[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":1057},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Fblog\u002Fkotor-on-mac":3},{"current":4,"previous":1047,"next":1052},{"id":5,"title":6,"activeDiscussion":7,"body":8,"category":1029,"cover":1030,"date":1031,"description":1032,"disabled":7,"extension":1033,"highlighted":7,"layout":1034,"meta":1035,"navigation":1036,"path":1037,"readTimeInMinutes":1038,"seo":1039,"stem":1040,"tags":1041,"useAltColors":1036,"__hash__":1046},"blog\u002Fkotor-on-mac.md","Running KOTOR on a Mac",false,{"type":9,"value":10,"toc":1011},"minimark",[11,15,19,22,25,28,33,49,54,57,60,64,76,105,108,113,137,140,144,147,183,186,190,213,216,220,223,246,263,271,294,306,334,360,368,446,462,479,482,485,487,491,494,503,507,513,525,529,543,547,552,559,562,567,587,595,599,608,612,635,639,650,654,669,673,676,678,682,685,698,711,714,718,731,743,776,779,783,796,799,803,816,823,991,995,1007],[12,13,6],"h1",{"id":14},"running-kotor-on-a-mac",[16,17,18],"p",{},"Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is still among my favorite RPGs of all time.\nIf you haven’t played the game yet, and you want to experience a classic Star Wars story, it’s about as good a time as any to jump in.\nFor the guys over on Windows machines, things are super simple, but what about good old trusty macOS?\nRemember, back then, top-tier games like Neverwinter Nights, Fable, and also KOTOR, still saw physical releases on Mac.",[16,20,21],{},"Not only that, KOTOR, to this day, is still available as an actual app in the Mac App Store.\nWhen Apple dropped 32-bit support with the release of macOS Catalina, KOTOR got its well-deserved update to 64-bit.\nUnfortunately, that’s about the only thing Aspyr changed. Unlike KOTOR II, which supports modern controllers, high refresh rate monitors, and modern high-resolution displays, KOTOR supports none of that.\nTechnically, you can run this game on any high refresh rate monitor, but at anything above 85Hz, the maximum refresh rate supported without hiccups, your characters will be unable to move after combat, forcing you to save and reload countless times.",[16,23,24],{},"In this guide, I’ll show you three distinct ways to install and play KOTOR on your Mac, and what pros and cons they come with.",[26,27],"hr",{},[29,30,32],"h2",{"id":31},"macos","macOS",[16,34,35,36,40,41,44,45,48],{},"As stated in the intro, KOTOR is available on macOS. You can just fire up Steam or the Mac App Store, buy the game, install it, and you’ll be able to play it.\nCap the frame rate at a maximum of 85 FPS, and you can play the game just fine—for the most part.\nThe elephant in the room is the resolution. First of all, your options are rather limited: for most people, ",[37,38,39],"code",{},"1280x1024"," will be the maximum, with some people reporting resolutions of up to ",[37,42,43],{},"1600x1200","—the latter only being available if your host resolution is at least 1440p.\nNo matter how you look at it, that’s bad. The resolution itself is not great, and while most people could probably live with it, the far bigger issue is the aspect ratio.",[46,47],"br",{},"\nBack in the early 2000s, when KOTOR originally came out, 4:3 was the golden standard.\nNowadays, we use 16:9, 16:10, 21:9, or even wider aspect ratios. Suffice to say, the offered resolutions look abysmal on modern monitors.",[50,51,53],"h3",{"id":52},"installing-the-game","Installing the game",[16,55,56],{},"To get started, we need to get our hands on the game. While there are both physical and digital releases of KOTOR available for Mac, only digital versions are usable on modern Macs.\nApple dropped 32-bit support in 2019, so the executables that shipped on the disc are no longer usable.\nFor completion’s sake: If you have an older Mac lying around, running an OS that still supports 32-bit, you could go ahead and use the physical release just fine.",[16,58,59],{},"For the digital release, you can choose between Steam and the Mac App Store.\nThere are resellers out there, and Aspyr themselves sold KOTOR for a while, but all of these boiled down to keys for Steam.\nI myself am using the Steam version of the game, so I’ll just download that.",[50,61,63],{"id":62},"setting-the-correct-language","Setting the correct language",[16,65,66,67,72,73,75],{},"With the game downloaded and installed, we could go ahead and launch the game, only to see that the game is in English, no matter what.\nIf we open up Steam, navigate to the game and open its properties, we can see that unlike other games, KOTOR on Mac does not support setting a different language.