Staredit Network

Now, the only computer I have is a Mac. That makes it very difficult to take part in advanced map editing because there simply aren't as many or as good StarCraft map editors for Mac OS as there are for Windows. StarEdit.net provides the best, however, and has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me as a mapmaker and gamer.

BUT

The Mac downloads are in a pitiful state. Most can be downloaded and unzipped, but then the applications appear as text documents. Others are completely broken, and the user has to dig through the source files to pick out what he needs and tweak it to make it run. Nobody has explained how to deal with any of these problems, and I find that a casual downloader would be immediately discouraged and perhaps would abandon SEN without further thought upon having such an experience. I KNOW that there are Mac users on this site. How about we all come together, share our experiences, and create a document that deals with issues such as the above. Mac users are people, too! I think we need to show them (US) a little more respect and be more supportive.

So, my point is: we need to figure out what's wrong with the downloads, how to deal with those problems, and perhaps repost all downloads with some extra instruction and the correct file sets.

[center]Hello fellow mac user. I've been thinking the same for a while now. When I get home (I'm at the library right now), I'll start working on this. I seem to be the only mac user submitting files, so it makes sence I should help others use them.[/center]

The only people on SEN I know of who use Macs are, besides you two, warhammer and myself.

Realize that my name is still PCFredZ (I actually did make a MacFredZ account on B.net for no reason), and PC is my primary platform.

Nevertheless, I'd still like to get a good Mac editor to use on my Powerbook.

I've been trying to get that Mac section updated since early 2005, but help never seemed to come by. The problem with Mac isn't the Mac itself, I'm sure that there are very good Mac Staredit programs, the problem is that the DLDB Keepers had PC's and pretty much nothing could be done.

Now that PCFredz is DLDBKeeper and has a Mac, I hope that he can manage that section of the DLDB, even though we other DLDB Keepers won't help in that area at all since we don't have Mac's. If any other Mac user wants to help, I'm glad to see so and I'll do the best can, even if it's approving a file or editing it.

My dad has stashed away my Powerbook and also won't let me buy a new hard drive until after I do my SAT II for Math this Saturday.

Hope to see you back soon, Fred. By the way, guys, I love how quickly you receive responses here. It gives you a real feeling of community. Get that back to Yoshi somehow. Now, I'm going to go down the list of Mac downloads and tell you what I know about how to get each one working once you download it, starting with the earliest ones on the bottom. This will be an ongoing process, with a post for maybe every one I do as I go over them.

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StarFire Edit:

The unzipped folder contains two files. One is called "__MACOSX" and contains a file with a generic application icon that is labeled "StarFire Edit". When you try to open it, Mac OS tells you that the file is broken. The other file in the original folder is supposedly the actual application, having both the appropriate icon and title. However, when you double-click it, it opens and quickly closes. There is another way to go about this, though. If you control-click on that icon, and select "Show Package Contents", you can view the various files compiled in the application. At this point you see a folder labeled "Contents" and a text document labeled "StarFire Edit". The latter is an empty file. The former, on the other hand, contains two more text documents ("Info.plist", "PkgInfo") and two more folders ("MacOS", "Resources"). The two documents appear to have some sort of scriptive value, but none to a mapmaker. The folder "MacOS" contains another text document labeled "StarFire Edit", this one filled with illegible characters. "Resources" is your jackpot. In there, you see two resource files called "HOST Resource.rsrc" and "SEMPQ Shell.rsrc", along with "Patch Data.mpq", from which you can extract a hex file, "SEMPQ Shell.icns", which opens as a text document with more illegible characters, and finally the folder "Extra Data". In "Extra Data" is a text document labeled "Starcraft Mac Patch". If you move this to your main StarCraft directory to replace the original, you can run StarFire edit through regular StarEdit by opening StarEdit. If you do this, you should create a backup copy of the original "Starcraft Mac Patch" so that you can still use regular StarEdit in the future. Also, BNet won't load without the original patch, so you definitely want to keep it stored somewhere while you're using the map editor. Below, I'm providing a directory tree for the StarFire Edit folder that you get from the ZIP file you download.

