The Witcher Forum

The steam version of the witcher enhanced edition does not start up for me. I am running Crossover Games 8.0 on a Macbook running OSX 10.6.1. I was wondering if anyone has gotten this working. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

I've been mucking with the CD/DVD version and I've gotten past the launcher screen and starting a new game, but I get different failures on different machines once the game starts. On my MacPro, it crashes after loading the game and says to file a bug, but looking at this whenever I get a chance. On my MacBook, the game loads, but the screen goes completely white after a few seconds.

Off the top of my head, I did a variety of things, but I THINK this is where I left it with the following errors:

I created a WinXP bottle.
Installed C++ 2005 Redistrubutable
Installed The Witcher
Downloaded and Patched The Witcher to version 1.5
Downloaded and copied gdiplus.dll to the \windows\system32 directory

Ran regedit and fiddled with these entries:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\Direct3D]
DirectDrawRender=opengl
OffscreenRenderingMode=fbo
PixelShaderMode=enabled
RenderTargetLockMode=textex
UseGLSL=enabled
VideoMemorySize=512

I'm wondering if its my hardware as both machines have ATI video cards (MacPro has X1900/OSX 10.5.8 and the MacBook has X1600/OSX 10.6.1).

Ok, with the help of Caron I was able to at least get it going.

We changed:

OffscreenRenderingMode=backbuffer

I also put the game into Windowed mode at 1280x1024 and then changed the options.

With these settings I was able to get it the first fight sequence which looks normal. However the cutscenes have the players looking very white and washed out. I suspect that there's another tweak somewhere for the cutscenes but it seems playable at the moment though.

Could you post what you've come up with (registry changes, dll's loaded, etc) to make this work under Steam? I've followed what I can find, and I have my registry settings as:

"DirectDrawRender"="opengl"
"OffscreenRenderingMode"="backbuffer"
"PixelShaderMode"="enabled"
"RenderTargetLockMode"="textex"
"UseGLSL"="enabled"
"VideoMemorySize"="512"

and I've moved gdiplus.dll into windows\system32

the game launches, and I can set options, and hit new game... I have it running windowed, and it seems to load, but as soon as it attempts to render the first actual game screen, I hit an error, and wine exits. I don't really know where to go from here. Anyone have any ideas?

The directions that I got it going is show here in the Tips & Tricks section:

http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/browse/name/?app_id=3768;tips=1

Some things I'd try is to make sure you actually have 512MB RAM for video and then I'd try changing:

DirectDrawRender=gdi
or
OffscreenRenderingMode=fbo

The 2nd one is if you have an ATI card. I tripped across that works for people with ATI cards.

What error is it hitting? Is it some message about filing a bug with WineHQ if it persists or something else?

The Tips & Tricks section is what I followed to get it as far as I've gotten it (originally it wouldn't do anything but show a black screen ;) ).

I've tried both gdi and fbo at this point, but I get the same error. And like you've said, it's the "file a bug with WineHQ if it persists" etc.

Not that this will be much help, but I can start it up, and I get to the New Game/Load Game/Options screen. I hit New Game, I select my difficulty level and control style, it goes to a loading screen, then starts the screen for Kaer M...something. It goes gray to black, and the sound track starts, but there's nothing there, just black, and then within 10 seconds or so the "witcher.exe encountered an error and had to exit, file a bug if it persists" error. Same with almost all the setting changes (backbuffer vs fbo and gdi vs opengl).

Not sure what to try next... I am running it through Steam since that's how I downloaded it, if that throws a significant wrench in the works.

Oh, and I checked my memory settings in about this mac -> more info -> graphics/displays, it's an NVIDA card with 512MB.

Thanks for the help :)

James Taylor wrote:

The Tips & Tricks section is what I followed to get it as far as
I've gotten it (originally it wouldn't do anything but show a black
screen ;) ).

I've tried both gdi and fbo at this point, but I get the same error.
And like you've said, it's the "file a bug with WineHQ if it
persists" etc.

Not that this will be much help, but I can start it up, and I get to
the New Game/Load Game/Options screen. I hit New Game, I select my
difficulty level and control style, it goes to a loading screen,
then starts the screen for Kaer M...something. It goes gray to
black, and the sound track starts, but there's nothing there, just
black, and then within 10 seconds or so the "witcher.exe encountered
an error and had to exit, file a bug if it persists" error. Same
with almost all the setting changes (backbuffer vs fbo and gdi vs
opengl).

