Sins of a Solar Empire Forum

Sooo anyways this is how I got SoaSE 1.05 working with Crossover Games 7.1.1 under Leopard....

SoaSE's Installer doesn't work correctly under Crossover Games. When you attempt to install from DVD the auto launcher is opened and just displays as a white screen. You can bypass this by copying all files to your desktop into a folder from the DVD, then delete all of the auto run and launcher files. With that done you can now use the install from folder option in CG to launch the installer.
This leads you to a second problem, while the directory structure is created and other post-install tasks are completed correctly, no files are actually transferred. To get around this problem I simple installed and patched SoaSE in a copy of Parallels Desktop 4, then transferred the Sins of a Solar Empire directory from my Parallels install into the corresponding Crossover directory.
Next you need to bypass the launcher for SoaSE as that will cause problems too. Go to Programs -> Run Command in crossover switch the bottle to what ever you installed SoaSE in (for me I called it SINS) and select "Browse..." Now navigate to Program Files -> Stardock Games -> Sins of a Solar Empire. Select Sins of a Solar Empire.exe and click the open button. Now it fill fill in the command line for you and simply click "Save Command to Programs Menu". Now you have a launcher that works from the crossover games menu!
Upon launch you will notice that some of the fonts are mis-sized. This can be fixed with the patched fonts in this file: www.honorguardonline.com/sins/sinsfontfix.tar.gz
Just copy and replace the files in your Fonts directory in the SoaSE directory.

From my experimentation with Cider and Crossover, don't enable Bloom Effects or change your quality settings as this can somehow result in stability issues. I know, I have a 8 core Mac Pro with an 8800 GT in it and I miss the prettiness. At least now I can launch a game of SoaSE any time I want without switching OSs and crashes are rare.

If you want to play a mod, 7 deadly sins, then this is how you can do so understanding this can harm stability.

Click "Manage Bottles" and select your SoaSE bottle. Click the advanced tab and "Open C: Drive in Finder". The save game, mod, etc directory is at: windows->profiles->crossover->Local Settings->Application Data->Ironclad Games->Sins of a Solar Empire
So just drop any Mods into the "Mods" directory.

Update 1: As pointed out you don't need to use parallels or anything, the important part is that you installed the game under Windows and copied the "Stardock Games" folder into your bottle and made a proper link.
I am tracing down a few crashes still and experimenting with Impulse in the new development releases. There appears to be some issues with CrossOver Games.app/Contents/SharedSupport/X11/lib/libGL.dylib when it comes the the game crashing.
Once we get SoaSE working solidly I hope to start collecting and submitting bug reports in Ernest for it. Since its the official patching and primary point of purchases it would be nice to have it working, especially when the micro expansions get released.

I did the exact same thing you did. I got it installed but there were no files, so just copied a patched version from 1.05 and then overwrote the broken install.

I can start it and play a game, it runs well. I just have issues with the video, there are no video options. Looking into that.

I gave these instructions a try, but the resulting game tends to crash frequently - it rarely goes more than 20 minutes without a crash. Otherwise it's entirely playable.

I am having the same problem as the guy above me, are there any fixes or workarounds?

Thanks Chris,
Got the Demo to work using your instructions.

Thanks in particular for the link to the fonts.
Works like a charm for me!

Are you able to play multiplayer games? I've seen some other comments about the multiplayer not working, which would be completely detrimental for this game.

Yes, you are right.
I could not get Sins of a Solar Empire to communicate and play it in multiplayer mode.
Pity that...

Sorry for taking so long to get back to everyone, been busy at University. However it is true that the networking stack does not seem to be implemented, at least the calls and functions used by the game. I haven't investigated this much but I will be soon.
However I do have a few updates and a bit of insight today for everyone following SoaSE development with CG.

Entrenchment Add-On:
The Entrenchment Add-on isn't going to be supported anytime soon. Apparently Stardock decided, at least when it is in beta, not to allow it to run without activation. Seeing as the IP stack doesn't talk with SoaSE it is not possible to activate the expansion pack.

Why Impulse (patching) doesn't work:
Impulse is based on the .net framework for Windows. As such it needs to be installed for Impulse to run. There are two ways to fix this problem, first would be to have Codeweavers add .net 2.x support to Crossover, but that is a long and involved process because the .net framework does interact with some low level OS functions and code. The second would be to pass the .net calls to mono libraries and hope it works correctly. Mono is an open source implementation of the .net framework for *nix, but isn't exactly a 100% implementation of all the original's features.

I followed your instructions to the letter, but on game startup, the screen is white. I can hear the opening movies and skip them, but the screen remains white, even when music queues for menu.

My bottle was preloaded with the usual regimen; Direct X, Core fonts, the microsoft things, etc.

Unable to provoke an audio response from clicking on the main menu, but enter makes a noise.

No changes to the game's settings file ever seemed to be reflected. (IE, disabling movies, lowering resolution.)

Crossover Games 7.2

2.0 GHZ Intel Mac, 2GB Ram, OS 10.5.7

Any assistance would be appreciated.