\nTo fix that, go ahead and install the game once more, this time on Windows, with your prefered language selected.\nYou can find instructions in ",[68,69,71],"a",{"href":70},"#installing-crossover","this section"," of the article.\nBy the end of that process, you should have CrossOver installed, allowing you to run Windows programs on your Mac.",[46,74],{},"\nFollow the instructions to install the game in your desired language.",[16,77,78,79,82,83,82,86,89,90,93,94,97,98,97,101,104],{},"Once that's done, navigate to the root of your new install folder.\nYou should be greeted by several files and folders:\n",[37,80,81],{},"streamsounds",", ",[37,84,85],{},"streamwaves",[37,87,88],{},"lips",", and ",[37,91,92],{},"dialog.tlk",".\nCopy all of them, then navigate to the installation directory of the Mac version. In Steam, simply go to your library, right-click on KOTOR, select ",[37,95,96],{},"Properties",", then click on ",[37,99,100],{},"Installed Files",[37,102,103],{},"Browse",".",[16,106,107],{},"If you followed these steps correctly, you should be greeted by an application inside a Finder window:",[109,110],"simple-image",{"alt":111,"src":112},"An image showing the KOTOR app","images\u002Fblog\u002Farticles\u002Fkotor-on-mac\u002Fkotor-app.webp",[16,114,115,116,119,120,123,124,127,128,82,130,82,132,89,134,136],{},"Simply right-click, then select ",[37,117,118],{},"Show Package Contents",".\nNow open the ",[37,121,122],{},"Contents"," folder, and head into ",[37,125,126],{},"Assets",".\nOnce there, delete ",[37,129,92],{},[37,131,88],{},[37,133,81],{},[37,135,85],{},".\nOnce that’s done, simply insert the files and folders you copied earlier, and you’re done!",[16,138,139],{},"You can launch the game, and you’ll be greeted by UI elements in the language you selected.\nAlso, since we copied the audio files, voice-over for all characters will be in the correct language.\nFinally, we need to fix the resolution issue, as best as we can, at least.",[50,141,143],{"id":142},"embracing-43","Embracing 4:3",[16,145,146],{},"To play this game in a non-stretched resolution, you need to set your screen to 4:3.\nThis is only really possible if you’re connected to an external monitor.\nmacOS does not expose the relevant display resolutions out of the box, though, so we need to grab some piece of software first.",[148,149,150,161,172],"ol",{},[151,152,153,154,160],"li",{},"Head over to ",[68,155,159],{"href":156,"rel":157},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fwaydabber\u002FBetterDisplay",[158],"nofollow","BetterDisplay's repo",", and download the latest release",[151,162,163,164,167,168,171],{},"Find the ",[37,165,166],{},"Releases"," section on the right side, click on the latest version, scroll down a little, then download the ",[37,169,170],{},".dmg"," file",[151,173,174,175,178,179,182],{},"Once downloaded, double-click on it, and drag the ",[37,176,177],{},"BetterDisplay"," app into your ",[37,180,181],{},"Applications"," folder.",[16,184,185],{},"You can now launch the app.\nIn your menu bar, you should now see this new icon right here:",[109,187],{"alt":188,"src":189},"An image showcasing the ‘BetterDisplay’ icon a Mac’s menu bar","images\u002Fblog\u002Farticles\u002Fkotor-on-mac\u002Fbetter-display-icon.webp",[16,191,192,193,196,197,200,201,204,205,208,209,212],{},"Simply click on it, then click on ",[37,194,195],{},"Display Mode",".\nIn this submenu, you now need to click on the ",[37,198,199],{},"Filter"," button, and then toggle ",[37,202,203],{},"4:3"," resolutions.\nYou can now see all the resolutions available that fit the 4:3 aspect ratio.\nI selected ",[37,206,207],{},"120Hz",", but feel free to choose something different—given KOTOR’s internal 85 FPS limit, selecting something like ",[37,210,211],{},"72Hz"," might be a good idea.\nOnce you select your desired resolution, you’ll now be greeted by some black bars on either side of the screen, and your screen real estate got visibly reduced to an almost square-like area—that’s what we wanted.",[16,214,215],{},"If we launch KOTOR again, we can now see that the game is no longer stretched.\nThat’s how the game looked back in the day on our fat CRT monitors.\nIt’s entirely up to you whether you prefer fullscreen stretched or proper scaling on 4:3 resolutions.\nFinally, we should talk about modding the game.",[50,217,219],{"id":218},"modding-the-game","Modding the game",[16,221,222],{},"KOTOR has a very active modding community, and I remember modding the crap out of this game all the way back in 2006.