Spine on my M1 Mac that can run on Rosetta 2/Apple Silicon

ProfHarris27

I just upgraded my device to a Mac Studio that runs on M1 (Rosetta 2/Apple Silicon) instead of my old MacBook that ran on Intel. I've seen numerous posts on the web about if Spine only runs on Intel instead of it being universal, but those posts were from about two years ago. I'm curious if Spine still runs only on Intel, or if there actually is a way I can get Spine to run on Apple Silicon somehow, now that my computer runs on M1 instead of Intel (that way the software would have performance improvements)?

Misaki

I am using Spine on a MacBook Pro that uses the M1 chip and it works without any problems. However, there is one known issue, although the conditions under which it occurs are not sure:
https://github.com/EsotericSoftware/spine-editor/issues/651

The issue in the ticket above can certainly be reproduced in the specific Spine projects provided to us by a user, but the way to reproduce the issue from scratch has not been found out, and in fact I have never encountered the same problem. Fortunately, even if the problem does occur, there is a workaround which is described in the ticket, so in conclusion, using Spine with M1 Mac should work well.

If you have any other concerns, please do not hesitate to ask.

Mario

We also have a proper ARM version of Spine for M1 internally, which we'll likely release this year 🙂

andreyu

Hello, today I downloaded the latest build of Spine Professional for Apple Silicon. But it requires Rosetta to install: «Rosetta enables Intel-based features to run on Apple silicon Macs. Reopening applications after installation is required to start using Rosetta».

This does not seem to support Apple Silicon.

Mario

I assume you downloaded the Apple Silicon launcher?

If so, then Spine Editor versions >= 4.0 will not require Rosetta. However, if you run Spine Editor versions < 4.0, Rosetta is still required.

andreyu

Mario Of course, I downloaded the Apple Silicon version.

I admit that Spine Editor does not require Rosetta, but the installer for Apple Silicon does require Rosetta.

Nate

From Mario above:

Mario [With the latest Spine launcher,] Spine Editor versions >= 4.0 will not require Rosetta. However, if you run Spine Editor versions < 4.0, Rosetta is still required.

Crashing isn't very friendly though, we'll see about making that nicer.

Mario

The installer (Spine.pkg in the Spine.dmg file you download from your license page) doesn't contain an executable. It's a data format that the macOS Installer app uses. That app has both architectures in it on my M1 Max on the latest Ventura.

I'm unsure why it would require Rosetta on your end.

Mario

I've removed Rosetta 2 from my machine. I then downloaded the Apple Silicon Spine installer and can reproduce your issue. I see if we can fix it, but I wouldn't hold my breath. We have no control over the installer generator.

That said, uninstalling Rosetta 2 is pretty easy. I installed Rosetta, installed Spine via the Spine Installer, then removed Rosetta 2 again and ran the Spine Editor just fine.

edit: Looks like the generated Spine.pkg has a Distribution file that is missing the <options hostArchitectures="arm64,x86_64" /> key. I'll see if I can make this work with our .pkg generator. Thanks for the heads-up.

Mario

@andreyu we've just released a new Spine launcher, version 4.1.13. Please download the installer from your license page and install it. It will not require you to install Rosetta. Thank you for reporting!

andreyu

Mario thanks for the help, but unfortunately the installer still requires rosetta.

andreyu

Mario here is screenshot. File size of Spine-ARM.dmg is 102 528 484 bytes. Trying Germany and United States mirrors.

Mario

Apologies, it appears that's still the installer for the 4.1.12 launcher. I'll ping the backend team to release the 4.1.13 launcher properly.

Nate

We've fixed the issue with the 4.1.13 launcher release, so it should now be available.

andreyu

Thank you. Now the installation works fine, but the Spine Editor crashes after selecting the Spine runtime v3.8.
It appears that only the latest Spine runtime supports Apple Silicon.

Here is log:
Spine Launcher 4.1.13 Esoteric Software LLC (C) 2013-2022 | http://esotericsoftware.com Mac OS X aarch64 13.4.1 Apple, Apple M1 Pro, 2.1 Metal - 83.1 Spine Professional has been activated. Licensed to: <removed> Downloading: Spine 3.8.99 Professional ERROR: An unexpected error has occurred: [error] Error running x86 launcher. at s.tkm._(_:2306) at s.ByJ._(_:68) at s.ByJ.<init>(_:41) at s.eYE.F(_:333) at s.eYE.B(_:313) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source) at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source) Cause: [error] Error running x86 launcher. at s.eYE._(_:1317) at java.lang.invoke.MethodHandle.invokeWithArguments(Unknown Source) at s.tkm._(_:2304) ... Cause: [io] Cannot run program "/Applications/Spine.app/Contents/MacOS/Spine_x86" (in directory "/"): error=86, Bad CPU type in executable at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(Unknown Source) at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(Unknown Source) at s.eYE._(_:1288) ... Cause: [io] error=86, Bad CPU type in executable at java.lang.ProcessImpl.forkAndExec(Native Method) at java.lang.ProcessImpl.<init>(Unknown Source) at java.lang.ProcessImpl.start(Unknown Source) ...

arianfornaris

Hi just purchased Spine ESS. And I get this error in the Spine.pkg installer:

I had installed SpineTrial before with no issue at all.

My setup is: Apple M1 macOS Venture

arianfornaris

Hey, ignore my previous post!

I see I was selecting Spine as the location to install Spine 🙂

Anyway, the question is that after I install Spine in the right location (Macintosh HD), it doesn't install it at all. I can't find it in the /Applications folder or the Launchpad.

I'm missing something?

Btw, I confirm I downloaded the Spine-ARM.dmg file.

arianfornaris

I tried to install it from terminal:

arian@Arians-MacBook-Pro Spine % sudo installer -pkg Spine.pkg -verbose -target /
installer: Package name is Spine
installer: Upgrading at base path /
installer: Preparing for installation….....
installer: Preparing the disk….....
installer: Preparing Spine….....
installer: Waiting for other installations to complete….....
installer: Configuring the installation….....
installer: 	
#
installer: Validating packages….....
#
installer: 	Running installer actions…
installer: 	
installer: Finishing the Installation….....
installer: 	
#
installer: The software was successfully installed......
installer: The upgrade was successful.

It says it installed it successfully but I just can't find the app 🙁

Misaki

arianfornaris hmm, I tried the installation with the same command you did, and the installed application successfully appears in the Applications folder on my M1 MacBook.

Spine can be run from the command line, could you please check if you can run it with that? If it is installed under the Applications folder, you should be able to start it by entering the following path:
/Applications/Spine.app/Contents/MacOS/Spine