Not sure what to try next... I am running it through Steam since
that's how I downloaded it, if that throws a significant wrench in
the works.

Oh, and I checked my memory settings in about this mac -> more info
-> graphics/displays, it's an NVIDA card with 512MB.

Thanks for the help :)

Well, I guess getting further than just a black screen is an improvement 😊

I have the DVD version but I'm not sure having a Steam version matters at the moment as I have the Enhanced version and you have the Director's Cut which is an uncensored Enhanced Edition.

Figures, it'd be a Nvidia as I got it running on an ATI MacBook...but I do have access to an Nvidia system. Nvidia is rapidly driving me crazy as I've seen some odd things with them.

I just pulled Crossover Games 8.1.4 and tested it on my ATI MacBook with MAC OS X 10.6.2 and it works fine.

Sooo...what version of MAC OS X? What version of Crossover Games? What is your hardware and Nvidia card?

I'm on Crossover Games 8.1.3, Mac OS X 10.6.2

I can try upgrading to the latest, I hadn't noticed there was a new Crossover version out.

My hardware is 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (iMac), 4 GB ram. Has an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS in it.

Thanks for the help, and I'll try upgrading to 8.1.4 just to see what happens.

(edit) I tried upgrading to 8.1.4, but it didn't make a difference.

James Taylor wrote:

I'm on Crossover Games 8.1.3, Mac OS X 10.6.2

I can try upgrading to the latest, I hadn't noticed there was a new
Crossover version out.

My hardware is 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (iMac), 4 GB ram. Has an
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS in it.

Thanks for the help, and I'll try upgrading to 8.1.4 just to see
what happens.

(edit) I tried upgrading to 8.1.4, but it didn't make a difference.

No worries. Ok, this is what I did. I have a MacPro (Crossover Games 8.1.4, MAC OS 10.6.2) with an Nvidia GeForce 8800GT card in it. That's the closest I can get to your hardware. To get it going I did these steps:

1) Create a new WinXP Bottle under Crossover Games.
2) Install Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable (select from inside COG).
3) Install the Witcher from DVD. Select Install Unsupported Software and select your DVD.
3a) Run the TW EE 1.5 Patch.
4) Download and copy gdiplus.dll to the \windows\system32 subdirectory.
5) Set the bottle to use windowed mode. Configure -> Manage Bottles -> Select the bottle you created for the Witcher -> Control Panel -> winecfg -> Graphics -> Emulate a virtual desktop.

Select the size of your virtual desktop.

I've also unticked "Allow the window manager to decorate the windows" and "Allow the window manager to control the windows."
6) REINSTALL Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable (select from inside COG). For some reason I got an error when I started it again.

7) Run Regedit (Programs -> Run Command -> Browse -> windows -> Regedit and Select your bottle) and install/change the following keys:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\Direct3D]
DirectDrawRender=opengl
UseGLSL=enabled
OffscreenRenderingMode=fbo
RenderTargetLockMode=textex

I fought the first battle without a problem, it goes to the cutscene which isn't ghost white anymore but there is some distortion of the graphics in the cutscene.

Soooo....I'm thinking we should first try just these 4 Direct3D keys...if that doesn't work, I'm wondering if its a Steam issue of some sort. How did you load Steam? Through the Crossover Games installer? It installs a pile of other stuff and I'm wondering if its hosing it up.

If you can't get it going with just the keys I have above I can try to install Steam into my test Witcher bottle and see if it causes any issues.

Did you try putting it into windowed mode like I have it as well?

I've done the bits that I could do, but I don't own the DVD itself, just Steam. I got Steam through the Crossover Games installer. I set the registry keys as you've listed, which is how it got going as far as it has. It's running in windowed mode as well. Thanks for the help, I'm sure it's not that much fun to try different configs.

I'm guessing it's got to be that Steam is keeping it from working somehow. I installed Torchlight via Steam and it works, though obviously that's not comparing apples to apples.

