EverQuest Forum

I've been using CrossOver to run Everquest on a 27" iMac for a couple of years; access to the big screen is a big win for this combo. Recently I have also bought an Alienware Alpha with a cheap 24" Benco HDMI monitor to compare.

With CrossOver I have become used to request crashes when moving in areas of high population density - Guild Lobby, Plane of Knowledge. I don't dare go near a raid, and have to choose my paths carefully. Similar crashes happen even in low density zones with a lot of graphics objects (Valley of Lunanyn, etc) after a time, and after a number of zonings. Following is erratic. Switching between instances is a little faster on the Alpha as well.

I should say that I also get crashes on the Alpha, but one a month, not 4-5 an hour. Running on the Alpha saves me about 15 minutes doing daily quests on four characters over 90 minutes.

One criticism I have on CrossOver 14 is that the menu option to launch apps was dropped, replaced by a window with icons. This adds an extra step (search and click) to relaunching after crashes, and was a major regression for me. I did bug report it during beta, but it was cancelled.

Conclusion: if you need to run Everquest on a Mac, CrossOver still works, probably better than 80% quality (lets call it somewhere between Bronze and Silver). For many uses the problems that exist can be lived with; but for many common uses, it will still be a struggle.

Paul Lynch wrote:

One criticism I have on CrossOver 14 is that the menu option to
launch apps was dropped, replaced by a window with icons. This adds
an extra step (search and click) to relaunching after crashes, and
was a major regression for me. I did bug report it during beta, but
it was cancelled.

Is this something you can use the "Run Command" function that allows you to save an executable file as a launcher?

No, that just adds it to the window of runnable icons, which is what I use already. The pre-14 drop down from the main menu was far quicker to use.

Paul Lynch wrote:

No, that just adds it to the window of runnable icons, which is what
I use already. The pre-14 drop down from the main menu was far
quicker to use.

So what you are missing is the "Programs" drop down that existed in CrossOver 13.

I know it isn't the same... but can you drag and drop the EverQuest icon to your dock? This would allow you to very quickly launch the application.

The programs drop down is correct.

Putting the icon on the dock is a possible solution - although I prefer to keep my dock relatively clear of permanent icons, I may have to just bite that bullet.

Hello there,

thanks for posting your experience with Crossover and EQ1! A friend of mine using an iMac 27" is also interested in using Crossover to run EQ1 and 2, so I wanted to ask if you would be kind enough to provide more information about your current setup:

1. Which CPU, RAM and GPU is your iMac running on?
2. Which hardware is your Alienware Alpha using?
3. Which OS do you have on your Alpha?
4. Which Mac OS is running on your iMac?
5. About the crashes: Since this is an old game, have you tried turning on/off the "performance enhanced graphics" in Crossover in order to improve stability? Which DirectX version did you install for the game?
6. Did you use the Crosstie to install the game or did you install it manually into a new bottle?

Thanks!

Cheers,
Alex

Funny - I didn't see this post until just now, and I am sure I looked in the last week. Anyhow:

MacOS X 10.10.5 (Yosemite), 3.4 GHz i7, 16 GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2048MB.

Alpha has Windows 8. i7, 8GB, Nvidia GTX 2GB.

I installed directly into a new bottle, with Direct X 9 installed, which is required for Everquest. I haven't (yet) tried to disable the Performance Enhanced Graphics.