Catalina and Codeweavers PSA

[jkalten]

So I've gotten to testing Codeweavers 19 and Catalina today. It works great to run DDO in Catalina. In fact, it runs far better than the official Mac DDO client does in HS for me.

Now the downside. I did some reading up, it looks like crossover's method to get wine running in Catalina was pretty hacky requiring a special compiler to be made for creating some libraries, and unfortunately is not going to even make it into development wine for a good long time.

I can't recommend enough using Codeweavers now for Catalina users.

https://www.codeweavers.com

[Optalidon]

So I've gotten to testing Codeweavers 19 and Catalina today. It works great to run DDO in Catalina. In fact, it runs far better than the official Mac DDO client does in HS for me.

Now the downside. I did some reading up, it looks like crossover's method to get wine running in Catalina was pretty hacky requiring a special compiler to be made for creating some libraries, and unfortunately is not going to even make it into development wine for a good long time.

I can't recommend enough using Codeweavers now for Catalina users.

https://www.codeweavers.com

Didn't try it yet, but last time (years ago) I used Crossover it didn't handle mouse very well. That said, would be nice to hear a word from SSG about this topic.

in short: we can expect a similar hack from SSG or we have to pay additional 50$ to Codeweavers to play DDO?

[jkalten]

Didn't try it yet, but last time (years ago) I used Crossover it didn't handle mouse very well. That said, would be nice to hear a word from SSG about this topic.

in short: we can expect a similar hack from SSG or we have to pay additional 50$ to Codeweavers to play DDO?

Mouse seems to handle pretty well. Honestly in my testing, it's far superior to the wine bottle that SSG put out. I'd honestly recommend any Mac user to use it. It's better performance than the current wine client and even better than the native client that used to be supported.

edit*
Codeweavers also offers a 30day trial so you don't have to buy sight unseen.

[Optalidon]

Mouse seems to handle pretty well. Honestly in my testing, it's far superior to the wine bottle that SSG put out. I'd honestly recommend any Mac user to use it. It's better performance than the current wine client and even better than the native client that used to be supported.

edit*
Codeweavers also offers a 30day trial so you don't have to buy sight unseen.

It's a 14 day trial and I'm testing it right now.

so far installation went well but every time it starts it keep asking authorisation for each font I have in my font folder (and they are a lot), so I have to manually move out all my font to let DDO start.

The game runs very smoothly and no problem at all with mouse.

in a couple of hours the game froze a couple of times, will say more in the next 14 days.

still it costs 50 bucks/year

[Optalidon]

As promised I'm back with Crossover + DDO report.

I found the experience fairly good. The game runs smoothly, no problems with the mouse and overall it can be played as good as with the SSD mojave client, maybe even better.

Minor issues I found follow:

1) The font problem: everytime DDO starts it keeps asking authorisation for each fon I have in my font folder, the simple solution is to move all fonts in a folder inside the font folder when this happens. MAC OS doesn't mind if the fonts are in a subfolder, it reads them anyway so you don't have to put back them after DDo starts, simply move back and forth from the folder you created in the fonts folder.

2) In 14 days of playing (mind 1-2 hours per day) the game crashed only once, but sometimes it freezes for 5-10 seconds apparently to load something. The 5-10 seconds are enough to get your character killed if you are in the middle of a fight, otherwise it is a minor problem. Mind that in 14 days my wiz was killed only once due to this problem. The mojave client crashes almost every time I play.

3) I was not able to get high resolution textures enabled. I play on a 4k iMac display and the game, with the mojave client, runs at the highest level of graphic settings and look gorgeous as this old game can be. With the Crossover the high res textures simply do not display, don't know why.

I tried a number of solutions to play with Catalina installed without have to reboot with mojave or windows, and found that Crossover is the best one. FYI i tried Parallels and Virtualbox

Parallels runs well but it is incredibly invasive (it install windows on your HD) and have a major problem with the mouse.

Virtual box works well, but you need a super machine to actually play well, as it is incredibly slow, it is free though.