• StarFire Edit
  • __MACOSX
    • StarFire Edit (broken application)
  • StarFire Edit (application icon; quits upon launch)
    • StarFire Edit (empty document)
    • Contents
      • Info.plist (XML property list)
      • PkgInfo (text document)
      • MacOS
        • StarFire Edit (illegible document)
      • Resources
        • HOST Resource.rsrc (resource file)
        • SEMPQ Shell.rsrc (resource file)
        • Patch Data.mpq (MPQ file)
        • SEMPQ Shell.icns (illegible text document)
        • Extra Data
          • Starcraft Mac Patch (use to run SFE thru reg SE)

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Well, there you go. But that's just StarFire Edit. Why is the application broken? Why do you have to manually move files to make it work? I'm also wondering, nuclearrabbit, where you got the application. Did you find it somewhere? Get it from a friend? Make it yourself? Still got tons of work to do on this, guys, but I think we can really clean up the Mac tools database. I'm looking forward to some feedback about each file from you, too.

Just read the comments to find out if they work or not.

nuclearrabbit posted instructions to get Starfire working, but it didn't work for me, but feel free to try it yourself.

If you want to clean up the Mac Tools, you're going to have to do it yourself. I'm going to have to ask you to make a different topic in the Null forum for that, though.

Well, you see, I can't do it personally because I can't be sure about which of the files in the unzipped folders are absolutely necessary, how things work, etc. I can tell you guys my experiences, you can tell me yours, and we can make some conclusions, but I think someone like nuclearrabbit would have to do the main reorganization. Believe me, though, I would if I could. In fact, if nuclearrabbit would explain some of the stuff to me, I'd be willing to do as much as I can.

Ah, Ive been busy and passed this topic up. I never came over a bad download, and Im too lazy to find any. If you could list some that are screwed up I'd gladly help... I think.

You can start by writing a foolproof method to getting Starfire to work.

Well first, in the "Starfire Edit Patch", you need to rename the instructions (and the file) to renaming it to Starcraft Patch to Starcraft Mac Patch, like nuclearrabbit said. When I said that, I couldnt remember exactly what I had done, so I just looked at what the patch was named to remind and yada. So start with that. Now, anyway,

So here, Ill do it.


Dont download Stafire Edit. Download the file im giving you. Unzip the file, open the folder and take the file called "Starcraft Mac Patch" and put it in your Starcraft Files Folder. Yes, replace the already existing Starcraft Mac Patch. (Or put it in a different folder to be safe.) Now open the regular Staredit and it will open StarFire Edit. (Though there is no new icon or info, it is StarFire edit) And viola, you have got a new editor!


I included the intructions in the file. If you follow these intructions and it will work. (Unless you have tampered with the files in the Starcraft Files folder already and screwed things up...)

[center]Just to be on the safe side, always have a backup copy of the default setup. I made a new folder just for SE mods, alias everything you need.
To get StarFire to work, steal the patch (Instructions posted above). Same goes for StarEdit Emerald OS X, Emerald Edit Mac OS9X, and Starfire Edit Patch.
For nonSE modding files:
StarCraft Colors Mac OS 9 and StarCraft Colors Mac OS X They both seem to work fine.
Cambrian 0.2.1 Alpha never got developed past the Alpha stages, so don't expect perfection.
TBL Editor hasn't had any problems working, from what I hear.
Arsenal Zero Mac OS X, now wer're getting into it. This program is a straight port of it's PC form. It's SIOUX, making for easy use. Make sure you stick to the format files.
IceCC Mac OS X, another straight port, can't compile multiple scripts, and is quite buggy. I have no Java skill, so don't ask me about this one.
DropMPQ Mac OS X, working fine.
MPQDraft Mac OS X Still Beta, some things don't work.
Cambrian Source, apparently works.
Sonium, Professional product, professional quality.
MPQ Framework, Same as the Cambrian source code. It works, if you know what you're doing.
Advanced Mac Edit, Package of tools, pretty simple to understand.

Well, that's what I feel like saying for now.[/center]

Um... You have your crap, now will someone update it?

If someone with a Mac (Mainly PCFredz, don't know about Rantent) doesn't update it in a week or so, I'll go ahead and trust you and update everything Mac related.

Well, the original link to StarFire Edit:
http://home.comcast.net/~starfirex/Starcraft/SFEditMac.zip
for OS X seems to work just fine by double-clicking the .app. Maybe this should be added to the DLDB.

No, it works the exact same way like the other one. It doesnt work.

It asks you to select a copy of "Staredit (Carbon)", which doesnt exist. Thats why were using the instructions posted above.

When it asks for StarEdit (Carbon), I just pick regular StarEdit. It works fine for me.

I might be able to update it monday night. I'm pretty booked this week.

Thats good for you, but it doesnt work for alot of us. I mean trust me, we all tried it. It just varies for all Mac users. And we have to stop that. So thats why were doing this.

Its been a bit over a week. ...