Installation

System requirements

For all 3 desktop platforms, FamiStudio requires the following software/hardware environment:

  • Windows 8 (64-bit) or newer (Windows 7 or 32-bit systems are no longer supported after 4.1.0).
  • MacOS 10.15 "Catalina" or newer
  • .NET Runtime (5.0 on Windows, 6.0 on other platforms)
  • OpenGL 3.3 support or newer

Windows

Installation

On Windows, it is highly recommended to use the installer and run Setup.exe. This should take care of installing all dependencies.

If you are having problems running the portable application, be sure to install the .NET 5.0 Runtime.

If you are getting a VS2019 C++ Runtime error message, be sure to install the following package.

If you are getting an XAudio 2 error, install the old DirectX redist package. This should not be needed as we no longer support Windows 7, but i am leaving here just in case.

Warning on First Launch

On first launch, SmartScreen might say "Windows protected your PC".

To bypass the warning, simply click "More Info" and then "Run Anyway".

MacOS

Installation

On MacOS, you will need to install the .NET 6.0 Runtime. Here are some direct download links from Microsoft. Pick the architecture that matches your hardware. Installing the correct version for your CPU is important as it will ensure the app runs natively on your Mac.

Warning on First Launch

GateKeeper can be quite aggressive when first running the application. At first it will look like you simply cannot run it and it will give you the option to throw FamiStudio in the recycling bin.

To bypass this warning, open the "Security and Privacy" settings and look for the warning saying that FamiStudio was blocked.

Click "Open Anyway" and then you will have the option to launch it.

Linux

Installation

The Linux version should work on most x64 ditros. But given the very non-standard nature of the OS, your mileage may vary.

Please install the following dependencies before trying to run the Linux version:

Launching

Then simply launch the application with this command:

dotnet FamiStudio.dll

If you run a very old version of Linux or if you are running an exotic architecture, you may have missing dependencies. If this is the case, you may have to compile some of the libraries. This is a rather manual process. Please follow the build steps on GitHub.