[Optalidon]

Short sad story: I bought Crossover and DDO doesn't work anymore

[retroeraddo]

https://ibb.co/QNVXB6Y It works . The game installs and plays good.. NO extensive gameplay was tested, but it works 100% as lotro does. SSG wine 5.0.0 is out today , just saying.... It runs through crossover 19 from codeweavers that i had to buy for other games than ddo/lotro ... RN i would just go for wine 5 ... No advertising meant SSG

[Optalidon]

https://ibb.co/QNVXB6Y It works . The game installs and plays good.. NO extensive gameplay was tested, but it works 100% as lotro does. SSG wine 5.0.0 is out today , just saying.... It runs through crossover 19 from codeweavers that i had to buy for other games than ddo/lotro ... RN i would just go for wine 5 ... No advertising meant SSG

I'm happy for you. I played with the crossover trial for 14 days, then bought it and now can't get past the world choice, it starts and quits.

With crossover I only experienced some freeze moments, otherwise is more stable than the SSG mojave version.

[retroeraddo]

I'm happy for you. I played with the crossover trial for 14 days, then bought it and now can't get past the world choice, it starts and quits.

With crossover I only experienced some freeze moments, otherwise is more stable than the SSG mojave version.

Things you could try : first backup your /username/documents folders called dungeons and dragones etc. Then delete the folder ( this is the preferences folders). Then lower your resolution on your mac screen to 720p ( I use a free app called easy res from the app store) . If all go well you should be able to run the game at 720p resolution which you can adjust after.

IF you tried to go DX10 it wont work ...at least so far. What you can do is edit the userpreferences .ini file ( or delete) with textedit and change the 2 values of directx 10 to dx9.

if the above dont work try backing up the game by going to "c:\ " folder of your bottle and backup SSG/ddo or whichever one you use, Then make a new bottle and copy paste the ssg folder. Then on the new bottle run command DNDlauncher and save it as a launcher in the new bottle.

That's all I have for you. I wish you the best

[Optalidon]

Things you could try : first backup your /username/documents folders called dungeons and dragones etc. Then delete the folder ( this is the preferences folders). Then lower your resolution on your mac screen to 720p ( I use a free app called easy res from the app store) . If all go well you should be able to run the game at 720p resolution which you can adjust after.

IF you tried to go DX10 it wont work ...at least so far. What you can do is edit the userpreferences .ini file ( or delete) with textedit and change the 2 values of directx 10 to dx9.

if the above dont work try backing up the game by going to "c:\ " folder of your bottle and backup SSG/ddo or whichever one you use, Then make a new bottle and copy paste the ssg folder. Then on the new bottle run command DNDlauncher and save it as a launcher in the new bottle.

That's all I have for you. I wish you the best

IT WORKED!

Many, many thanks, you saved my (gaming) life. Did the resolution thing and now it works like before (including the font problem, but it is a minor problem).

thanks again!

[retroeraddo]

Cool I am really glad it worked, have fun. Also about the fonts , just a guess though cause i didnt have the issue so i cant test it, try giving accesibility access to crossover and ddo in secutiry + privacy. Also you could download all fonts win uses through crossover install application , non-applications, components , fonts. Tbh if its not a big deal for you leave it as it is and have fun gaming. take care

[Daarsurra]

IT WORKED!

Many, many thanks, you saved my (gaming) life. Did the resolution thing and now it works like before (including the font problem, but it is a minor problem).

thanks again!

can any of you that this worked for tell me what steps specifically worked? what installer/bottle? we talkin cutting and pasting the SSG between bottles all within finder?

[retroeraddo]

can any of you that this worked for tell me what steps specifically worked? what installer/bottle? we talkin cutting and pasting the SSG between bottles all within finder?

First you need codeweavers crossover for mac 19. It works on win 7 + bottles but the most stable is xp. The exe file from the pc download section will also install dx9/2005+2010 vc as well so you are ready to go on that front.

Now the trick for Catalina is that the video on first launch of the game WILL crash the dx9 client ( BTW DONT download or run on dx10 when prompted) So the solution is to downgrade your desktop's resolution to one that can play the 1st run cinematic, for that you need a desktop resolution of 720p ( it may work on less as well, not tested though) once you are ingame you can adjust your desktop resolution and then adjust your windowed DDO resolution.

