Help packaging/distributing game on OS X

Development Platform & Builds
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I’d sure appreciate some help with this… Can’t seem to figure out how to package/ export a stand-alone game for Mac.

I’ve tried “package project”, “cook content”, and followed the tutorials I could find using the Project Launcher. I can make a file run on a machine with UE4 installed, but it doesn’t open on machines without. Not sure what to do with the .pak files and .bin files generated.

I’m new to UE, and am sure I’m missing something simple. Just would like to send my game to other mac users in a single file if possible. Any links or tutorials?

!

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Hi nblevins,

Could you list the tutorials you followed for this process I’d like to confirm that you were following the correct ones.

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3

Hi Ed –

Thank you for helping with this.

I think the most promising instructions I found were in the documentation at

Here are the steps I took:

I created a new C++ project without starter content, and only a light, sphere, and cube on a single level. Set the new level to be the default in settings>project settings>maps and modes.

I then went to Project Launcher, and created a Custom Launch Profile with the settings as indicated in the directions. Since I want to run this on a Mac, I selected “MacNoEditor” as the “Cooked Platform”.

When I launch the profile, it runs through and creates the following files in the “Releases” folder: AssetRegistry.bin and TestProject-MacNoEditor.pak.

Not sure what I need to do with those (if anything)… The instructions aren’t clear on that.

I also get a “MacNoEditor” package folder generated with an “Engine” folder and a “Test Project” folder. In TestProject>Binaries>Mac there is a Test-Project-Mac-Shipping file that will run the test game on my development computer and on another computer that has UE4 installed.

However, when copy the package to a different computer that does not have UE4 installed, and try to open it, I get the following error message:

Message
The global shader cache file ‘Volumes/MEDIA/MacNoEditor/Engine/GlobalShaderCache-SF_METAL_SM5.bin’ is missing.

Your Application is built to load COOKED content. No
COOKED content was found; This usually means you did not cook content for this build.
It also may indicate missing cooked data for a shader
platform(e.g., OpenGL under Windows): Make sure
your platform’s packaging settings include this
Targeted RHI.

Alternatively build and run the UNCOOKED version instead.

So that’s where I am stuck.

again - any guidance is most appreciated.

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108366-ue4errormessage.jpg

1 Like
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Hi nblevins,

If you are simply trying to package your game to run on another machine have you tried this method? Going to file>package project>mac (see screenshot)

108556-packagemac.jpg
108556-packagemac.jpg2880×1800 638 KB

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Hi Ed –

. Yes, I started with “package project” as you show above, and still got the same error message.

As it turns out, I think it is a version problem. I was using a machine with OS X 10.10.5 to package the project. I tried running the resulting file on multiple machines, and it would only run on those running OS 10.11.5 or earlier. Those with later versions (10.11.6) all returned the error above.

Glad to have that figured out.

again

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Have you tried packaging on a machine with OS X 10.11.6+ and see if the packaged build will run on older versions of OS X?

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Ed – I packaged it with MacOs 10.12 (Sierra) and UE4.13. It now runs on all of my machines. I haven’s tried it on a pre-10.11.6 machine yet (since I updated all my system software). I’ll give that a try as well and let you know.

again

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