WineNova (EV Nova for Catalina and beyond)

Geek

launch screen
I'm happy to share news of my project with the wider EV Nova community, besides those who frequent the Discord server.

What is "WineNova?" A dorky nickname for my WINE wrapper of EV Nova for Windows, meant to be easily installed and run out of the box on any modern Mac system, Intel or ARM. For the latter, it runs in Rosetta 2 quite well, but no Universal package is available, or likely to be.

How to install WineNova? Download the disk image from the link provided below. It will give you a standard Apple Installer package. Run that and you're ready to go.

What features does WineNova have? Primarily, it just works. But I've also worked hard to give it some of the features exclusive to the original Mac version of EV Nova. Hold Shift at launch to see settings you may change:

settings

WineNova supports manual resolution changing (Windows Nova only runs in one resolution by default), loading different data folders (for total conversion plugins), and basic logging and troubleshooting features as well.

There are also some QoL enhancements for WineNova, such as improved color accuracy, the ability to toggle window modes with a hotkey (Option-F), and improved window handling over WINE's default window management behavior.

Beta 2.10.2 is the current version available. It incorporates EV Nova CE r4, which brings a lot of changes to performance limits, and adds the ability to launch your own game data folders using a blank file with the extension "nplay." It also allows customization of the 2X Mode hotkey. I've also fixed a few lazy validation checks that caused obscure crashes in testing. the latest update streamlines the install process, and fixes logging when using nPlay Fast Launch. The 2.10.2 update includes optimizations to the script, and fallbacks to workaround macOS-specific issues with launching the game (or nplays) from specific special folders (Downloads and Desktop).

Download WineNova Beta 2.10.2 from MEGA
Download link from escape-velocity.games pending.

Geek

There has been a report of odd behavior at launch in macOS Sonoma on ARM. The system may request permission for Nova to access the microphone, and if refused, it may keep asking, slowing the launch of the game. I'm currently running Ventura on Intel, so I can't reproduce this behavior. I suspect it is triggered when WINE initializes its generic audio driver, and doesn't represent a safety concern. I may be able to find a way to disable microphone initialization, which may be fine so long as it doesn't also disable game audio.

daowei

Oh ma gawwwd. It works right out of the box (M2 running Ventura). Thank you, Geek.

Geek

You're welcome! 😃

An update for everyone: I’m almost done with a complete restructuring of the app setup that eliminates the applet and wineskin binaries from the wrapper and simplifies the wrapper setup. I have hopes this will resolve the Sonoma permissions issue, but I will need testers to confirm when I’m ready.

Geek

WineNova Beta 2.5 is out!

Download link on top post has been updated.

Changes:

Rebuilt the WINE wrapper from the ground up, so it's much easier to interact with in the scripting, and easier to restore from a snapshot
Removed the AppleScript bundle and Wineskin executables. Everything is running at a lower level with no middle-men.
Radar Interference is patched. Now the radar is noisy again!
Sharper text (not bigger yet, still working on that)
More interactive settings window, displaying current settings on the main screen
Fixed Sonoma microphone glitch. Just allow once and it should stop asking.
Added a shout-out to White Dwarf in the user manual.

The external settings app has been removed, and settings are now accessed exclusively by holding Shift when launching Nova. Sorry to anyone who preferred the external app, but the extra work of copying and editing script to run stand-alone was proving costly. Do note that due to the massive changes under the hood, the Settings app from any previous version of WineNova is not compatible.

Geek

Minor update available for WineNova Beta 2.5

I have incorporated Guy's latest and greatest patches (Thanks, Guy!). The following is a likely incomplete list of changes:

Asteroid fix plug-ins no longer needed.
The settings window in the game can now toggle between windowed and fullscreen modes. No restart needed. You will still need to set Nova's resolution to a size smaller than your screen resolution to play Nova in a window.
No more Apple Silicon bugs with odd-numbered dimensions. DLOG resource patches are no longer needed.
Odd numbered screen resolutions no longer crash or produce weird artifacts.
Charcoal and Geneva fonts added. I forgot. 😅
The "iconv.dll" file is no longer needed, and has been removed. I don't know what it did anyway.
Did not yet implement Guy's new method for dynamic resolution, as the existing implementation in WineNova can do the same thing. Just not in the mood to redo my script yet.

Download link available in top post.

Geek

PSA: Not every change that has been made may be visible on a pilot file created in a previous version of WineNova. The game would not render asteroids for me until I created a new pilot file.

Geek

Small update has been uploaded. Changes default font size for dialogs to 10 point. Not sure what happened in which update, but size 9 clips out of the right edge in some dialog boxes now. I find 10 a little weird to read for some reason, but at least it doesn't clip. Same is true for 12, but the interface is still too small for 12 point font.

