osxEQL

Run EverQuest Legends on Apple Silicon Macs with 100% open-source parts — open-source Wine (compiled from CodeWeavers' published LGPL source) + DXMT (DirectX 11 → Metal). No CrossOver install, no proprietary D3DMetal.

Unofficial, fan-made compatibility tool. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Daybreak Game Company, Game Jawn, CodeWeavers, or Apple. The EverQuest Legends game is not included — you bring your own copy from the official installer.

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Requirements

• Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or newer), macOS 13+. macOS 26 (Tahoe) is supported as of v0.3.1.
• A Daybreak / EverQuest Legends account and the official EQLegends_setup.exe.
• ~10 GB free disk (the game client downloads through Daybreak's launcher).

Install (players)

1. Download osxEQL-<version>.dmg from the Releases page.
2. Open it and drag osxEQL into Applications.
3. The first time you open osxEQL, macOS will ask you to confirm since it was downloaded from the internet. Click Open — after that it launches normally every time.
4. Download EQLegends_setup.exe from the official EverQuest Legends site (you need a Daybreak account).
5. Launch osxEQL. A setup window walks the whole install: pick the installer when asked, then watch it run Daybreak's installer, update the launcher, and download the game — you get a chime when the login screen is ready. Log in, hit Play. Every launch after that goes straight to the launcher.

Nothing else to install: no Homebrew, no Xcode, no Wine — the runtime ships inside the app.

Unsigned builds (ad-hoc, pre-v0.3.1): If you're running an older or self-built version that isn't signed by a Developer ID, macOS will block it instead of showing the confirmation dialog. Clear the quarantine flag once:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/osxEQL.app

On macOS 26+ this may not work — you'll need a Developer ID signed build.

How it works

eqgame.exe is a 64-bit Direct3D 11 game. To run it on macOS you need (1) Wine to run the Windows binary and (2) a D3D11→Metal translator. osxEQL uses:

• Wine built from CodeWeavers' official LGPL CrossOver source — it has the macdrv_functions bridge DXMT needs to attach a Metal view (stock Wine doesn't).
• DXMT (github.com/3Shain/dxmt) for D3D11→Metal — the open-source alternative to Apple's proprietary D3DMetal.

The runtime (Wine + DXMT) is embedded in osxEQL.app; the wine prefix and the game client live in ~/Library/Application Support/osxEQL/. Deep technical notes are in docs/ARCHITECTURE.md and docs/JOURNEY.md.

Build from source (developers)

# 1. Compile the Wine runtime from CodeWeavers' LGPL source (~30-60 min, x86_64).
#    Needs Xcode CLT + Intel Homebrew. Stages to ~/…/osxEQL/Wine.cxbuild, then
#    verify DXMT render and swap into ~/…/osxEQL/Wine.
engine/build-wine.sh

# 2. Stage DXMT into that wine tree + create a prefix.
engine/osxeql backend dxmt

# 3. Build the app icon (needs `brew install librsvg`).
cd assets/icon && uv run python generate.py && \
  rsvg-convert -w 1024 -h 1024 icon.svg -o icon.png && bash build_icns.sh icon.png && cd ../..

# 4. Assemble the self-contained app + DMG.
packaging/build-app.sh        # -> dist/osxEQL.app  (embeds the runtime)
packaging/build-dmg.sh        # -> dist/osxEQL-<ver>.dmg

# 5. (Optional) Sign with a Developer ID for Gatekeeper-clean distribution.
#    Set these env vars — secrets stay local, never in the repo:
export CODESIGN_IDENTITY="Developer ID Application: ..."
export NOTARIZE_KEY=~/path/to/AuthKey.p8
export NOTARIZE_KEY_ID=<key-id>
export NOTARIZE_ISSUER=<issuer-uuid>
packaging/build-app.sh        # signs + notarizes instead of ad-hoc
packaging/build-dmg.sh        # auto-detects signed app, notarizes DMG

Prerequisites (building only — the release DMG needs none of this)

Since v0.2.1 packaging/build-app.sh bundles the Homebrew dylibs wine dlopens (freetype, gnutls, SDL2, …) into the app, so end users don't need Homebrew. Building from source does:

• x86_64 Homebrew (/usr/local/bin/brew).

  [!IMPORTANT] Wine is an x86_64 application and requires x86_64 libraries. The standard ARM64 Homebrew (/opt/homebrew/bin/brew) will install incompatible libraries that will cause Wine to instantly crash.

  To install the x86_64 version of Homebrew on an Apple Silicon Mac, run:

  arch -x86_64 /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

• Required Homebrew formulas (must be installed via arch -x86_64 /usr/local/bin/brew install <formula>):

  • bison mingw-w64 pkgconfig coreutils freetype gnutls molten-vk sdl2 vulkan-loader vulkan-headers libpcap

The engine/osxeql CLI (setup/install/import-client/play/backend/status/ doctor) is the headless equivalent of the app and is handy for development.

Project layout

app/            launcher.sh (the app entry point + first-run wizard) + Info.plist
assets/icon/    icon source (generate.py / icon.svg) + AppIcon.icns + build_icns.sh
engine/         headless CLI + numbered setup scripts + build-wine.sh
packaging/      build-app.sh, build-dmg.sh, sign-and-notarize.sh, entitlements.plist,
                verify-release.sh (check a signed DMG against this source)
docs/           ARCHITECTURE / STATUS / JOURNEY / VISION

The big artifacts — the 569 MB Wine runtime, the ~7 GB game client, the DMG — are not in git (see .gitignore); the runtime ships inside the Release DMG, the game client is the user's own.

License & credits

• osxEQL's own code: MIT (see LICENSE).
• Wine (LGPL-2.1) and DXMT (LGPL-2.1+) — see THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md for license texts and how to obtain/rebuild the corresponding source.
• EverQuest Legends © Daybreak Game Company / Game Jawn. Not included, not affiliated.
• Signed by Skybound Solutions, LLC. Code signing contributed by @skybound-raz.