I wrote a report while trying out the game, and am pasting it in here.
Short version on how to get Dragon Age to work (well this is how it works on my Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard):
[b]Change the Ini file to turn on the sound (Not sure if this is needed or not but someone recommended it so I did it. The sound works.)
When you get to the first screen where you can choose a New Game etc choose options and video:
--Video Options screen--
Frame Buffer messes up the 3d. -- Uncheck it.
Full screen messes up the text so it looks garbled. -- Uncheck it.
Graphics Detail on anything else then low makes the game crash. Keep Graphics Detail on LOW.
Choose the Resolution that looks good on your monitor.[/b]
--
Long version of my testing.
Installation of Crossover games 8.1.4
Installed Crossover Games 8.1.4
Received the PhysX install error but started the game anyhow.
Changed the DragonAge.ini file
Opened with TextEdit the user/documents/Bioware/Dragon Age/Settings/DragonAge.ini
Changed the SoundDisabled from 1 to 0.
The initial Dragon Age screen
In the configure screen the video section was blank, so I started the game.
Beginning the game
No intro visuals but the sound works.
New Game Screen etc - right after the first video intro-
The text came garbled on the startup screen so I went into Options -> video
Resolution 800x600
Unchecked Play in full-screen mode
Unchecked Vertical sync
Unchecked Frame-buffer effects
The text was no longer garbled.
I went back and
Checked vertical sync - and nothing changed.
Checked Play in Full-screen mode - now the text was garbled again.
Unchecked the Play in Full-screen mode and tried the various resolutions.
The best resolution that seemed to work best for me on my 24" screen was the 1152x720 .
I set the Graphics Detail to low.
Texture Detail was on Medium, and I left it at that.
Checked Frame-buffer effects - it seemed like everything went slower, so
I unchecked it again.
Started a - New Game and Character creation screen
I could hear the video intro about the Chantry. I pressed esc and the screen went to the character creation screen. Nice the 3d works!!!! The 2d and 3d comes up!
I was able to create a character! Nice!
Intro to mage story
I chose a mage and in the beginning of the intro to the mage story I could hear what was going on and after a few seconds when the scene changed to inside the building the visuals came on! I could see. Now as I make choices I can see the 3d characters. After the conversation I could see and hear the video. Great!!!
Game Environment
Man this works a lot better than using VMware Fusion! I played for perhaps 15 minutes. Very very smooth! Nice speed in the game environment! Good speed during the load screens!
Going into options to test higher graphics Details - Crash-
I became adventures and went into the Options -> Video and changed the Graphics Detail to very High, and the game crashed.
The Program Error dialog box that came up was:
"The program DAOrigins.exe has encountered a serious problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience."
"This can be caused by a problem in the program or a deficiency in Wine. You may want to check http://appbd.winehq.org for tips about running this application."
"If this problem is not present under Windows and has not been reported yet, you can report it at http://bugs.winehq.org."
Restarting Crossover and Dragon Age
- Configure screen the video option is still blank-
- No visuals on the opening.
It jumped quickly to the initial screen where one can choose Resume, New game etc. It was windowed in a 800x600 resolution and the Play in full-screen mode was unchecked. Vertical sync and Frame-buffer effects were both checked. Graphics Detail was on Very High. Anti-Aliasing was off. Texture Detail was on high. I left all the settings as I saw them, and continued.
Resumed the game - another crash -
I went out of the options screen and clicked Resume. Because of the very high Graphics Detail setting the screen came up showing only the 2d and the 3d was black. It seems that Crossover has a problem showing high detail 3d. After 20 seconds the game crashed. Showing the same error message as last time.
Restarted Crossover and Dragon Age
I had to once again restart Crossover. Go to the top and choose: Programs ->
Dragon Age Origins -> Dragon Age Origins
Checked the Configure screen again, just to see if the video section was blank. It was. Started the game again.
Options screen
Video. I changed the Graphics Detail to low, Texture was on high, and changed the screen resolution to 1152x720, and resumed the game.
Weird 3d. - Video Options -
This time the screen game up all wacked out. 2d showed up fine, the 3d was weird. Half the screen the 3d was black, the other half the characters had black outlines, and there were black lines and some areas of the 3d that showed through.
I went into the main menu -> options -> video-> and changed the texture detail to medium. More of the 3d showed up this time. The characters were mostly shifting between some color and black.
Went back into the video options and changed the Texture Detail to low - but no change from the Medium setting.
I went again back into the video setting and unchecked the Frame-buffer effects. 3D looked normal again. Went back and set the Texture Detail back into Medium. It looked good. Went back and set Texture Detail to High, and it also looked good.
Conclusion --Video Options screen--
Frame Buffer messes up the 3d. -- Uncheck it.
Full screen messes up the text so it looks garbled. -- Uncheck it.
Graphics Detail on anything else then low makes the game crash. Keep Graphics Detail on LOW. Atleast for now.