\nWhile the good old days of Filefront\u002FGamefront are long since gone, there are thousands of mods available for KOTOR to download right now, and basically all of them can be used on your Mac as well.\nThere are two types of mods, and both are rather easy to install.",[16,224,225,226,231,232,235,236,239,240,245],{},"For demonstration purposes, I chose ",[68,227,230],{"href":228,"rel":229},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.nexusmods.com\u002Fkotor\u002Fmods\u002F1184",[158],"Fens – Bastila",", a fan-favorite retexture of Bastila.\nThis mod is special, because in most cases, it’s trivial to install, but under certain circumstances, we need to cover both installation options, so you can see both in action.\nTo grab the mod yourself, just follow the link to the mod, click on the ",[37,233,234],{},"Files"," tab, then download whichever version you prefer—I went with ",[37,237,238],{},"Fen's — Bastila Corrupted",".\nOnce downloaded, you’ll end up with an archive. Simply unarchive it using either the default Unarchiver or use something more sophisticated like ",[68,241,244],{"href":242,"rel":243},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.keka.io\u002Fen\u002F",[158],"Keka",", my personal favorite—not an advertisement, I’ve been using it for several years now, so I may as well give it a shoutout.\nOnce done, you’ll end up with a folder, containing all files and folders needed to install the mod.",[16,247,248,249,251,252,255,256,259,260,262],{},"Most mods come with a readme that explains how to install them.",[46,250],{},"\nIn our case, we simply go into the ",[37,253,254],{},"Fens - Bastila Corrupted"," folder, copy everything inside the ",[37,257,258],{},"Override"," folder, and move it into our game’s own ",[37,261,258],{}," folder.\nIf you just installed the game, it won’t come with said folder yet, so we need to create it manually.",[16,264,265,266,270],{},"Follow the steps outlined ",[68,267,269],{"href":268},"#setting-the-correct-language","above"," to find your KOTOR installation.",[148,272,273,276,281,289],{},[151,274,275],{},"Right-click on the KOTOR app",[151,277,278,279],{},"Click on ",[37,280,118],{},[151,282,283,284,286,287],{},"Navigate to ",[37,285,122],{}," -> ",[37,288,126],{},[151,290,291,292],{},"Create a new folder called ",[37,293,258],{},[16,295,296,297,299,300,303,304,182],{},"Finally, just drop the files into your newly created ",[37,298,258],{}," folder.\nNext, we copy the contents of the ",[37,301,302],{},"Modules"," folder and copy those into our game’s ",[37,305,302],{},[16,307,308,309,312,313,316,317,320,321,324,325,330,331,104],{},"Finally, there is another folder called ",[37,310,311],{},"Existing2DAPatch",".\nKOTOR makes use of ",[37,314,315],{},".2da"," files, which are similar to an Excel spreadsheet, or a local database.\nIf you already have mods installed that affect either the ",[37,318,319],{},"heads.2da"," or ",[37,322,323],{},"portraits.2da"," files, you must use the included TSL patcher—TSL being an acronym for “The Sith Lords”, the subtitle of KOTOR II.\nSince it’s a Windows executable, we need access to Windows in one way or another. Depending on whether you chose to extract the correct language files yourself or you chose the ones I provided, you may already have ",[68,326,329],{"href":327,"rel":328},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.codeweavers.com\u002Fcrossover",[158],"CrossOver"," installed. If not, follow the instructions right ",[68,332,333],{"href":70},"here",[16,335,336,337,82,342,347,348,353,354,359],{},"I chose CrossOver for ease of access, but other options include virtual machines like ",[68,338,341],{"href":339,"rel":340},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.parallels.com\u002F",[158],"Parallels",[68,343,346],{"href":344,"rel":345},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.vmware.com\u002Fproducts\u002Fdesktop-hypervisor\u002Fworkstation-and-fusion",[158],"VMWare",", or ",[68,349,352],{"href":350,"rel":351},"https:\u002F\u002Fmac.getutm.app\u002F",[158],"UTM",", or other apps like ",[68,355,358],{"href":356,"rel":357},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.portingkit.com\u002F",[158],"Porting Kit",", which is a free alternative to CrossOver.