Tuxborn for macOS users

Tuxborn’s player base is a mix of PC players and handheld players, running either Windows or Linux. But if your primary computer is a Mac, you may be wondering if it’s possible to run Tuxborn on that platform.

Answer: yes! There are two possible ways to go about this, and this guide is to cover the challenges of both of them.

Terminology note: when I say “device” anywhere on this page, you can take that to mean any of the following:

• A handheld device such as a Steam Deck, ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, etc.
• A PC running Windows or Linux
• A Windows VM on your Mac

‼️ Word of caution ‼️

Both processes described on this page are EXPERIMENTAL. Tuxborn does not officially support playing on a Mac, because our devs are not Mac users and therefore aren’t in a position to assist with problems on that platform. All of this page’s info comes from my research into the matter. I am a Mac user, so please direct any questions about it to me, not Omni or Ouroboros. This is also why this guide is published on my blog directly, rather than being included in the official Tuxborn wiki, because Omni and Ouroboros cannot give support on these procedures.

In short, we are well and thoroughly into Rule 11 territory here.

So if you try either of these procedures out, keep this in mind. Report any issues observed to me, so I can refine the instructions in this guide!

Lastly, I’m marking the parts that I’m still trying to refine with ‼️ symbols. So pay particular attention to those sections of this guide.

What you will need

For any Tuxborn install you will need the following things:

• An owned copy of Skyrim’s Anniversary Edition
• Wabbajack, the tool that lets you download and install Tuxborn
• Mod Organizer 2, the tool you use to launch Tuxborn, change profiles, adjust configurations, etc.

For purposes of getting Tuxborn to work on a Mac, you will also need:

• Crossover, which will allow you to run Windows programs in macOS.
• Something that can run a Windows VM. I recommend Parallels for this.
• A shared directory, drive, or partition that will be visible to both macOS and your Windows VM, which is where you’ll do the Tuxborn install.

Please see my page for Recommended means of playing and modding Skyrim on macOS for more in-depth discussion on these tools, and how they are best used when modding Skyrim on macOS.

Why a two-tiered approach is necessary for a fresh Tuxborn install

If you want to do a brand new Tuxborn install on your Mac, the core problem is that the two critical tools for this, Wabbajack and MO2, have diametrically opposed behavior on macOS.

Wabbajack will run in a Windows VM successfully. If you try to run it via Crossover, it will launch, but it has issues logging into Nexus–which will block you from doing the Tuxborn install.

Mod Organizer 2 will not run well in an ARM build of Windows. MO2 does not have an official ARM-friendly build, and last I checked, they don’t support ARM installs at all. So you are very likely to get unpredictable behavior even if you can launch MO2. You should not rely upon it to work for modding Skyrim in your VM. By contrast, it will launch in MacOS via Crossover.

So because of this, the two-tiered approach involves:

• Use the VM to run Wabbajack and do the core Tuxborn install process
• Use Crossover to launch MO2 and Skyrim so you can play

Next, I’ll go into a step by step description of both approaches.

The two-tiered approach

Here’s the two-tiered approach to take if you want to install directly on your Mac, and you don’t have another device with a working Tuxborn install you can copy from.

‼️ Important note: I have not yet fully confirmed this entire approach. I can confirm that most of it works, steps 1-6. The part I haven’t personally confirmed yet is to make sure that a Wabbajack install done in a Windows VM can be safely seen from Crossover.

I’m fairly sure it will, because practically speaking, this shouldn’t be hugely different from copying a working Wabbajack install off another device. In this case, the “other device” is your Windows VM. But I haven’t confirmed this yet. So let me know if you run into problems with this part. ‼️

Step 1: Install Crossover in MacOS

You can get Crossover from its official site.

Step 2: Create a Crossover bottle for Steam

Once Crossover is installed and working, you should be able to search in its UI to install the latest version of Steam into a new prefix/bottle. Follow Crossover’s UI and instructions for doing so.

What Advanced Graphics settings you should use in your bottle

From what I’ve seen in my research on Crossover so far, what specific graphics settings you should use are largely a matter of what specific game you’re playing, and personal preference.

For purposes of this guide, there are two problem areas to consider:

1. Community Shaders apparently breaks certain graphics, and specific graphics affected will depend on what settings you’re using
2. The Steam Overlay does not work on D3DMetal

See below for further information on both of these issues.

