Windows Oni vs. Mac Oni
There are no major gameplay or content differences between the Windows and Mac versions. However, there are major differences in file format and minor differences in scripting functionality that modders should be aware of.
Game data files
The most visible difference between the files in Mac and Windows Oni is the presence of .sep files in the GameDataFolder of Mac Oni and the Windows Oni demo. This and other changes were made either for general optimization or to meet some limitation on the Mac side. Due to the fact that Mac Oni was finished after Windows retail Oni but before the Windows demo was made, some changes made for Mac Oni carried over to the Windows demo. To illustrate what sort of level data files you'll find in the GameDataFolder:
| Windows retail | Mac demo, Mac retail and Windows demo |
|---|---|
To learn about the differences in how resources are stored in these files, read the articles on instance files and raw and separate files, especially the "Mac vs. Windows" section in the latter.
Level logic
The contents of the IGMD folders are exactly the same on Windows and the Mac, except for tctf_ii (CHAPTER 13 . PHOENIX RISING); these changes were made in the logic of the boss battle and cutscenes:
Windows exclusives
There are no major features only available in Windows Oni except support for 44KHz sounds, though this is rarely taken advantage of in the Windows game data.
BSL
- Windows Oni can turn the BSL boolean li_center_cursor on/off, whereas this behavior is hardcoded to be on all the time on Macs.
- The BSL boolean ai2_debug_localmove_lines.
Daodan DLL
It's probably safe to say that all players these days use the Daodan DLL with Windows Oni. The Daodan confers these exclusives:
- Support for multibyte languages such as Chinese.
- The name of a newly-acquired weapon is printed at your feet when you pick it up.
- New BSL commands for math, game characters, and output, listed HERE.
- Level files not ending in "_Final" will be loaded by Oni.
Mac exclusives
A newer, stabler build
The current build of Oni for Intel Macs (see HERE) is based on code that has been touched up by Bungie, The Omni Group, and Feral Interactive since Oni was gold mastered for Windows in 2000 (see History of Mac Oni for details), so they have fixed a few issues over the years, including the following that have not been reproduced by the Daodan DLL:
- Lens flares shining through objects.
- Crashes from missing textures, missing level files, and excessive particle classes.
See HERE for a full list of fixes which is compared to the current state of Windows Oni as patched by the Daodan DLL.
Bigger textures
Macs support 1024x1024 textures, whereas the Daodan DLL only allows up to 512x512 in Windows, although in practice this isn't much of an advantage because no one will go out of their way to make such enormous textures just for Mac players when they can keep their mod to 512x512 and make it playable for everyone ^_^
BSL
Any BSL commands left in a text file with the name bsl_config.txt alongside the Oni app will be run upon level load. This is equivalent to using the "global" folder in IGMD, which the Mac also supports.
Unique
- The mouse speed can be set with mouse_acceleration (0.1-1.0).
- The name of a weapon will display when it is equipped if chr_show_weaponid is set to 1 (a similar feature that comes through the Daodan DLL will show for all players, not just in Developer Mode).
- You can see the name of a texture by setting am_show_texturename to 1 and pointing to a texture while holding a weapon with an active laser sight.
- Macs have a few probably-useless variables for graphics left over from the debugging days at Bungie: debug_font_cache, gl_disable_dxt1, gl_disable_packed_pixels, and gl_mipmap_offset.
Improved
The function chr_location can take either the AI's name or the AI's index number on Macs, but only the AI's index number on Windows.
Functional
The following commands and variables seem to work on Macs but not in Windows.
- You can see attack extents by passing an animation name to the chr_showextent command (with the chr_showextent_globals variable set to 1). You can see attack extents with the chr_showextent_globals variable set to 1 by watching characters attack (or by passing an animation name to the chr_showextent command).
- These variables can also be useful for modders: ai2_showastar, am_hit_everything, am_show_axes, character_name_distance, patrolpath_name_distance, show_characters, show_flags, show_patrolpaths, show_sound_all, show_sound_rectangles, show_sound_spheres, and turret_show_debug.
Launch arguments
Instead of using the Terminal to pass launch arguments to the Oni binary, you can list them in a file with the name launch_args.txt next to the Oni app, separated by spaces, e.g. "-fsaa2x -noswitch".
On top of this, a launch panel appears if launching Oni with Command held down. Most of the launch arguments can be chosen using the GUI, and if not, they can be typed in manually in the Advanced tab.
Graphical niceties
You can supply the launch arguments -fsaa2x or -fsaa4x to get full-screen anti-aliasing, and -af2x or -af4x to get anisotropic filtering.
Gameplay
The launch argument -wsafety allows you to activate the weapon safety by pressing the button bound to "weapon_safety", which prevents your weapon from firing when you click, so you can punch and kick with a loaded weapon. The launch argument -parkour allows the AI to jump over obstacles in pursuit of the player.
Developer Mode
The difference in the hard-coded controls for the Dev Mode camera are illustrated HERE.
Cheats
The Daodan DLL adds the same cheats to Windows Oni that were added to Mac Oni in code, however "shinobi" differs as follows:
- Windows: Player always has 1 HP, but is immune to weapons and the enemy AI cannot hear the player.
- Mac: The enemy AI cannot hear the player, and their vision range is reduced to 25% of normal distance.