Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 Forum

Hi all.

I have the C&C TFD DVD installed with the latest version of Crossover Games. When I tried PaultheTall's speed improvement tip and created the two registry entries, everything looked great until the mission launched. Then the screen had massive flickering problems. I tried several different resolutions to no avail. I double checked the instructions and I'm pretty sure I did it correctly.

Help?

Running 10.5.8

Thanks

Can you make 2 screenshots of the register settings?
1 with the overview with the --> wine section collaps,
1 with the direct 3d collaps.

Problem sounds familier, its defiantly a register setting.

Paul,

I saw you tweaked the instructions and I tried it the new way (before I had created a key called game.exe with a subkey of Direct3D. It seemed to have no effect from no registry entry--the game moves slowly.

Here are the screenshots you requested. Thanks for helping me.

Hi steve,

There you go, in the appdefaults you have to make a key game.exe and in that one you have to make the key Direct3D
so: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\AppDefaults\game.exe\Direct3D not what you have: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\AppDefaults\Direct3D]
In that key you have to put those strings.

Let me know if it works now. If it dont works try this:
Put the strings in: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\AppDefaults\game.exe

Ok. let me know.

OK, I have tried it all three ways.
With the keys in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\AppDefaults\game.exe\Direct3D the game flickers

With the keys in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\AppDefaults\game.exe\ the game runs slowly in mission.

With the keys in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\AppDefaults\Direct3D the game runs slowly in mission.

I can do more screen shots, if needed. I would appreciate any guidance.

Pfff....i notice a slowdown too now....
Somehow it work earlier as i remembered (its already a time ago)
I knew the dvd version was slow but somehow after some trying it felt like a performance boost....

I think its in the version wich slows everything down....because first decade gives version 1.006 right out of the box.
I tried all kinda stuff to get back to version 1.0 or 1.003, no success. It wrecked my installation....not in the mood now to reinstall first decade completely again.
But however you can try to install this unofficial patch: http://blackassassins.org/pisc/readme.htm

It may be fix it, i couldn't try it out, because my install was already wrecked by all kinda experimental things...
If this doesn't work, maybe you find a way to get back to version 1.0. Replace the .exe with all kinda stuff doesn't work really...i already tried (it wrecked my install) ;)

I will change the post about first decade. Let me know if 1.007 works or if you can bring back 1.0.

Thanks.

Paul The Tall

Thanks for helping, Paul.

I know just enough about regedit to be dangerous 😊 I've been playing around with no real results only to say that I think the key is in the
'DirectDrawRenderer with value: opengl' setting. With all things being constant, that seems to be the one that causes the flicker and removes the flicker when it's not there.

I also did some Googling and was reading about a similar issue on NWN2. The suggestion there was to create the Direct3D key in the Wine folder of regedit. I tried and it caused the same effect as putting it in Wine/game.exe/Direct3D (did that make sense?)

I was also wondering if this could be fixed via DirectX settings. I found this on the tips & tricks of NWN2:

5) Download and copy the following DLLs to \windows\system32

d3dx9_30
d3dx9_36
d3dx9_28
devenum
dxdiagn
mscorwks
msvcm80
msvcp80
msvcr80

If one were to do that, could they tweak some settings in the directx settings? Again, I could be talking foolishness. My knowledge is limited, I'm just trying to troubleshoot. I'm going to try when I get some time, but some of you are much more knowledgeable and might be able to tell me if I were barking up the wrong tree.

I'm running this on MacBook Pro with an ATY(that's the way the About This Mac spells it) RaedonX1600 with 128MB of video memory.

Thanks again.

Quick Update: By closing all windows and turning off hardware acceleration I was able to get the flicker to slow down and look something like an old tv set with a bad Vhold. I'm beginning to suspect the ATI driver. The game is noticeably faster with the opengl, but it looks like the opengl is trying to draw everything on top at once. Is this where backbuffer and frontbuffer can come into play?

Steve Hollis wrote:

snip<

I think the key is in the 'DirectDrawRenderer with value: opengl'
setting. With all things being constant, that seems to be the one
that causes the flicker and removes the flicker when it's not there.

I also did some Googling and was reading about a similar issue on
NWN2. The suggestion there was to create the Direct3D key in the
Wine folder of regedit. I tried and it caused the same effect as
putting it in Wine/game.exe/Direct3D (did that make sense?)

Makes sense - what you are seeing is 'key equivalence' within the registry..ie; although the
registry key location differs, it's tantamount to the same thing...

