Is Apple's move to 64-bit the end of Myth on macOS?

[Clooney]

What are the chances that Myth II will be updated to 64-bit? Slim to none? Better than slim?

[Sealiondude]

Its the final death throes of the game as it is written in carbon and thus cannot be ported to 64 bit

[Myrd]

Its the final death throes of the game as it is written in carbon and thus cannot be ported to 64 bit

Most Carbon parts have already been rewritten to use Cocoa or other APIs.

However, there's plenty of gameplay code that needs extensive changes to change all the datatypes and assumptions about pointer sizes.

I suspect we'll make it work, but it might take some time.

[Sealiondude]

You are correct that the game is relatively easily done however the map making tools are another thing altogether

[Myrd]

You are correct that the game is relatively easily done however the map making tools are another thing altogether

That's true - the mapmaking tools rely heavily on Carbon and I don't expect we'll put the effort to fully recode them. We may need to just recommend people use the Windows ones in Wine. Although, I guess Wine and Windows ones will still be 32 bit - so maybe that won't work either? I guess we'll have to see.

[Sealiondude]

Wineskin would work because the wine application is 64 bit. However last I checked the windows map making tools weren’t on par with the Mac tools

[Myrd]

Wineskin would work because the wine application is 64 bit. However last I checked the windows map making tools weren’t on par with the Mac tools

My understanding is Fear and Loathing actually have feature parity (and iirc some things might be a bit better like scripting in the Windows tools). But it's been a while. Certainly, if we decide to go this route, we can ensure that Windows tools get any reasonable functionality that's currently missing.

However, tools are always second priority to the game itself. So first would be making Myth II support 64-bit which is still a non-trivial task.

[Melekor]

Porting to 64 bit will probably be one of the more difficult updates we've ever done, it requires a LOT of changes to the code and they are not localized at all. Myth's code is almost like a worst case scenario for 64 bit compatibility because of the way it stores pointers in files. Probably more than half the file formats need new loading/upconversion code.

[Melekor]

Update: I'm pleased to say that 64 bit will not be the end of Myth on MacOS

We've completed most of the porting to 64 bit (for the game, not including the tools). It was a significant amount of work but in my previous post I overestimated the difficulty by about half.

[Clooney]

Update: I'm pleased to say that 64 bit will not be the end of Myth on MacOS

We've completed most of the porting to 64 bit (for the game, not including the tools). It was a significant amount of work but in my previous post I overestimated the difficulty by about half.

That’s great news! Thanks for your hard work.

[Deceiver]

Update: I'm pleased to say that 64 bit will not be the end of Myth on MacOS

We've completed most of the porting to 64 bit (for the game, not including the tools). It was a significant amount of work but in my previous post I overestimated the difficulty by about half.

WOW that is awesome news!! this made my day!

[erileykc]

Glad to know I could be playing myth into my 80s.

[Deceiver]

SO macOS Mojave is the last macOS to support 32bit apps.. so we have one more year but we should be fine for 64 bit -- meaning next years macOS update.. am I correct??

[Deceiver]

So I have installed macOS Mojave beta 1 on my MacBook Pro -- seems to be working fine: https://vimeo.com/274537909

[Myrd]

So I have installed macOS Mojave beta 1 on my MacBook Pro -- seems to be working fine: https://vimeo.com/274537909

We're now starting to test Myth II 1.8.3 with 64-bit support on Mac. It's on the private testers forum. If you'd like to help us test it, please message me and I can give you access.