\nFollow the steps outlined below to run the patcher correctly.",[361,362,365],"simple-callout",{"title":363,"type":364},"Create a backup","caution",[16,366,367],{},"You should always create a backup of your current installation before applying one of these patches. Things may go wrong, and depending on how excessively you modded your game, returning to the previous state may take a while if you haven’t got a backup.",[148,369,370,375,382,399,406,413,422,431,436],{},[151,371,372,373],{},"Open CrossOver and choose any Windows 10 bottle. If you haven’t created one yet, refer to ",[68,374,71],{"href":70},[151,376,377,378,381],{},"Click on the ",[37,379,380],{},"Run Command"," button",[151,383,384,385,388,389,391,392,395,396],{},"Next to ",[37,386,387],{},"Command",", click on ",[37,390,103],{}," and point it to the ",[37,393,394],{},"TSLPatcher.exe"," inside the mod folder, then click on ",[37,397,398],{},"Open",[151,400,401,402,405],{},"Click ",[37,403,404],{},"Run","; the Windows executable will be launched",[151,407,408,409,412],{},"Depending on the mod, you may need to click on the ",[37,410,411],{},"🔍"," icon in the bottom right, toggling the mod’s config summary",[151,414,278,415,418,419],{},[37,416,417],{},"Start patching",", then confirm with ",[37,420,421],{},"Yes",[151,423,424,425,427,428,430],{},"You are prompted to point it to your ",[37,426,319],{}," file. This file resides in your ",[37,429,258],{}," folder, so navigate there, then select it",[151,432,433,434,171],{},"Repeat the same process for the ",[37,435,323],{},[151,437,438,439,442,443],{},"Let the patcher do its thing, click ",[37,440,441],{},"Ok",", then ",[37,444,445],{},"Exit",[16,447,448,449,451,452,454,455,458,459,461],{},"What we just did has no effect, given that no other mod has affected those ",[37,450,315],{}," files, but you learned how to use those patchers.\nLots of mods use these patchers; some simply move some files into your ",[37,453,258],{}," folder, and you can get away with just manually moving all the files from the ",[37,456,457],{},"tslpatchdata"," folder into your ",[37,460,258],{}," folder—like the one we used in this example—but others do more than that.",[16,463,464,465,467,468,470,471,475,476,478],{},"So what did the patcher do? Why can’t we just move the files from ",[37,466,457],{}," into our ",[37,469,258],{}," folder manually?\nIt ",[472,473,474],"em",{},"merged"," our existing ",[37,477,315],{}," files with the changes introduced by the mod.",[16,480,481],{},"And that’s it.\nSome mods include well-documented installation instructions, while others are severely lacking in that department. The large majority of mods works perfectly fine out of the box, but as always, when it comes to modding, be prepared to troubleshoot.",[16,483,484],{},"If you enjoy that nostalgic feeling of lower resolutions and long-forgotten aspect ratios, this is the way to play the game on a Mac.\nIf you fancy a more modern experience, check out one of the other options.",[26,486],{},[29,488,490],{"id":489},"switch-emulation","Switch Emulation",[16,492,493],{},"If you followed my tutorial for installing and setting up the native version of KOTOR on macOS and decided that you need a more modern experience, Switch emulation may very well be an option for you.\nThe Switch version offers controller support and widescreen resolutions out of the box. However, unlike the other versions, it lacks official mod support, so modding is basically out of the question.",[16,495,496,497,502],{},"As of writing this article, there are several Switch emulators available on Mac, but ",[68,498,501],{"href":499,"rel":500},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002FV380-Ori\u002FAstris.Binaries",[158],"Astris",", a Mac-exclusive Switch emulator that comes with a beautiful interface built in SwiftUI, is currently the most performant and most recent emulator on the market.",[50,504,506],{"id":505},"installing-an-emulator","Installing an emulator",[16,508,509,510,104],{},"Just follow the link above, and grab the latest release from GitHub. If you need a little extra help, I already showed you how to download releases from GitHub earlier, when we downloaded ",[68,511,177],{"href":512},"#embracing-43",[16,514,515,516,518,519,521,522,524],{},"Once that’s done, you’ll end up with a ",[37,517,170],{}," file—simply mount it by double-clicking on it, and drag the ",[37,520,501],{}," icon onto your ",[37,523,181],{}," folder.\nNext, simply try to launch the app. You’ll be greeted by this warning here:",[109,526],{"alt":527,"src":528},"Non-trusted app on macOS.","images\u002Fblog\u002Farticles\u002Fkotor-on-mac\u002Fwarning.webp",[16,530,531,532,535,536,539,540,104],{},"Simply open your System Preferences, scroll down to ",[37,533,534],{},"Privacy & Security",", then scroll all the way down, and click on ",[37,537,538],{},"Open Anyway"," next to ",[37,541,542],{},"\"Astris\" was blocked to protect your Mac",[109,544],{"alt":545,"src":546},"Opening Astris.","images\u002Fblog\u002Farticles\u002Fkotor-on-mac\u002Fastris-allow-anyway.webp",[16,548,278,549,551],{},[37,550,538],{}," in the dialog that opens up, enter your password when prompted, and you’re good to go.",[16,553,554,555,558],{},"Next up, you’ll be greeted by Astris’s welcome screen, asking you to point it to your data directory.