MacOS

This page contains specific information necessary to compile OpenSpace on macOS. This page has the general instructions as a required reading.

Development Tools

Xcode

Xcode is the Interactive Development Environment (IDE) tool for Mac. It’s how you compile code on a Mac. It’s a free install from the Mac App Store.

Git Client

Xcode includes git, but the Xcode IDE cannot deal with recursive submodules. Once Xcode is installed, you can also use git via the command line in the Terminal app.

Dependencies

Homebrew is billed as “the missing package manager” for macOS. Homewbrew installs the stuff you need that Apple didn’t provide. It’s easy to install and uninstall packages with Homebrew. See http://brew.sh for instructions and to download and install Homebrew.

Once you have installed homebrew you can use it to install other useful utilities and libraries. Specifically, to build OpenSpace you will need to do the following:

brew install glew boost freeimage mpv vulkan-headers vulkan-loader brotli gdal

Similarly if you are using MacPorts, the corresponding command is:

port install glew boost freeimage mpv vulkan-headers vulkan-loader brotli gdal +curl

Please make sure that the correct GDAL version is installed, as OpenSpace uses some recent features. We require a version that is newer than 2.4.

Compiling

In Xcode, you need to select the target/scheme ALL_BUILD (if it isn’t already) and build it (pull down Product ‣ Build). Verify the build type (Release | Debug) by browsing to Product ‣ Scheme ‣ Edit Scheme ‣ Info tab ‣ Build Configuration.

Run open -n OpenSpace.app <args> from OpenSpace/bin/openspace/Release/ to start OpenSpace