list of changes:

• Lots fixes and optimizations, not going to list them all…
  • Importing, Exporting, and switching engines on wrappers now automatically fix the prefix to the current Wine version right away, not waiting until the first time you use the wrapper.  This fixes many issue of hanging Wine processes.
  • WineskinSC import had many little issues that were fixed, it should work a lot better.
  • Creating wineprefixes inside the wrapper should be much faster, and less chance of messing up.  This will fix wrapper creation, and wineprefix rebuilds… as well as many times wrappers would just fail to create right.
• Added an option in Wineskin Configuration of a wrapper to be able to use Start.exe to launch the app in Wine.  This works better with some programs, but it also allows the use of .msi and .bat files, not just .exe.  This option was also added to Custom EXE launchers.
• Winetricks inside of WineskinSettings.app has a built in updater, to allow you to get the latest version of Winetricks automatically.
• New Engine base, WS4
  • Latest updates for Wine and Xquartz dependencies/requirements
  • Xquartz running xorg-server 1.9 RC5 (the RC5 is very stable, didn’t wait for release because some of these changes are badly needed, and release is a month away.  In a few months there should be an update to WS5 based which will add RANDR for proper fullscreen, rootless and resolution switching, WS5 will then be the last major WS engine base update, with ones after that very minor.)
  • Works on Mac OS X 10.5 and later (yes WS4 drops 10.4 support.  WS3 engines will still run on 10.4 with Wineskin 1.2)
  • Cold start time bug fixed… wrappers start up fairly quickly even if the machine has rebooted… no more 30 second waits.
  • No need to run in an admin account!  Yes WS4 engines can run on a normal user account fine
  • Requires Wineskin 1.2 based wrappers.
• New WS4 custom build environment that supports building Crossover Wine source.
• Engine downloads available for several Crossover and Crossover Games Wine versions, not just normal Wine.
• old WS1 and WS2 engines no longer supported, and will not work in Wineskin 1.2.  Update your engines to WS4 (or WS3 if you need 10.4 support)

Link to Wineskin Homepage

I’d like feedback ASAP… I can’t find any issues myself, so I really need to know if anyone else can find a problem in the next day or two so I can do a full release… I really hate waiting, but I want to make sure there are no major bugs I’ve overlooked.

Most of the work in this release went to WS4 based engines.  Note that these are 10.5+, not for 10.4.

WS4 based engines do not need an admin account to run… they do not have a long cold start time… and they overall perform better in many situations.

You can also make WS4 based engines off of cxwine source, and I will have default cxwine source based engines available for download.

There are also some changes to WineskinSettings.app.  Allowing the use of Start.exe using a checkmark toggle in Wineskin Configuration.  This will help some games run right, while some need it off.  It will let you run non-EXE files too, like .bat and .msi files.  I also added an auto update in Winetricks, to automatically download and install the newest Winetricks script available.

Link to Wineskin Devel TODO list

Link to Wineskin Beta Posting on the Forum

Since we have an insane amount of Content in the Forum now, a few sections will be re-arranged to make things less confusing.

Edit: Forum now down.
It’ll likely take about 2 hours until it’s online.
In the meantime, here’s something for those who are bored

Edit2: Forum is online again.

-dev

For a list of changes, see the download page.

http://wineskin.doh123.com/Latest_Update.html

I’ve also updated and released a lot of newer WS3 based engines.. these are made off a bunch of newer dependencies for Wine as well as an xorg server in the 1.8 branch.  The build environment to custom build your own Wine code for WS3 based engines is also available.

STATUS: Green (fully playable)

Personal Notes from Taeki:
The multiplayer is working fine too (thanks to skullstrider for replying).

The startup time can take up to 30 seconds. Just be patient.

Game Description:
In the fourth game of the venerable SWAT series, you play as a Special Weapons and Tactics element commander at a fictional police department. Using realistic SWAT tactics, you must command your four man team to deal with high risk situations while minimizing casualties. But this is not a game for the itchy trigger finger. You must follow strict rules of engagement, and shooting a suspect before he or she points a gun at someone will cost you.

Using a variety of weapons, such as standard assault rifles or less lethal weapons ranging from beanbag shotguns to Tazers to modified paintball guns that shoot pepper spray balls, you can maneuver the two man squads that make up your five man (including you) element independently or together, as well as get useful recon from snipers (who you can control through a picture-in-picture interface).

