Over the last couple months I have been working on porting Source Engine to PowerPC Mac. Today, I'm finally releasing that work through a new tool called Source Engine Configurator.
This utility patches existing, legally purchased copies of some Source games into versions that run natively on PowerPC Macs. The goal of this project is to bring an entirely new ecosystem of games and mods to PPC hardware while making them as playable and optimized as possible. The engine runs natively on PowerPC with no virtualization or emulation tricks.
This initial release should be considered an early alpha and a foundation for future work. The largest issue you'll probably notice is that NPC animations are badly broken and many objects are lit incorrectly. There are also issues with some post-processing effects, HDR and color correction.
I've spent most of my time testing Portal and HL2, although Episode 1 and 2 and Half-Life 1 do launch and seem to work correctly.
Download from Macintosh Garden: https://macintoshgarden.org/games/source-engine-configurator-ppc
Requirements
- Your own legal copy of the supported games
- PowerPC G4 or G5 Mac (1.2GHz+ recommended, G4 experience is very poor currently)
- 512MB RAM (2GB recommended)
- OpenGL 2.0 capable GPU (launcher checks this for you)
- ~35GB available space (for all games)
- Mac OS X 10.5.4 or higher
- Also works on the PPC Snow Leopard alpha
- Dual-processor G5 strongly recommended
Supported Games
- Portal
- Half-Life: Source
- Half-Life Deathmatch: Source
- Half-Life 2
- Half-Life 2: Episode One
- Half-Life 2: Episode Two
- Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
- Counter-Strike: Source (not yet playable)
- Day of Defeat: Source (not yet playable)
Not Supported
- Left 4 Dead 1/2
- Portal 2
- Team Fortress 2
- CSGO
- DOTA 2
- Garry's Mod
Installation
1. Copy your desired game(s) to the Mac
2. Choose a game from the configurator
3. Select the game folder and install destination
4. Follow the install instructions
5. Configure and launch the generated .app
The configurator manages each game install, allows you to change video settings, and also supports updates so that future fixes to the engine can be applied as a quick patch.
This project does not include game assets or Source Engine source code. You must provide legally purchased copies of supported games.
Please do not redistribute or sell this tool. It is released free of charge for non-commercial use.
The launcher has the ability to update games in place. Future fixes and performance improvements to the engine will be made available through Macintosh Garden - the new launcher version will check your games and show you which ones have updates available.
Roadmap/Goals
- Expanded list of tested/working Source mods (The Stanley Parable, Zombie Panic Source, Portal: Prelude, etc)
- Native dedicated server support (HL2DM, CSS)
- Source SDK support (Hammer etc)
- Additional PPC optimization (G4/G5 Altivec builds, optimized physics, animation, etc)
- Networking interoperability (play on PC servers)
- Additional game support (CS:GO and TF2 are possible)
This project is still heavily work-in-progress, but it already opens the door to running a large collection of Source Engine content natively on PowerPC Macs for the first time. Hope you enjoy and watch out for future updates!
This utility patches existing, legally purchased copies of some Source games into versions that run natively on PowerPC Macs. The goal of this project is to bring an entirely new ecosystem of games and mods to PPC hardware while making them as playable and optimized as possible. The engine runs natively on PowerPC with no virtualization or emulation tricks.
This initial release should be considered an early alpha and a foundation for future work. The largest issue you'll probably notice is that NPC animations are badly broken and many objects are lit incorrectly. There are also issues with some post-processing effects, HDR and color correction.
I've spent most of my time testing Portal and HL2, although Episode 1 and 2 and Half-Life 1 do launch and seem to work correctly.
Download from Macintosh Garden: https://macintoshgarden.org/games/source-engine-configurator-ppc
Requirements
- Your own legal copy of the supported games
- PowerPC G4 or G5 Mac (1.2GHz+ recommended, G4 experience is very poor currently)
- 512MB RAM (2GB recommended)
- OpenGL 2.0 capable GPU (launcher checks this for you)
- ~35GB available space (for all games)
- Mac OS X 10.5.4 or higher
- Also works on the PPC Snow Leopard alpha
- Dual-processor G5 strongly recommended
Supported Games
- Portal
- Half-Life: Source
- Half-Life Deathmatch: Source
- Half-Life 2
- Half-Life 2: Episode One
- Half-Life 2: Episode Two
- Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
- Counter-Strike: Source (not yet playable)
- Day of Defeat: Source (not yet playable)
Not Supported
- Left 4 Dead 1/2
- Portal 2
- Team Fortress 2
- CSGO
- DOTA 2
- Garry's Mod
Installation
1. Copy your desired game(s) to the Mac
2. Choose a game from the configurator
3. Select the game folder and install destination
4. Follow the install instructions
5. Configure and launch the generated .app
The configurator manages each game install, allows you to change video settings, and also supports updates so that future fixes to the engine can be applied as a quick patch.
This project does not include game assets or Source Engine source code. You must provide legally purchased copies of supported games.
Please do not redistribute or sell this tool. It is released free of charge for non-commercial use.
The launcher has the ability to update games in place. Future fixes and performance improvements to the engine will be made available through Macintosh Garden - the new launcher version will check your games and show you which ones have updates available.
Roadmap/Goals
- Expanded list of tested/working Source mods (The Stanley Parable, Zombie Panic Source, Portal: Prelude, etc)
- Native dedicated server support (HL2DM, CSS)
- Source SDK support (Hammer etc)
- Additional PPC optimization (G4/G5 Altivec builds, optimized physics, animation, etc)
- Networking interoperability (play on PC servers)
- Additional game support (CS:GO and TF2 are possible)
This project is still heavily work-in-progress, but it already opens the door to running a large collection of Source Engine content natively on PowerPC Macs for the first time. Hope you enjoy and watch out for future updates!
