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Running NMSE on macOS with Gcenx Wine Builds

A step-by-step guide to running NMSE (No Man's Save Editor) on macOS using the Gcenx Wine packages from Gcenx/macOS_Wine_builds.

Note: This is an interim solution. A native cross-platform version using Eto.Forms is planned - see the Cross-Platform Work Plan for details.

Table of Contents

  1. Overview
  2. Why Gcenx Wine Builds?
  3. System Requirements
  4. Installation
  5. Setting Up NMSE
  6. Finding Your NMS Save Files
  7. Troubleshooting
  8. Known Limitations
  9. Alternative: CrossOver (Paid)
  10. Future: Native macOS Support

Overview

Gcenx Wine Builds are community-built Wine packages for macOS that provide a straightforward way to run Windows applications without using a virtual machine. This guide walks through installing a Gcenx Wine package, creating a Wine prefix for NMSE, and opening your save files.

Why Gcenx Wine Builds?

  • Free and open-source Wine packages for macOS
  • Wine-Staging 11.6 package available and recommended
  • Gecko and Mono included to reduce prefix size
  • Works with macOS Intel and Apple Silicon via Rosetta 2
  • Supports the Windows applications NMSE requires

Why Gcenx Wine Builds?

Gcenx Wine builds are a strong free alternative to commercial macOS Wine wrappers. They are packaged as native macOS app bundles and can be installed directly from GitHub releases.

Advantages:

  • No need for a separate Wine wrapper app like CrossOver
  • Official WineHQ configuration options included
  • Manual install from the released tarball
  • Includes both 32-bit and 64-bit Wine support

System Requirements

Requirement Detail
macOS version macOS 12 Monterey or later
Chip Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) or Intel
Rosetta 2 Required on Apple Silicon
Disk space ~1 GB (Wine + NMSE + save files)

Installation

Step 1: Install the Gcenx Wine-Staging 11.6 package

Download the tested Gcenx Wine-Staging 11.6 bundle for macOS and install it manually.

  1. Visit https://github.com/Gcenx/macOS_Wine_builds/releases
  2. Download the Wine-Staging 11.6 package
  3. Extract the .tar.xz
  4. Move the resulting Wine *.app bundle to /Applications

The Gcenx Wine-Staging 11.6 build includes wine-gecko and wine-mono 11.0.0. The Wine-Mono package initializes automatically when the prefix is created, so no separate Mono install is required. This build is known to work well for NMSE on Apple Silicon Macs such as M4 Pro with macOS Tahoe.

Step 2: Download NMSE

  1. Go to https://github.com/vectorcmdr/NMSE/releases
  2. Download the latest NMSE-<version>.zip file
  3. Extract it to a convenient folder, for example:
mkdir -p ~/Applications/NMSE
unzip ~/Downloads/NMSE-*.zip -d ~/Applications/NMSE

You should now have NMSE.exe and a Resources/ folder in your NMSE directory.

Setting Up NMSE

Step 3: Launch NMSE

With Wine-Staging 11.6 installed, you can launch NMSE directly from the Wine bundle. Wine will automatically create and initialise a prefix the first time it runs NMSE.

From the NMSE install folder:

cd ~/Applications/NMSE
/Applications/Wine-Staging\ 11.6.app/Contents/Resources/bin/wine NMSE.exe

If your Gcenx bundle has a different app name, replace Wine-Staging 11.6.app with the installed app bundle name.

On first launch, Wine will create the prefix automatically and may take 20–30 seconds to initialise.

Finding Your NMS Save Files

Native macOS Steam Saves

No Man's Sky save files are usually stored here on macOS:

~/Library/Application Support/HelloGames/NMS/<profile_id>/

To open the folder in Finder:

  1. Press Cmd+Shift+G
  2. Paste: ~/Library/Application Support/HelloGames/NMS

Open Saves from NMSE

When NMSE shows the file browser, the macOS filesystem is available under Wine's Z:\ drive:

Z:\Users\<username>\Library\Application Support\HelloGames\NMS\

If you prefer, you can also open the save folder using a Wine file manager:

export WINEPREFIX="$HOME/wineprefixes/nmse"
/Applications/Wine\ Stable.app/Contents/Resources/bin/winefile

Troubleshooting

Rosetta 2 Not Installed (Apple Silicon)

If NMSE fails to start on an Apple Silicon Mac, install Rosetta 2:

softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license

Wine Package Not Found

If the wine or winecfg command cannot be found, verify the app bundle is in /Applications and use the full path to the bundle's bin folder.

Wine Crashes on Launch

  1. Delete the Wine prefix: rm -rf "$HOME/wineprefixes/nmse"
  2. Recreate it with wineboot
  3. Run winecfg again
  4. Launch NMSE again

Font or UI Problems

Install Windows core fonts:

/Applications/Wine\ Stable.app/Contents/Resources/bin/winetricks corefonts

DPI / Retina Display Issues

If the UI appears too small on Retina screens:

  1. Run winecfg
  2. Open the Graphics tab
  3. Set a custom DPI value such as 144 or 192
  4. Restart NMSE

Save Files Not Found

  • macOS saves: ~/Library/Application Support/HelloGames/NMS/
  • In NMSE, browse to Z:\Users\<username>\Library\Application Support\HelloGames\NMS\
  • If the Z: drive is missing, open winecfg and verify that the drives tab maps your home folder

Known Limitations

  1. Windows-style UI - NMSE is still a Windows application running under Wine.
  2. File paths - Wine exposes macOS paths with Windows-style drive letters (for example Z:\).
  3. Performance - May be slower than native due to Wine translation and Rosetta 2 on Apple Silicon.
  4. Retina support - May require manual DPI tuning for crisp text.
  5. macOS integration - No native Dock or Cmd-key support in the Wine app.
  6. Wine package size - Wine and NMSE together use around 1 GB of disk space.

Alternative: CrossOver (Paid)

If you prefer a more polished, supported experience, see the CrossOver macOS Guide. CrossOver offers:

  • Better Apple Silicon performance in many cases
  • Commercial support and updates
  • A more automated setup flow

Future: Native macOS Support

The Wine compatibility layer is an interim solution. The planned native cross-platform version will:

  • Use Eto.Forms for a native macOS UI
  • Share business logic through NMSE.Lib
  • Support native menu bar and Cmd shortcuts
  • Ship as a small .app bundle instead of requiring Wine

See the Cross-Platform Work Plan for the full migration roadmap.