Introduction by Rocky

One of the most regular requests for help to drop into our busting mailbag every week is Ghost Recon mods and Macs. It's obvious there is a sizeable Ghost Recon Mac community just itching to try some of the many hundred Ghost Recon mods, but just not how to do it, or if it is even possible. With that in mind we contacted Mauti at *DAMN R6, who was only to happy to answer all the questions we have received by writing a brief report on the subject. So, without further delay - here's Mauti's report - I hope it helps!

About Mac, Ghost Recon and Mods

Generally all PC mods run on a Mac natively. Mostly PC mods are saved as .zip or .exe files. You can open .zip without problems with Stuffit Expander, however Macs can't open .exe files. You have to open them on a PC or Virtual PC to execute the PC installers and then move the files to your Mac (or ask someone in the GhostRecon.net forums nicely to do it for you).

Issues

Basically then the mod runs on a Mac. But .wav audio files, filenames with more than 31 characters, and textures saved in with A1R5G5B5(Alpha/Red/Green/Blue) channels can screw your gaming experiences.

Filenames need to be shortened, audio files converted to .aif and textures resaved as A4R4G4B4 or A8R8G8B8. To convert audiofiles is pretty simple and can be done with Sound APP(Mac OS9) or SoundConverter(MacOSX) easily by everyone. Both can be downloaded at versiontracker.

Texture renaming and finding all according files is a little bit more complicated and we leave this part out. Furthermore resaving files can't be done on a Mac because there isn't a .rsb Photoshop Plugin for Mac. You would have to ask the PC creator to re-export the texture.

Converting Mods for Mac

To save you a lot of time you can find a huge Mac Mod Archive at *DAMN R6. *DAMN R6 is dedicated to Tactical Mac Games since June 2000. We have created few mods for R6 and nowadays convert the latest PC mods to Mac due the lack of Mac Mod tools (no plugins, no Igor, you can simply nothing do on a Mac modwise except some text editing). We also accept Mod request, means Mods you would like to see converted are done with priority.

Installing Mods

Alright you have found and downloaded your mod and wanna play it!

How to activate mods in Ghost Recon:

First unstuff the downloaded file. I suggest to use Stuffit Expander. If Expander gives you an error message try to open it with ShrinkWrap. You can download both from versiontracker.com.

After you have unstuffed your mod, drag the whole folder to your Ghost Recon - Desert Siege/Ghost Recon Data/mods folder and drop it there. This will work fine for 90 percent of all mods, however you can also drag and drop server side maps to Mods/Origmiss/Mission then the maps are always activated and if you want to deactivate them you have to remove them manually one by one.

Some mods have installer that do the work for you. Just start the installer and they will do the rest. Sometimes you also have a installer hidden in a mod folder like in the War of Infamy 1.0 Mod. These installers are required to install certain parts of a mod.

Attention: sometimes the downloaded mod contains the mod data in a subdirectory. Make sure to put only the folder with the content into your mods folder.

Playing Mods

Your mod is now located at the Ghost Recon Mods folder. Now start Ghost Recon and go to options. There you will find a sub-option called Mods. Click on it. On the left side you will have a list of all your mods stored at the mods folder. Just click on activate to play with your desired mod.

About the priority of mods: read the ReadMe (if available) inside of the downloaded mods folder. Be sure to set the priority higher than Desert Siege and be aware that the mod list is inverted which means that the mod at the bottom has the highest priority!

To deactivate your mods just go to your options select the mod on the right list and press deactivate. That's all. If you have used an installer that installs certain parts of a mod. Start it again and look for an uninstall function or install other parts.

General Tips and common problems with GR mods:

• Never activate 2 or more weapon mods at once.
• Some mods require a very fast Mac so don'T wonder if your framerates suck with some mods
• Before you delete a mod make sure that you have deactivated it.
• If you have moved your mod to the mods folder but it doesn't show up in your ingame mods list make sure that the mods folder doesn't contain a subdirectory where the "real" mod is stored. Sometimes server side maps work better if you move them to your Origmiss/Mission folder.
• Ghost Recon doesn't start anymore! - You have probably deleted a mod without deacitvating it but the modsset.txt still searches for the mod. As a consequence the game doesn't start. To solve this problem open the modsset.txt, located at your Ghost Recon - Desert Siege/Ghost Recon Data/ folder, and remove all lines except -- "\mods\mp1" --. Now Ghost Recon should work fine again.
• Mods and 1.4 patch incompatibilities - It can happen that some mods don't work anymore since you upgraded to version 1.4. This is unfortunately a problem on both Mac and PC. Only few mods are affected by this problem. To still use the mods that doesn't work with Ghost Recon version 1.4 use your old 1.2.

Island Thunder

Further some mods at our Mac Mod Archive have (IT) next to their name, this means the mod requires the PC expansion pack Island Thunder to work fine. Unfortunately Island Thunder was never ported to Mac. However *DAMN in cooperation with Vin, Dan and Scot have created a Island Thunder Mac patch that solves many issues if you try to convert IT yourself. Instructions how to convert IT for Mac step by step can be found here: Once converted give Island Thunder a higher priority than Desert Siege and then the mod you want to play.

All in all those are the basics to get started with Macs, GR and Mods! Following this article you should be able to get these software mods running on your Mac. CMMS software management products can help manage any industry or facility.