Hi all!

Love the game, now I want to mod. BUT I have had real trouble (yes I have scoured the internet for solutions but have yet to find anything useful somehow???) with finding the MOD location on MAC with GOG galaxy.

Unless its hidden, of which I haven't heard anyone having a hidden CookedPC/MAC equivalent folder (I cant even find the MOD folder or any location where MODS should go).

The closest solution was to create a MOD folder but where would I put this? Inside the GOG folder? because I cannot for the life of me find a Witcher 2 folder.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Try Nexus forums for the problem,they may have an answer.

I'm trying to get some mods working on Linux too, but it's a pain in the neck. XML changes work, but not script changes, possibly because base_scripts.dzip is completely missing for some reason. Maybe there is a similar situation on Mac, which makes it more difficult to get mods working. XML changes, like weight reduction, work fine, but not if you want to change some type of behaviour, like corpses lasting longer, or that you can use the medallion without waiting 10 seconds.

At least there is a CookedPC folder on the Linux install, but sadly mods still often fail to work.

Mac user here,
1. There are certain mods that actually work (surprisingly) as long as it does not involve base_script.dzip
though its a hassle really, the only mod that i actually found(for now) that worked was the weightless mod which can be found in the nexusmod

2. If you wanna look for the file location where to put the mods here's the link
http://en.cdprojektred.com/support/witcher-2-installation-saves-config-folders-os-x/

*Note: This is a response for first-time, Mac, mod users with little to no background in computer programming. It's long and exhaustive on purpose. A more streamlined version is posted below with some of the usual programming slang for more experienced users. Also, I can't post any links at the moment, so, sorry? For the interim, I've included the Google search term that should link you to the appropriate page for any specific web addressed referenced in the post.

Hey GoGers,

So I've been working this morning trying to figure out how to add mods to my Mac for The Witcher 2 (TW2) and never really found any helpful guides for novice mod users like myself, so hopefully I can help shed some light on how I got my TW2 mod (Adding Draug Essence and Draguir Armor to the Shop in Chapter 2) to work.

Finding the CookedPC Folder

First, for those of you who have been scouring the internet and all you could find were posts about a "CookedPC" folder, there is a CookedPC folder on the most recent Mac version of TW2. For those of you who don't know what/why this folder is important, the "CookedPC" folder is programed to rewrite or override the original game's coding or instructions i.e. it lets you modify (mod) your game. You'll be placing all of your mods in this folder so finding it is relatively important. The way you find it is by right clicking, if you have a mouse, or two finger clicking (default setting) on a touch pad, or control (CTRL) + left (one finger) clicking your file for TW2. My file was found in the "Applications" folder of my computer. Yours might be elsewhere, like in a GoG specific folder. Once opened, a drop down menu will give you a bunch of options, choose the "Show Package Contents" option. This will take you to a new window which should contain a single folder labeled "Contents." Double click this folder. My "Contents" folder has 6 folders/files labeled: _CodeSignature, Documents, Info.plist, MacOS, PkgInfo, Resources. Double click the "Resources" folder. On my version, there are 5 folders/files: app.icns, Base.Iproj, games, script_alt.sh, script.sh. Double click the "game" folder. Two icons appear next on my version: "Data" and "The Witcher 2." Double click "Data" and the second from the top should be a folder entitled "CookedPC." You're welcome to brows the current files, mine includes things like changes to the Harpy Feathers, or the inclusion of the "Dark" difficulty option for the Enhanced Edition (EE) of TW2.

Downloading or Discovering a Mod

If you don't already have a mod in mind, nexusmods.com appears to be the default site for installing most game mods and TW2 is no exception. [Google: Nexusmods], link at end] is the URL for the website's main for your convenience, and [Google: Nexus Mods The Witcher 2] is the link for TW2 mods, specifically. (the specific mod that got my going down this rabbit hole will be posted later on) Once here you can look up the game of your choice and the brows the associated mods (an easier approach is usually to just plug the mod you want into a search engine and link directly to the page). There are a few tabs once you get on to the mods page. The first is usually a tab for the mod's description or "DESC;" immediately to the right of the DESC tab is the download tab "Files." Click that tab and then the "download manually" to get your mod file. *Don't use the download manager as there is not one available for Mac. Just do the manual download, it should work just fine.