The game has a single player career mode as well as an Instant Action mode that generates a random mission using an existing map. You can also customize objectives for a single player mission. Multiplayer includes team-based SWAT vs. suspects games as well as cooperative play with up to five players.

tested Game-Version: US Release
Strategy First Person Shooter

1. Port Info
Cider Port

2. Minimum System Requirements:
Mac OS version: OS X 10.5.8
Min. Processor: Intel Core Duo
Min RAM: 512 MB
Video RAM: 128 MB
Harddisk Space: ~ 2000 MB

3. Known Issues:
None yet!

4. Installation:
Detailed Installation Instructions: see Forum Topic
General Installation Instructions: see the Newbie Tutorial

.

Check out this Week’s POTW in the Port of the Week Forum Section

.
Screenshot / Gameplay

today I’d like to point out to you that a new Cider wrapper has been discovered by Taeki, one of our many contributing Team members.

The Build version is 4003 and some people have already started with testing out its capabilities only to find themselves more than pleasantly surprised by the results.

It seems that this particular wrapper is by far the most compatible that has been available to the community as of yet.
Therefore I encourage you to check it out, test it with your own games and report your experiences in the appropriate forum topic:

http://forum.portingteam.com/viewtopic.php?f=109&t=4893

I would also like to take this opportunity to express my sincere congratulations to all of you.

The past year has been full of exciting events and innovations and I’m proud to say that this is one of the most amazing communites I have come across on the world wide web so far.

Mac gaming has started to experience a slow paradigm-shift away from native and towards “translative” porting during the past few years – an evolution that I think is currently still in its infancy.
Thanks to this development, we have not only been able to free ourselves from the role of small clueless and industry-dependant consumers, furthermore as time progresses, many of us have turned into resourceful game porting experts who have proven time and time again that they are able to successfully take matters into thier own hands.

We have organzied ourselves as an independant community, we are passing on our knowledge to those who are interested and offering useful content to those who are in need.
We have also developed our own porting tools and we are constantly improving ways of bringing great games to the Mac OS.
It is because of these achievements that we are experiencing a steady infulx of creative and dedicated people who are eager to contribute their time and skill to our cause, enabling us to extend our reputation even more.

It’s the spirit and dedication of each and every one of you that makes the Porting Team so special in my eyes.
I would like to congratulate all fellow admins, porters, coders and Team members for what they have accomplished so far.
Together we have managed to create something truly unique – and that is an achievement we have every right to be proud of.

Keep the dream alive!

peace out
-thedoctor45

.
The CXZ Jade Wrapper & Engine have been around a few months already and it works great and yesterday the CXZ Aquamarine Wrapper & Engine came out of the testing phase and should be stable. Read on for more info

CXZ Jade uses Wine version 1.1.35 and has the same compatibility as CrossOver 9, while CXZ Aquamarine uses Wine version 1.1.42 like CrossOver Games 9.

CXZ Jade should be mainly used for Application ports, while CXZ Aquamarine is for Games.

A lot of Porters are already crankin’ up the Game releases with the new CXZ Aquamarine, due to it’s awesome compatibility and performance with Games, especially tcrown, Darkuser and DankoB made a lot of awesome Ports last week with Titles like F.E.A.R 2, X-Men Wolverine’s Revenge, Prototype and Dead Space.

I also plan on splitting up the huge Engine Installer into two, namely a recommended Engine Installer and a legacy Engine Installer.

This should save more space since the older Engines like Topaz, Sapphire and Ruby (legacy Engines) are not as used as often as opposed to Diamond, Black Diamond, Jade and now Aquamarine. (recommended Engines)

.

All CXZ Engines and Wrappers can be found as usual in the CXZ (Member’s Project) Section in the Forum, so be sure to check ‘em out.

And to all who come here for the first time and randomly spam the Forum or the Shoutbox with ‘can’t find CXZ’, simply click the link above or press command + F on your Keyboard  and search for ‘CXZ’ on the main Forum page.

Seriously, it’s listed 3 friggin’ times there, you can’t miss it.

(I’m speculating if i should create a Page on the main Blog where it lists all Wrapper projects (CXZ, Wineskin, Cider) with infos, so that people can link to that page in their Ports…)

.

-dev

Welcome to steam!

