Compiling for macOS

Note Exporting for macOS.

Requirements

For compiling under macOS, the following is required:

  • Python 3.5+.
  • SCons 3.0+ build system.
  • Xcode (or the more lightweight Command Line Tools for Xcode).
  • Optional - yasm (for WebM SIMD optimizations). Note Homebrew installed, you can easily install SCons and yasm using the following command:
    1. brew install scons yasm
    Installing Homebrew will also fetch the Command Line Tools for Xcode automatically if you don’t have them already. MacPorts installed, you can easily install SCons and yasm using the following command:
    1. sudo port install scons yasm
    See also Getting the source. Introduction to the buildsystem.

    Compiling

    Start a terminal, go to the root directory of the engine source code. To compile for Intel (x86-64) powered Macs, use:
    1. scons platform=osx arch=x86_64 --jobs=$(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)
    To compile for Apple Silicon (ARM64) powered Macs, use:
    1. scons platform=osx arch=arm64 --jobs=$(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)
    lipo to bundle them together:
    1. lipo -create bin/godot.osx.tools.x86_64 bin/godot.osx.tools.arm64 -output bin/godot.osx.tools.universal
    bin/ subdirectory. This executable file contains the whole engine and runs without any dependencies. Executing it will bring up the project manager. Note Self-contained mode by creating a file called ._sc_ or _sc_ in the bin/ folder. .app bundle like in the official builds, you need to use the template located in misc/dist/osx_tools.app. Typically, for an optimized editor binary built with target=release_debug:
    1. cp -r misc/dist/osx_tools.app ./Godot.appmkdir -p Godot.app/Contents/MacOScp bin/godot.osx.opt.tools.universal Godot.app/Contents/MacOS/Godotchmod +x Godot.app/Contents/MacOS/Godot

    Compiling a headless/server build

    headless build which provides editor functionality to export projects in an automated manner, use:
    1. scons platform=server tools=yes target=release_debug --jobs=$(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)
    server build which can be used with remote debugging tools, use:
    1. scons platform=server tools=no target=release_debug --jobs=$(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)
    server build which is optimized to run dedicated game servers, use:
    1. scons platform=server tools=no target=release --jobs=$(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)

    Building export templates

    tools=no (no editor) and respectively for target=release (release template) and target=release_debug. lipo step below.
  • For Intel x86_64:
  1. scons platform=osx tools=no target=release arch=x86_64 --jobs=$(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)scons platform=osx tools=no target=release_debug arch=x86_64 --jobs=$(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)
  • For ARM64 (Apple M1):
  1. scons platform=osx tools=no target=release arch=arm64 --jobs=$(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)scons platform=osx tools=no target=release_debug arch=arm64 --jobs=$(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)

lipo to bundle them together:

  1. lipo -create bin/godot.osx.opt.x86_64 bin/godot.osx.opt.arm64 -output bin/godot.osx.opt.universallipo -create bin/godot.osx.opt.debug.x86_64 bin/godot.osx.opt.debug.arm64 -output bin/godot.osx.opt.debug.universal

.app bundle like in the official builds, you need to use the template located in misc/dist/osx_template.app. The release and debug builds should be placed in osx_template.app/Contents/MacOS with the names godot_osx_release.64 and godot_osx_debug.64 respectively. You can do so with the following commands (assuming a universal build, otherwise replace the .universal extension with the one of your arch-specific binaries):

  1. cp -r misc/dist/osx_template.app .mkdir -p osx_template.app/Contents/MacOScp bin/godot.osx.opt.universal osx_template.app/Contents/MacOS/godot_osx_release.64cp bin/godot.osx.opt.debug.universal osx_template.app/Contents/MacOS/godot_osx_debug.64chmod +x osx_template.app/Contents/MacOS/godot_osx*

osx_template.app folder to reproduce the osx.zip template from the official Godot distribution:

  1. zip -q -9 -r osx.zip osx_template.app

Cross-compiling for macOS from Linux

OSXCross to be able to use macOS as a target. First, follow the instructions to install it: OSXCross repository somewhere on your machine (or download a ZIP file and extract it somewhere), e.g.:

  1. git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross.git "$HOME/osxcross"
  1. https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross#packaging-the-sdk
  2. https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross#installation OSXCROSS_ROOT as the path to the OSXCross installation (the same place where you cloned the repository/extracted the zip), e.g.:
    1. export OSXCROSS_ROOT="$HOME/osxcross"
    Now you can compile with SCons like you normally would:
    1. scons platform=osx
    osxcross_sdk argument:
    1. scons platform=osx osxcross_sdk=darwin15