EAC Mac - "Settings.json not found" when launching eac_launcher.app and "Error loading anti-cheat module" when launching eac_launcher.app/Contents/MacOS/start_protected_game

[PetrBodnar]

Describe the bug Hello!

We are added EAC to Mac build of our Steam game. When we launch our game we get window with message "Settings.json not found", but Settings.json are in place and filled with values. If we launch "start_protected_game.app/Contents/MacOS/start_protected_game" directly we got window with message "Error loading anti-cheat module".

In both cases there are no useful logs in ~/Library/Caches/com.epicgames.easyanticheat/PRODUCT_ID/DEPLOYMENT_ID/anticheatlauncher.log Also we didn't find any useful logs in macOS Console app.

Also there are no bootstrapper's log at ~/Library/Caches/com.epicgames.easyanticheat/anticheatlauncher.log (which is mentioned here Anti-Cheat Bootstrapper).

Can you help us please - how should we debug this issues?

Expected behavior Build should start

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: macOS Intel 14.5 (23F79)
• standalone build
• Unity Version 2021.3.39f1
• Plugin Version 3.2.0

[arthur740212]

Hi, and thank you for the report, we will be looking at this issue shortly. Some angles to attack the issue : Is the app built with the macbuilder.cs in our samples? Does the game run without running through steam?

[PetrBodnar]

Hi,

Is the app built with the macbuilder.cs in our samples?

No, the app is built using standard com.playeveryware.eos/Editor/macOS/MacOSBuilder.cs

Does the game run without running through steam?

We are running app directly now, without Steam

[arthur740212]

Are the configurations of the package set correctly, and do they match Settings.json?

[PetrBodnar]

I checked - yes, the configurations of the package set correctly. We are continue to researching this issue on our side.

We removed com.apple.quarantine attribute from Settings.json (this attribute was on Settings.json for some reason): xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ./EasyAntiCheat/Settings.json and this didn't help.

Tried to launch with explicitly pointing to settings json eac_launcher.app/Contents/MacOS/start_protected_game -anticheat_settings="./EasyAntiCheat/Settings.json" and same result ("./EasyAntiCheat/Settings.json" not found).

Also checked for BOM in "./EasyAntiCheat/Settings.json" - no BOM.

Also tried chmod 0777 "./EasyAntiCheat/Settings.json"

In all cases we can see that ./EasyAntiCheat/Settings.json exists (ls -l shows it).

Tried to some verbose logging from eac_launcher.app/Contents/MacOS/start_protected_game (like --verbose or something else) but no result - we couldn't found any args for that.

[PetrBodnar]

We fixed "Settings.json not found" by removing com.apple.quarantine from whole game dir: xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine ./game-dir/

Now we are trying to fix "Error loading anti-cheat module"

[arthur740212]

Do you have Epic Launcher installed on the device?

[PetrBodnar]

No (we don't use it).

[arthur740212]

It is possible that Epic launcher is needed for EAC to works, (like the bootstrapper does). Other than that, these are the possible problems stated in the document.

• The Anti-Cheat Bootstrapper was unable to download the anti-cheat module at game start because of an internet connection problem or firewall.
• The player is launching the game on a platform where no client module has been activated, for example using Wine/Proton when no Linux module has been activated.
• The Client Protection setting in your Developer Portal was disabled, then the service was fully re-enabled without waiting for the recommended transition period.

[PetrBodnar]

We are researching (already checked for firewall, client module, and Client Protections - all is ok). We will share the results when we will find the solution.

[PetrBodnar]

Hello!

We fixed this by adding com.apple.security.cs.disable-library-validation to entitlements when codesigning EAC bootstrapper (during notarization).