Aside from these, so far I do otherwise concur that which settings you should use are kind of up to you. Skyrim (whether vanilla or Tuxborn) does not appear to care what settings I select.

My main point of interest here is that I want to maintain access to F12 for screenshots. And if the Steam Overlay isn’t active, I can’t do that. So I’m currently leaning to DXMT/Msync, since that still gives me access to F12, and it’s not giving me lag like DXVK/Msync is. You should experiment with the settings, though, and select the ones that work best for you. If you have a more recent M series Mac than I do, you may get better results from other settings.

Step 3: Install and test Skyrim

Once Steam is installed, then you should be able to use it to install Skyrim. Do the following:

1. Download and install Skyrim from your Steam account.
2. Launch the game and let it download the Anniversary Edition content. You may need to go into the Creations menu to do this, if the content doesn’t automatically download. If you need to do that, then do the following:
   • Select the Creations option on the main menu
   • Select Options at the bottom of the screen
   • Select the option to download all Creation Club content
3. Launch a new test game to verify the game’s working as expected. Some things to check:
   1. Is the game handling sound correctly? Make sure you can hear all NPC dialogue, ambient noises, and especially all noises related to Alduin’s attack on Helgen.
   2. If you’re playing on a controller, is the controller behaving the way you expect, or do you need to do any adjustments?
   3. If you’re playing on keyboard and mouse, does that work correctly?

When I tested running vanilla Skyrim on Crossover, I ran into crackly issues with the game sound. I did the following to fix:

1. Went into the Utilities directory in macOS Applications
2. Launched the Audio MIDI Setup app
3. Changed the “Format” setting to 96,000 Hz

Step 3: Set up a Windows VM

For this, of course, you will need a licensed Windows install, as well as a licensed version of Parallels.

Get your VM working, and then you can move on to the next step.

Step 4: Set up a shared location for your Tuxborn install

You will need to install Tuxborn into a location visible to both macOS and Windows. It shouldn’t matter where, whether it’s a directory on your main drive, a separate partition, an external drive, an SSD, or what. Whatever you choose to use, it should be visible to both operating systems.

A Parallels VM should include settings to let you identify specific directories you want to share between the host OS and the VM. Include whatever location you want to use in those settings.

You should be able to find the relevant settings in Parallels Desktop via these steps:

1. Make sure your VM isn’t running, then in Parallels Desktop, click on the gear icon for your VM
2. The Configuration dialog for your VM should come up
3. Select “Sharing”
4. Select “Share Mac” tab
5. Turn the checkbox on for “Share custom Mac folders with Windows”
6. Click the “Manage Folders…” button
7. You should see a smaller dialog come up, labeled “User-defined macOS folders”
8. Add the folder you want to do this dialog, and click OK to return to the main settings

Step 5: Install Wabbajack

Inside your VM, download and install Wabbajack as per its standard instructions. Then get into its settings, and confirm you’re able to log into your Nexus account.

Step 6: Install Tuxborn

At this point, you should be able to follow the official Tuxborn install guide to do your Tuxborn install inside the VM. Just be sure to give it the shared location you’ve set up, so that Wabbajack knows where to download and put all the files.

Let that install take however long it needs to do its work.

‼️ Alternate version of this step: If like me you are not paying a yearly subscription to Parallels, you may find that trying to run Wabbajack to do an install to your shared drive may fail at the stage of building BSAs. If this happens, what I recommend you do is just finish the install inside your VM. Then, once the install is done, move everything out to the shared directory you set up in step 4. ‼️

Step 7: Add MO2 to Mac-side Steam

Standard Tuxborn instructions at this point would be asking you to add MO2 to your Windows Steam install. We can’t do that in this case, because as noted above, MO2 is not supported on ARM builds of Windows.

So this is where the shared location you set up in Step 4 comes into real play.

Go back out into macOS, and launch the Steam you set up in Step 2. There, follow the standard Tuxborn instructions for adding MO2 as a non-Steam-game shortcut. Use the MO2 EXE in your Tuxborn in the shared directory to do this.

