KSP 1.7.3 won't start on MacOS

[Tyr Anasazi]

[Moderator note:  This topic was split off from the KSP 1.7.3 announcement thread, since it's primarily about a technical issue for an individual user.]

MacOS version doesn't work for me

Edited July 15, 2019 by Snark
Thread split (and comment added) by moderator

[linuxgurugamer]

4 hours ago, Tyr Anasazi said:

MacOS version doesn't work for me

[snip]

 

Start off with your system info, tell us how you got and installed it, and how you are trying to start it

Edited July 15, 2019 by Snark
Redacted by moderator

[Tyr Anasazi]

2 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Start off with your system info, tell us how you got and installed it, and how you are trying to start it

 

In this case there really isn't anything more to say. downloaded KSP as I always have as a zip file, click on the KSP executable to start it up and all I get is a black screen. The exact same procedure was followed to install the previous version.

CONCLUSION:   KSP on MacOS doesn't work.  The developers can work the rest out. Fixing what is broken is their job, not mine!

 

[GearsNSuch]

 

5 hours ago, Tyr Anasazi said:

MacOS version doesn't work for me

As linuxgurugamer specified above, you’ll need to include some information to get help. Some questions to answer are:

What version of macOS do you have?

Is your game modded?

Have you tried a clean install?

Are you giving the program the proper permissions?

3 hours ago, Tyr Anasazi said:

CONCLUSION:   KSP on MacOS doesn't work.  The developers can work the rest out. Fixing what is broken is their job, not mine!

1.7.3 works fine on the latest Mac OS for me, so it isn’t the game itself. I hope you can figure out the issue. 

Edited July 15, 2019 by GearsNSuch

[Tyr Anasazi]

31 minutes ago, GearsNSuch said:

What version of macOS do you have?

The latest

32 minutes ago, GearsNSuch said:

Have you tried a clean install?

Yes, as I already mentioned above.

32 minutes ago, GearsNSuch said:

Are you giving the program the proper permissions?

Of course. My computer is plugged in too, I just checked.

32 minutes ago, GearsNSuch said:

It works fine on Mac for me, so it isn’t the game itself. I hope you can figure out the issue. 

Great! I hope so too!

[Pthigrivi]

28 minutes ago, Tyr Anasazi said:

Great! I hope so too!

Very odd. It worked fine for me too. Did you try the .pkg?

[Lisias]

1 hour ago, Tyr Anasazi said:

CONCLUSION:   KSP on MacOS doesn't work.  The developers can work the rest out. Fixing what is broken is their job, not mine!

CLOSED/WORKS_FOR_ME

KSP has a lot of annoying bugs, and I don't have the slightest problem on pinpoint the ones I find. But this is not one of them.

Apple, from the top of their arrogance, is deprecating OpenGL. They plain refuse to realize that people just don't throw away software just because. Even Microsoft tries hard to keep things working as the time pass. The fine irony is that Unity has born as a Engine for Macs.

Life is made of choices. I choose to stick to Sierra (I used High Sierra for a couple of days and gave up on Apple). Perhaps you should complain to Apple in the same way you complain to Squad? (please note that I'm not criticizing your complain to Squad, besides believing there're better ways to do so - I'm telling you to use the right complain to the right responsible. Or culprit).

[Tyr Anasazi]

So - what can I do to solve the issue and run 1.7.3 on my system?

[Snark]

Hi folks,

This thread (including all the content above this post) was split off from the KSP 1.7.3 announcement thread, since it's about a technical problem for an individual user, and therefore seems to fit better here in Technical Support.

In addition, some content has been edited and/or removed, due to argumentative bickering, finger-pointing, name-calling, etc.  Folks, let's please remember to keep it friendly.  We're all pals here, we all like KSP, and we would all like to be able to play the game we bought that we love so much.  So we're all on the same side.  Try to remember that, please?

Thank you for your understanding.

[Pthigrivi]

55 minutes ago, Lisias said:

Apple, from the top of their arrogance, is deprecating OpenGL. They plain refuse to realize that people just don't throw away software just because. Even Microsoft tries hard to keep things working as the time pass. The fine irony is that Unity has born as a Engine for Macs.

Yeah I've been waiting on Frostpunk port for the better part of 6 months and Im pretty convinced this is because of Apples relatively recent suckitude. I love their interface but this is probably the last machine I buy from them.

[linuxgurugamer]

2 hours ago, Tyr Anasazi said:

 

In this case there really isn't anything more to say. downloaded KSP as I always have as a zip file, click on the KSP executable to start it up and all I get is a black screen. The exact same procedure was followed to install the previous version.

CONCLUSION:   KSP on MacOS doesn't work.  The developers can work the rest out. Fixing what is broken is their job, not mine!

 

Does 1.7.2 work?  1.7.1?

How about the Player.Log file?

[Lisias]

On 7/15/2019 at 12:25 PM, Tyr Anasazi said:

So - what can I do to solve the issue and run 1.7.3 on my system?

