When will we see a new Mac mod?!

[Brian]

Is it just me, or has there been a lengthy dry spell in the number of GhR mission and mod releases that are playable on the mac? There's a fistfull of RS add-ons released every week. WTF!

Rant 1: Why do PC users have to pack everything in EXE files! It couldn't be easier to drop the files into the appropriate folders in GhR and those EXE files exclude Mac users when the file format itself is cross platform (75%+ of the time).

Rant 2: Half of the missions and mods that come out require Island Thunder! I don't have Virtual PC or a PC using friend with Ghost Recon, so I can't install the MP2 folder. Argh!

Rant3: No GhR level editor for Mac! Just once I'd like to see a game come out that would allow the Mac community to flex our creative muscles.

[Captain Snorp]

Answer to Rant 1: In PCLand, the harder it is to extract something, the more 1337 and cool you are to have managed to do it.  I know it's hard to comprehend, being a mac user, but some people use their computers to create something, and are oblivious that there could possibly be someone not using the exact same setup they are.
Mac users are generally better equipped to deal with PCness than vice-versa, just due to practice over the years.

Answer to Rant 2: not sure if Mauti's still sending them out, but he did offer to swap original IT discs for his-created-IT discs that work on mac.

Answer to Rant 3:  No clue on that one.  Mac being the more creative platform and all, it seems odd it wasn't included.  Perhaps they thought a world with correctly-spelled mission briefings would be a bad thing?

-CS

[S.p.i.d.e.r.]

Sorry to break it to you, but unless some individuals would like to spend a few thousand dollars and donate a vast amount of time, you're not going to see any level editing tools on OS X.

No mods have not been released because mauti is taking a little time off.

[Brian]

I realize Mauti is off, but there haven't been any Mac friendly mods released on the other GhR fan community sites either. I regularly check about a half-dozen sources:

http://www.ghostrecon.net/
http://www.planetrainbowsix.com/damnr6/
http://www.woody2000.dk/ehome.html
http://www.war-dancers.com/modules/mydownloads/
http://www.planetrainbowsix.com/
http://www.fileplanet.com/section.aspx?s=90445

Historically there have been at least one or two mac-friendly mission files released each week. I think the last mod I got my hands on was Iraqi Freedom (which I thought was excellent). Even this Mauti had to convert from a "Mac-hostile" original - and that was some time ago.

Anyone have mod sites to suggest in addition to those listed above?

P.S. The questions in my original post were rhetorical ("rants"). I've long been resigned to the fact I won't get to use my Mac to its full potential when it comes to participating inn the online gaming community.

[Mr. Lothario]

     Define Mac-friendly. I'm curious about your definition because it's not hard to convert any mod you wish. Assuming you have Virtual PC, you can run any mod's installer just fine. It'll create the folders it needs, then you just copy the installed mod to a Mac disk. From there, you can just use a program called SoundConverter (hit VersionTracker) to convert the Sound folder's contents from .wavs to .aifs, and then just Stuff the whole folder up. Bam, a Mac version.

[Brian]

Yeah, I suppose its about time I invested in virtual PC. However, don't I also have to get a copy of Windows? What sort of expense in terms of hard drive space and cash are required to reach the point that I can run EXE install files on my Mac?

Is there no application for the Mac that can simply un-archive EXE files without depositing the various components into targeted directories? That seems like a useful enough utility that someone should have created it by now.

[S.p.i.d.e.r.]

In case no one ever noticed, SOTO *Mac's Sniper/Scout team mod has had a mac friendly version out for quite some time.

http://www.sotoclan.com/Downloads/Mods/MAC/SPV4.zip

Kinda fun, does not require IT for the most part, seems all the specialists do not work though.

Alpha map problem on the 7.62mm M4 as well.

[Mr. Lothario]

     Virtual PC 5.0 with Win 98 installed takes up 535 MB on my hard drive. I basically only use it to run .exe installers (which I then delete), so it doesn't take up more space as I install things. If you install programs on it, it'll take up more space for you.