Step 8: Test launching MO2 to make sure it works

At this point, you should be caught up with the main Tuxborn install guide, and should be able to launch MO2 and play. This should work as Tuxborn’s standard launch procedure:

1. Launching MO2 from Steam
2. Selecting your desired profile in MO2
3. Clicking the Run button
4. Not clicking the Unlock button while you wait for Skyrim to load
5. And, finally, reaching the main menu so you can play

The multi-device approach

If you have a working Tuxborn install on any other device, this is another approach you can take. There are three major advantages to doing it this way:

1. It’ll take a lot less time and effort than doing a brand new fresh install
2. It will remove the need for a Windows VM entirely
3. It will put you into a good position to synchronize saves between your Mac and your other device

Here are the steps to follow:

1. You’d still need Crossover and a bottle set up in it to run Steam and Skyrim on your Mac. Follow steps 1-3 as described above in this guide for the fresh install approach.
2. Copy the working Tuxborn install off your device up to your computer. You will need all of the Tuxborn files, minus the original downloads, at minimum. (You can also copy the downloads, if you get to a point where you think you might need to re-run Wabbajack on the files for some reason, but it shouldn’t be critical.)
3. Use whatever program works best for you to do this. Some suggestions are:
   1. FileZilla
   2. (The rather unfortunately named but still highly functional) Cyberduck
   3. Rsync, if you’re comfortable working in the command line
4. Then do steps 7-8 from above list.

If you’re a Steam Deck player, then what I recommend most for file transfer is Syncthing (see the links provided below on this page in the Synchronizing Your Tuxborn Saves section). That’s easiest to set up and would only require that your Mac and your Deck are on the same network.

If you’re more technically proficient and have set your Steam Deck up to be accessible via SSH, then rsync or scp are options as well. Both of these programs are available via the MacOS terminal, so you can just run them that way. Between the two, I’d recommend rsync.

I used this guide to set up my Steam Deck to be accessible via SSH:

Enabling SSH Server on a Steam Deck

Something like FileZilla or Cyberduck will likewise work best if your Steam Deck is visible on your network. Specifics on that are outside the scope of this guide, but I will at least say here that if your Deck’s IP address can be seen from your Mac, another step you might want to do is to edit your Mac’s host file so that you have an easy alias for that IP address.

The hosts file lives in the path /etc/hosts. You can edit that file directly in the terminal, or via whatever GUI-based text editor you like, but you will need admin access to do so.

At the bottom of the file, add a line that would look like this:

1.2.3.4   steamdeck

Replace the 1.2.3.4 number with your Steam Deck’s real IP address, whatever that may be on your network.

Result: you should then be able to access your Deck via the “steamdeck” alias from your Mac, rather than having to remember the exact IP address.

Issues you may run into

This section is to cover various issues I found and solved as part of playtesting Tuxborn once I had it installed on the Mac.

You play on controller but your controller doesn’t work

I ran into this with copying my working Steam Deck install off that device. When I launched MO2 from Steam on my Mac, I was able to manipulate the game with my keyboard…

But I am not a keyboard/mouse player. When I play on computer, I play with a controller. So this was a problem.

My resolution for this turned out to be the following:

1. Copy the install files into my Parallels VM
2. Re-run Wabbajack on the files completely inside the VM, because Parallels kept dying on me in the middle of building BSA files (see next section)
3. Then move the install back out into the shared directory in macOS

(This was almost the same as doing a fresh install, really. See my additional note in step 6 above in the fresh install section.)

Result: Tuxborn acknowledged my controller at the main menu and I was able to use it in-game.

You have to re-run Wabbajack on your Mac install, but building BSAs is not happy

In the course of my testing, I had to try to re-run Wabbajack a few times on the files I’d copied up from the Deck. Each time I did it, I made it as far as one of the final steps: building BSA files.

At which point Wabbajack threw an error claiming it could not find part of a path pointing to a particular file–even though I could tell by manually checking that the file it was complaining about was absolutely in the file structure.

When I copied the entire Tuxborn install completely into the VM and re-ran Wabbajack that way, the entire process was successful.

Conclusion: Parallels for some reason was not happy about Wabbajack doing a huge operation out to the shared directory. Which, as far as the VM was concerned, was a network drive. You’d think that wouldn’t make any difference given that it was still the exact same computer, and yet.

