Left 4 Dead Forum

I got the game to run under crossover games on Ubuntu 8.04.
It has some serious graphical issues, but the game is playable.
The graphical issues I'm sure have something to do with the shaders. Left 4 Dead needs Pixel Shader 2.0 I believe.

For reference, it works better in wine, but you get horrible frame rates.
Cedega, crashes after loading screen.

I got the full version to run with no problems, no fixes, and high (or higher) graphical settings on an imac. I don't know if I'm extremely lucky or what. Nothing ever works for me so I'm happy. If there's anything anyone thinks I could do to help them, ask.

Thomas, which graphics card do you have? Some drivers are less buggy than others(Or better: A specific game hits fewer / no bugs in the driver)

Please do tell

i have a graphical issue on my too
but im using a mac =/

Can you describe it?

i would take a screen shot and all but my game wouldn't start now
like i'll pick new game and the bar will finish loading but it won't actually start...
and it freezes after that i'll post a screenshot of it

Edit: nm its cause its not a steam version =]

Surprise surprise, ATI, Radeon HD 2600. The only glitch is no fire and vomit. I can calibrate it to be elevated. It's not as good as the Orange Box which I can get on highest settings, but it's approximately what I get on a port to the Mac. The no vomit is actually an advantage, but with fire you have to hear it. Runs perfect smoothly online, none of the glitches while looking at others. It's more then playable. If you can get past the fire thing.

just tested this on a new unibody macbook (core2duo 2.0 ghz, 2gb RAM DDR3, Geforce 9400M,)

very bad frame rate
start up and main menu is full speed works like a champ as soon as u start playing and there's other players or movement it get's really laggy and choppy (unplayable)

hopefully the outstanding guys here at codeweavers can get us a fix soon....

I get johnny's problem. The game runs great if you don't look at other players. The game engulfs the processors to 100% then. I would guess this is GLSL being inefficient causing the computer to lag and making game unplayable. Not that computer isn't powerful enough it's just really inefficient.

What's the best way to get the message across to CodeWeavers that we need a fix for running L4D on macs? I've got a group of friends and we can't play together without getting this figured out. This is a hugely popular game and would be a great success for these guys to work out.

A petition? direct emails? more posts like this? Thanks!

David Drahos wrote:

I get johnny's problem. The game runs great if you don't look at
other players. The game engulfs the processors to 100% then. I would
guess this is GLSL being inefficient causing the computer to lag and
making game unplayable. Not that computer isn't powerful enough it's
just really inefficient.

i'm assuming what you are refering to "GLSL" would be the open GL (directx) for windows which makes all the eye candy come to life which mac (to my understanding) doesn't have implemented just yet

if that's the case how far are we from getting a some what beta version of this running in crossover???

J C Gist wrote:

What's the best way to get the message across to CodeWeavers that we
need a fix for running L4D on macs? I've got a group of friends and
we can't play together without getting this figured out. This is a
hugely popular game and would be a great success for these guys to
work out.

A petition? direct emails? more posts like this? Thanks!

these are my first few post here at codeweavers from what i get the top apps/games that get's the most vote and the most money donations are the ones that they focus on the most, Currently Left4Dead is one of the top 20 apps on the list so hopefully there all over it ;) (mod's please correct me if i am wrong)

While Codeweavers and the WINE project are great people and the software they develop is incredible the reason why Left 4 Dead doesn't work isn't there fault.

Most recently released games are using OpenGL, DirectX 9c or DirectX 10 to render games. The situation on compatibility goes as follows.

OpenGL= works great with Crossover on mac and linux

DirectX 9c= Crossover itself is completely compatible, works on Linux

DirectX 10= doesn't work at all, although it is in the works

Left 4 Dead uses DirectX 9c and the rendering called GLSL. Now only certain video cards work with GLSL in Crossover and WINE. These are Nvidia cards but only recently with updates to the video card drivers has this been possible for Crossover and WINE. Now all Linux computers with a Nvidia card should be able to run GLSL fine and run DirectX 9c. Now here's the problem. Apple has not updated the video cards drivers for Nvidia video cards. This creates the problem on Macs. When you enable GLSL in regedit (see Tips & Tricks section) this causes all DirectX rendering to be inefficient. It uses all the computer's processing power and causes the game to lag terribly.

Bottom line is that Apple needs to update their drivers.

Solutions

-For Linux users with ATI cards, if you can update to a nvidia card do so because gaming and Compiz-Fusion on Linux is much more efficient with Nvidia cards because ATI drivers are up to snuff. But Left 4 Dead even in Linux is a work in progress but should be fixed fast.

-Almost all new macs now use Nvidia cards but for those with ATI cards tough luck.

-If you have a Nvidia card and really need Left 4 Dead, download a Linux distro (I like Ubuntu) and install it on your mac. From there you can install the free open source project WINE which codeweavers uses for Crossover and they support strongly. Or you can purchase the Linux version of Crossover Games. But Left 4 Dead even in Linux is a work in progress but should be fixed faster because Codeweavers and the WINE project can solve these problems.

-If you're patient (or extremely stubborn like me) you can pressure Apple to update their Nvidia and ATI drivers to support GLSL. This choice is the true solution because no new game will work in Crossover Mac without this.

How much better is the performance under linux likely to be? I'm running a new mac, so the card is Nvidia, and I assume that most of the problems I'm having currently are linked to the lack of GLSL support...
Also, which is the smallest linux distro I could get away with using for this purpose? I've not used linux before, and this seems a good excuse to get started; however space is slightly limited, and so on a related note would it be possible to use the mac partition's crossover files through the linux crossover to avoid duplicating all of steam, etc?

(I appreciate that this may not be the best place to ask these questions; if not, then where is?)

You're most likely gonna have more luck with Linux and Left 4 Dead.

Here's the report on it running on Linux in wine.
http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=14592

Although they're not having success, it'll be most likely to work sooner then in Mac OS X.

I suggest Ubuntu, the installation foot print is 2.5 gb although there are smaller Linux distros this one has the best support for Wireless Cards on Apple Computers.

This is a list of wiki how to's for each Mac Computer.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CategoryMac

Select the model you have a one labeled Intrepid. Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex is the newest version of Ubuntu. If you have an trouble you can go to the Ubuntu Forums and post your problems.
https://ubuntuforums.org

Hope this helps I have great confidence in Codeweavers but Linux is having much more success with DirectX support in WINE and Crossover. Linux is a learning curve but the result is a true understanding of Mac OS X because the two are very similar.