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Install Steam Crossover and OSX?

Hello all,

I'm pretty new to Crossover, I've always just done a bootcamp partition and played games that way. My question is: Do I need to have separate installations of Steam for OSX and Steam for Crossover to play games that are Steamplay enabled and games that are Windows only? Do I just have to install Steam once through Crossover, and even though it's running in as a Windows program Steam can still access/launch my Steamplay enabled games? I've tried Googling this and digging through the forums, but it's never really explicitly stated anywhere and I'm kind of confused about how it all works in that sense. Thanks.

I'm rather confused by your question. Steamplay is basically what allows one to launch and play games on every platform where Steam is supported provided that proper executables files have been uploaded by the developer, without having to buy the game on every platform it is available on. Launching a game from Steam installed in a CrossOver bottle will count as that game being launched from a Windows install and thus Steam will try to launch the Windows executable.

If the game you want to play has OS X native executable, you install and play it with Steam for OS X. Trying to launch it from Steam running on CrossOver will prompt you to install it and the version for Windows will be installed and launched.

Thanks, I think you just answered my question. But just to clarify, I'll try an example.

Shadowrun Returns is Steamplay, so I install Steam for OSX, install Shadowrun and game happily.

Skyrim is Windows only. So I have to install Steam via Crossover (on top of already having Steam for OSX installed), and run Skyrim through Crossover enabled Steam.

So two different incarnations of Steam, correct?

Yes. that is correct. I just want to clarify one more bit. Steam for Windows is not installed on top of your OS X client. It's contained to the CrossOver bottle (or wine prefix) and it does not touch the OS X version's file in any way.

So, in short, you'll have two (or more) versions of Steam on the same system but they are isolated from each other.

Awesome, thanks for the assistance.

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