\nIf you want to continue using data created by Ryujinx, one of the other emulators available on macOS, you can do so by pointing it to Ryujinx’s ",[37,556,557],{},"data"," directory.\nIt will automatically locate it, as long as you used the default directory.\nIf you haven’t used Ryujinx before, no problem either, just point it to somewhere else, wherever you feel comfortable.\nI would still recommend you to point it to where Ryujinx would save your config at, simply to make your setup more versatile.",[16,560,561],{},"The default path for that folder is",[16,563,564],{},[37,565,566],{},"~\u002FLibrary\u002FApplication Support\u002FRyujinx",[16,568,569,570,575,576,579,580,583,584,182],{},"If you don’t bring an existing data folder, you’ll then be asked for production keys.\nYou can just follow ",[68,571,574],{"href":572,"rel":573},"https:\u002F\u002Fletmegooglethat.com\u002F?q=prod+keys+net+switch",[158],"this link",", and you’ll find a website where you can grab not only the production keys but also the title keys, which we will need for actually running games.\nSimply download both keys, then point Astris to the location of your keys.\nIdeally, you would move both the ",[37,577,578],{},"prod.keys",", as well as the ",[37,581,582],{},"title.keys"," file into your Ryujinx’s ",[37,585,586],{},"system",[16,588,589,590,594],{},"After you provided the production keys, Astris needs a firmware file. You can always grab the latest firmware from ",[68,591,333],{"href":592,"rel":593},"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002FTHZoria\u002FNX_Firmware\u002Freleases",[158],", but keep in mind that the keys are tied to a specific firmware, so if the firmware version is newer than your keys, they won’t work.\nAstris will tell you if you try to install a firmware that would lead to a version mismatch with your keys.",[50,596,598],{"id":597},"setting-up-the-game","Setting up the game",[16,600,601,602,607],{},"Now that that’s done, we can focus on getting KOTOR ready.\nYou need to get a hold of the game itself, and its 1.0.4 update. You may search ",[68,603,606],{"href":604,"rel":605},"https:\u002F\u002Fletmegooglethat.com\u002F?q=ziperto",[158],"this"," via Google to find a place to get both.\nOnce you got those, extract the game and the update to a place where you can find them.\nIn my case, I have dedicated folders on my external drive—one for all my games\u002FROMs, and one specifically for Switch extras, such as updates, DLC, and mods.",[109,609],{"alt":610,"src":611},"Folder structure in Finder","images\u002Fblog\u002Farticles\u002Fkotor-on-mac\u002Femulation-folder-structure.webp",[16,613,614,615,618,619,622,623,626,627,630,631,634],{},"Next, go to Astris, open its settings, then under ",[37,616,617],{},"General",", add a new game library by clicking the button labeled ",[37,620,621],{},"Add game folder...",".\nSimply point it to where your game is stored.\nYour game should now appear in Astris’s library.\nOnce that’s done, right-click on the game, and select ",[37,624,625],{},"Manage Updates",", then click ",[37,628,629],{},"Add",", and point it to your KOTOR update file.\nOnce that’s done, you should see the version jump to ",[37,632,633],{},"1.0.4",".\nAlternatively, you can just add the folder containing your updates, DLC, and so on as a game folder. That way, Astris will pick up game updates and DLCs automatically, and you no longer need to manually point each game to its dedicated update files or DLC.",[109,636],{"alt":637,"src":638},"Astris library on display","images\u002Fblog\u002Farticles\u002Fkotor-on-mac\u002Fastris-library.webp",[16,640,641,642,645,646,649],{},"Finally, we need to set up our controller.\nThis is probably the biggest difference between the Switch version and all other versions—it has native controller support.\nYou could, in theory, work around that issue via Steam Controller support and dabbling around in there, but it’s not the same.\nSimply open up Astris, go into your settings, and then ",[37,643,644],{},"Input",". Make sure your controller is connected, then click on the dropdown next to one of the list items here, then select ",[37,647,648],{},"Controller",".