Unpacking your Mod & The Unarchiver

Mods do not (generally) come immediately available to use. If the file is a .zip, then your computer should be able to unpack it right away. If it comes in any other format, for example mine came as a .rar, then you may need another piece of software. If you're curious why files are one way or another, the Apple Tool Box give a pretty good explanation [Google: How do you extract a RAR file on mac] and recommends the installation of a piece of software called "The Unarchiver" which can be downloaded [Google: The Unarchiver, or click the link provided on the previous search]. The Unarchiver also does more than just .rar so don't freak out and rage quit if your file name isn't .zip or .rar. Anyways, this unpacks your downloaded mod file into a format your computer, and subsequently TW2, can read. *Note: The Unarchiver is not your default unpacking software. To use it, right click your downloaded file and choose the second list option "Open With." The Unarchiver should be the on the list. If it is not, chances are you didn't install The Unarchiver after you downloaded it. Double click your downloaded The Unarchiver file and run through installation. It should not appear as an option when you right click your mod file. I also set my installation settings on "The Unarchiver" to always make a new folder and to place it on my desktop for easy access. You are welcome to configure, or not configure, your unpacking methods as you choose. Just know that your file may end up in a weird place if you don't specify.

Actually Installing Your Mods

Now, for what you've been waiting: actually installing your mod. For TW2, the "CookedPC" folder is all set up to integrate your mod for you, all you have to do is drag your newly unpacked file(s) into the "CookedPC" folder. The mod I wanted allows me to purchase a Daugir Essence in Chapter 2 stores, rather than waiting for Chapter 3, and is found [Google: draug essence mod]. When I unpacked my mod using "The Unarchiver" it created a folder "Draug-Draugir Ingredients in Chapter 2-778-1-00." Inside that folder is a second folder "Draug-Draugir Ingredients in Chapter 2." Open that up and find a folder titled "CookedPC" and a text file Draug-Draugir Ingredients in Chapter 2.txt. Open up the "CookedPC" folder to find another folder titled "Items." This is the folder you drag into your "CookedPC" folder found in TW2 (the folder I showed you how to find earlier in the post). If you're curious, the file inside of "Items" is called def_shops.xlm. Once dragged into your TW2 "CookedPC" folder, the files should overwrite the next time you load a game in TW2. *When I loaded my game from Chapter 2 for the first time, the load time was MUCH longer. In fact, the screen was black for maybe 15-20 seconds before I got my normal load screen. This happened the first time after installing the new mod, but has not occurred any time after that. Perhaps for larger mods the loading situation is different, I don't know. So, just don't freak out if your screen goes black the program just needs a few minutes to rewrite itself, TW2 is a relatively large file and if you are using a casual gaming computer like mine i.e. late 2012 MacBook Pro, then don't expect the change to be instantaneous.

Conclusion

I have only tested this one mod at the moment (it's the only one I really want for now), but I assume adding other mods would be the same and should activate upon starting your game up. Let me know if something didn't work for you, if I missed something, or if you just have any suggestions for post edits. Otherwise, enjoy your mods!

Here's the condensed version of the previous post:

Finding and Using the CookedPC Folder

1) Right click your TW2 icon and choose "Show Package Contents." From there: contents/Resources/game/Data/CookedPC

2) Downloading Mods - go to nexusmods and download the mod of your choice using manual download (since there is no download manager for nexusmods at the moment)

3) Download "The Unarchiver" from the App Store (recommended by Apple Toolbox). Open your TheUnarchiver.zip and configure your settings. Make sure your file type is selected under the "Archive Formats" tab. Then for convenience moved to the "Extraction" tab and chose Extract archives to: Desktop. Create a new folder for the extracted files: Always. I didn't bother with the Advanced Settings for this mod.

4) Right click your downloaded mod file scroll down to "Open With" and choose "The Unarchiver."

5) Drag the appropriate files into the "CookedPC" folder opened in step 1.

6) Relaunch TW2 and enjoy your mod!

This works for replacement graphics and presumably sound and strings, but what about all the mods that talk about base_scripts.dzip and similar files. That file doesn't exist in the CookedPC folder on the Mac. I even went into Bootcamp (which I needed for Witcher 3 - yes I'm out of order) and used Gibbed RED Unpack to unpack pack0.dzip in case it was in there but it's not. I don't expect that I'll be able to simply replace base_scripts.dzip, but some mods describe what areas are changed.

Is there a base_scripts.dzip on the Mac or have they done something else?

Thanks

So, the title of this thread is about Witcher mods for Mac users, but original post in this thread asked specifically about how to add mods for TW2 on a Mac OS. In your case, your hardware is Mac, but your OS is Windows; and for TW3 there isn't a CookePC folder in which to add mods. In fact, you actually just make a new folder called "mods" and drag all of your extracted files into that folder. Jump on YouTube and type "how to install TW3 mods" and the second video should be a quick 2 minute guide by svaalbard, showing you how to add mods to TW3. Best of luck!

Actually I am playing TW2 on a Mac. However, I have Windows installed under Bootcamp and used that to decompress pack0.dzip. I'm quite familiar with digging into Mac App contents. As it happens, I played TW3 first using Windows in Bootcamp and made a number of mods using the Mods folder.