Hope this helps

[Optalidon]

@retroeraddo

I'm experiencing frequent (at least one each hour of play) freezes. The game freezes for 30-45 seconds (enough to kill my toon) and then unfreezes. Looks like Crossover memory saturates and needs to be freed. After that it runs smoothly for say half an hour and then crashes. This is mildly annoying (I can live with it) but I was wondering if you experience similar things.

[jwelch]

In terms of initial install: with Crossover 19.0.2 on a new 16" running 15.5.5:

1. Attempts to run the DDO version of this failed, no shock.
2. Download crossover and install DDO into crossover from ~/Library/Applications Support/com.standingstonegames.ddo/common/download/ddolive.exe
3. On the initial install, everything goes smoothly until it tries to load the patch client. Then it fails with a VC++ Runtime error 6034
4. In Crossover, in the bottle settings, go into Wine Configuration -> Libraries Tab and set msvcr80 and msvcr90 to (builtin,native) instead of (native,builtin)
5. Restart the DDO client, the patch client now does its thing sans protest. (given all the downloads this requires, I am very happy for Google Fiber.)
6. DDO launcher runs fine, but as soon as it hands off to the DDO client, the client dies, right after server selection. bounces me back to the login.

[Liora_Blue]

In terms of initial install: with Crossover 19.0.2 on a new 16" running 15.5.5:

1. Attempts to run the DDO version of this failed, no shock.
2. Download crossover and install DDO into crossover from ~/Library/Applications Support/com.standingstonegames.ddo/common/download/ddolive.exe
3. On the initial install, everything goes smoothly until it tries to load the patch client. Then it fails with a VC++ Runtime error 6034
4. In Crossover, in the bottle settings, go into Wine Configuration -> Libraries Tab and set msvcr80 and msvcr90 to (builtin,native) instead of (native,builtin)
5. Restart the DDO client, the patch client now does its thing sans protest. (given all the downloads this requires, I am very happy for Google Fiber.)
6. DDO launcher runs fine, but as soon as it hands off to the DDO client, the client dies, right after server selection. bounces me back to the login.

I'm using the same configuration (well, older hardware) and got it to work. The problem was an incompatible screen resolution. Here's what worked for me:

• Plug the MacBook into an external monitor
• Open System Preferences > Displays
• In the Arrangement tab, turn on mirroring
• In the Display tab, select "Optimize for..." the external monitor
• Click the Scaled radio button
• Pick 720p
• Launch CrossOver and DDO
• Sign in, watch intro movie
• Open game options and set resolution to preferred value
• Set System Preferences > Displays to same resolution

After the first run, I can play in any resolution, but I still have to use display mirroring. It's not happy running on a second monitor otherwise (and I don't want to play only on the laptop's screen).

As for how to do this without a second monitor, I'd expect that any way you can find to set the Mac's resolution to a value that works initially (e.g. 720p, i.e. 1280x720) would do it. There are various third-party apps and extensions, none of which I've tried.

[Myranna]

The main thing I noticed with Crossover was you MUST set the client to be Windowed, Full Screen Windowed is fine. If it's not Windowed, it locks up instantly when you try to switch to something else.

Otherwise, Crossover works well.

[Dimwhit1]

I'm using the same configuration (well, older hardware) and got it to work. The problem was an incompatible screen resolution. Here's what worked for me:

• Plug the MacBook into an external monitor
• Open System Preferences > Displays
• In the Arrangement tab, turn on mirroring
• In the Display tab, select "Optimize for..." the external monitor
• Click the Scaled radio button
• Pick 720p
• Launch CrossOver and DDO
• Sign in, watch intro movie
• Open game options and set resolution to preferred value
• Set System Preferences > Displays to same resolution

After the first run, I can play in any resolution, but I still have to use display mirroring. It's not happy running on a second monitor otherwise (and I don't want to play only on the laptop's screen).

As for how to do this without a second monitor, I'd expect that any way you can find to set the Mac's resolution to a value that works initially (e.g. 720p, i.e. 1280x720) would do it. There are various third-party apps and extensions, none of which I've tried.

I'm trying to do this on my M1 Mac mini. I had the same problem jwelch had. Tried your solution to mess with my monitor resolution, but that didn't help. Can't figure out what setting is back, but I was able to log in and select a server. Got the waiting in line to connect prompt, then the client dies. I'm on Big Sur, of course.

Anyone have an idea what might have caused this? I got so close...