Steve Hollis wrote:

I was also wondering if this could be fixed via DirectX settings. I
found this on the tips & tricks of NWN2:

5) Download and copy the following DLLs to \windows\system32

d3dx9_30
d3dx9_36
d3dx9_28
devenum
dxdiagn
mscorwks
msvcm80
msvcp80
msvcr80

If one were to do that, could they tweak some settings in the
directx settings? Again, I could be talking foolishness. My
knowledge is limited, I'm just trying to troubleshoot. I'm going to
try when I get some time, but some of you are much more
knowledgeable and might be able to tell me if I were barking up the
wrong tree.

I'm running this on MacBook Pro with an ATY RaedonX1600 with 128MB
of video memory.

Thanks again.

I think your videocard is going to be the big limiting factor here. You can't really take
notions from another title, and directly apply them to a different title (caveat the two
titles are using the same game engine, -then- what works for one should work for the other,
but not always)...

...Likewise, you can't take a lot of what is presented on WineHQ, and directly apply it to
the crossover case...ie; differences between the wine build versions, and I'd reckon over
85% of information on WineHQ is linux centric, and a lot of stuff written in that light will
not work for Macs - what is recorded as needed by the software title (runtime dependencies
etc) usually holds true for both Mac/linux camps, but as far as registry settings and other
tweaks go...YMMV, widely...when it comes to the Mac...

I can't see that Red Alert 2 'needs' anything extra...but what you've posted wrt NWN2..;

d3dx9_30 |
d3dx9_36 |__provided by installing Directx Runtime
d3dx9_28 |
dxdiagn |

devenum |---google for it

mscorwks |---part of .Net 2.0 Runtime

msvcm80 |
msvcp80 |--provided by Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable
msvcr80 |

You might try installing directx runtime into the same bottle (using
the builtin target in cxinstallwizard) and see if that helps, but none
of the other DLL's listed are likely to do anything much (except consume
diskspace ;) There's not a lot of 'settings' you can throw at directx, it
doesn't quite work that way....

A good example of what I'm talking about here (wrt the x1600) is echoed
in these words;

"First of all, for reasons I don't fully understand, this game actually works slightly
better on a Core Duo MacBook and a Core Duo MacBook with Intel GMA 950 graphics than on
a Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro with a 128 MB Radeon Mobility X1600; on the MacBook, the intro
video played perfectly; on the MacBook Pro, the intro video got garbled five seconds in."

cite: http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/browse/name/?forum=1;app_id=4333;mhl=63411;msg=63411#msg63411

I believe this is what you're fighting here...

Cheers!

Hi Steve

Good hunting, playing with registry in wine is fun :) If it wreck things up, a reinstall in a bottle is the fix :P
But First decade is quite an installation of some time (all those filling in those keycodes...;)

But to come back one the the register. NO its no ati problem, this issue is for everyone and is caused 99% sure because of the version. 2 cd version works great with the register tweak.
And i have in first decade some problem as you and have, and i have an Nvidia 9400M.

Did you check the newest unofficial patch 1.007?

Those dlls, yo could try, but i think it wont give the solution, if you do so, make shure you add those keys in the library via winecfg --> libraries -->add (set on native then built in)

My original post is below, because there might be a tidbit or something that will help further, but I think I have made a slight breakthrough.

I created a new Win2000 bottle and installed just Red Alert 2 from the DVD. I added RA2.exe to the applications in the winecfg menu and I left things at default but changed the setting from global to Win2k.

I added the two keys suggested in the Tips & Tricks section to the Wine/AppDefaults/RA2.exe key (there were already some strings there).

I started the game and let it take the whole screen (no forced windowed mode). There was a noticeable speedup. Not up to how fast it was running with the flicker, but at least playable to some degree. On skirmish mode, I can set the game to fastest and it is at least...not crawling. This may be the best I am going to get, but any confirmation or suggestions would be appreciated. Please note the -SPEEDCONTROL note at the bottom of my italicized post. If I could get the -SPEEDCONTROL switch to load in the single player game, then I think it would be a huge improvement.

[i]Thanks, both of you for your replies.

I think I have some 2 CD sets coming (I'm trying to get this to run for a school event I am running). I also have some of the games that came with the pre-order of C&C3. I am hoping that some of those might be 1.0.

Paul, I did try the 1.007 patch and nothing happened.

I won't spend the time downloading the dll's and installing them. If you two say it won't work, I'll defer to your experience.

