QL Steam Client on OSX

This tutorial outlines the procedure for running the Quake Live Steam client on OSX 10.11 by using Wine and Wineskin wrapper. It should be relevant to any version of OSX running on Intel hardware.

Introduction

Ever since the full implementation of Quake Live on Steam some Mac users have been made to choose between their favorite game and their favorite OS. While there are workarounds, such as Parallels and Bootcamp, presented here is an alternative to those approaches. You will be shown how to run Quake Live on your Intel Mac by using Wine. This guide is intended to be easy to understand yet comprehensive. Advanced knowledge of Wine is not necessary.

Compatibility and Performance

Obviously, Quake Live is meant to run on Windows. Wine is a compatibility layer that allows, in this case, OSX to run Windows applications. Steam has some issues, but Quake Live functions well. Here is what you can expect when using Wine.

Known issues:
If you find a way to fix any of these please let me know, and I'll add your contribution to this guide.

• Some Steam tabs can't be viewed. While the Library is accessible the Store and other tabs show up as black screens. This problem is due to Steam's WebHelper Chromium framework not being supported by Wine. Fortunately these features are available on the Steam website.

• Steam Overlay does not work. DirectX 10 is a minimum requirement. The latest API supported by Wine is DirectX 9.0c.

Performance:
Testing has shown that Quake Live via Wine does not run as smoothly as on Windows through Bootcamp. The performance is acceptable, however. Tweaking video settings in Quake Live goes a long way toward improving your gameplay experience. You may even have some luck adding additional Wine packages or configuring Wine itself. Just remember that your frame rate target is the refresh rate of your monitor.

There are reasons for the performance difference. First of all is that Wine is a compatibility layer, so there will always be a penalty when compared to native applications. Second is that certain Mac graphics cards are more tuned for reliability than performance. Especially in some Mac Mini's, iMacs, and MacBooks, the Apple signed drivers handicap their respective chipsets for reasons of heat/noise concerns. Modify drivers at your own risk. Consider a Speedfan alternative such as Macs Fan Control to prevent thermal throttling.

Convenience:
No need to dual boot or open up a virtual machine. From the user's perspective Steam and Quake Live will run just as any other OSX program. Wine will automatically run as a background process when these applications are started.

Configuring Wine

Let's begin.

Step 1:
Obtain Wineskin Winery from here[sourceforge.net]. Version 1.7 is used in this example.

Step 2:
After Wineskin Winery has downloaded move it to the Applications folder then launch. This dialog box should appear.


Step 3:
Click the '+' button to install a Wine engine. Select the latest version then click Download and Install.


Step 4:
Once the engine installation process has completed the Wineskin Winery dialog box appears again. Click Update Wrapper.

Step 5:
Now select Create New Blank Wrapper. Name the wrapper Steam.app and proceed. During this build process what is called a Wine wrapper is being installed. All files will automatically be saved within from now on.


When complete click View wrapper in Finder and familiarize yourself with its location (here it is ~/Users/'UserName'/Applications/Wineskin).


Step 6:
If the Finder window referenced from the previous step hasn't been opened navigate to the location of the wrapper. Right click on the icon Steam.app and select Show Package Contents.


Double click on the Wineskin icon.


Step 7:
Select Set Screen Options. Configure similarly to this for now. You may wish to change some of these options later.
(Per the Wineskin website you may have to uncheck Auto Detect GPU Info for Direct3D when running later versions of OSX. Start by attempting this step as shown. Follow the recommendation if you have problems with crashing applications.)


Once finished click Done.

Proceed to the next section of this guide.

Steam and Support Files

If all went accordingly then Wine has successfully installed. This next section will show how to install the Steam client as well as necessary compatibility modules for Quake Live itself.

Step 1:
Back at the Wineskin dialog box click Advanced to open this window.


Then click on the Tools tab.


Now click Winetricks then the Update button in the Winetricks window.


The update process happens quickly so don't be too concerned if it seems like it hasn't applied.

Step 2:
Now, with the Winetricks window still opened, type 'steam' into the search bar at the top. Click the dropdown for apps and select the checkbox for steam. Click Run.

The Steam install process begins. Allow updates to apply and enter login credentials.


Step 3:
You should be presented the familiar Steam home page with your Library visible. Don't be tempted to install Quake Live just yet. There are a few compatibility files that need to be added first. Go ahead and exit Steam then quit Wine.

Step 4:
Navigate to the Winetricks window once more. Search for and install these packages individually. Errors may be encountered during installation, particularly with xna40. This is typical.

• msxml3

• dotnet40

• xna40

Be careful should you decide to install additional packages. Conflicts and broken .dll's may be created.

If you feel confident in the installation process up to this point head to the next section.

Running Quake Live

Finally, it's time to install Quake Live.

Step 1:
A launcher needs to be created for Steam. Close all windows except for the Finder location of the Steam wrapper. Open the Wineskin Advanced window once again. The steps to doing this are available in the previous sections. Enter the Configuration tab. Now to assign a Windows EXE for Steam. Click Browse and navigate to Steam.exe then press Choose.


Select a custom icon or just leave it as default. Close this window.

Step 2:
Now that a laucher has been created open the location of the Steam.app Wineskin.


Double click the icon to launch. Steam opens along with an icon in the menu bar and the dock.

Step 3:
Install Quake Live through Steam just as normal. Again, the install location will be contained within the wrapper created previously. The directory structure should be familiar to any Windows user.




Your Mac is now ready to run Quake Live.

[KillGradient]

- Updated to fix broken Wineskin Winery download link.

[KillGradient]

I'm glad you verified this. Steam dropped support for windows XP on Jan 1 of this year, so I was wondering if this guide still worked. Thank you.

[keefo]

Yo, just wanted to say thanks for this, tried it last night and still works in 2019 on a 2011 mbp with high sierra. Cheers.

[KillGradient]

I got about 55fps on campgrounds using a 2009 mac mini. The majority of macs kill that thing hardware-wise. No input lag as far as i could tell. Give it a shot and let us know how it goes.

[Colliding gravastars shells]

how are performances/fps/ input lag ?

[xdshot]

Another and probably the easier way is to install PlayOnMac imo