Link at the top has been updated, as well as in the Resources list.

Geek

WineNova Beta 2.6 is available

I fixed issues in my wrapper that were causing text wrap glitches new to 2.5, and fully integrated Guy's "Community Edition" EXE and DDRAW. You can now toggle the scale setting in the Settings window between normal 1.0, and 1.3 scale. Do note the 1.3 scale option is experimental and not completely bug free, but much easier on the eyes overall. Download link above has been updated.

Geek

WineNova Beta 2.6.1 is available

It was brought to my attention that Beta 2.6 could not launch under macOS Big Sur. This was due to my using a version of the Wineskin wrapper that was a little too new. This has been fixed, and compatibility has been confirmed in Catalina and Sonoma, so that should cover everything in between. Apologies to anyone this inconvenienced.

Geek

WineNova Beta 2.6.2 is available

This is a minor fix. Changes:

Removed a test plugin I accidentally left in. Sorry for the confusion.
Updated the manual. A lot of changes were needed.
Optimized the AppleScript. I had a few minor redundancies and over complications that were not needed.
Streamlined the Reset tool. It was overdue for some tweaks after all the other changes. It also now allows you to continue changing settings after running a Reset.

As always, the download link in the OP has been updated, and so has the link in the Resources thread.

Geek

WineNova Beta 2.7 is available

It has three new features.

First, the installer detects if a EV Nova folder is already in the user's Application Support folder, and notifies the user in case they want to back up something inside of it before it is deleted. This is only really applicable to copied data from Mac Nova, as WineNova exclusively uses the Application Support folder for the WINE wrapper, and it's not intended for user data. Sorry to anyone who installed previous versions over top of an old Mac Nova install. This popup will not appear on a clean install.

Next, WineNova now preserves the game settings file over an upgrade or reset operation. Never lose your custom keybinds again.

Finally, WineNova supports conversion to REZ format. If you put mac formatted plugin files in the default Nova Plug-ins folder, or load a folder that contains Mac-formatted data files or plug-ins, WineNova will now convert them to REZ automatically. There wasn't high demand for this, as most widely available mods are now in REZ by default. But I knew I had to implement this eventually, so there it is.

Please enjoy, and send feedback if you encounter issues.

mrincognito

This is so sick. Running out of the box on M1 Sonoma. Geek, I HIGHLY recommend asking the Mod that pinned the Ambrosia Garden link to add this to the pin so everyone can easily get to it.

Thank you.

Geek

You mean on the EV Nova Discord server? I have a dedicated forum topic there where I post updates.

Also, you’re welcome.

Geek

WineNova Beta 2.8 is available

Main changes:

Polished installation experience.
The App Support folder is now called "WineNova," to prepare for future compatibility with Guy's TC launchers, and to finally never overwrite old Mac Nova data. If the EV Nova folder in App support has a WINE wrapper inside, it will be removed. If it doesn't have a wrapper, it will be ignored
Debug Mode is available. Enjoy playing god
Scaling has been improved, and looks nice now. You are also free to experiment with the factor at your own risk.
The Settings window now launches automatically, but can be switched back to Shift-Launch
Exporting a log opens its location in Finder, and skips launching Nova
There is now a link to open the User Guide in the settings window. Also doesn't launch Nova.

Geek

WineNova 2.8.1 is available.

This is a minor bugfix.

Changes:

Fixed a strange issue where restoring the default scenario stopped working. Sorry I missed that.
Added better error handling to the REZ conversion process.
Finally added WineNova version info to the installer and package file names. This was not a trivial thing to change, and now I have to make edits in three separate project files moving forward whenever I change the version.

Geek

WineNova Beta 2.8.2 is available.

Just some minor enhancements:

Added Logging to the launch script. Very handy for degubbing issues with launch.
Because of the above, I made tweaks to my script to make it run more efficiently.

Download links in top post and in the Resources topic are up to date.

Bobert83

I just found this today, and am wonderfully excited to revisit my HS years. The only challenge is that I can't get plugins to load. I drop them in the Plug-ins folder, but they don't seem to affect the fame at all.

Geek

You can use "Export Log" in WineNova Settings to see whether the game is detecting and loading the plug-ins. It also depends on the contents of the plug-ins themselves, which you can check with a tool like ResForge.

I should also note it can depend on the plug-in file itself. If it's a .rez formatted plugin for Windows it should work right away. But if it's not, WineNova will attempt to convert it, but that will only work if the file has been correctly unpacked. Mac formatted plugins were often archived in formats like .hqx or .bin.sit, and those are difficult to open properly nowadays.