In a lot of the RTS games there were ways to speed up or slow down gameplay (I'm thinking Civilization, etc.) I guess no such setting exists?
I'm going to keep trying with some of the bottle settings.

Thanks again.

UPDATE: OK, I found that RA2 had a game speed switch in the skirmish games, but not in the single player campaigns, UNLESS you ran RA2.exe with a -SPEEDCONTROL switch. When I try adding this switch from the run command in Crossover Games I get an error message. I simply browsed to find the RA2.exe then added the -SPEEDCONTROL within the quotation marks (I could have done it wrong).

I loaded up a skirmish game and set the speed to fastest. It was slow, but playable. I did this with just a raw install and no regedit-ing done.
[/i]

[/quote]
In a lot of the RTS games there were ways to speed up or slow down gameplay (I'm thinking Civilization, etc.) I guess no such setting exists?
I'm going to keep trying with some of the bottle settings.
[/i][/quote]

I have no experience in the " speed control never used it, and because my install is wrecked, i wont try out (not in the mood to install all DVD again) ;)

About the speed up. Al lot of games has speed improvements available, only the game has to cooperate. If it won't like in the 1.006 version,
then things can get messy. Patches can break the game, slow it down or abuse it in other ways, or fix things :).

But please check things out, try around, maybe you find a solution, if so, let us know.

OK, been digging some more (maybe a dangerous thing). I'm trying to disable directdraw rendering in dxdiag within my bottle. It tells me I need an administrator. How do you get around this?

Steve Hollis wrote:

My original post is below, because there might be a tidbit or
something that will help further, but I think I have made a slight
breakthrough.

I created a new Win2000 bottle and installed just Red Alert 2 from
the DVD. I added RA2.exe to the applications in the winecfg menu
and I left things at default but changed the setting from global to
Win2k.

I added the two keys suggested in the Tips & Tricks section to the
Wine/AppDefaults/RA2.exe key (there were already some strings
there).

I started the game and let it take the whole screen (no forced
windowed mode). There was a noticeable speedup. Not up to how fast
it was running with the flicker, but at least playable to some
degree. On skirmish mode, I can set the game to fastest and it is
at least...not crawling. This may be the best I am going to get,
but any confirmation or suggestions would be appreciated. Please
note the -SPEEDCONTROL note at the bottom of my italicized post. If
I could get the -SPEEDCONTROL switch to load in the single player
game, then I think it would be a huge improvement.

[i]Thanks, both of you for your replies.

I think I have some 2 CD sets coming (I'm trying to get this to run
for a school event I am running). I also have some of the games
that came with the pre-order of C&C3. I am hoping that some of
those might be 1.0.

Paul, I did try the 1.007 patch and nothing happened.

I won't spend the time downloading the dll's and installing them.
If you two say it won't work, I'll defer to your experience.

In a lot of the RTS games there were ways to speed up or slow down
gameplay (I'm thinking Civilization, etc.) I guess no such setting
exists?
I'm going to keep trying with some of the bottle settings.

Thanks again.

UPDATE: OK, I found that RA2 had a game speed switch in the
skirmish games, but not in the single player campaigns, UNLESS you
ran RA2.exe with a -SPEEDCONTROL switch. When I try adding this
switch from the run command in Crossover Games I get an error
message. I simply browsed to find the RA2.exe then added the
-SPEEDCONTROL within the quotation marks (I could have done it
wrong).

I loaded up a skirmish game and set the speed to fastest. It was
slow, but playable. I did this with just a raw install and no
regedit-ing done.
[/i]

Hi,

By the sounds of what you describe, forcing the directdraw=opengl makes the game
run faster, but at the cost of visual corruption -- running with this setting..ie;
directdraw=gdi gets rid of the corruption, but then it impacts the game performance.
Mucking about with dxdiag is a waste of time...

Regarding the -SPEEDCONTROL switch, you should perhaps test this either at the
commandline (in the bottle dir) or via using the 'Run a command in this bottle'
part of the crossover control-panel (commandline would be best, as you may get
a hint to what it's complaining about)...

Umm...what version of crossover-games are you using?

Cheers!

Don,

I am running COG 8.1.3

I have the opengl set to run now in the correct place in the registry without the flickering. It is faster than without, but not as fast as I get with the flicker (hopefully that made sense). keys are listed are in:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\AppDefaults\Ra2.exe\Direct3D

Steve,

Have you tried 8.1.2/8.1.4 ? (I would even ask if you've
tried 8.0)....I'm just covering bases here, because I know
many little things have changed in the 8.1.x series, and me
being me..I'm always looking to affirm this isn't a regression
of any kind - get back to me, happy to help you try sort this...

