Running the game engine and LibGDX-based tools on MacOS

There’s a few quirks that you’ll run into with the game engine if you are working on a Mac. Hopefully this wiki will help resolve some of the most likely issues you could run into while working during the sprints.

Common Issues

I run the game and no window opens!

You’ll probably see that the game is running, but no window has actually opened up. This is a strange issue with the latest versions of LibGDX on MacOS. To fix this issue, open up the source/desktop/build.gradle file (build.gradle) in your IDE of choice. Under the run task (line 7), add the following argument to the jvmArgs list: "-XstartOnFirstThread". It should look something like this now: jvmArgs = ["-Djava.util.logging.config.file=../../logging.properties", "-XstartOnFirstThread"]. Running the game again should show the application window properly.

I want to use the sprite sheet GUI. Nothing opens up!

Guess what? Same issue. Add the JVM argument. Once you’ve installed it, run the following: java -jar -XstartOnFirstThread /Applications/GDX\ Texture\ Packer.app/Contents/java/desktop.jar. This will launch the application with the additional JVM argument, and the interface should appear now.

If you are still struggling to use it, I would encourage you to try using the runnable-texturepacker.jar application from LibGDX via the Terminal. This is the official LibGDX tool. You can run it using the following command: java -cp [location of runnable-texturepacker.jar] com.badlogic.gdx.tools.texturepacker.TexturePacker [source directory of sprites] [desired output directory of atlas] [atlas name], replacing the arguments as required.