How to install Mx Simulator on Mac + Tracks, skins, using editor etc.

[Wahlamt]

Hi!

Update:
Thanks to Jon (Kawy949), there is now a way to run Mx Simulator on Apple silicon. Posting his thread below, full credits to him for this solution.

Running MX Simulator on Apple Silicon (M-series) Mac — full framerate on Alcrest

Setup: M-series Mac, macOS 26, running the 2026-05-14 64-bit snapshot. Getting 125fps on Alcrest and it plays fine on keyboard — good enough for real use. Totally free: no CrossOver or Parallels needed.

The blocker everyone hits: the modern 64-bit snapshot needs an OpenGL core context, and stock WineHQ's Mac driver refuses to create one — it rejects the request with "OS X only supports forward-compatible 3.2+ contexts" and the game dies instantly. macOS actually supports exactly the context the game wants; Wine is just being overly strict about a flag. CrossOver patches around this, plain WineHQ doesn't. One tiny change to a private copy of Wine fixes it (Wine is LGPL, so editing your own copy is fine).

The paths below are the exact ones I used — adjust if you prefer somewhere else.

Step 1 — Install Rosetta 2 (skip if you already have it)

Code: Select all

softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license

Step 2 — Install WineHQ Wine (stable 11) and clear quarantine

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brew install --cask wine-stable
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Wine Stable.app"

Step 3 — Create a Wine prefix

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export WINEPREFIX="$HOME/Games/mxsim-prefix"
"/Applications/Wine Stable.app/Contents/Resources/wine/bin/wine" wineboot

Step 4 — Install the game
The installer's GUI didn't run cleanly for me, so I extracted it with 7-zip instead. (My installer was at ~/Downloads/mxsimulator-1_13-install.exe and the snapshot at ~/Downloads/mxsimulator/mx-2026-05-14-1684.exe.)

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brew install sevenzip
mkdir -p ~/Downloads/mxs-extract
7zz x -y -o ~/Downloads/mxs-extract ~/Downloads/mxsimulator-1_13-install.exe

# Copy the game data + original exe into the prefix
GAME="$WINEPREFIX/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/MX Simulator"
mkdir -p "$GAME"
cp ~/Downloads/mxs-extract/*.saf ~/Downloads/mxs-extract/CREDITS.TXT "$GAME/"
cp ~/Downloads/mxs-extract/mx.exe "$GAME/mx-1.13-original.exe"   # keep a backup

# Drop in the 64-bit snapshot as mx.exe
cp ~/Downloads/mxsimulator/mx-2026-05-14-1684.exe "$GAME/mx.exe"

Step 5 — The key fix: patch a private copy of Wine's Mac driver
This makes a separate copy of Wine so your main install stays untouched, then flips one byte so the driver stops rejecting the core context.

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# Copy Wine to your home folder
mkdir -p ~/Games/wine-mxsim
ditto "/Applications/Wine Stable.app/Contents/Resources/wine" ~/Games/wine-mxsim/wine

# Patch winemac.so: at offset 0x31b6b change 0x74 (je) to 0xeb (jmp)
python3 -c "
import os
p=os.path.expanduser('~/Games/wine-mxsim/wine/lib/wine/x86_64-unix/winemac.so')
d=bytearray(open(p,'rb').read())
assert d[0x31b6b]==0x74, hex(d[0x31b6b])
d[0x31b6b]=0xeb
open(p,'wb').write(d)
print('patched OK')
"

# Re-sign the patched driver
codesign --force -s - ~/Games/wine-mxsim/wine/lib/wine/x86_64-unix/winemac.so

Step 6 — Launch (the --glversion 4.1core flag is required; 3.2core also works)

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export WINEPREFIX="$HOME/Games/mxsim-prefix"
cd "$WINEPREFIX/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/MX Simulator"
~/Games/wine-mxsim/wine/bin/wine mx.exe --glversion 4.1core

Optional — one-click launcher. Save this as ~/Games/mxsim-launch.command and chmod +x it, then just double-click to play:

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#!/bin/bash
export WINEPREFIX="$HOME/Games/mxsim-prefix"
export WINEDEBUG=-all
cd "$WINEPREFIX/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/MX Simulator"
exec "$HOME/Games/wine-mxsim/wine/bin/wine" mx.exe --glversion 4.1core "$@"

The whole trick is the one-byte driver patch + the --glversion 4.1core flag. Without both, the gt rejected or crashes falling back to old OpenGL.