Cheers!

NM, found it.

Can I have simultaneous installs of crossover games or do I need to uninstall the one I have?

Steve Hollis wrote:

NM, found it.

Can I have simultaneous installs of crossover games or do I need to
uninstall the one I have?

The only 'sane' way I like to install concurrent versions, is by using 2 user accounts.

Otherwise, I would archive the bottle you're working on, install a version of COG, and then
restore the archived bottle into the newly installed version...something like this. It takes
time to do a regression test run, no way around that, but this is how I do it.

Cheers!

Actually, on the Mac you may keep both versions of the application on your system and just launch the one you want to use.

However, if you launch Windows programs using the launcher mini-application (in <your home folder>/Applications/CrossOver Games), then it may launch a different version than the one you intend (if CrossOver Games isn't already running).

Also, you should generally avoid running both copies of the app at once. Only run one at a time.

Ken Thomases wrote:

Actually, on the Mac you may keep both versions of the application
on your system and just launch the one you want to use.

However, if you launch Windows programs using the launcher
mini-application (in <your home folder>/Applications/CrossOver
Games), then it may launch a different version than the one you
intend (if CrossOver Games isn't already running).

Also, you should generally avoid running both copies of the app at
once. Only run one at a time.

Hi Ken,

Thanks for chipping in here and filling out the Mac situation - my linuxcentric tunnel
vision doesn't always see/know about such features of the Mac version.

Do you happen to have any inkling on whats going on here wrt 10.5.8/x1600/opengl/d3d tangos?
I'm just trying to get a firmer grip of things like this with the x1600 (seems to crop up a lot)

Cheers!

I can only guess. If the flicker with using OpenGL for DirectDraw rendering is due to driver bugs, then it might help to set OffscreenRenderingMode to backbuffer. That will be slower than the default (fbo), but may be faster than using GDI while avoiding the flicker.

If the flicker is due to either Wine bugs or game bugs (or both), I don't have a suggestion.

Ken!

That worked!
At least to make it playable.
The guy in the tutorial isn't moving fast, but maybe he's not supposed to.

Here's my final setup for now.
Win2k Bottle
under the config tab I allowed the window manager to decorate and control the windows (checked both boxes)

Under regedit for that bottle
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Wine/AppDefaults/Ra2.exe/Direct3d I have the following.

DirectDrawRenderer=opengl
OffscreenRenderingMode=backbuffer
PixelShaderMode=disabled
Render TargetLockMode=readtex
VertexShaderMode=none

Things don't move as fast as say, StarWars Galactic Battlegrounds, but there is a definite improvement! You guys have saved my RTS Winterim.

Any other tweaks would be appreciated!

OK, I think I totally fixed it. I'm not sure why this works, but when I added the key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Wine/AppDefaults/game.exe/Direct3d along WITH the settings above and I added

DirectDrawRenderer=opengl
Render TargetLockMode=readtex

to that (so I have two separate keys with those entries)
I am currently on the second single player mission and the game runs flawlessly at full speed. I have not tried higher resolutions yet or different bottles (I think my current bottle is W95), I also upgraded to 8.1.4 but it still ran slowly until I did the above.

I don't know how to add to Tips & Tricks, but I would be happy to help write up an install guide thingy.

Paul, did what I did make sense?

Steve Hollis wrote:

OK, I think I totally fixed it. I'm not sure why this works, but
when I added the key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Wine/AppDefaults/game.exe/Direct3d along
WITH the settings above and I added

DirectDrawRenderer=opengl
Render TargetLockMode=readtex

to that (so I have two separate keys with those entries)
I am currently on the second single player mission and the game runs
flawlessly at full speed. I have not tried higher resolutions yet
or different bottles (I think my current bottle is W95), I also
upgraded to 8.1.4 but it still ran slowly until I did the above.

I don't know how to add to Tips & Tricks, but I would be happy to
help write up an install guide thingy.

Paul, did what I did make sense?

Maybe, but i don't understand the space between render (and) targetlockmode....the key would simply not work so only DirectDrawRenderer=opengl would be read/load as working key.
and did you not mean a win98 bottle? Anyway it would be nice to write down exactly what you did, maybe we can track down the issue.