\nNow you need to point it to your controller, and choose if you want to use it as a pair of JoyCons or a Pro controller—I usually go with the latter.",[109,651],{"alt":652,"src":653},"Controller settings in Astris","images\u002Fblog\u002Farticles\u002Fkotor-on-mac\u002Fcontroller-setup.webp",[16,655,656,657,660,661,664,665,668],{},"And that’s it. You can return to your library and start the game.\nBy default, it’s locked to 60Hz, but you can just disable VSync by clicking this ",[37,658,659],{},"VSync"," button down here.\nAlternatively, you can head into Astris’s settings once more, then ",[37,662,663],{},"System",", then disable ",[37,666,667],{},"Emulated VSync",".\nKeep in mind that in some games, the game speed is tied to the frame rate, so frame rates above default may make the game unplayably fast—this does not apply to KOTOR, though.",[109,670],{"alt":671,"src":672,"caption":671},"KOTOR running in Astris.","images\u002Fblog\u002Farticles\u002Fkotor-on-mac\u002Fswitch-ingame.webp",[16,674,675],{},"With macOS and Switch emulation taken care of, let’s tackle the final option for running KOTOR on your Mac: Windows!",[26,677],{},[29,679,681],{"id":680},"windows","Windows",[16,683,684],{},"Finally, we can take a look at Windows, and probably the best way to run the game on a Mac, albeit with some heavy lifting on our part required before we can get to it.\nThere are several different ways to run Windows games on a Mac, including virtual machines, translation layers, such as CrossOver or PortingKit, or Bootcamp, allowing us to run Windows on bare metal—at least on Macs with Intel chipsets.",[16,686,687,688,692,693,697],{},"If you’re going the Bootcamp route, simply follow ",[68,689,606],{"href":690,"rel":691},"https:\u002F\u002Fsupport.apple.com\u002Fen-us\u002F102622",[158]," tutorial on how to set it up, then follow ",[68,694,606],{"href":695,"rel":696},"https:\u002F\u002Fsteamcommunity.com\u002Fsharedfiles\u002Ffiledetails\u002F?id=2901738838",[158]," guide to set up the widescreen patch and more.",[16,699,700,701,704,705,710],{},"For people on Apple Silicon Macs, let me make a couple of suggestions.\nSince KOTOR is a DirectX 9 game, neither CrossOver, nor PortingKit will be able to offer good performance out of the box.\nInstead, we need to either run the game on virtual machines, or use workarounds to make DX9 games playable on a Mac.\nGiven that virtual machines don’t offer the same performance as solutions like CrossOver or PortingKit, require more time and effort to get up and running, and consume much more of your precious disk space, I’ve opted for ",[68,702,329],{"href":327,"rel":703},[158],", a piece of software developed by Codeweavers, who are responsible for Proton on Linux.\nIt is basically the de-facto way of playing Windows games on Apple Silicon Macs, and despite it being a paid software, I still recommend you go for it.\nFirst of all, it has a 14-day trial, so you can easily try it out and, if you truly want to commit to gaming on a Mac, you may as well grab a perpetual license for as low as $40, whenever it’s on sale.\nSecondly, you won’t need CrossOver for anything besides installing the game, installing some mods, and applying the widescreen patch anyways—we will be using ",[68,706,709],{"href":707,"rel":708},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.winehq.org\u002F",[158],"Wine"," to run the game itself.",[16,712,713],{},"So why don’t we start off by getting everything set up on the software side of things?",[50,715,717],{"id":716},"installing-crossover","Installing CrossOver",[16,719,153,720,725,726,178,728,730],{},[68,721,724],{"href":722,"rel":723},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.codeweavers.com\u002Fcrossover\u002Fdownload",[158],"the CrossOver website"," and grab the 14-day trial.\nYou need to enter your name and email, but masked email addresses are fine, so no need to give them your email address.\nOnce that’s done, simply unpack the archive you just downloaded, then move the ",[37,727,329],{},[37,729,181],{}," folder.\nFinally, launch it, and you’re good to go.\nIf we were to do more than just install a game, we would need to install some dependencies, worry about DLL overrides, but thankfully, we don’t have to do any of that.",[16,732,733,734,737,738,742],{},"If you got the Steam version of the game, simply install Steam.\nTo do that, simply search for the ",[37,735,736],{},"Steam"," crosstie using CrossOver’s UI. A ",[739,740,741],"strong",{},"crosstie"," bundles dependencies and useful fixes and patches together, making the install process that much easier.\nSimply follow the on-screen instructions to get Steam installed.