Veloren on Intel Macs: The x86_64 Binary That Wasn't

I run a self-hosted Veloren server on my homelab. Linux client works great. Getting the game running on two Intel Macs (a 2019 MacBook Pro i7 and a Mac Mini i3-8100B) took way longer than it should have, mostly because of a bad binary from the official download.

Airshipper ships the wrong arch

Airshipper is Veloren's official launcher. The macOS x86_64 download gives you this:

bad CPU type in executable

Checked with file:

$ file airshipper
airshipper: Mach-O 64-bit executable arm64

ARM64 binary in the x86_64 download. Still the case as of March 2026.

Standalone client download

Veloren publishes standalone client builds separate from Airshipper. The x86_64 one from there is a real x86_64 binary:

mkdir -p ~/Applications/Veloren
cd ~/Applications/Veloren
curl -L -o veloren.zip "https://download.veloren.net/latest/macos/x86_64/weekly"
unzip veloren.zip && rm veloren.zip

# confirm it's actually x86_64
file veloren-voxygen
# veloren-voxygen: Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64

# remove quarantine or macOS blocks the unsigned binary
xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine ~/Applications/Veloren/
chmod +x ~/Applications/Veloren/veloren-voxygen

# first launch from terminal to catch errors
./veloren-voxygen

Dual-GPU MacBook Pro crash loop

The Mac Mini worked immediately. The MacBook Pro kept crashing. It would reach character creation, then loop back to "Preparing Client" endlessly. Server logs showed Connection reset by peer. Client was crashing hard.

The 2019 MBP has two GPUs (Intel UHD 630 + AMD Radeon Pro 555X). macOS switches between them dynamically, and the handoff during world loading crashes wgpu. The Mac Mini only has the UHD 630, no GPU switching, no crash.

Fix: lock it to the integrated GPU.

sudo pmset -a gpuswitch 0

Or System Preferences > Battery > Options — disable "Automatic graphics switching."

Intel UHD 630 needs low settings

Default Veloren graphics settings tank on integrated Intel. Put this in ~/Applications/Veloren/userdata/voxygen/settings.ron before launching:

graphics: (
    terrain_view_distance: 4,
    entity_view_distance: 4,
    lod_distance: 50,
    sprite_render_distance: 50,
    particles_enabled: false,
    weapon_trails_enabled: false,
    figure_lod_render_distance: 100,
    max_fps: Max(30),
    render_mode: (
        aa: r#None,
        cloud: r#None,
        reflection: Low,
        fluid: Low,
        lighting: Lambertian,
        shadow: r#None,
        rain_enabled: false,
        bloom: Off,
        point_glow: 0.0,
        upscale_mode: (
            factor: 0.35,
        ),
    ),
),

Renders at 35% and upscales. Looks soft but it's smooth on the UHD 630.

tl;dr

• Airshipper's macOS x86_64 download is actually ARM64, don't use it
• Standalone client from download.veloren.net/latest/macos/x86_64/weekly works
• xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine or it won't launch
• Dual-GPU MacBooks need GPU switching disabled (pmset -a gpuswitch 0)
• Intel integrated graphics need everything turned down