I will. I have to get this thing working on 18 computers, so it would be nice to know how to do it. My mistake, there is no space on the RenderTargetLockMode key.

IS there a way to copy bottles from computer to computer, or would it be best to export the registry file and then import it on each computer? (I only have RA2 in this particular bottle).

And no, I got it to run in a Win95 bottle. I haven't tried changing bottles yet. That's next.

Yes you can make copies of you bottles, via advanced --> make archive
Via main menu managed bottles --> add archive, you can import those bottles on you other pc's. (saves time)
However i hope you have more licenses, because if you want to use it on 18 computers at the same time...i think that won't work.

Anyway let me know how performance is working out.

I will keep you posted. I do have 18 licenses. I'm doing this for a winterim course at the school I work at. Sun Tzu's The Art of War and we're using RA2 to try some tactics out. The boys that have signed up have pc's at home. My lab is a Mac lab; hence the problem. I figure I can use the DVD to install the program and use the codes from the other 18 copies of RA2 that I bought (some are 2 cd sets, some are RA3 promos, etc.) I hope to begin LAN testing next week.

I've played halfway through the missions where you have to destroy the psychic beacon and so far not a hitch, even when you have a ton of units on the screen.

I am very interested.

Another thing.....if you want to play via a network, there might be some fixes needed:
just a tip to consider testing.

Network Play
IPX is tricky, and is fortunately no longer needed. Someone has written a patch to use TCP/IP instead.

1. Download the LAN patch from understorm.net
2. Save it in your Red Alert 2 folder and extract it.
3. Open winecfg or Wine->Configure Wine from the application menu.
4. Add an overwrite rule for wsock32.

OK, I have seen those steps before, but I do not know what I am supposed to do to add an overwrite rule for wsock32.

Steve Hollis wrote:

OK, I have seen those steps before, but I do not know what I am
supposed to do to add an overwrite rule for wsock32.

Hi,

I believe what he means here, is to set a library override
for wsock32.dll in winecfg (in the libraries tab) - I believe
the override was probably set to [native] or [native,buitlin]

Cheers!

Thats correct. Most of the times the last action is not necessary in crossover Games.
You just need to install that patch and if you run into problems you can always try that later.

Grrr.

OK, this is a puzzler.
When I take the archived bottle and put it on a different computer, the game runs flawlessly. When I create an identical bottle and install the game, the flicker is back. So, there's a variable I have to track down.

In comparing the file structures between the bottle I found that on the bottle I got working I had updated the ATI Raedon with the legacy drivers from ATI's website.

I created a Win2K bottle on the new computer, ran the ATI legacy driver program, installed RA2 tweaked the registry so it matched the old one in the above mentioned keys, and the flicker was there.

OK, so I downloaded a program that compares registries side by side and found some other entries that mention Ra2. That's as far as I've gotten.

My next step is to try to copy the working bottle and strip out RA2 so I can then install with different license keys. If that works, I think I'm good. Otherwise I will have to start comparing registry entries again and tweaking that way. If anyone is regedit savy I would be happy to send copies of the working and non-working registry as well as the program that compares them (works great in COG 😊 )

Thanks again for the help. It's a matter of three steps forward, one step back. Not giving up, but a little frustrated.

I know I'm making this a long thread. I'm hoping to document progress so we can get this game gold 😊. Sorry if I'm not putting this in the right place, etc.

Slight progress. It is definitely a registry issue, but I am not sure what yet.
I decided to narrow variables as much as possible. I created a Win2k bottle, installed the ATI Radeon update and even copied my save games from the working bottle to the test bottle so that the file structure in each bottle was identical.

I then exported both registry files and compared them using a program called Compare It! which allowed me to open the registries side by side and it highlighted differences and allows you to copy chunks of highlighted differences from one file to the other. There were 29 differences between the two files. I tried copying over everything that mentioned "Westwood" "RA2" etc. There were some large chunks of hexidecimal numbers that I did not copy over. Out of the 29 differences I probably swapped over 12. I rebooted the bottle, started up RA2 and the pesky flicker was there.

Then I decided to import the whole working registry into the non-working bottle. I then made one change. I went to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Westwood\Red Alert 2 and under the "Serial" string I changed it to another serial license of a legal copy I have. I rebooted the bottle, started up the game and it worked like a charm!

Now, I think I can just use my archived bottle and change each registry with one of the licenses off the copies I bought. I will test that tomorrow at work. That doesn't really help someone else who gets Crossover Games and RA2. I'd like to try to track this down, and I will keep comparing registries and importing. Once again if you guys are regedit savvy and want to give the comparisons a once over, let me know and I will be happy to email them to you and the link to the Compare It! site.