Note: the offset 0x31b6b is specific to WineHQ 11.0's 64-bit winemac.so — a different Wine versin elsewhere. If so, look for the je immediately after the "forward-compatible" check (the bytesthere are 84 c0 74 20; change the 74).

If you look for the "2020" guides, they are in the spoiler below

Almost 6 years later and now I've updated my old Mac tutorials to real proper ones that actually aren't super confusing and bad... Also they should be more reliable and you don't have to pay for an "emulator". More or less everything you need to know (besides controllers) is in these videos

These updated videos are updated for "2018" because wine staging (at the time of making the videos) weren't compatible with the MacOS High Sierra update *.
* allegedly only computers with SSD's or SSHD's are affected, so old computers might be fine with the old guides.

* If you update to Mojave and it doesn't work, re-install the game and it should be fine.

If you have issues with the game crashing/not opening, try this:


Part 1 - Installing the game


Part 2 - Getting skins and tracks into the game


Part 3a - Updating snapshot


Part 3b - Installing an update


Part 4 - Accessing the editor


Part 5 - Stock model replacement
* Stock model replacement is the same, except for the new folders, which in my case is:
Install folder: ~/Applications/Wineskin/Mx Simulator/drive_c/Program Files/Mx Simulator
Personal folder: ~/Applications/Wineskin/Mx Simulator/drive_c/users/YOUR_USER_NAME/Local Settings/Application Data/Mx Simulator

~ means your home folder


Using controller (links are in the video description):


The reason for this new topic is just to have all of the old junk out of the want, but still keeping the posts in that thread.

If you look for the old "2017" WineHQ/Wine Staging guides, they are in the spoiler below

Part 1 - Installing the game


Part 2 - Getting skins and tracks into the game


Part 3a - Updating snapshot


Part 3b - Installing an update


Part 4 - Accessing the editor


Part 5 - Stock model replacement


WineHQ: https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/macosx/download.html
XQuartz: https://www.xquartz.org/

For those of you that still wants to take a look at the (very) old thread, it can be found here.

[calebc88]

thank you!! helps so much

[Wahlamt]

thank you!! helps so much

Thanks man! If you have any ideas or suggestions, please let me know

[sam]

is there no way to keep the hidden pause on. on macs bud

[Wahlamt]

This is the procedure, you just change --editor to --hidden-pause . You can run any --command this way.

[sam]

i followed this tutorial and when i opened up mx simulator after the pause was still showing. i managed to get it off once when i followed what you did but it didn't stay on when i opened mx sim again?

[Wahlamt]

i followed this tutorial and when i opened up mx simulator after the pause was still showing. i managed to get it off once when i followed what you did but it didn't stay on when i opened mx sim again?

In order to launch it with custom commands, this is how you have to launch it. I want to find a better way, if I do, I'll make an updated tutorial on it.

[sam]

Appreciate the reply bud I'll just load it up this way from now haha.

[Wahlamt]

Hi!

Almost 6 years later and now I've updated my old Mac tutorials to real proper ones that actually aren't super confusing and bad... Also they should be more reliable and you don't have to pay for an "emulator". More or less everything you need to know (besides controllers) is in these videos

For those of you that still wants to take a look at the old thread, it can be found here.

Part 1 - Installing the game


Part 2 - Getting skins and tracks into the game


Part 3 - Updating snapshot


Part 4 - Accessing the editor


Part 5 - Stock model replacement


Using controller:


The reason for this new topic is just to have all of the old junk out of the want, but still keeping the posts in that thread.

WineHQ: https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/macosx/download.html
XQuartz: https://www.xquartz.org/

[Wahlamt]

Now updated with how to set up controllers, mainly 360 ones

[Wahlamt]

Now also have the "installing an update" added in the 1st post, so both snapshots and updates are covered.

[VUSTTOS]

Thank you very much for this Storken!

[Wahlamt]

Thank you very much for this Storken!

Glad Mac users can enjoy this too

[Ryanphillips]

I can open wine and run mxsim. It freezes all the time tho. When I'm in wine I can't fine any of my tracks that I put into the folder. When I find the wine file folder it doesn't have mxsim. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. And why do you have to download xquarts? I just used wine to open mxsim and it was fine. My only problem is it freezes after five minutes of playing and when I access my wine folders I can't see mxsim

[Wahlamt]

I've had the problem too where tracks aren't found, not sure why. Honestly I don't know why I had to install xquarts, but if I didn't have it, it wouldn't let me install wine. Not idea why to be honest.