Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Technical & Gameplay Problems How to install mods on MacOs ?

Hi,
since using the search function didn't show any usable results.

How are mods, (i.e. the ones found on nexusmods) expected to be installed on a Mac ?

I tried to install the "shield visible" mod.

I created a "Mods" subfolder in the Data path of the application.

Steam setup:
/Users/XXXXXX/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/Baldurs Gate 3/Baldur's Gate 3.app/Contents/Data/Mods

Then I copied the pak file into the Mods folder.

It didn't work.

So please provide hints, how to install mods in a native MacOs setup.

Is there a MacOs variant of the BG3 Mod Manager ?

2nd try:

On MacOs

I've copied the .pak file to the path: "/Users/XXXXX/Documents/Larian Studios/Baldur's Gate 3/Mods"

Then I edited the modsettings.lsx file located in the path: "/Users/XXXXX/Documents/Larian Studios/Baldur's Gate 3/PlayerProfiles/Public"

This results in the game crashing after starting and trying to load an existing game or starting a new one

Any input how to get this running ?


Here's the .json file provided with the mod
{"Mods":[{"Author":"Maximuuus","Name":"VisibleShields","Folder":"VisibleShields","Version":null,"Description":"VisibleShields","UUID":"1f998319-583c-4563-9856-202c1afaf555","Created":"2023-06-02T16:19:25.0870266+02:00","Dependencies":[],"Group":"b1c318d8-bb47-41ad-b1f7-3c8741770625"}],"MD5":"c46ed072e811cf3e5d2a184893b4dbe2"}


Here's the modsettings.lsx, where I inserted the info from the .json file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<save>
<version major="4" minor="0" revision="9" build="300"/>
<region id="ModuleSettings">
<node id="root">
<children>
<node id="ModOrder">
<children>
<node id="Module">
<attribute id="UUID" value="991c9c7a-fb80-40cb-8f0d-b92d4e80e9b1" type="FixedString" />
</node>
<node id="Module">
<attribute id="UUID" value="1f998319-583c-4563-9856-202c1afaf555" type="FixedString" />
</node>
</children>
</node>
<node id="Mods">
<children>
<node id="ModuleShortDesc">
<attribute id="Folder" type="LSString" value="Gustav"/>
<attribute id="MD5" type="LSString" value=""/>
<attribute id="Name" type="LSString" value="Gustav"/>
<attribute id="UUID" type="FixedString" value="991c9c7a-fb80-40cb-8f0d-b92d4e80e9b1"/>
<attribute id="Version64" type="int64" value="36028797018963968"/>
</node>
<node id="ModuleShortDesc">
<attribute id="Folder" type="LSString" value="VisibleShields"/>
<attribute id="MD5" type="LSString" value="c46ed072e811cf3e5d2a184893b4dbe2"/>
<attribute id="Name" type="LSString" value="VisibleShields"/>
<attribute id="UUID" type="FixedString" value="1f998319-583c-4563-9856-202c1afaf555"/>
<attribute id="Version64" type="int64" value=""/>
</node>
</children>
</node>
</children>
</node>
</region>
</save>

Looks like you’re missing a value for Version64. It can be anything. I also usually don’t change the value for MD5.

Sadly, there is no Mac version of BG3 Mod Manager. Fortunately, if BG3 follows the footsteps of Divinity Original 2 in terms of mod management, it won’t be necessary, as you will be able to manage your mods directly from the main menu. Which will happen at some point after launch.

I am also hopeful for Mac mod accessibility, it will make up a huge portion of the replay-ability in the future and I'm always a bit jealous seeing our PC counterparts being able to have all these cool updates. Maybe manually inserting code can work, but a lot of us aren't so tech savvy as to know exactly what to put where.

Is there any official Guide, FAQ, how to use Mods for Baldur's Gate 3 in MacOs ?

It's fine that the usage of mods is possible, but it would be nice to know how to get them started.

I'm sure it's no rocket science if we are provided general infos.

I only ask for hints like:

- place your mods in this path: xxxx
- edit the xxxx.lsx file in this path: xxx
- insert the values x,y,z from the provided .json into the xxxx.lsx file using this syntax: <syntax></syntax>

Are there any Community Managers, who might forward the question to the developers ?

