Tutorial for SC4MacInjector & Ways to use it

[etg-nc2nyc 53]

For anyone who hasn't discovered it yet, @simmaster07 has done some helpful and lovely work (and brilliant) for those of us in the Mac community. 

1. He has converted/reprogrammed a couple of .dll plugins and made them into .so plugins so that they can be read by a Mac.
2. He has created a plugin loader to load those .so files.

First Things First
Be aware of the following notice on the MacInjector page. Back up your files. To be safe, I made a back up of my plugins and regions directories.

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Prerelease note
This mod is prerelease software and has only been tested on Steam and Mac App Store copies of SimCity 4 on Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.6. It is recommended that you back up your regions (and, especially if using an App Store copy of SC4, your plugins folder) before using this mod.

Download & Install MacInjector
I will try and give a painstakingly detailed step by step. 
https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/32047-sc4macinjector-a-dynamic-code-plugin-loader-for-mac/
Follow the link above, read the "About This File" notes, and click on the "Download File" button

1. You can try opening the package directly from your Downloads folder (double clicking) but if your security is like mine, you will get a message that "“SC4MacInjector.pkg” can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer."
   In order to bypass that security, right click on the .pkg and choose "Open" from the menu.
2. You will then get a pop-up message "“SC4MacInjector.pkg” is from an unidentified developer. Are you sure you want to open it?"
   Click "Open" and the installer will open.
3. Follow the instructions on the installer. 

Three changes I noticed after the install. 1 - When I have SC4 running, if I switch windows and leave the game running, the icon in my dock changed from the SC4 icon to a black system icon. 2 - The first time I restarted the game after installation it reverted to the Timbuktu tutorial region so I had to navigate back to the region I was building in. 3 - There is now a "libinjector.dylib" file in my plugins directory. (Leave it there.)
None of these are any concern - just don't want you to be surprised.  

Great! I have a New Tool! What Do I Do With It?
Hopefully there will be more future developments, but for now I know of at least two. (If I discover more or if you discover more, please comment and add them!)

Buggi's Cheats
https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/32048-buggis-extra-cheats-for-mac/
This allows Mac players to use Buggi's extra cheat codes (for those so inclined - no judgement). I know I'm working on recreating a specific city right now and not playing the traditional game, per se. Being able to to type "Moolah 1000000" and instantly have $1 million to develop with sped up my process.

Take the downloaded file "ExtraCheatsMac.so" (it's not zipped - it's ready to go) and move it to your plugins folder. Done. When you are in-game all you have to do is hit Ctrl-x and then either type your command/cheat code (if you know it) or right click in the dialog box and a list of commands will appear.

Real Upgradeable City Halls 1.1.0
https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/31339-real-upgradeable-city-halls/

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Instead of implementing the three City Hall stages as separate reward lots, this mod implements Maxis' originally intended behavior of actually replacing the City Hall lot as new stages are unlocked. It also prompts the user with advisor messages asking if they want to upgrade the reward, just like the airport upgrade behavior.

When you click on the download button, choose the Mac only version. Open the zip file and place the .dat and .so extracted files in your plugins directory. Done.

Have FUN! 
That's all for now! Have fun! Build the region of your dreams! I am NOT a technical person, but post questions for clarification below and I'll do my best or someone will hopefully have an answer. And THANK YOU @simmaster07 for your work while you juggle school! Also thank you, @Hamish for the suggestion to write this up. If it needs to go elsewhere, please do whatever needs to be done.

 

 

[etg-nc2nyc 53]

I just found another. I haven't used it, but the instructions appear to be the same as the City Hall plugin.

 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

@etgilbert

Thanks for writing this tutorial. While I don't use a Mac it's great to have peeps who do understand them to help out others. I see someone on staff already pinned this topic so it'll stay in the top group and not get lost.

[diego 14]

Hi all! Just wondering if the SC4Fix file has been released as a .so to use with SC4MacInjector? I've been searching everywhere and I just find the windows .dll's for it. Am I missing something? I need to cure the PropPox that has affected one of my longest played cities (5+ years). Any advice?

@simmaster07 thanks so much for putting all of this together! couldn't thank you enough. If you have any help/advice on this it would be extremely appreciated

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

9 hours ago, diego said:

Just wondering if the SC4Fix file has been released as a .so to use with SC4MacInjector?

No. It hasn't been (and I suspect is not likely to be) released for the Mac.

 

9 hours ago, diego said:

Any advice?

I believe it's possible to emulate Windoze on a Mac tho you'd have to research that.

Another possibility is if you send me your city and I load it with the SC4Fix in place and re-save it and send it back that might solve the pox. (I'm only guessing on this last part, but I'm willing to try.) If you opt for this you might have to use an external file sharing service like the free WeTransfer.com.

[diego 14]

On 2019-01-04 at 7:23 AM, CorinaMarie said:

No. It hasn't been (and I suspect is not likely to be) released for the Mac.

 

I believe it's possible to emulate Windoze on a Mac tho you'd have to research that.

Another possibility is if you send me your city and I load it with the SC4Fix in place and re-save it and send it back that might solve the pox. (I'm only guessing on this last part, but I'm willing to try.) If you opt for this you might have to use an external file sharing service like the free WeTransfer.com.

 

Thanks for the advice! Actually after tinkering with the city detail settings on that city I realized that most props came back (?!?!). Weird! I'll keep experimenting. 

[velShandru 6]

On 1/4/2019 at 7:23 AM, CorinaMarie said:

I believe it's possible to emulate Windoze on a Mac tho you'd have to research that.

With multiple choices yet . On the freeware side PlayOnMac, a port of PlayOnLinux is my personal preference since it stores its working files in Mac folders for ease of access. VirtualBox uses virtual machines so you'll need a WinDoze license, but is quite competitive with the pay-for options: Parallels and VMware Fusion (sadly for us, the freebie VMware Workstation Player is only available for Linux and Windoze). I have used all 4 options over the years but very much prefer Fusion in the paid space and the Wine based PlayOnMac for running just one or two apps (I run High Sierra on a 2011 Mac mini).

All four now permit cut & paste interoperability with MacOS, so which of those you'd want to use depends on how you plan to use it and your personal interface preferences.

[lazarusnine 4]

It seems the injector no longer works with the 64-bit version of SC4 that Aspyr uploaded to the Mac App Store. I attempted to install the injector so I could make use of Buggi's Cheats, but SC4 crashed following the introductory video prior to the region screen. The libinjector.dylib file still appears in the plugins folder, but the game ceases to function following the installation of the injector. My only solution was to re-download and reinstall the game after deleting the previous installation and all related files located in: /Users/[User Name]/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.simcity4.appstore. Hopefully we can get a solution to this soon. Otherwise, my days of padding out my cities' coffers are over.