\nOnce done, open it up, log in, then download the game from Steam.",[16,744,745,746,751,752,755,756,759,760,763,764,767,768,771,772,775],{},"Alternatively, you may be using the ",[68,747,750],{"href":748,"rel":749},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.gog.com\u002Fen\u002Fgame\u002Fstar_wars_knights_of_the_old_republic",[158],"GOG"," version of the game.\nWhile you could go ahead and install ",[37,753,754],{},"GOG Galaxy"," via CrossOver, you may as well just grab the offline installers for KOTOR off GOG’s website.\nOnce done, open CrossOver and click on the ",[37,757,758],{},"Install"," button.\nNext, click on ",[37,761,762],{},"Install an unlisted application"," in the top right corner. There is a crosstie available for KOTOR, but it’s not useful for us in any way.\nOnce that’s done, you need to do two things: provide the installer, and choose a ",[472,765,766],{},"bottle"," to install the application into.\nI won’t go over what a bottle is, but just think of it as an environment that your Windows applications can run in.\nFor the installer, choose the ",[37,769,770],{},".exe","  file from GOG you just downloaded, and for the bottle, create a new Windows 10 bottle and name it whatever you like.\nClick ",[37,773,774],{},"Next"," and let the installer do its thing.",[16,777,778],{},"Once your copy of KOTOR is installed, we can focus on installing mods.",[50,780,782],{"id":781},"installing-mods","Installing mods",[16,784,785,786,789,790,792,793,795],{},"The installation process is almost the same as for the Mac version of the game, which you can reference ",[68,787,333],{"href":788},"#modding-the-game",".\nThe only real difference is that the Windows version won’t require you to click ",[37,791,118],{},"—you can just browse to your installation, then find the ",[37,794,258],{}," folder inside the root of your game folder.",[16,797,798],{},"Apart from that, the installation process is identical to what I showcased in the section linked above.",[50,800,802],{"id":801},"widescreen","Widescreen!",[16,804,805,806,347,811,104],{},"Unlike the Switch version, the Windows version does not come with native widescreen support, but unlike the macOS version, we can fix that by applying an unofficial widescreen patch.\nThere are two options we could choose from: ",[68,807,810],{"href":808,"rel":809},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.flawlesswidescreen.org\u002F",[158],"Flawless Widescreen",[68,812,815],{"href":813,"rel":814},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.wsgf.org\u002Farticle\u002Funiversal-widescreen-uniws-patcher",[158],"UniWS",[16,817,818,819,822],{},"Flawless Widescreen ",[472,820,821],{},"injects"," a patch during runtime, whereas UniWS alters game files permanently.\nOn actual Windows hardware, both are viable options, but for us, UniWS is the better solution, saving us from running yet another background process.\nTo get everything set up, simply follow the instructions below:",[148,824,825,841,874,884,959],{},[151,826,827,828,831,832,837,838,840],{},"Create a backup of your original ",[37,829,830],{},"swkotor.exe",", which can be found in the root of your game’s installation folder. Next, download a ",[68,833,836],{"href":834,"rel":835},"https:\u002F\u002Fdeadlystream.com\u002Ffiles\u002Ffile\u002F1320-kotor-editable-executable\u002F",[158],"hex-editable version"," of the executable, then replace the original ",[37,839,770],{}," with the modified version.\nThis step is mandatory, as otherwise, UniWS won’t be able to apply the widescreen patch.",[151,842,843,844,847,848,851,852,854,855,857,858,860,861,864,865,867,868,871,872,104],{},"If you haven’t done so already, download UniWS from ",[68,845,333],{"href":813,"rel":846},[158],".\nRun ",[37,849,850],{},"uniws.exe"," via CrossOver by opening the app, clicking on ",[37,853,380],{},", then clicking on ",[37,856,103],{},", then selecting ",[37,859,850],{},". Once that’s done, the path next to ",[37,862,863],{},"Command:"," will be populated with the path to ",[37,866,850],{},".\nFeel free to click ",[37,869,870],{},"Save Command as a Launcher",", to get easy access to UniWS at any time. Then, click on ",[37,873,404],{},[151,875,876,877,880,881,104],{},"Select ",[37,878,879],{},"Star Wars: KOTOR (1024x768 interface)"," in the dropdown menu, then browse to your KOTOR installation folder.\nSelect your desired game resolution—I’ll go with 1920x1080—and click on ",[37,882,883],{},"Patch",[151,885,886,887,890,891,896,897,900,901,904,905,908,909,911,912],{},"Browse to your game installation folder, then open ",[37,888,889],{},"swkotor.ini"," with a text\u002Fcode editor of your choice—I’m using ",[68,892,895],{"href":893,"rel":894},"https:\u002F\u002Fcode.visualstudio.com\u002F",[158],"VSCode",", for example.