Mids Hero Designer for Mac...

Any players out there who could offer a good (ie free) suggestion to be able to run Mids on a mac (snow leopard)?

Would also love to do this. Suspecting I am going to need to resort to virtualisation

I currently use VMWare for that, but I haven't tried it with Crossover Games 10 yet.

Thanks Cuppa. Is the trial version of VMWare limited? Would you recommend buying it? Lastly, would I need to reinstall Windows (I have version 7) or could it run the OS from bootcamp without requiring an additional OS install?

You can use VMWare with Boot Camp, it'll handle modifying it for you.

http://www.virtualbox.org/

virtualbox is free (open source) so all you need is a windows license.

Thanks PumBumbler, I'm going to check this out right now!

This just in: Mids works with Crossover Games 10!

You have to create a winxp "bottle" and add the Runtime Component called .NET 3.0. After that, point it at the Mids installer and it works.

Hmm... VMware requires a seperate boot disk which I don't have the harddrive space for. Maybe Crossover games will be better.

I had the same experience--runs, but no buttons, and exceptions.

The .NET Framework 3.0 you should be installing is in the Runtime Support Components section of the Crossover Software installer. There's also a community supported .NET installer, but that doesn't work.

I see the empty buttons now - I created a clean winxp bottle and installed Mids again to see. Now I have to figure out what the difference is from the original bottle. Could be as simple as a missing font.

Any new developments on this issue?

Not yet, it's going to take a lot of testing. Especially since I discovered Crossover 10 has a problem with all custom buttons (including in some other games).

It has been a while, wanted to see if anyone fixed the button issue?

I'd love to know as well. I have Windows just because of Mid's (also on my new iMac 27 - the top model with Thunderbolt and stuff - the Win client seems to run much better and handles Ultra Mode gfx settings that makes the Mac client hiccups a little, and I have an AMD 6790M) and another work-related program that I use often. Trouble is, both rely on this .net framework so I cannot run them in Crossover. I could deal with having to run the Mac client as bad as it is, even if my gfx take a small hit.

The "real solution" to this problem is developing an app for iOS and Android so that you can run a gestural control scheme (which would be VERY different from how Mids' operates now) that you could run on a touchscreen phone or tablet (see: iPhone and iPad). At $0.99 or $1.99 a sale, it would practically be a mint for printing money ... a share of which could go to Paragon Studios, if they'd support the effort (by not blocking the app from being sold on iTunes and the like).

Problem is ... any app development like this would need to be "maintained" with updates every time the game adds new powers/powersets/enhancement sets/incarnate slots/etc. ... meaning you couldn't just create it and walk away. That requires a commitment ... but if you were getting paid for your efforts (even at $0.30 per sale to the developer) ... that might add up to be "enough" of an incentive to maintain such an app when looking at over 1000 downloads (and especially at 10k+ downloads).

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

I wouldn't say it would be a mint. I've worked on officially licensed apps before. They're very difficult to make a profit on with an unlimited audience, and CoH players are (sorry, but it's true) a limited audience.

I'd only be tempted to support such an iOS app if a) I had direct cooperation from the devs for data, because I'm terrible at math and I'm unwilling to do hundreds of hours of reverse-engineering; and b) if I knew how many Mids/suckerpunch users there are, how many have iPads/iPhones, and how many are willing to pay for an app and use them instead. Plus, that information from (b) is what would probably be needed to get (a).

Note that this is a very long shot anyway, because if Paragon even has a whisper of a hint of wanting to make their own iOS hero builder someday, the answer would be a definite and firm NO.

P.S. (a) above is kind of a cheat as far as maintenance - the smart way to maintain a hero builder app is to have it nearly use a format of data the devs can provide directly.

P.P.S. Out of $1.99 in the app store, 66 cents goes to Apple, leaving you $1.33. Licensing often is a 10% arrangement, which is another 13 cents, leaving $1.20. As for how many copies would sell, who knows...but keep in mind that only a fraction of CoH players own an iPad.

iOS Hero designer app is great and all, but this does not answer my question from above: Any developments on the button issue with Mid's in CrossOver?

There are lots more problems than that with Crossover 10 - I tested it recently.

It's unfortunate that the Suckerpunch planner was abandoned, a browser-based planner seems like the ideal solution for a cross-platform audience.

I have entertained the idea of learning Objective C and Xcode, but my brain doesn't seem wired for programming.

"There's villainy ... and then there's supervillainy. The difference is performance."
-Doc_Reverend

Just came across this thread and was highly interested in the possibility of running Mid's on my Mac. Like everyone else I was able to load Mid's but left with blank cells. Its been over a month and this thread has been quite but has anyone seen any progress or have learned of a better alternative?

I think PumBumbler link to VirtualBox seems the easiest atm. All you need is a license and windows install disk.

I looked over the install and the manual for virtualbox and it seemed very straight forward. I looked at the screen shots and it just appears to be just like every other VM application. The biggest thing you need is a windows key and a install disk. Windows key is that sticker on the side of a computer. You can use any install disk really as long as it matches the OS. So XP sticker for XP install disk.

One suggestion if you do this I would take a snap shot of the image once it is all installed before you try to update the service packs. This way if something crashes it at least you have a working unpatched install to revert to. Then I would actually copy that whole xp file into another backup folder.

Then once you have a fresh install update it and see how it goes. Go slow make sure the updates all take.. Check stuff out. I don't know if Virtualbox will allow multiple snapshots. Some only allow one. I would maybe install MIDs and along with what is needed and test MIDs out after each update you do. Again once you see all is good recopy over and the new install. If you have the disk space make a new folder for each and label accordingly. Once your all done and satisfied save the final image and delete all the rest.

Images can get corrupt and sometimes you need to copy over that back up image. Also make sure you save your images after you create a bunch of builds. My image got corrupted and I had to recreate many of my recent builds. It was a bit of a pain.