If like me you’re running a Parallels that does not have a yearly subscription, you may run into the same problem. I suspect it might be another of those things Parallels is throttling for those of us who don’t pay up for the subscription tier. 🙄

‼️ If anyone with a Parallels subscription can confirm you’re able to re-Wabbajack your Tuxborn files in a shared directory successfully, let me know and I’ll update this page appropriately. ‼️

MO2 may throw you an error message complaining about paths and permissions

If you launch MO2 and see an error message complaining that it can’t make a downloads directory, can’t find the SKSE loader, etc., you may be running into the same problem I did: that the working install I copied off my Steam Deck was configured for the Steam Deck’s pathing. Which may well be different from how you’ve set up on your Mac.

In my case, this is what I did to fix the problem:

1. Noted the exact path the error was complaining about, which was D:/Games/Tuxborn1.1
2. In the Wine configuration settings for my Crossover bottle, I mapped a D: drive to point directly at /Users/annathepiper/Documents, where I’d put my Tuxborn install, under the My Games subdirectory
3. Edited the MO2 ini file in Tuxborn to change all occurrences of Games to My Games

So if you see this problem, you should follow a similar procedure. Adjust these provided steps appropriately, based on the specific paths you’ve used on the original device, and on your own Mac.

You can launch Tuxborn, but the game resolution is off

If you’re able to launch but the game window comes up too small, your Tuxborn configuration may still be using the original device’s resolution. This is especially likely if your source device was a Steam Deck.

Here’s what I did to fix this problem:

1. Closed Tuxborn
2. Launched vanilla Skyrim
3. Checked options in the launcher to see what resolution it defaulted to, which was 1512x982
4. In my Tuxborn install, opened the file /mods/Tuxborn - Settings/SKSE/Plugins/SSEDisplayTweaks.ini
5. Uncommented Resolution and set it to 1512x982

You should set your resolution to whatever you want it to be. In my case, since I have my macOS set for default resolution, that translates to the numbers I list above. If you set your screen resolution higher, you should of course use different numbers than me.

‼️ Steam overlay doesn’t work with D3DMetal ‼️

There is a known issue with using D3DMetal for graphics in Crossover: the Steam overlay does not work.

This will block you from using F12 to take any screenshots, if you’re accustomed to doing that. Workaround for doing this is to use the macOS-level screenshot functionality, by hitting the Command+Shift+3 button combo. This will save screenshots to your Desktop. So be sure to check your Desktop when you’re done with a session, to organize any screenshots you take.

You will also be blocked from using Steam’s built-in performance monitor. macOS however also provides a solution for this problem. There is a built-in HUD you can activate to track your FPS. You can turn this on in your Terminal app with the following command:

/bin/launchctl setenv MTL_HUD_ENABLED 1

To turn it off again, change the 1 to a 0 and run the command again:

/bin/launchctl setenv MTL_HUD_ENABLED 0

You will need to make sure your Crossover’s Steam is closed, as well as MO2 and Skyrim, before either of these commands will take effect.

Additionally, there is a helper tool you can install that will put a little icon on your systray at the top of your screen, so that you can toggle the HUD without having to bother with the terminal. This tool is called MetalHUDHelper, and you can download it at the link I’ve given. Look at its Readme for install instructions.

Note: if you have the HUD active, it will be included in any screenshots you take via the OS-level screenshot key combo, unlike with Steam and how its overlay elements can be left out of screenshots. There is a hotkey to toggle the HUD on and off, Shift+F9. However, veteran Skyrim players will immediately see the problem with this: F9 is the game’s default hotkey for loading from last quicksave. Or, in Tuxborn’s case, last actual save.

So if you want to be able to toggle the macOS HUD on and off while it’s active, you’ll want to map your “load from last save” button in Skyrim’s settings to something besides F9.

‼️ Community Shaders breaks some graphics ‼️

In my testing, I found that depending on what graphics settings I selected in the Advanced Settings section for my bottle, certain parts of my graphics were missing. Generally, I got best results with these settings:

• Graphics: D3DMetal
• Synchronization: MSync

However, even with those, I found that my grass graphics were missing. The shapes of them were still present, but the actual graphics were missing.

