Getting Arma Steam Workshop mods to work on OSX

Have you spent good bandwidth downloading a mod from the Steam workshop only to have Arma shrug its shoulders at you like it never even existed?


This guide is for you.

How to get Arma mods downloaded from Steam Workshop to Work

If like me you've spent time waiting on a multi GB download only to find Arma pretending it doesn't know what you're talking about, this guide is for you.

The reasons none of the Workshop mods work with Arma is down to the fact the the app was never told where to look for workshop content on OSX. This is mirrored in Arma documentation which also has no idea where mods are by default on OSX.

Where to find the Workshop download location

The fastest way is simply copy the mod name from the Workshop entry you've downloaded and search for it via the Finder (⌘f ), as it will be buried in a series of deeply nested folders with a long stream of digits for names. This last is how Steam keeps track of your workshop items in general. It's meant to be machine rather than human readable.


Once you've found it, duplicate the folder containing the mod so you have a back-up incase something goes wrong and drag it into the Arma folder, which you can find by right clicking on the game in your library then

Properties -> Local File -> Browse Local Files






















Once you've dragged the mod folder into the Arma 3 one you can change the name to something human readable. Call it whatever you want but make sure it starts with an "@".

At this point it's worth stressing what could have been.
OSX and in fact past apple OS's have a handy feature where you can create a thing called an "alias" which you make from an existing file/folder/app, and on using it, it points the system to the real file/folder/app. So it's exactly like having multiple copies without giving up diskspace. Aliases, which are not new in computing, nor limited to Apple coding, are in-fact the solution to the whole workshop issue. If Arma had been told about folder aliases, you wouldn't be reading this guide because it wouldn't be necessary. Workshop content would just work.


Bit of a rant I know but I find it hard to get my head around the lack of energy BI had in getting the OSX version working beyond the proof of concept stage. Which came first chicken / egg, lack of developer interest / lack of playerbase interest?

If you're worried about or need the disk space you can go ahead and unsubscribe from the mod in Steam Workshop which will delete the original nested folder you just copied, leaving with the now properly installed mod in your Arma 3 folder.

Got the mod, now what?

There is no launcher app in Arma OSX so to get the mod(s) to show up inside Arma you need to use the "-mod" launch property accessed via the dialogue found by right clicking on the app in your library then

General -> Set Launch Options.

In the dialogue type:

-mod=@ModA

if you have more that one mod, separate the names with semicolons (";")

-mod=@ModA;@ModB;@ModC

and confirm the changes by clicking "OK"








When you run Arma next, you should see the mod icon(s) next to the puzzle piece icon (bottom left corner on the main menu), and also warnings of any dependencies you may have missed.
You should also be able to read the mod info by clicking on the requisite icon. If all you see is a white jigsaw piece and can't see any mod info something went wrong - check for typos etc.

And finally

There are a couple of caveats - the only way to stop a mod from loading is to go back and delete its name from the launch properties, and you'll need to repeat the whole download, drag and drop shennannigans if you want to keep the mod updated ( I believe I mentioned Arma not understanding aliases already).

This all can probably be automated via AppleScript or Automator workflows, which like the creation of most time saving stuff, I'll look into when doing it manually starts annoying me.

But on the plus side the install process is the same for mods from Armaholic (starting from the drag into the Arma 3 folder minus all the rooting about in cryptically named nested folders) which has a larger, more frequently updated selection of mods than the Steam Workshop, so it's worth knowing about anyway.

While you're in the Launch Options dialogue you might find these interesting

-skipIntro -noSplash

They skip the intro cutscene and remove the splash screen respectively. Just make sure to leave a space between each option.

[Calico-Jack]

@Duran - thanks for the feedback - good to know the info is still useful

[Duran]

Super helpful! Arma 3 Mods working with Mac OS X. Thank you!

[Calico-Jack]

@tactoc
Possibly - though:

if it requires compiling and hence a compiler, is it an OSX solution? Standard installs don't include dev tools.

Also downloading unknown scripts from the internet.

Not knocking your comment - looking for more looking for specific info.

[tactoc]

This tool makes it a bit easier to manage:

https://github.com/viktorholk/arma3-mod-manager-console

[Calico-Jack]

@theatricaltechie things may have changed since I wrote this. It's be a few years :). What you seem to be saying is dependencies make jigsaw pieces which sounds about right, however worth underlining- I wrote this about mods that should have loaded in vanilla Arma, but didn't.

[theatricaltechie]

Hey all, here is a little update to the post above. Calico-Jack in the section talking about verification that a mod loaded correctly;

"You should also be able to read the mod info by clicking on the requisite icon. If all you see is a white jigsaw piece and can't see any mod info something went wrong - check for typos etc."

This is not always true, if a mod lacks a mod.cpp file there will be no tool tip or iconography; it will show up as a puzzle piece and most likely remain as the @Mod name you gave the folder.

This does not effect the functionality of the mod, the mod.cpp file is optional and more about it can be found here: https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3:_Mod_Presentation

If you see a puzzle piece and think you have done all the steps correctly, try and find some mechanic or item the mod adds in game.

[richtowns23]

It has taken me about 4 hours of frustration to get to this page. And what it suggests is exactly the next thing I was going to try. Search for the mod name and load it manually. Nice to have it all confirmed. Lets see if it works ….

[Matidobro]

Hendrix's US Army Vests i nead find this mod

[Matidobro]

pls help

[Matidobro]

i can find mod files