So my question remains, in TW2 on the Mac how do I, or can I, use mods that change base_scripts.dzip.

Okay, sorry for the delay, holidays and sickness kind of got in the way.

The short answer to your question is no, I don't believe that currently there is an easy, streamlined, or accepted way to install base_scripts.dzip into the Mac version of the game. A longer version is that there may be a way to get it to work if I properly understand the witcher wiki, which seems to say that Gibbed Red Tools (GRT) can convert .dzip into .xml. I can't get GRT to work on my Windows partition, so I haven't been able to check for certain if that claim is true. Getting base_scripts.dzip to work for the Windows version looks like a hard-coded update by the developers (based on the YouTube videos I've watched), so I guess if GRT doesn't work for you either, you could just petition the Witcher dev for an update to the Mac version (as well as a timeline for a Mac version of TW3). If I do manage to get my version of GRT to work I'll let you know. I downloaded my version from Nexus, where did you get your version? Maybe your version will work better than the one I have currently. Again, sorry for the delay.

Okay, for any newer mod users who have been following the thread so far and have already gotten lost, here's kind of an update/explanation of how the dialogue has evolved over the last few posts.

My first post discussed the adding of mods to TW2 on a Mac platform. It explained how to navigate to your CookedPC folder and where to download pre-made mods by others in TW2 community. What Bobbd2000 and I have discovered, and was actually explained quite nicely very early in the thread by Pangaea666, is that base_scripts.dzip doesn't appear to work on a Mac, but any file with the extension .xml, have worked just fine up to this point. Two .xml mods I have personally tested are my original mod request, i.e. purchasing draug and draugir components in Chapter 2 so I could finish my Oath Breaker equipment before Chapter 3, and a mod that increases the time of potions, oils and reduces toxicity to zero.

File Extensions

So why care if a file has the file extension .dzip, .xml or .whatever and what is it? File extensions are the letters following the "." in a file name in indicate the type of file contained within. Most of us likely see file extensions and just kind of glaze over them, because if your computer is well programmed, double-clicking a file on your computer will automatically bring up the appropriate software to open and allow viewing/editing/executing (running), etc. of a file. Some examples of common file extensions on a Mac are things like ".doc", ".docx", ".ppt", ".xls", or ".xlsx", if you're running Microsoft Word, PowerPoint or Excel respectively, "mp3" for audio files or "mp4" for audio and/or videos files, "PNG" or "JPEG" for photos, etc. Files downloaded from the internet are occasionally foreign to your computer, at least until you assign a program to open them up, or download new software to do the job for you. For example, in my first post I recommended that you download "The Unarchiver" to help with some of those foreign, internet-downloaded files. If you're curious to see for yourself some of the more exotic file extensions, check out the file extensions you can enable with "The Unarchiver" or just do a general internet search for some more examples.

I don't have a great summary for why file extensions are formatted the way they are, other than by formatting data in a particular way enables your computer to read it more easily, or allows it to make sense of that data in such a way that it produces the desired application. For our purposes, the downloaded mods are generally packaged in such a way that they take up less digital "space." This makes hosting large numbers of mods less expensive as sites can pay for less bandwidth to provide the same services, and it allows you to download your files more quickly because they're a smaller size. When you "unpack" these files you're changing the format from a compressed form (easy to send and receive) to a more voluminous form (easier to use and navigate). I guess a good comparison would be a collapsable toolbox (kind of reminds me of an accordion). Fully packed, it makes great use of space and is easy to take from job site to job site and/or store in your car/truck/garage/basement, but makes using any of the tools inside impossible. Unfold the extensions and it doubles in size but now you have access to a whole host of tools and implements.

Extensions .xml, .dzip and base_scripts.dzip

The two file extensions with which Bobbd2000 and I are most concerned with at the moment in this thread are the extensions ".xml" and ".dzip". ".xml" is a file extension for mods that works as soon as you drop it into TW2's CookedPC folder. While this is nice, not all mods have that extension. One of the more sought-after mods for TW2 has a ".dzip" extension and is called: base_scripts.dzip. This mod allows Geralt to gain an extra talent point or two per level, whic means that by the end of the game you can max out every tech tree option as opposed to tunneling on one or making a hybrid of two or three. It also means you maximize your mutagen additions to Geralt. It arguably makes the game more interesting with a greater diversity of combat options (not to mention making combat considerably easier). ".dzip" is a file extension made specifically for TW2, and base_scripts.dzip is enabled in the Windows version of the game by launching TW2, pressing "Options," checking the box for "Advanced Settings," clicking on "DLC Settings," and checking a box for "enable base_scripts.dzip." The Mac version of the game does not have that option under DLC Settings (which in case you're interested probably stands for Down Loadable Content Settings," and if it doesn't, well--it's good enough for our purposes).