James Taylor wrote:

I've done the bits that I could do, but I don't own the DVD itself,
just Steam. I got Steam through the Crossover Games installer. I
set the registry keys as you've listed, which is how it got going as
far as it has. It's running in windowed mode as well. Thanks for
the help, I'm sure it's not that much fun to try different configs.

I'm guessing it's got to be that Steam is keeping it from working
somehow. I installed Torchlight via Steam and it works, though
obviously that's not comparing apples to apples.

Not a problem. I recall the frustration of trying to get this working initially when it seemed like everyone was getting it to work except for me 😏 .

I also understand you don't have the DVD and only the Steam version. Since I don't have that the Steam version I have to try to make it go with the DVD version and make a bunch of guesses. So I apologize if my guesses don't tie in exactly with what you're seeing as that can't be fun either.

I was initially thinking maybe something funky with Nvidia, but now like you thinking its Steam somehow. So my next attempt is going to try to install The Witcher directly into my Steam bottle (Crossover Games created) with my other games and see what happens.

I'll post back later tonight as I'll be out and about today and won't be able to test until then. I'll need to archive my Witcher and Steam bottles so I don't bork up my setup either 😅

I'm thinking if I can get it going in a Steam bottle, it's probably not Steam, but the Steam version of Witcher.

That would be great... Thanks for all the help! Let me know how it goes...

James Taylor wrote:

That would be great... Thanks for all the help! Let me know how it
goes...

Ok, so this is what I did. I have my Steam bottle which has some games already loaded. I went ahead and installed The Witcher from DVD into the same bottle like I normally do. I changed the keys and it came up just fine so I don't think it's the Steam bottle per se, but somehow the Steam version of The Witcher.

That said....I'm just about out of ideas except for a huge stretch of one that I don't expect to work...but after doing everything that makes sense its time to try things that don't make sense :).

Try these two keys under Direct3D. These are DWORD values, not strings.

VideoPciVendorID=10de
VideoPciDeviceID=0602

You're basically trying to trick Crossover Games into thinking you have a Nvidia 8800GT card like I do. Maybe its a shader issue of some sort. It'll probably crash Crossover though :).

Try grabbing a debug as in here. Maybe something will scream out:

http://www.codeweavers.com/support/wiki/SubmitTechSupportLog

I'm going to post into The Steam GUI forum asking if anyone has the Steam version of The Witcher going and refer them back to this thread.

Other than this I'm sort of tapped out of ideas on what it could be 😥

I'll post the thread and then edit this line with the URL for your reference.

ETA: http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/browse/name/?app_id=206;forum=1;msg=70366

I set the two DWORD values through Regedit, but didn't have any better or worse luck. Did exactly the same thing as before ;)

I have a log dump as per the submit-tech-support-log link. Should I open a full ticket, or just send the log file to you? (I don't see how to attach it here in the forum, though I may be an idiot).

Thanks for the help either way. If it works, that'd be great, I'd love to play it, but if not, well, life goes on :D

Thanks!

Hi,

You can attach the log to a ticket, but as an unsupported title there
can be no promises on what will come of that. If you would like an
advocate to take a look at it, post the log to rapidshare.com (or another
similar free online repo), and then post the link here.

Cheers!

Good idea :)

http://rapidshare.com/files/327714196/thewitcher_ee.cxlog.zip.html

Thanks for the thought, there's the log. Let me know if I can do anything else to help. I feel bad just asking for help without being able to give much input, but thanks!

I'd open a ticket. As Don indicated it isn't a supported title so not really sure if they can help, but maybe something in the log will scream itself out as an obvious problem. I'm doubtful though but never hurts to try.

If you stuff it on rapidshare, post the link. I'm lousy at the debug log as well but don't have have a problem looking at it. Maybe someone else smarter will notice something.

Cool, I opened a ticket, though I included in my request the obvious caveat of "I know it's not supported, so no worries if you can't look" etc. I posted my log here: http://rapidshare.com/files/327714196/thewitcher_ee.cxlog.zip.html

Thanks for all the help, even if it doesn't end up working, you've got my gratitude for trying :)

Looks like this bit is failing...;

err:d3d_caps:IWineD3DImpl_FillGLCaps Invalid nVidia version string: "2.1 NVIDIA-1.6.6".
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33c380,0x00000000), stub!
err:d3d:getColorBits Unsupported format: WINED3DFMT_R16G16B16A16_FLOAT

I believe that has something to do with the xquartz gl libs?? (or the
mac nvidia drivers therein?)...

abeta is in a better position to compare and dissect here (;

Cheers!