Thanks

Place your Pak file here: /Users/[username]/Documents/Larian Studios/Baldur's Gate 3

Open modsettings.lsx with TextEdit. I usually copy another instance of the Gustav strings below the original (from the node id to the closing node <>). This allows me to keep the same formatting.

In the copy you created, replace the Gustav values for the name of the mod, found in the json file under the Folder value. Then replace the UIUD value. You don't need to touch the version value. Save. Take note of the new time stamp of the new mod settings file. Start the game.

If the mod fails to load, look at the time stamp of the mod settings file. If it has changed since your last save, that means there is something wrong with the mod file and the BG3 executable restored the default modsettings file. It might be a question of mod load order, or you might need to install additional mods to run your mod (such as Patch3Mod or ImprovedUI).

I would install the mod myself to test it out for you, but I recently uninstalled the EA version of BG3 from my Mac to avoid any cross-save conflict with my instance of the game on GeForce Now.

Thanks neuroticme,

I just tried again, doing exact as you told and now it seems to be working fine.

Thanks and kotau to you.

I hope we'll both enjoy the launch of the game !

Hope you enjoy the launch of the game too. Less than two days left!

Thanks neurotictime,

unfortunately I just learned that the Mac Version won't be released tomorrow, there even isn't a release day scheduled for the Mac.

It's my own fault, that I didn't dig deep enough through the release news.

I actually regret buying the EA Version, since I thought that the release version for Mac is imminent.

This won't happen to me again, next time I'll buy a game after the release.

Oh trust me, I understand the disappointment, being a Mac user as well. I bought the Early Access version back when the PC and Mac versions would release on August 31st. So when it was announced that the Mac version would be indefinitely delayed, I started a paid GeForce Now account, to make sure I could play tomorrow. NVIDIA also announced that BG3 would be available on their service a few hours after launch. And with the Cross-Save feature, you will be able to continue your adventure once the game is available on Mac. No mod support though, but that is something I can live without for the time being.

Well now the mac version is coming and you're fully alive, maybe a tantrum for nothing?

Heh, I bought it before there was a release date for pc ><

Soon as it went live in EA.

any news on a mod manager for Mac?

Still don't think there's a mod manager for Mac

Does anyone know if script extender works on Mac?

It's funny, I went into the documents folder on my mac, and there was an already existing Mods folder in the Baldur's Gate 3 folder, which I never put there myself. Should I just put the Pak file in that?

I created a simple mod manager for Mac. You can check it here https://github.com/mkinfrared/baldurs-gate3-mod-manager

Hey thanks for building this.
I gave it a try on a few mods. I used the "direct download" method. It seems only a few will generate teh "Activate" button but because of non compatible dependencies it's generally hard to get most mods to work.

I tried: "additional backgrounds" "enchanted background" "fantastical races" a few others like 5E spells and UI mods. I couldn't get any to activate with the code as is. Let me know if you update it and I'll try again!

Yes, you need to put your mods in that folder but for most of them you'll need to change your modsettings.xls file as shown here: Tutorial Mac OS - How to Install Manually Mods for Baldur's Gate 3

To help with manually adding mods on a Mac, today I wrote a perl script to extract the metadata for modsettings.lsx file. It's basic, but it also requires no dependencies or compilation, so it should run on any Mac. It's also totally open so anyone can take it and do what they want with it (e.g., it would be cool if mkinfrared's tool would extract this stuff).

It's here: https://github.com/smacx250/BG3/blob/main/misc_script/getBg3PakMeta.pl

Save the file, and from the terminal make it executable: chmod +x <path to getBg3PakMeta.pl>
To run: <path to getBg3PakMeta.pl> <path to "mod.pak">

It spits out the attributes that need adding to the modsettings.lsx file.

I wrapped the script in an automator app, so all one needs to do is download & double-click to unzip the app. Then double-click the app and select the .pak file, which then opens up textedit with the attributes to add to modsettings.lsx. No command line needed. If one is so inclined, the app can be opened from the automator app to see what it's doing:

https://github.com/smacx250/BG3/blob/main/misc_script/getBg3PakMeta.app.zip

On the right side of the github window there is a download button to click to download.