So, the question we are trying to answer is: Can base_scripts.dzip be enabled on a Mac version of TW2? Currently, we believe the answer is "no--or at least not easily." There is a possibility that a development tool released by CD Projekt Red (the company that made TW2 and coincidently owns GoG), could do the trick. The tool is called Gibbed Red Tools (GRT for short) and can be downloaded from nexusmods, i.e. the same place we've gone to for all of the mods we've discussed so far. According to the Witcher wiki, GRT should be able to convert .dzip files (the extension made exclusively for TW2) to .xml files (versions which can be read when simply placed directly into your CookedPC folder). For the moment, we've run into two difficulties. First, my version of GRT won't run properly, so I need to find out why that's the case, and when Bobbd2000 ran some other dzip-looking files through GRT, it came back with an error message. Until we can get GRT to work properly (or learn how to properly use GRT), we won't know if using it will allow us to enable construct some kind of work-around to enable us to run base_scripts.dzip on a Mac version of TW2. It appears to me from the YouTube videos I've watched, that the activation of the "enable base_scripts.dzip" check box on the Windows version of the game was a hard-coded update provided by the developers of TW2. If that's true, and the GRT doesn't work, then our next step of recourse would be to simply ask the developers to add that extension to the Mac version of TW2 during their next update (if, of course, they have any planned).

For anyone interested in trying to run base_scripts.dzip through Gibbed Red Tools (GRT), GRT is only available in a Windows version, so unless you have set up a Windows partition on your computer through Bootcamp, Parallels, or some other software you might be able to unpack the file, but you won't be able to run GRT. The first time I set up a partition was through Bootcamp; and, if I didn't have a buddy helping me through the process, I might have just given up. There are a number of guides on explaining how to partition your computer to run a second (or third) operating system, but if anyone finds that my explanations (long versions followed by a shorter summary) have been helpful, I can try to take a crack at putting my own guide/set of instructions together. I may need to start a separate, more appropriate thread for it though.

Cheers!

I think I read on one of the GoG forums a while back that CDPR didn't do the port (at least the original one if there was more than one) but farmed it out to a third party. If I can find the thread again, and I'm considered legit enough to start including hyperlinks, I'll post it later. I have the EE of TW2 and I can't find the base_scripts.dzip enabling option anywhere, so I don't think it was added to the Enhanced Edition of the game.

I took a look at those files in the bin folder as well, and they seem to be formatted in the same manner as the base_scripts.dzip file I opened with Text Editor/Text Wrangler. I think they're game save files, though. If you go into TW2 files through the hidden library option:
Go/"alt" + Library/application support/com.vpltd.TheWitcher2/Game Documents/The Witcher 2/Game Saves
It should list the same files in reverse order of the Bin folder you just found. Why they don't have the .dzip extension is maybe because the game can read them without it due to location, or something?

Good catch on the dzip files in bin. I did a quick contents compare of one of my save files with the dzip of the same number and they look identical. While this is interesting and identifies the files in the bin folder, I don't think it helps with mods.

I wouldn't be surprised if Feral or Aspyr did the port. They seem to be the experts in porting from Windows to Mac.

Compliments on your explanations. If I was new to this stuff, that information would be invaluable.

The idea of file typing has been around for a long time (40 or 50 years anyway). Microsoft DOS put it into the mainstream with the 8.3 file naming format. 8 characters for the file name and 3 for the extension which was supposed to identify the file type and therefore what application could be used to open it. Windows of course expanded the file name but kept the file extension, although it can now be longer than 3 characters. UNIX, the macOS precursor, did not use file extensions as such since it was very flexible with regard to naming and a period was treated like most other characters. macOS does use the characters following the last period of a file name as an extension and an indicator of the file type.

Now that things have calmed down a bit from the Christmas gatherings, I'm going to look at some of those other dzip files and see if I can figure out whether there are more functions in GRT.

I did a couple of things. I copied the dzip files from CookedPC over to my Bootcamp partition and used GRT to unpack them. On looking at them, all but one has a dlc folder. By the way, you were right, dlc stands for DownLoadable Content. There was one file named ABetterUI.dzip. That contained, among other things, lots of Flash scripts with the extension swf. Back on the Mac side, I have a free flash decompiler. So I looked at the swf files and some of them are recognizable as the map, inventory, and so on.

Then it occurred to me that maybe the swf files in pack0.dzip would be of interest. Specifically, I was looking for a way to stop the minimap rotation. I didn't find that but I did find lots of other stuff. Unfortunately, I don't have a flash editor/compiler.

I now suspect that the scripts in base_scripts.dzip are in pack0.dzip. So the next thing I'm going to do is copy over the base_scripts.dzip files from some mods to my Bootcamp partition and unpack them.