Creating Recipes

Creating recipes

When a game has no recipe yet, File ▸ Create Recipe… (⌘N, or Add Game ▸ Create Recipe… in My Library) walks you through making one. You don't need to know Wine: Distiller looks at the game and suggests a starting point, and you test it by playing.

Step 1: What are you adding?

Choice	For
A game already on this Mac	A folder with the game's .exe, for example from GOG, a disc, or a Windows PC. Choose the folder and the Program to launch. Other players choose their own copy of the folder. You can copy it into the bottle (an instant APFS clone on the same drive) or use the folder where it is (best for large games on another drive: the game then reads and writes its original files).
A Windows installer	A setup .exe or .msi. Distiller runs it in a new bottle, then you pick the program it installed. Add Installer arguments if it needs them (such as /S for a silent install), and the Official installer link (the publisher's download link, needed to share the recipe).
An empty bottle I'll set up myself	A bottle with the settings you choose; you run installers and Wine tools yourself and edit the recipe file directly. Installers you run from Distiller are added to the recipe.

Step 2: Name the game and recipe

The Game title, its Game ID (a short name used in links, filled in for you), the Publisher, and the Recipe name and Recipe ID (for example DXMT, DirectX 11 mode and dxmt). A game can have several recipes. Notes for other players are optional (for example, a setting to change in the game).

Step 3: Choose how it runs

What Distiller found lists what it learned from the game's program without running it: 32- or 64-bit, the DirectX version it uses, its engine (Unity, Unreal, .NET), and the runtime libraries it imports. From that it suggests:

• a graphics layer (D3DMetal, DXMT, DXVK or WineD3D);
• a Windows version;
• winetricks components (marked Suggested).

You can change any of these; they're the same settings as in the recipe workshop. If the graphics layer you choose isn't installed, Distiller says so and offers to install it.

Step 4: Review and install

Distiller makes the bottle, applies the settings and (for a folder or installer) sets the game up, in the install window. For an installer, you then choose the program it installed. The game opens in the recipe workshop, where you can play it, adjust settings, and play again until it runs well.

Tips

• Change one thing at a time and play again. The launch log (Show Log) shows what Wine reported.
• Add only the winetricks components the game needs: each takes time to install, and .NET Framework can take half an hour.
• The AI troubleshooting assistant can read a game's logs and program and suggest settings.
• Settings only some Macs need (a frame-rate cap on Macs with less memory, for example) go in an overlay in the recipe file, so other Macs aren't affected.

When it works

If others could use your recipe, share it: run the community check and submit it (Sharing recipes). If it's just for you, turn on Just for Me in the game's menu, and the library stops suggesting you share it.

On the command line

distiller recipe inspect reads a program and suggests settings; recipe create makes a recipe and installs it; recipe programs lists the programs in a game's bottle; recipe set-launch chooses the one to launch; recipe edit and recipe reload edit the recipe file; recipe run-installer runs another installer in the bottle. See Using the command line.