James Taylor wrote:

Cool, I opened a ticket, though I included in my request the obvious
caveat of "I know it's not supported, so no worries if you can't
look" etc. I posted my log here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/327714196/thewitcher_ee.cxlog.zip.html

Thanks for all the help, even if it doesn't end up working, you've
got my gratitude for trying :)

You're most welcome.

Artist Formally Known as Dot wrote:

Looks like this bit is failing...;

err:d3d_caps:IWineD3DImpl_FillGLCaps Invalid nVidia version string:
"2.1 NVIDIA-1.6.6".
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33c380,0x00000000), stub!

err:d3d:getColorBits Unsupported format:
WINED3DFMT_R16G16B16A16_FLOAT

I believe that has something to do with the xquartz gl libs?? (or
the
mac nvidia drivers therein?)...

abeta is in a better position to compare and dissect here (;

Cheers!

You're giving me TOO much credit here :). This is somewhat odd if its a OpenGL issue or even drivers as he's running on the same version of MAC OS X as I am (10.6.2). The OpenGL and Nvidia drivers are distributed as part of the OS updates so we should both be running the same thing.

Silly question...but what version is the Director's Cut? Click updates and it should take you to a page where it tells you the version you're running.

Try putting a copy of d3dx9_36.dll in \windows\system32.

abeta wrote:

You're giving me TOO much credit here :). This is somewhat odd if
its a OpenGL issue or even drivers as he's running on the same
version of MAC OS X as I am (10.6.2). The OpenGL and Nvidia drivers
are distributed as part of the OS updates so we should both be
running the same thing.

Haha...you think so? (;

I do agree it's odd, and although I don't own a Mac, I'd concur with your surmise here..

That said, I've seen just as weird things wrt linux...ie; one of the codeweavers devs can
get a certain demo of a title running on his rig, and it refuses to run outright here, on
pretty much identical hardware - comparing debug logs shows 2 completely different things
happening...as to why, {shrug}....we both gave up (;

I found Harry Davis' posting in the advocate forum to be interesting...quote;

"And, as a specific, current example of the mass of confusion Apple is causing... a visit to http://www.crucial.com (memory manufacturer) shows that they have entries for 50 variations on "iMac", identified only by CPU and screen size. Only 28 of which are capable of running CXG. ...and of those 28, I would guess there is at least 15 different GPUs represented. ...and of those, almost all are the "notebook" variant, despite the apple system profiler saying otherwise. (My iMac reports an ATI Radeon 2600... but it's actually the mobility version, which is not disclosed)"

There's probably enough 'grey' in there to explain strange differences like this.

@James -- could you provide a +d3d debug log please?

Cheers!

Artist Formally Known as Dot wrote:

That said, I've seen just as weird things wrt linux...ie; one of the
codeweavers devs can
get a certain demo of a title running on his rig, and it refuses to
run outright here, on
pretty much identical hardware - comparing debug logs shows 2
completely different things
happening...as to why, {shrug}....we both gave up (;

I found Harry Davis' posting in the advocate forum to be
interesting...quote;

"And, as a specific, current example of the mass of confusion Apple
is causing... a visit to http://www.crucial.com (memory
manufacturer) shows that they have entries for 50 variations on
"iMac", identified only by CPU and screen size. Only 28 of which are
capable of running CXG. ...and of those 28, I would guess there is
at least 15 different GPUs represented. ...and of those, almost all
are the "notebook" variant, despite the apple system profiler saying
otherwise. (My iMac reports an ATI Radeon 2600... but it's actually
the mobility version, which is not disclosed)"

There's probably enough 'grey' in there to explain strange
differences like this.

@James -- could you provide a +d3d debug log please?

Cheers!

Yeah, I believe it. That's one of the reasons I asked him to try faking out the video card. I know that a number of the iMacs 8800GS cards are actually 8800GTS cards. Either that or they're incorrectly reporting the device ID.

Big upside of MAC OS X is they try to hide everything from the user...its also its biggest downside.