\nFind the ",[37,898,899],{},"[Graphics Options]"," section. Change ",[37,902,903],{},"Height="," and ",[37,906,907],{},"Width="," to the same resolution you selected in UniWS. If neither of these entries exists, simply add them under ",[37,910,899],{},".\nIn my case, I would end up with:",[913,914,916],"code-block",{"language":915},"ini",[917,918,923],"pre",{"className":919,"code":920,"language":921,"meta":922,"style":922},"language-bash shiki shiki-themes ayu-dark","[Graphics Options]\nWidth=1920\nHeight=1080\n","bash","",[37,924,925,934,948],{"__ignoreMap":922},[926,927,930],"span",{"class":928,"line":929},"line",1,[926,931,933],{"class":932},"skCYq","[Graphics Options]\n",[926,935,937,940,944],{"class":928,"line":936},2,[926,938,939],{"class":932},"Width",[926,941,943],{"class":942},"sh1d5","=",[926,945,947],{"class":946},"skAsU","1920\n",[926,949,951,954,956],{"class":928,"line":950},3,[926,952,953],{"class":932},"Height",[926,955,943],{"class":942},[926,957,958],{"class":946},"1080\n",[151,960,961,962,967,968,971,972,974,975,980,981,904,984,987,988,990],{},"Optionally, install ",[68,963,966],{"href":964,"rel":965},"https:\u002F\u002Fdeadlystream.com\u002Ffiles\u002Ffile\u002F1159-kotor-high-resolution-menus\u002F",[158],"high resolution menus"," by copying the files from the folder named after your chosen resolution—",[37,969,970],{},"gui.1920x1080"," in my case—into your game’s ",[37,973,258],{}," folder.\nIf you do so, you may also want to check out ",[68,976,979],{"href":977,"rel":978},"https:\u002F\u002Fdeadlystream.com\u002Ffiles\u002Ffile\u002F1891-larger-text-fonts-for-kotor",[158],"this font mod",", as otherwise, text could be hard to read.\nFinally, copy both ",[37,982,983],{},"hires_patcher.bat",[37,985,986],{},"hires_patcher.exe"," into your KOTOR installation folder, then run ",[37,989,983],{}," using CrossOver.\nYou’ll be prompted for the desired resolution once more.",[50,992,994],{"id":993},"running-kotor","Running KOTOR",[16,996,997,998,1001,1002,1006],{},"Finally, we can run KOTOR.\nThis section originally contained detailed instructions on how to run the game through Wine.\nI have since written a dedicated article about running ",[739,999,1000],{},"any"," DX9 game on Apple Silicon, so instead, reference ",[68,1003,1005],{"href":1004},"\u002Fblog\u002Fdx9-games-on-mac","that article"," to run the game.",[1008,1009,1010],"style",{},"html pre.shiki code .skCYq, html code.shiki .skCYq{--shiki-default:#BFBDB6}html pre.shiki code .sh1d5, html code.shiki .sh1d5{--shiki-default:#F29668}html pre.shiki code .skAsU, html code.shiki .skAsU{--shiki-default:#AAD94C}html .default .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-default);background: var(--shiki-default-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-default-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-default-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-default-text-decoration);}html .shiki span {color: var(--shiki-default);background: var(--shiki-default-bg);font-style: var(--shiki-default-font-style);font-weight: var(--shiki-default-font-weight);text-decoration: var(--shiki-default-text-decoration);}",{"title":922,"searchDepth":936,"depth":936,"links":1012},[1013,1019,1023],{"id":31,"depth":936,"text":32,"children":1014},[1015,1016,1017,1018],{"id":52,"depth":950,"text":53},{"id":62,"depth":950,"text":63},{"id":142,"depth":950,"text":143},{"id":218,"depth":950,"text":219},{"id":489,"depth":936,"text":490,"children":1020},[1021,1022],{"id":505,"depth":950,"text":506},{"id":597,"depth":950,"text":598},{"id":680,"depth":936,"text":681,"children":1024},[1025,1026,1027,1028],{"id":716,"depth":950,"text":717},{"id":781,"depth":950,"text":782},{"id":801,"depth":950,"text":802},{"id":993,"depth":950,"text":994},"gaming","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fkotor.webp","2026-04-18","Learn how to run one of the greatest RPGs of all time on a modern Mac.","md","square",{},true,"\u002Fkotor-on-mac",17,{"title":6,"description":1032},"kotor-on-mac",[1042,1043,32,1044,1045],"Gaming","Tutorial","RPG","Star Wars","bS_HxvD1JJ2gwXcqZqUdrUcd-3nE6XdMfSq8BdTjbLk",{"title":1048,"path":1049,"stem":1050,"date":1051,"readTimeInMinutes":936,"children":-1},"How to disable Apple Intelligence properly","\u002Fdisable-apple-intelligence","disable-apple-intelligence","2026-04-11",{"title":1053,"path":1054,"stem":1055,"date":1056,"readTimeInMinutes":936,"children":-1},"Roditch 2.0","\u002Froditch-2.0","roditch-2.0","2026-06-14",1784357035486]