Other options for graphics included Auto, DXMT, DXVK, and Wine. With all of these, I had other graphical symptoms as follows:

1. Tuxborn loading screen looked weird, doubled and mostly purple, until the main menu finally loaded
2. Grass graphics were present, but the sky graphics were not
3. Unlike with the D3DMetal settings, the Steam overlay did load… partially. I could not however get its actual text to show up, so it wasn’t exactly useful. All I saw was a graph line.

Since I’ve had another player start testing these procedures, I know now that Community Shaders version 1.2.1, the version we have in Tuxborn’s load order, seems to be the root cause of this problem. So if you want your graphics to look more or less correct in Tuxborn on your Mac, you will need to do the following:

1. Open up MO2
2. Go to the Shaders section
3. Disable Community Shaders
4. You should also disable the “CS” entry in the same section. Depending on which profile you’re running, it will be one of the following:
   • CS Desktop
   • CS Handheld
   • CS Deck

So far in my testing, disabling anything else in the Shaders section (as will appear in the Desktop or Handheld profiles) does not appear to be necessary. I’ll update this page if I find otherwise.

‼️ Black face issue in RaceMenu ‼️

If you’re able to launch Tuxborn but find you’re seeing the infamous black face bug in RaceMenu, Fynman reports being able to solve this by disabling “Skin Feature Overlays SE – Freckles Scars Birthmarks Stretch Marks Moles and More for Face and Body RaceMenu Overlays” in MO2. This is in the “Overlays” section of the load order.

Synchronizing your Tuxborn saves

If you want to be able to switch between your Mac and your other device, consider setting up to synchronize your save files. I have instructions on how to do this at the following two links:

1. HOWTO: Sync Skyrim saves between devices
2. HOWTO: Use Syncthing to sync between devices

I can recommend using Syncthing, as I have that working successfully between my MacBook and my Deck.

Which Tuxborn profiles to use

If you set up to sync between your Mac and any other device (physical ones, since a Windows VM would not be relevant here), make sure to use correct Tuxborn profiles to make that work.

Testing so far indicates that different M series Macs may have different levels of ability to run the Tuxborn profiles. I’m on an M1 MacBook Pro, and had issues launching the Tuxborn – Desktop profile until I disabled Community Shaders. Once I did that, though, I was able to launch the Desktop profile. I will need to confirm functionality in the LOTD museum on both Deck and Desktop, though, and will report back here.

Fellow Mac user Fynman, who reported in on my post Oh hey look I got Tuxborn working on my Mac!, is running an M4 Mac and was easily able to run the Desktop profile.

Device type	Better specs than Deck?	Device profile	Mac profile
PC running Tuxborn	N/A	Tuxborn – Desktop	Tuxborn – Desktop
PC running Tuxborn	N/A	TuxBFCO – Desktop	TuxBFCO – Desktop
Steam Deck	N/A	Tuxborn – Deck	Tuxborn – Deck
Steam Deck	N/A	TuxBFCO – Deck	TuxBFCO – Deck
Other handheld device	Yes	Tuxborn – Handheld	Tuxborn – Desktop
Other handheld device	Yes	TuxBFCO – Handheld	TuxBFCO – Desktop
Other handheld device	No	Tuxborn – Deck	Tuxborn – Deck
Other handheld device	No	TuxBFCO – Deck	TuxBFCO – Deck

Handhelds with better specs than the Steam Deck would be something like the ROG Ally X. If you have an older ROG Ally, or something like the Lenovo Legion Go, you may or may not have specs comparable to the Deck. Do a little research to confirm. The Deck’s what I’m most familiar with, so players with other handhelds, you’ll need to do some doublechecking!

Worst case scenario, if you’re not sure if you should be using the Handheld or Deck profiles, try both and see.

Just remember that the Handheld and Desktop profiles are compatible with each other. But neither of them are compatible with the Deck profiles.

Conclusion

And that’s it. So now I have a working Tuxborn install on my Mac. Playtesting is continuing, and I will update this page with further details as I have them.

Talk to me if you have any questions, either via this blog or on the #txbn-general channel on the Aetherius Modding Discord.

Credits

Many thanks to commenter Fynman for dropping comments on my announcement post, and contributing the following info:

• Confirming that Community Shaders was the root cause of the graphical issues I was seeing
• Confirming that an M4 Mac can easily run Tuxborn’s Desktop profile
• Confirming a fix for the black face issue in RaceMenu