Compiling for macOS
Note
This page describes how to compile macOS editor and export template binaries from source. If you’re looking to export your project to macOS instead, read Exporting for macOS.
Requirements
For compiling under macOS, the following is required:
SCons 3.1.2+ build system.
Xcode (or the more lightweight Command Line Tools for Xcode).
Vulkan SDK for MoltenVK (macOS doesn’t support Vulkan out of the box).
Note
If you have Homebrew installed, you can easily install SCons using the following command:
brew install scons
Installing Homebrew will also fetch the Command Line Tools for Xcode automatically if you don’t have them already.
Similarly, if you have MacPorts installed, you can easily install SCons using the following command:
sudo port install scons
See also
To get the Godot source code for compiling, see Getting the source.
For a general overview of SCons usage for Godot, see 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:
scons platform=macos arch=x86_64
To compile for Apple Silicon (ARM64) powered Macs, use:
scons platform=macos arch=arm64
To support both architectures in a single “Universal 2” binary, run the above two commands and then use lipo
to bundle them together:
lipo -create bin/godot.macos.editor.x86_64 bin/godot.macos.editor.arm64 -output bin/godot.macos.editor.universal
Tip
If you are compiling Godot to make changes or contribute to the engine, you may want to use the SCons options dev_build=yes
or dev_mode=yes
. See Development and production aliases for more info.
If all goes well, the resulting binary executable will be placed in the bin/
subdirectory. This executable file contains the whole engine and runs without any dependencies. Executing it will bring up the Project Manager.
Note
If you want to use separate editor settings for your own Godot builds and official releases, you can enable Self-contained mode by creating a file called ._sc_
or _sc_
in the bin/
folder.
To create an .app
bundle like in the official builds, you need to use the template located in misc/dist/macos_tools.app
. Typically, for an optimized editor binary built with dev_build=yes
:
cp -r misc/dist/macos_tools.app ./Godot.app
mkdir -p Godot.app/Contents/MacOS
cp bin/godot.macos.editor.universal Godot.app/Contents/MacOS/Godot
chmod +x Godot.app/Contents/MacOS/Godot
codesign --force --timestamp --options=runtime --entitlements misc/dist/macos/editor.entitlements -s - Godot.app
Note
If you are building the master
branch, you also need to include support for the MoltenVK Vulkan portability library. By default, it will be linked statically from your installation of the Vulkan SDK for macOS. You can also choose to link it dynamically by passing use_volk=yes
and including the dynamic library in your .app
bundle:
mkdir -p Godot.app/Contents/Frameworks
cp <Vulkan SDK path>/macOS/lib/libMoltenVK.dylib Godot.app/Contents/Frameworks/libMoltenVK.dylib
Running a headless/server build
To run in headless mode which provides editor functionality to export projects in an automated manner, use the normal build:
scons platform=macos target=editor
And then use the --headless
command line argument:
./bin/godot.macos.editor.x86_64 --headless
To compile a debug server build which can be used with remote debugging tools, use:
scons platform=macos target=template_debug
To compile a release server build which is optimized to run dedicated game servers, use:
scons platform=macos target=template_release production=yes
Building export templates
To build macOS export templates, you have to compile using the targets without the editor: target=template_release
(release template) and target=template_debug
.
Official templates are Universal 2 binaries which support both ARM64 and Intel x86_64 architectures.
To support ARM64 (Apple Silicon) + Intel x86_64:
scons platform=macos target=template_debug arch=arm64
scons platform=macos target=template_release arch=arm64
scons platform=macos target=template_debug arch=x86_64
scons platform=macos target=template_release arch=x86_64 generate_bundle=yes
To support ARM64 (Apple Silicon) only (smaller file size, but less compatible with older hardware):
scons platform=macos target=template_debug arch=arm64
scons platform=macos target=template_release arch=arm64 generate_bundle=yes
To create an .app
bundle like in the official builds, you need to use the template located in misc/dist/macos_template.app
. This process can be automated by using the generate_bundle=yes
option on the last SCons command used to build export templates (so that all binaries can be included). This option also takes care of calling lipo
to create an Universal 2 binary from two separate ARM64 and x86_64 binaries (if both were compiled beforehand).
Note
You also need to include support for the MoltenVK Vulkan portability library. By default, it will be linked statically from your installation of the Vulkan SDK for macOS. You can also choose to link it dynamically by passing use_volk=yes
and including the dynamic library in your .app
bundle:
mkdir -p macos_template.app/Contents/Frameworks
cp <Vulkan SDK path>/macOS/libs/libMoltenVK.dylib macos_template.app/Contents/Frameworks/libMoltenVK.dylib
In most cases, static linking should be preferred as it makes distribution easier. The main upside of dynamic linking is that it allows updating MoltenVK without having to recompile export templates.
You can then zip the macos_template.app
folder to reproduce the macos.zip
template from the official Godot distribution:
zip -r9 macos.zip macos_template.app
Cross-compiling for macOS from Linux
It is possible to compile for macOS in a Linux environment (and maybe also in Windows using the Windows Subsystem for Linux). For that, you’ll need to install OSXCross to be able to use macOS as a target. First, follow the instructions to install it:
Clone the OSXCross repository somewhere on your machine (or download a ZIP file and extract it somewhere), e.g.:
git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross.git "$HOME/osxcross"
Follow the instructions to package the SDK: https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross#packaging-the-sdk
Follow the instructions to install OSXCross: https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross#installation
After that, you will need to define the OSXCROSS_ROOT
as the path to the OSXCross installation (the same place where you cloned the repository/extracted the zip), e.g.:
export OSXCROSS_ROOT="$HOME/osxcross"
Now you can compile with SCons like you normally would:
scons platform=macos
If you have an OSXCross SDK version different from the one expected by the SCons buildsystem, you can specify a custom one with the osxcross_sdk
argument:
scons platform=macos osxcross_sdk=darwin15
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