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When the Creatures Evolution Engine was ported from Windows through Linux to the Mac OS X, several changes in the engine occurred. These changes are detailed here. The version number used with Exodus is 296 (the Windows Exodus is 286).

Mac Compatibility with Windows/Linux files Overview[]

See Macintosh Compatibility and Macintosh Conflicts for more detail

  • Agents are compatible
    Confirmed. Docking Station testing with third party agents has been successful. Some work, some do not. See the relevant agent's page to check whether it has been tested.
    Injection of agents into Creatures 3 has not been tested.
  • Metarooms are compatible but may be unstable
    Tentative. Preliminary tests with metaroom installations have been successful, (i.e. the room will install correctly) but some metarooms cause the game engine to become very unstable.
  • Third Party Breeds are compatible
    Tentative. Preliminary testing of add-on breeds has been successful.
  • Adoptions are compatible
    Confirmed. No known problems or modifications are needed to import creatures.

Installing New Agents, Metarooms or Breeds[]

To use third party files, you need to follow these steps.

  1. Find the Creatures 3 or DockingStation Application. They should be located in your Hard Drive/Applications folder.
  2. Control (right) click on either the Creatures 3 or DockingStation icon.
  3. Select "Show Package Contents" from the menu. It should be the third item from the top.
  4. Open the Contents folder.
  5. Open the MacOS folder.
  6. Open the data folder. (Creating a shortcut or alias to this folder is highly recommended. You'll be visiting here often.)
    1. Drop .agent files into the My Agents folder
    2. Drop .cos files into the Bootstrap/010 Docking Station or Bootstrap/001 World folder.
  7. Go to Engineering (C3) or the Comms Room (DS) to inject your new agent.
  8. Once you have injected the agent, check your ~/Library/Preferences/Creatures Labs/Docking Station or Creatures 3/data/Catalogue folder for any new .catalogue files. You have to move these.
  9. Move any new .catalogue files from into Hard Drive/Applications/Docking Station or Creatures 3/Contents/MacOS/data/Catalogue.

That's it, you're done! If your agent doesn't have a catalogue file, you can skip the last two steps.

Note: For a more permanent Catalogue solution to replace steps 8 and 9 see the Automator Fix or the Symbolic Link Fix.

Uninstalling New Agents, Metarooms or Breeds[]

From a World[]

  • To uninstall a metaroom from a world, first go to the Comms Room or Engineering and click the red uninstall button. The metaroom should now be empty of agents. Then use the 'kill hots' CAOS cheat on the Favourite Place icon for the metaroom.


Key Commands[]

Some of the key commands on the Macintosh versions of Creatures Exodus and Creatures Village are different to the Windows ones. This is a list of the known key commands.

Key Commands
Windows Macintosh
Right-click Control-click


Advanced Keyboard Commands[]

Advanced Commands
Command Function
Control + i Same as Tab. Scroll through available Creatures.
Control + s Pause/Resume Game
Control + r Manual Save Game
Control + Left Arrow Place item from Inventory into Hand / Next object in Inventory
Control + Right Arrow Place item from Inventory into Hand / Previous object in Inventory
Control + Up Arrow/Down Arrow Cycles through what you've said to the norns before.
Control + Shift + f Wolfling run mode (fast ticks). Screen does not refresh.
Control + Shift + x Show/Hide X,Y coordinates of the Hand
Control + Shift + a Toggle Autokill On/Off
Control + Shift + c Open/Close CAOS Command Line
Right Click +
Open CAOS Command Line
Pick up Creatures. You must open the CAOS Command Line first.
Control + 1 Open/Close Creatures Import/Export window
Control + 2 Open/Close Options window
Control + 3 Open/Close Inventory window
Shift + F1-F12 Assigns last phrase said by Hand to Function Key pressed.
Command + F1-F12 Assigns current Creature to Function Key pressed.
Control + F1 or F2 Force the Finder Menu to show.
Shift + Option + Return Toggle between Full Screen and Windowed Mode.
Home Go to the first location in your Favorite Places row.
End DS - Go to the last location in your Favorite Places row.

C3 - Go to the Grendel's Jungle.

Page Up

fn + Up

Move to the left one location in your Favorite Places row.
Page Down

fn + Down

Move to the right one location in your Favorite Places row.

Unsupported Commands[]

Contrary to the provided documentation, several of the commands for Creatures Exodus do not work in the Macintosh version.

Unsupported Commands
Command Intended Function
Shift + S (see also Arrows Patch) Repeat last phrase said by Hand
Arrow Keys (see also Arrows Patch) Move around the world.
Control + Click Pick up Creatures
Control + Shift + W Enable Wolf Control
Control + Shift + f Wolfling run mode (fast ticks). Screen does not refresh. In the Mac engine, the screen does not refresh, but the game does not run any faster.
Control + Shift + T Display agent classifier numbers
Control + Shift + E Create food, fruit and seeds around the Hand. Note that Multi-Agent Gold has a function that is similar to this command.
Control + Shift + H Locate the HoverDoc
Control + Option + F(2-12) Set current location to Function Key.
Mouse Scroll Wheel Scroll through metarooms

Intermittent Errors[]

  • Occasionally, the hand *will* pick up Creatures, simply by Option or Right Clicking.
  • Left or Right Clicking has also been known to produce characters in the text bubble instead of the intended function.
  • When using the CAOS Command Line or attempting to speak to your creatures, using the " character will move the player into the metaroom to the right of the one you were using. The ! character will have the opposite effect.

Related Links[]

External Links[]

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