Because the Jukebox Still Sucks
The following is a tutorial for Mac users only. I wouldn’t know where to begin with how to do this on a PC, so look elsewhere for those answers.
I’ve complained about the in-game jukebox before. It’s clunky, glitchy (mine still randomly jumps to the next track in the middle of a song), and very un-ready for Mac users (adding tracks requires a Windows-based directory path—not an easy thing to figure out in OS X).
And, as you may have guessed, I’m big on flying with good, immersive music. So alt-tabbing out to iTunes to change a track, or having to open iTunes each time you launch EVE isn’t really ideal.
Well, this weekend, with some help from Capsuleer programmer extraordinaire PyjamaSam, I finally figured out a way to click one icon that launches EVE, launches iTunes, and starts playing any playlist of choice.
Finally, my dream of the Firefly theme song starting as I log in has come to fruition.
And it’s actually really, really easy. Steps go as follows:
1. Automator
Open “Automator”. You’ll find this app in your Applications folder, or just search for it with Spotlight. It’s a program that lets you save automated (aha!) functions out as apps, among some other really helpful things.
Just select “Application” and hit “Choose”.
2. Run Shell Script
Search for “run shell script” in the left panels and you’ll find the action. Drag that icon into the right side to make it first in the flow of events. This is where you tell the app to launch EVE. To do so, just enter this small bit of code in the provided text field:
open -n /Applications/EVE\ Online.app
Note: If your EVE app is not in your Applications directory (where it should be), you’ll have to change this file path accordingly.
3. Get Specified iTunes Items
Now you want to tell the app what you want to play in iTunes. This also launches iTunes if it isn’t already open. In the left panel again, just search “Get Specified iTunes Items” and drag it to the right.
Now click “Add…” and find your EVE playlist. I personally have tons of music in an EVE playlist that I want to play at random, so in iTunes I set the iTunes DJ to pull from that folder, and in Automator I chose iTunes DJ as the playlist to run.
As far as I can tell, you can only choose one playlist. Any others you add in the list will not play “next” as you might think.
4. Start iTunes Playing
Now just search “Start iTunes Playing” and add it to the right panel. Your final window should look like this:
5. Save As…
Now simply go up to the “File” menu, “Save As…” and name your new file (probably not exactly EVE Online as you don’t want to confuse this one with the real client). Make sure the file format is set to “Application”.
Now just open the icon and watch the magic happen. If you have an Apple keyboard, you can control iTunes in-game with your function keys, so theres no more need to ever tab out of game. As far as you realize, your music is now New Eden’s music.
Hope that helps someone else out there. And if you need some more space jams, you know where to find them.
