This will insert the correct path.*


3. Press return. D2 will open.


4. Start up a TCP/IP game, and select 'Host'. Take note of the IP address as listed in the TCP/IP window.


5. Open the Character that will do the hosting and get him/her comfortable.


6. Press cmd-m to go to windowed mode, return to Terminal and repeat the opening procedure.


7. In the second version of D2, select TCP/IP and 'Join'.


8. Enter the IP address noted in step 4 and start up the second character, then repeat steps 6-8 until all characters are open.

[Note that this is broken in Snow Leopard. To multiplay with yourself, the only answer I know of at present is to create multiple installs: teh suxxorz. I'll hunt about for another answer, and update when I find one.]

niwyral provides a tip for bypassing the terminal and creating a clickable Script to open multiple instances: (Thanks!)

1. open Applications -> AppleScript -> Script Editor


2. then type * do shell script "open -n [path to D2]" (Note: you can find the path to D2 by dragging the D2 application into the Script Editor window. The path will be almost identical to the path in terminal, though spaces in the path are handled as '\\ ' in Script Editor, while Terminal handles identical spaces as '\ ')


3. save this as an application, and title it whatever you like.


4. to start multiple instances you can repeatedly click this application rather than going back and forth to the terminal.

[This is likely also broken in Snow Leopard.]

* Mine is /Applications/Diablo\ II\ 1.12a\ Modded/Diablo\ II\ \(mod\). Note that I renamed the Diablo II folder to "Diablo II 1.12a Modded" and the D2 app to "Diablo II (mod).



I am unsure of the process for earlier iterations of the OSX (Panther, Tiger, etc.) or later versions (Snow Leopard and whatever comes next). I will do some testing and update at a later date. Presumably, you can run multiple instances by having multiple installs, each with a slightly different name (Diablo 2, Diablo2, D2, DII, DiabloII, Diablo II, etc.), though this has not been tested.



Running D2 in a Window

To run D2 in Windowed mode, start up the game and hit cmd-m. You will have to do this every time you start the game.

There may be a way to tell the mac to always start D2 in a window, but I have no idea how to accomplish this, since I almost always play full-screen. Edit: there is no known way to force D2 to always start in a window... and I now play (on the rare occasions I play) almost exclusively in windowed mode.

And P�r suggested I add this, so here it is:


Quote:








To adjust the size of the window that D2X plays in, go to the following:

*System Preferences

*Displays

*Display tab

*Click resolutions from high to low until you get one that suits your monitor.

...kept me from breaking out the old D2X for a good while until I figured this out. Regular windowed mode without adjusting the window size looks quite the awful on a 26" screen.

Running D2 without Sound

The Windows -ns command does not work in Mac, and there is, at present, no known way of replicating the -ns command in OSX.

At the Character screen, you can press ctrl-m to mute the sound, but the sound files will still be loaded

Keys and Buttons

In their infinite wisdom, the folks at Apple decided to map the F-keys to control brightness, volume, expose, dashboard, and the like. This is true for all keyboards released by Mac since ~2007 (and perhaps before). This caused much consternation and gnashing of teeth in the mac community (though pretty much everyone calmed down) and continues to give PC users a reason to talk bad about macs. But there is are two ways to work around this:

1) Should you choose to use the F-keys in Diablo II, you'll need to go to System Preferences -> Keyboard and Mouse.

Under the keyboard tab, check the box marked "Use all F1, F2, etc. as standard function keys."



2) Alternately (and I strongly suggest this anyway, even for PC users, since it makes toggling between skills and whatnot much easier), remap the shortcut keys in Diablo II:

Open a character, hit esc -> options -> keys and buttons, then re-map anything and everything you like.

For example, I use 12345/qwerty/asdfg for skill-switching; zxcv for belt slots; hjk for inventory, LCS, and merc; u and i for quest and skill trees; the 'tilde' key (next to 1) for screen capture; the space bar for reveal items. . . I could go on.

Mac Laptops and Mice

Should you choose to play D2 on your MacBook or MacBookPro (or iBook or PowerBook) I strongly suggest purchasing a third party, wired mouse, since the trackpad on Apple notebooks has only one button.

