M1 MacBook Installation
How to play Star Wars Galaxies Restoration III on an Apple Silicon M1 MacBook or MacMini.
Software Required
The game runs quite reasonably on a M1 MacBook Air using Parallel's Desktop 17.1 for Mac and Windows 11.
Problem
The launcher appears to only run
once successfully. On subsequent attempts to run the launcher, it fails. The problem seems to be with two DLLs (dbg*.dll). The workaround is to remove those two files before starting game.
Workaround
To work around, we write a script to run the launcher. This script will delete some of the game's files, re-install the launcher and then run the launcher at the end of the installation. The launcher will re-download the missing files and then allow you to run the game (once).
July 3
, 2022: Through trial & error, it would appear as if you only need to remove two DLLs (dbg*.dll) to work around the issue. Re-installation of the launcher is no longer required.
Preparations
- Download the Star Wars Galaxies Restoration 3 Installer from https://swgr.org/play/
- Run the installer and install the launcher. After logging in, let the game fully install itself
Assumptions
- The installer is located in C:\temp\Restoration-III-Install.exe
- The game is installed to C:\games\Restoration III
Writing the script
Go to game's installation directory (in my case C:\games\Restoration III) and create a file using
notepad.
C:\games\Restoration III\run.bat
Save the file as
run.bat. It is really important that
the run.bat file is in the game directory. You don't want it to delete files elsewhere!
Play!
To play, simply run the run.bat script and then start Restoration III as usual.
Startup takes a few seconds longer as you re-install the launcher and re-download a very small number of small files. I've been using this method for weeks without any issue.
