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Run Spore Creature Creator on unsupported GMA 950 Macs

by Mat Lu Jun 17th 2008 at 6:30PM


Quite a few users were frustrated to discover that the recently released Spore Creature Creator won't run on Macs with Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics (basically Mac minis and older MacBooks). An enterprising TUAW reader has come up with a solution. Clancy posted the following instructions:
  1. download trial
  2. click show package content
  3. open resources folder
  4. open tginstall.plist in Property List Editor (Having xcode installed helps)
  5. Click the root triangle
  6. scroll down to InsufficientRenderers
  7. Change Intel GMA 950 OpenGL Engine to Intel GMA 850 OpenGL Engine (or something lower)
  8. Save and run the installer
Clancy reports that the Creature Creator is running fine on his Core2Duo Mac mini with this modification. I'm not sure how well this will hold up on the full game (though the GMA 950 is supported on Windows), but if you have an unsupported Intel Mac and would like to have a look it might be worth it.

Update: It seems clear from the comments that this is only working on the Mac mini and not on the MacBook.

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Quite a few users were frustrated to discover that the recently released Spore Creature Creator won't run on Macs with Intel GMA 950...
 

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Joy

I was able to run Spore on my Mac Mini nicely by updating the Mac software. The creature creator is still not working well, so the creatures come out looking odd, but other than that it's working fine. My advice is update all your Mac software and hope for the best!

September 13 2008 at 3:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Richard

Same problems here. Got it installed and loading up fine without the Spinning Galaxy of death, but can't see creature in Creature Creator, so pretty pointless for me. If anyone has any further info on getting this to work then please post up!

September 13 2008 at 10:00 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
JACOB

Waragaistsleep, what exactly is *this* hack method you are speaking of? The thread has got me confused. I'm on a black MacBook with a 950. What should I do if I already have the app installed in order to get the hack to work?

-jacob

September 09 2008 at 10:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sfrog

SOMEONE HELP ME!!
I can get it to save once I change it to 10.4.11, but after that nothing seems to be happening when i try to open it, it says "need to have 10.5.3 or higher"

September 09 2008 at 5:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Waragainstsleep

I have just used this hack on the full game to run on an original Core Duo 2GHz MacBook. Runs just fine with 2GB RAM installed. Happy sporing alll!!!!!

September 09 2008 at 8:59 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Waragainstsleep's comment
Chris

hey can you outline how you hacked for other people having this problem?

September 10 2008 at 12:00 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andy

We're running it (successfully-ish) on a MacBook from March 2007. The only irritating glitch is you can't actually see your creature in the creature creator, so you end up putting mouths on it's ass by mistake. Everything else seems to run OK though, so you have to create your creatures through trial and error.

September 07 2008 at 10:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Andy's comment
Ross

I am having the same problems! My character looks ridiculous, and the game keeps freezing every 15-30 minutes. I'm a new mac user (well, bought this POS a year ago...loved it until now) Can you upgrade video cards for Macbooks?

September 07 2008 at 11:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Maclover

:( I got the same problem with my mac mini 1Gb ram, GMA 950. I could instal the editor..but i see nothing else then this galaxy...Does anyone now how to fix it?

September 05 2008 at 4:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nick

I'm getting the spinning galaxy even on my 2.0ghz C2D Mac Mini, I managed to install the software using Clancy's method but I'm running into the same problems as the macbooks. Perhaps there was something different about Clancy's mini that enabled him to get past the spinning galaxy. Has "anyone else" with a mini had any luck?

August 27 2008 at 12:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Neal

I can't find TGinstall.plist.. Can I get some help?

August 18 2008 at 12:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Cheesenipp

it wont let me save the changes in TextEdit...

July 11 2008 at 10:20 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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