Good hunting.

Its can sometimes be frustrating when things doesn't go as planned or sometimes doesn't make any sense i know.
Maybe you can export the register settings of a known working game bottle and mail it to me so i can import it in my bottle so i can take a look at it. The response can take a few days though because of time and the install takes a while, but maybe it will help.

If all things are done and working i will pick out the things we need to know and i will edit the thread about the install instructions. So don§t worry ;)

Edit: ow my mail adres: paulthetall@gmail.com

my game works fine in skirmish/ single player but its extremely slow on multiplayer i used the decade version and the 2 cd version and it does the same

Ok Steve,

I tried all your register key settings and your register import, your serial change, but the only thing i mentioned is that that the backbuffer setting stops the flickering.
Speed is...doable, but not the smooth speed if you run it on windows. But a note is that you have to run it in the lowest resolution, what you can set in the option menu.

So sorry that i cant say it runs as in windows. But the backbuffer change made it more playable in the lowest resolution.
Perhaps it runs some smoother with you because you have an ati card and a driverfix. I have an NVidia 9400M.

I will look in you network thing tomorrow.

Paul, thank you for all your help.

I do appreciate it.
I know it's weird and it may be the video card, but there's something about that registry that I sent you that makes it work flawlessy on a Mac with the ATIx1600 card. I've done it on two separate computers. I know what you are talking about the backbuffer stopping the flickering and slowdown. I saw that.

With the ATI card and that registry, it works like a charm. I will also keep working with it as I have time.

Thanks for the future help with the network thing 😊 I started a new thread so as not to be too confusing.

Man this is torture...
Trying to install the nvidia 9400m driver in the bottle, but every time it gives the error below

I searched the net and its quite common for the NVIDIA driver.....i tried to install the recommend drivers which should work on bootcamp....but unfortunately no luck yet...
i have download a dozen drivers already still the same error....

[edit] after a few more error screens i give up the driver update...unless someone else have a tip to fix that....
Otherwise i go up to the network issue.

OW maybe this makes the screen some better/nicer:
I like it though :) but it doesn't change my performance.

Edit this on the ra2.ini in the game folder

[Video]
AllowHiResModes=yes
AllowVRAMSidebar=yes
VideoBackBuffer=no
ScreenWidth=1024
ScreenHeight=768
StretchMovies=yes

In general, it doesn't make sense to install Windows drivers into CrossOver. On a normal Windows PC, the Windows OS sits like the meat in a sandwich. The bottom piece of bread is the hardware and the top piece is applications. The interface between the OS and the hardware is the driver.

CrossOver doesn't try to reproduce the interface between the Windows OS and the hardware -- there is no Windows OS. Instead, the native OS (Mac OS X or Linux) handles the hardware. CrossOver sits like a piece of lettuce on top of the meat (the native OS). It's between applications and the OS. Normally, a Windows application would not connect properly with the native OS. CrossOver connects on its bottom side to the native OS and on its top side with Windows applications.

Anyway, strained analogies aside, the point is that a Windows hardware driver is mostly unused. There's some chance that the driver installer tweaks something in the registry that the Windows application will understand, changing the Windows app's behavior. But that would be mostly a coincidence.

Ok I got this figured out :)

The breakthrough was to install the game in a windows2000 bottle and then via winecfg add ra.exe and game.exe to the applications tab and then set those on windows 98 version.
When then running the game even without adjustment it will run quite good without lagging. But then adding the registerkeys:

DirectDrawRenderer=opengl
OffscreenRenderingMode=backbuffer
Render TargetLockMode=readtex

under: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\Direct3D

It will even boost that up.

@Steve
So your breaktrough was when you installed it in a win2000 bottle and put the applications run under win95 in the winecfg options.

Anyway, then we got it figured it out after all :)

I also use the First Decade Edition with a Radeon X1600 card and I was able to get the game working to a certain degree.

Loading a skirmish game and starting a new campaign work nice for me but once I load a saved game the screen flicker reappears.

I tried all advice I could find here in this thread but I'm kinda stuck.

Steve Hollis, would you mind posting your registry files (user.reg and system.reg - whithout the game license keys of course).

I'm not sure what else I should do to get rid of the annoying flicker.

I'm using RA2 v 1.006 + OSX 10.5.8

thanks for any help