[TUTORIAL] StarMade on M series Macs

[DukeofRealms]

Spoiler: ⚠ Important: Known Limitations

This solution is experimental. There's no guarantee it will work perfectly for everyone. Based on limited testing:

• ✓ Works: Joining servers
• ✗ Doesn't Work: Local world generation fails
• ✗ Issue: Must re-login every time you want to join a server
• ✗ Issue: Joining modded servers does not work

If you're okay with these limitations and primarily want to play on servers, proceed with the tutorial below.

This is an interim solution while we work toward adding native M-series Mac support to the StarMade Launcher. Since M-series Macs use ARM architecture, StarMade currently requires Rosetta 2 and Intel-based Java to run. Follow these steps to get started:

Step 1: Download Required Files

• Download Zulu JDK 8 x64 - select the .zip file version (not .dmg)
• Download StarMade from the build server - scroll to the bottom and download the latest .zip file (e.g. starmade-build_20251119_165301.zip)
• Create a folder for StarMade (e.g. Documents/StarMade) and extract both .zip files there

Step 2: Install Rosetta 2

• Open the Terminal app (found in Applications > Utilities)
• Paste this command and press ENTER:
  

  /usr/sbin/softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license

Step 3: Remove Security Quarantine

macOS blocks downloaded files by default. Remove the quarantine flag:

• In Terminal, navigate to your StarMade folder (adjust the path to match your location):
  

  cd ~/Documents/StarMade/starmade-build_20251119_165301

• Remove the quarantine flag from native libraries:
  

  xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine ./native/macosx/*

Step 4: Launch StarMade

• In Terminal, make sure you're in the StarMade folder (from Step 3)
• Run this command (update the Java folder name to match what you downloaded):
  

  ~/Documents/StarMade/zulu8.90.0.19-ca-jdk8.0.472-macosx_x64/bin/java -Dswing.defaultlaf=javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalLookAndFeel -jar -Xms4g -Xmx4g ./StarMade.jar -force

• StarMade should now launch successfully

What the command does:

• -Dswing.defaultlaf=javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalLookAndFeel - Uses cross-platform UI (Mac native UI doesn't work with Rosetta)
• -Xms4g -Xmx4g - Allocates 4GB RAM (adjust if needed: 2g for 2GB, 8g for 8GB, etc.)