How to run PCSX2 on your Mac

xQuartz

To run Pcsx2, you need X11 but not the one that comes with Leopard/Tiger. You can download the latest release of X11 from the XQuartz Project page. Double-click on the package to install it.

NVidia CG Framework

Download the package for Mac OS X here. Mount the disk image and double-click on the installer. Follow the instruction to install the Framework.

GTK Redistributable

Untar the GTK Redistributable package. Run the script.

tar xzvf gtk.tar.gz
sudo ./install_gtk.sh

Installing required librairies

Download the following librairies. We need to untar them in /usr/local/lib

sudo tar xzvf libs.tar.gz /usr/local/lib/

It may be possible that you need to compile* fontconfig from sources. If so, download the sources here, unpack them and then do the following in the sources folder:

./configure
make
sudo make install

*Note: You need to have Xcode installed on your machine before compiling fontconfig. You can install it from your Tiger/Leopard installation disc.

Installing SDL

We need to do the same thing for the SDL librairies.

sudo tar xzvf sdl.tar.gz /usr/local/lib/

Installing GLEW

Download the GLEW librairies and decompress it. You need to run installer script.

tar xzvf glew.tar.gz
sudo ./install_glew.sh

Starting Pcsx2

Finally, download Pcsx2. Copy it to any directory you want and uncompress by

tar xzvf pcsx2.tar.gz

You may also need to change the permissions on files by

chmod 777 bin/plugins/* 
chmod +x bin/pcsx2 

You can now double click on the pcsx2 binary in the bin/ directory!

CG error

If you are getting the following error when you try to run a game

ZeroGS: Cg error: CG ERROR : The compile returned an error.
     last listing: /Users/backward/Desktop/pcsx2/pcsx2/bin/../plugins/gs/zerogs/opengl/ps2hw.fx(719) : error C5210: assignment among incompatible concrete types
(865) : fatal error C9999: unable to generate code, no legal types for program.

ZeroGS: Failed to load ps CRTCTargInterPS: 
/Users/backward/Desktop/pcsx2/pcsx2/bin/../plugins/gs/zerogs/opengl/ps2hw.fx(719) : error C5210: assignment among incompatible concrete types
(865) : fatal error C9999: unable to generate code, no legal types for program.

then you need to edit ou need to open up the ./pcsx2/plugins/gs/zerogs/opengl/ps2hw.fx shader file, and edit line 719 changing "half4" to "float4".

In other words, change this at line 714:

half4 CRTCTargInterPS(in float2 tex0 : TEXCOORD0, in float2 ointerpos : TEXCOORD1) : COLOR
{
float finter = texRECT(g_sInterlace, ointerpos.yy).x;
clip(finter * g_fOneColor.z + g_fOneColor.w);

half4 c = BilinearFloat16(tex0);
c.w = g_fc0.w*c.w * g_fOneColor.x + g_fOneColor.y;
return c;
}

to this:

half4 CRTCTargInterPS(in float2 tex0 : TEXCOORD0, in float2 ointerpos : TEXCOORD1) : COLOR
{
float finter = texRECT(g_sInterlace, ointerpos.yy).x;
clip(finter * g_fOneColor.z + g_fOneColor.w);

float4 c = BilinearFloat16(tex0);
c.w = g_fc0.w*c.w * g_fOneColor.x + g_fOneColor.y;
return c;

thanks to rayan from macscene for finding this solution