Installing the DDO Client on a New MAC

[JBMoon913]

Hello,

I recently made the switch from PC to MAC and I'm trying to get DDO to play on my new system.
I figured that I needed to Open the DDO Client executable from the Contents folder and that did get the download of the Installer going.
The download finishes and the Install seems to start, but almost immediately I get the following error message and the install stops:

[SSG] >> install_prep_module => module not required, skipping
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 44.4M 100 44.4M 0 0 870k 0 0:00:52 0:00:52 --:--:-- 882k
[SSG] >> running installer...
000b:fixme:winediag:start_process Wine Staging 4.5 is a testing version containing experimental patches.
000b:fixme:winediag:start_process Please mention your exact version when filing bug reports on winehq.org.
0012:err:display:macdrv_ChangeDisplaySettingsEx No matching mode found 1792x1120x32 @59!
wine: Bad EXE format for Z:\Users\jamesmoon\Library\Application Support\com.standingstonegames.ddo\common\download \ddolive.exe.
[SSG] >> game_module => failed `process` step

This is the latest in a series of issues I've had trying to make this work.
Can anyone tell me what to do to get past this one?

[Tricosene]

I'm pretty sure you can't install it as-is on a new Mac. Check out the threads on using Crossover - they will give you directions as to what to do.

[JBMoon913]

I'm pretty sure you can't install it as-is on a new Mac. Check out the threads on using Crossover - they will give you directions as to what to do.

Thanks very much and I do appreciate the suggestion. I've been trying to avoid this on general principle. If DDO supplies a MAC version of the game, then the damned thing should run without all this BS. I already have a DDO VIP account for $100 every year and I've been playing the game since 2009. Now I have to spend another $60 per year on Crossover in order to get the Windows version to run on my MAC? That is totally ridiculous. More and more people are making the migration to MAC and it's long past the time that Standing Stone get with the program. Before they start losing subscribers.

[Tricosene]

Check out this from their other game: https://www.lotro.com/news/lotro-macos-deprecation-en

[JBMoon913]

Check out this from their other game: https://www.lotro.com/news/lotro-macos-deprecation-en

Yeah.
Alright.
Crossover seems to be the only viable option, other than to have a PC just to play the game.
I've only had a MAC for a few months now and I'm already feeling marginalized.

[JBMoon913]

Using Crossover is definitely the way to go with this.
Standing Stone has already stopped supporting the MAC version of Lord of the Rings and I don't doubt that they will eventually announce the same thing for DDO. Support or no support, the MAC Installer certainly doesn't work and quite likely never will. I believe the problem is that MacOS is evolving at a much faster rate than Windows and Standing Stone simply doesn't want to allocate the resources necessary to keep up.
In any event, the gameplay using the PC version with Crossover is seamless. The quality is at least as good as anything I've ever experienced on any of the PCs I've had over the years, at a much better resolution than on any PC that wasn't specifically set up for high res gaming; and definitely much better than any time I've seen the game on a Mac using a PC emulator or virtual machine!
I like it so much that I installed the PC version of LOTR, which I have never played before.

For those who haven't done this yet, just Google "Crossover for Mac". The top result will take you right to the correct download page on the CodeWeavers web site. There are plenty of tutorials for installing and using it (including a YouTube walkthrough), but you probably won't need them. Very user friendly. The download is very quick - the install starts automatically, in most cases - and the only thing you have to do is make sure you click the button that allows the installer to put the application in your Applications folder.

After that, you don't even have to go to the DDO download page to download the DDOlive installer. Crossover already knows the game.
Just click "Install a Windows Application" and type the word "dungeon" into Crossover's search window.
A list of programs with that word in the title will appear.
Select "Dungoens & Dragons Online: MMO". It will even give you a rating of how well the software historically runs using Crossover.
Crossover automatically seeks out the correct installer executable on the web, downloads it, and begins the installation.
The only thing you have to do from that point on is accept the Terms & Conditions and acknowledge the starts and stops of the installations of the various components that the PC version of the game needs to run.

The downside is that Crossover is not free. There is a 14-day free trial. After that, if you want to keep using it so that you can play the game, you have to buy a license. The license costs $60 USD and you have to renew it once a year. There is, however, an option to buy a Lifetime license for the low, low price of $500 USD. This means that, after using Crossover for roughly 8.5 years, the Lifetime license will have paid for itself and you can use it for free from then on.

I'll be in my 60s when that happens.
Hopefully, I will live that long.