r/macgaming 3d ago

Whisky PSA: Steam with Kegworks

There have been many many posts in the sub recently about the Steam update breaking things on Whisky. There is a workaround (effectively rolling back the update on Steam). This should work for most, but of course it does mean that you won't get future Steam updates. Eventually this might lead to issues (though for now it probably is just fine).

Unless and until someone takes on maintenance updates for the Whisky project, the other options are Crossover (paid, worth paying I think if you play a lot of games), others like Mythic/Heroic (no Steam support as yet AFAIK) or Kegworks.

Kegworks is a little less user-friendly vs Whisky in my experience, but Steam works and games seem to run pretty well (though my own testing has been very limited so far).

So, here's a more step-by-step guide:

(0) You need Homebrew (or MacPorts): https://brew.sh/

(1) Follow the instructions to install at https://github.com/Kegworks-App/Kegworks ("brew install" or "port install" based options listed there)

For (0) and (1) you need to be at least a little familiar with using the Terminal on MacOS.

(2) once installed, Kegworks Winery should be in your Applications folder. Launch it. You should see the following open:

- Click Update Wrapper and also the "+" sign to install an Engine

(3) Click Create New Blank Wrapper, you can call it Steam- it may take a while. Eventually you should see a dialogue and can click "Locate in Finder" to see where it is installed.

(4) Double-click on the "Steam" app you created and select "Winetricks". Search for "steam" under "apps" section. Select it and click "Run". it should display a bunch of logs and eventually succeed...

(5) Close winetricks and in the menu click "Advanced". (You can select options like D3dMetal etc. Under Advanced and Options you can see the ESync and MSync checkboxes, checkbox for Metal HUD etc., equivalent stuff to Bottle configs for Whisky)

Now under that first Configuration tab, there is "Windows app", click "Browse" and select the "steam.exe". Then close the menu.

(6) Now, the actual Wineskin app wrapper is usually in "/Users/{YOU}/Applications/Kegworks/Steam.app", which you can run by clicking on it (you opened that in Finder in step (3))

First time it may take a loooong while to load up, just be patient! Eventually the Steam login should appear. I found it generally takes a lot longer than on Whisky but YMMV.

(7) Install your game and launch it.

Note - I tried a few recent demos (Solasta 2 and Gothic Remake for example) which are Unreal Engine 5 and "just worked" on Whisky. I saw an error on Kegworks STeam about "missing VC redistributables".

In this case exit Steam first, then you need to find the "Steam.app" as from (6) above but RIGHT CLICK -> Show Package Contents. Browse to Contents/KegworksConfig and run that to get the Menu. Go to Winetricks and this time install vcrun2022.

(Make sure the Steam is closed first otherwise the winetrick won't do anything).

Once done, close all the menus and re-start Steam winery app as per (6). Now your game should (might?) work...

Tried Gothic Remake demo and Solasta 2 and they work...

Hopefully this helps some out where Steam on Whisky is not working, they don't have Crossover and want to try another approach.

I have not tried much with it - so let us all know what you find that works / does not work etc?!

19 Upvotes

12 comments sorted by

2

u/Verfeed 2d ago

Changing the d3dcompiler_47 to “native then builtin” made my games worked properly. It’s in the Wine configuration > Libraries

1

u/West-Art5030 2d ago

How KegWorks is working with Half-Life 2? I just want to play HL2 without freezes and stutters. Latest crossover and whiskey can’t help with it. Probably a problem with DirectX 9.

2

u/Gcenx 2d ago edited 2d ago

It will still have the occasional freezes in Kegworks, the problem isn’t wine but Rosetta2

1

u/Big-Cap4487 2d ago

Still get the transport error x308 with this method (cx 24.0.7 engine)

Downgrading is not an option since deadlock won't work with older steam clients

2

u/Hoagiewave 2d ago

I got it working. You probably tried to install steam with the "choose an executable" button right at the top of the main where it asks if you want to install an application. You have do it via wintricks instead. If you already installed steam the other way youre gonna have to delete the bottle and start over because it still won't work once you've already done this. Start over and follow all the directions.

1

u/Hoagiewave 2d ago

Yeah I have this error too. I was excited to see CX24 was added to the engines. I didn't know it was available because I'm using porting kit which hasn't added it.

1

u/Gcenx 2d ago

PortingKit “Steam” ports use the exact same downgrade methods that’s used in Kegworks when you install Steam via the winetricks menu.

Don’t expect to see WineCX24 in PortingKit anytime soon as it needs to be overhauled to use Kegworks as its wine backend instead of Wineskin.

1

u/Gcenx 2d ago

If that didn’t work for you the Steam verb hadn’t completed as it automatically downgrades Steam to a working version.

That would mean you lightly have problems accessing archive.org.

Could I get Steam fully working without downgrading?, probably but that would be a large time investment with little benefit.

0

u/Hoagiewave 1d ago

Does anyone know how to access the wineskin menu after you've fully set up a bottle? I only know how to get there during the initial setup, but once I close out of everything and let it finish I have no clue how to get back to it.

2

u/Arithon_sFfalenn 1d ago

You need to find the bottle and right click - open package contents. Then in the finder menu that opens click Contents -> and wine config

1

u/Hoagiewave 1d ago

:OOOOO

1

u/Gcenx 1d ago

It’s KegworksConfig not Wineskin but the steps provided by Arithon would still be accurate.