Macintosh Creatures Evolution Engine
When the Creatures Evolution Engine was ported from Windows through Linux to the Mac OS X, several differences in the engine have occurred. These changes are detailed here.
Contents
Mac Compatibility with Windows/Linux files Overview
See Macintosh Compatibility and Macintosh Conflicts for more detail
- Agents are compatible
Confirmed. Docking Station testing with third party agents has been successful.
Injection of agents into Creatures 3 has not been tested.
- Metarooms are compatible but may be unstable
Tentative. Preliminary tests with metaroom installations have been successful, (i.e. the room will install correctly) but some metarooms cause the game engine to become very unstable.
- Official Creatures Packs are compatible
Confirmed. To download offical breeds, choose Linux downloads from the Creatures Mall. Official Breed Packs must be paid for; they are not free. Breeds tested sucessfully: Astro Norns, Bondi Norns, Hardman Norns, Siamese Norns, Treehugger Norns, and Zebra Norns. Banshee Grendels are reported as incompatible. The Quirky Cookie Machine from the Treehugger Pack does not seem to work, and autokills.
- Third Party Breeds are compatible
Tentative. Preliminary testing of add-on breeds has been successful.
- Adoptions are compatible
Confirmed. No known problems or modifications are needed to import creatures.
Installing New Agents, Metarooms or Breeds
To use third party files, you need to follow these steps.
- Find the Creatures 3 or DockingStation Application. They should be located in your Hard Drive/Applications folder.
- Control (right) click on either the Creatures 3 or DockingStation icon.
- Select "Show Package Contents" from the menu. It should be the third item from the top.
- Open the Contents folder.
- Open the MacOS folder.
- Open the data folder.
- Drop .agent files into the My Agents folder
- Drop .cos files into the Boostrap/010 Docking Station or Bootsrap/001 World folder.
Key Commands
Some of the key commands on the Macintosh versions of Creatures Exodus and Creatures Village are different to the Windows ones. This is a list of the known key commands.
Key Commands | |
Windows | Macintosh |
Right-click | Command-click |
Advanced Keyboard Commands
Advanced Commands | |
Command | Function |
Control + i | Same as Tab. Scroll through available Creatures. |
Control + s | Pause/Resume Game |
Control + r | Manual Save Game |
Control + Left Arrow | Place item from Inventory into Hand / Next object in Inventory |
Control + Right Arrow | Place item from Inventory into Hand / Previous object in Inventory |
Control + Shift + f | Wolfling run mode (fast ticks). Screen does not refresh. |
Control + Shift + x | Show/Hide X,Y coordinates of the Hand |
Control + Shift + a | Toggle Autokill On/Off |
Control + Shift + c | Open/Close CAOS Command Line |
Right Click + Open CAOS Command Line |
Pick up Creatures. You must open the CAOS Command Line first. |
Control + 1 | Open/Close Creatures Import/Export window |
Control + 2 | Open/Close Options window |
Control + 3 | Open/Close Inventory window |
Shift + F1-F12 | Assigns last phrase said by Hand to Function Key pressed. |
Command + F1-F12 | Assigns current Creature to Function Key pressed. |
Shift + Option + Return | Toggle between Full Screen and Windowed Mode. |
Home | Go to the first location in your Favorite Places row. |
End | DS - Go to the last location in your Favorite Places row. C3 - Go to the Grendel's Jungle. |
Page Up | Move to the left one location in your Favorite Places row. |
Page Down | Move to the right one location in your Favorite Places row. |
Unsupported Commands
Contrary to the provided documentation, several of the commands for Creatures Exodus do not work in the Macintosh version.
Unsupported Commands | |
Command | Intended Function |
Shift + S (see also Arrows Patch) | Repeat last phrase said by Hand |
Control + Click | Pick up Creatures |
Control + Shift + W | Enable Wolf Control |
Control + Shift + T | Display agent classifier numbers |
Intermittent Errors
Occasionally, the hand *will* pick up Creatures, simply by Option or Right Clicking.
Left or Right Clicking has also been known to produce characters in the text bubble instead of the intended function.