I've tried it again, added the +d3d debug, posted here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/327790765/thewitcher_ee_2.cxlog.zip.html

@abeta, I also checked that d3dx9_36.dll was in windows\system32, but it already was.

Thanks again!

James Taylor wrote:

I've tried it again, added the +d3d debug, posted here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/327790765/thewitcher_ee_2.cxlog.zip.html

@abeta, I also checked that d3dx9_36.dll was in windows\system32,
but it already was.

Thanks again!

What version is the witcher director's cut? Tell it to check for updates, it'll take you to a webpage and its in the middle of the page near the top.

With older versions (prior to 1.5), you needed to override the d3dx9_36.dll file (possibly some other DLLs too). i.e. Rename it and download a new one or copy it from a windows machine.

Sorry, I saw that you asked for that earlier and I totally spaced it. Looks like I have 1.4.5.1304. Per the steam forums, that's actually 1.5 patch level for the director's cut. I tried downloading a new d3dx9_36.dll and putting it in place, but with no discernible effect. Hrm :\ Feel like I'm wasting your time at this point. No worries if you're tapped out, I knew it wasn't supported when I bought it, I'd just wanted to play this for a while, thought I'd try. I got it from Steam's christmas discount, so I'm not out a huge chunk of change anyway. I very much appreciate the help, and while you've still got ideas, I'm down for trying anything, but I don't want you to feel like you've gotta keep kicking out ideas on it. Thanks again!

James Taylor wrote:

Sorry, I saw that you asked for that earlier and I totally spaced
it. Looks like I have 1.4.5.1304. Per the steam forums, that's
actually 1.5 patch level for the director's cut. I tried
downloading a new d3dx9_36.dll and putting it in place, but with no
discernible effect. Hrm :\ Feel like I'm wasting your time at this
point. No worries if you're tapped out, I knew it wasn't supported
when I bought it, I'd just wanted to play this for a while, thought
I'd try. I got it from Steam's christmas discount, so I'm not out a
huge chunk of change anyway. I very much appreciate the help, and
while you've still got ideas, I'm down for trying anything, but I
don't want you to feel like you've gotta keep kicking out ideas on
it. Thanks again!

Yeah, if you're on 1.4.5.1304 that should be the 1.5 patch and the d3dx9_36.dll probably won't matter. Rapidshare says try later for your D3D debug file :).

I'm still hoping for The Witcher to be insanely cheap on Steam's daily specials. It's already cheap but I've got a number of other titles that's going to make my credit card whimper before I get to it on my list of things to buy. :).

PS - It isn't a waste of time trying to help someone get it going :)

I'm having my own issue with the Steam version of The Witcher that doesn't seem to be mentioned here; when I launch it the game opens fine without any problems and I see the opening ad-movies and the loading screen. Then when I get to where the menu is normally, I see the game's stylized mouse cursor and hear the background music, but otherwise the screen is completely black. If I move the mouse around I can hear it running over menu items and they're clickable, but otherwise I don't see anything going on.

I think that you're going to have to play with the registry keys. I don't think I've seen that particular problem. What platform are you on, version of CXG and your current registry keys?

OSX 10.6.2 using the latest version of Crossover Games, everything set to default as far as the registry goes.

See the earlier messages. I wasn't able to get it to do anything without messing with the registry keys on my CD/DVD version. You might want to create a separate Steam bottle just to mess with the settings.

Hi, first post, excuse the implicit ignorance.

I had a similar problem getting NWN2 to run even following the wonderful advice here. I'd get music, cursor, black screen.

What finally fixed it was setting my actual iMac screen res to low and 4:3 with System Preferences. (Maybe as low as 800x600, can't remember now.) Suddenly it worked. And once I could see the game, I could bump the screen res back to native with the in-game controls. (And launch it from full res after that.) My guess is some older games don't support widescreen in their default settings. Hardly Übergeek stuff, but it worked for me.

Of course, NWN2 is supposed to work when everything's in place, so this may only bring you another step closer to frustration.

Good luck!

Hi, this is probably a few months too late.

But I got this working in end with the settings on the Tips page. However I was getting a blank black screen once the intro movies had finished. It turned out the patcher had not installed all the files, so I copied all the files from "The Witcher" directory on a Windows installed copy of the game, then it worked.

Hope that helps.