As LGG commented above, we need more information. What's your machine? MacOS version?

You can try the "-force-glcore" stunt. Open your terminal and try this line:

open -a "/Users/lisias/Applications/Games/KSP/Challenge.Walker/KSP.app" --args -force-glcore

Change the full pathname above to whatever you had used to save your game.

That failing, we will need the KSP.log and also the ~/Library/Logs/Unity/Player.log . MacOS has a very handy utility called "Console" where all the logs are consolidated, I recommend it.

 

On 7/15/2019 at 10:21 AM, GearsNSuch said:

1.7.3 works fine on the latest Mac OS for me, so it isn’t the game itself. I hope you can figure out the issue. 

The OpenGL was deprecated in MacOS 10.14 (Mojave). This means that the artifact is not being updated, and it may or may not work as Apple updates the system device drivers to support new hardware (of fix bugs). It's a matter of time until new drivers break the abandoned OpenGL and then it will be it.

[Tyr Anasazi]

Answering the above questions, I offer the following information to the devs, in the faint hope they can resolve this repeating issue:

• MacOS Mojave v. 10.14
• iMac 21.5 inch
• 16GB memory
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 1024 MB
• MacOS automatically updates with latest updates. No hardware or software anomalies observed.
• KSP build 02539 2192 functions normally along with Breaking Ground DLC
• Fresh install of KSP build 02594 2248 (portable) does not function - hangs on black screen
• Game does not start and no KSP.log is generated.
• The same problem was previously observed in KSP build 02152 2018-04-26_22-51-14 and was "solved" using ./KSP -force-opengl script
• This problem existed in a previous build but was subsequently resolved. Now it is back.
• Using ./KSP -force-opengl in order to run KSP results in inferior performance.

Please resolve this issue with KSP 1.73!

Edited July 17, 2019 by Tyr Anasazi

[bonyetty]

I had a similar problem when installing 1.7.2or1 on my new iMac. It was the kerbal Space Program store version. The store launcher never worked so I didn’t use it ever. I tried the store launcher as a last resort,  that worked. If I recall an extra permission box was involved with the install, but it worked on my iMac. For 1.7.3 I also used the store launcher and it’s installed no worries. 

Oh   So if you have not tried already maybe give the launcher ago. Good luck feel ya frustration. 

Edited July 17, 2019 by bonyetty

[Tyr Anasazi]

UPDATE

I downloaded the pkg installer and did another fresh install with that, and it works.

So - the problem was with the portable zip version.

 

[Lisias]

2 hours ago, Tyr Anasazi said:

Using ./KSP -force-opengl in order to run KSP results in inferior performance.

If the thing is not working, how the performance can be inferior?

 

1 hour ago, bonyetty said:

If I recall an extra permission box was involved with the install, but it worked on my iMac. For 1.7.3 I also used the store launcher and it’s installed no worries. 

Nice catch. I had forgot about this.

I remember that once I set all DLLs I found on GameData to be "-w" (not writtable) and by some weird reason KSP didn't worked on my Mac until I shoved the "+w" back.

It happened too when I tried to run KSP from another user than the one that's the owner of the files (probably due the default "G-W" permissions).

2 minutes ago, Tyr Anasazi said:

UPDATE

I downloaded the pkg installer and did another fresh install with that, and it works.

So - the problem was with the portable zip version.

We posted at the same time. You hints me that it was, indeed, a file access permissions problem (not necessarily the one I mentioned above)

[18Watt]

If you download the .zip package for Mac OSX and it loads/hangs to a black or blank screen, try this:

Open Finder to the folder where your working copy of KSP is stored.

Locate the 'KSP' file.  Probably has an icon that looks like a Kerbal.  This is the file you double-click to open KSP.  Don't open it yet.

Drag the 'KSP' file out of the KSP folder, drop it on your desktop.

Next, drag the same file from your desktop BACK to the KSP folder, where it originally was.

Now try running KSP by double-clicking on the KSP file.

I've needed to do that since at least 1.4.  

 

[falco_iii]

On 7/20/2019 at 5:20 PM, 18Watt said:

If you download the .zip package for Mac OSX and it loads/hangs to a black or blank screen, try this:

Open Finder to the folder where your working copy of KSP is stored.

Locate the 'KSP' file.  Probably has an icon that looks like a Kerbal.  This is the file you double-click to open KSP.  Don't open it yet.

Drag the 'KSP' file out of the KSP folder, drop it on your desktop.

Next, drag the same file from your desktop BACK to the KSP folder, where it originally was.

Now try running KSP by double-clicking on the KSP file.

I've needed to do that since at least 1.4.  

 

This fixed it for me, exact same problem as the others!  MacOS 10.13.6, 2018 Macbook, running KSP 1.7.3 portable.  None of the other fixes (open-gl etc..) worked.  Drag KSP.app to/from the desktop fixed it.