I also suggest avoiding the MightyMouse, since the scroll ball tends to die after ~3-6 months of use. I purchased 2 MightyMice and received 3 replacements: all failed in less than 6 months.

Note: Use mice that connect to your mac via built-in Bluetooth at your own risk: the wires that connect the Bluetooth module to its power supply are defective in most versions of the MacBook, and your Bluetooth will almost certainly fail just as Hell Diablo unleashes his pink lightning hose on your Hardcore Tourney Toon. This is a known (but not acknowledged) issue in MacBooks made between 2006 and 2008. MacBook Pros and more recent MacBooks are to my knowledge unaffected.

Known Issues

D2 will not function on MacBooks with the Intel GMA 965 (and later) chipsets. In their infinite wisdom, Intel decided to remove support for 256k colors in the GMA 965 and later chipsets. A Beta fix is available here, and works fine in Single Player, though lan and Battle.net play is not supported. The 1.13 patch should fix this issue permanently.

Note that MacBooks with the Intel GMA 950 (confirmed) and Nvidia chipsets (confirmed) are unaffected.

Ok. So what have I forgotten? anything I have wrong? anything you'd like to see? Please let me know, and I'll update this in hopes of getting some love from the stickies! Thanks in advance!

Version History:

version 2: added bit about mice; changed the Apple-key stuff to cmd-

version 3: changed the sound thing; added BMFV's multiple instance tip

version 4: added niwyral's script tip; added section on known issues with the Intel GMA 965 chipset, and later confirmed Nvidia support for 256k colors.|||Playing without sound: open game, open a character, esc, options, sound, drag all the sliders down to minimum? |||I think he means for the whole time d2 is running.

fx. When running bosses your quiting games pretty often. So muting the sound also includes, the music in the menu selection. (Singleplayer, cattle.net etc.)

IIRC it's Ctrl+M when using windows. Not that this helps any in a mac user guide|||@Fenrix: Some of the committed area runners start up diablo so the sound files don't even load: it shaves milliseconds off their run times. It's some sort of a -ns command in Windows, but I don't know how to do it in Mac.

Edit: Thanks Skjoldmose!



Edit2: I did some testing of earlier patches and discovered that I am unable to get to any patch prior to 1.10 (since that's what's on my discs). Ugh. So if there are any mac users out there with older discs, please confirm that you can patch in the manner described above, or give me some other patching ideas. Thanks!|||In windows you add "-ns" in the target line for your shortcut to Diablo 2. This startes the game without any sound, and makes those Pindle runs ever so slightly faster. However, it crashes the game if one of the cinematics is shown IIRC.

I tried Googling a little to find a solution to your sound problem but couldn't find anything.Seems like a toughy.|||I tried good old Google as well, but also found nothing. I'll keep hunting around, though. I'm sure it can be done (though it may require starting D2 via the Terminal or something).|||I have a problem on my uni body macbook utilizing the F1-12 keys. Even with the system preference switch, which means I should ahve to use function + F1-12 key to utilize the key, I find I still can't bind F1-12 for spells.

This isn't too much of a biggie for me, as, I bind my keys in a similar fashion to yourself.|||@Buckies: Interesting. . . I just did a test and can bind skills or whatever to the f-keys. In fact, my screen shot is mapped to the tilde and F1 and I often use F1. I'll do some research and see if there's an answer.

I did a bit of googling and remembered that Apple re-mapped the F-keys again in 2008 or so. So I pulled out my recent keyboard (with the newly mapped keys) and ran a test in D2. The keys work fine. So I don't know what's happening there.

Any other unibody MB or MBP users have a similar issue?|||Ijust tested it, and my keyboard is acting just like its supposed to.|||I have spent the last half an hour or so, searching for a solution, to the sound "problem".

Couldn't find any mentioning of any hotkeys or whatnot.

The closest i got, was a lot of people refering to a "Mute box" on mac. Don't know if all macs have that or not. I know next to nothing about macs

BUT, my thought was: What if you check the mute box, and then run D2?

I guess, you can't get ANY sound out of your mac when checking that box. But maybe there is some optionsmenu, when you can uncheck various programs such as your mediaplayer/itunes.

Couldn't come up with anything else.

Google used to be my friend?

Oh and if there isn't such a thing as a "mute box", this is terrible fail.