Now that steam has been officially released for Mac and games are slowly starting to pour into our section, I thought it’d be a nice idea to make a steam group for us. This way we can actually play some of the games we ported in the past, together through Steam as they were meant to be played.

Name: The Porting Team
Abbreviation: TPT

Link for easy access

The Steamgroup will be used to; of course compare stats, find friends and play either against or together with each other.

The owner and moderators will from time to time post several “let’s play together for once and have a contest” matches once more games come out that can be played together.

If you decide to join, drop by the forum post and leave your name and Steam username so we know who’s who and who to give credit (or flame!!) when you deserve it!

Join The Porting Team Steam Group now and see you on Steam!

-Darkuser

Thanks to the efforts of our contributing member paulthetall, we’re now able to enjoy standalone game ports of old Amiga classics on our favourite gaming platform. ^^

A new subsection has been added in our Forum where you can find links to his latest ports as well as instructions on how to port and post your own games.

Be sure to drop by and share some Amiga love

Please feel free to post any Amiga related questions, suggestions or requests you might have in this section.

LINK:
http://forum.portingteam.com/viewforum.php?f=197

I used to have a list of people with email address etc… for beta testing, but I haven’t a clue what happened to it… so just anyone that wants to help test, help test  :-)

Wineskin 1.1 beta1

auto update will still knock you back to 1.0 … so don’t use it.

Each Week we’ll highlight a Wrapper Port on our Blog that users made in the Forum.
Since a lot of People read our Blog, making it to the Front Page as a Port of the Week will make quite a few ripples on the Internet. (since people link it on Facebook, Twitter etc…)
Wouldn’t you like to read about your Port on Digg, Reddit and Co.?

To qualify as a Port of the Week there are some criteria:

- only Game Wrappers are allowed to be displayed at the Front Page

- there must be instructions included in the Game Topic on how to install the Game in the Wrapper.
like: ‘install game normally with CXInstaller.app’ oder ‘drag contents here: game.app/contents/root/drive_c/program files/game/’
If there are no Installation instructions included, People will not know how to use the Wrapper.

- each Port needs to pass a Quality check.
That means a few team members will dissemble the Game Port and look if the Port has been made correctly.
(has the Port an Icon, are the strings for the exe set correctly, is the preferences Path set correctly and so on.)

- old CX Ports are disqualified from being a Port of the Week, since they don’t work anymore in Snow Leopard.

- the Topics of the Port needs some Information and Structure.
You’ll be fine if you stick to the Post Palette and include Pictures and Gameplay Videos from Youtube and post some known Issues and requirements, but it’s not enough just to write ‘Playable’ and some copied Windows specs.

Users can vote each week between 3 Ports, and the winner Game Port will get posted on the front page.
Also you can make suggestions on what Game Ports should be in next Week’s Port of the Week.

Updates will be on Sunday evening/Monday morning.

-dev

There are still many things I want to add and improve, but they can be point updates later.

See the Wineskin Website for the download, and Manual and FAQs to see all about it!

Thanks for everyone whose helped make Wineskin better over the many Months I’ve been working on it… and don’t stop, theres always things I can improve, and without your ideas and input, It’ll never get great.

I just about have a test version ready, and really need a few testers to work with me that will really pound into it and try many things and find bugs, or just things that can be made better.

Wineskin will no longer be just a wrapper to edit, its a full wrapper making Program.  You can manage your wrappers, make wrappers, manage Wineskin Engines… etc… including built in updating (the last part I’m working on).  This means it can be used by anyone just for general Wine usage, and not just for wrapper making anymore.

I have changed some terminology I use too.

A Wineskin Wrapper is a standard wrapper that can only work with Wineskin and the proper Engine installed.

A WineskinSC wrapper (Wineskin Self-Contained) will be like the old wrappers, completely self contained.  There is an export option to make WineskinSC wrappers from normal wrappers in Wineskin.

Heres a picture of the Main Wineskin menu…
Testing info and download is posted on the forums at…

Wineskin 1.0 Beta1 forums post

The ‘unofficial’ Audiosurf Port received an update for Snow Leopard compatibility, and can be found in the Member’s Projects corner of the Forum
Still a beta with some things not working, but at least everyone’s favorite Audio Drug is working again with Snow Leopard.

have fun surfing

You can find the updated CXZ Wrappers & Engines in the CXZ Section as usual.
(Registration required)

-dev