The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Forum

I downloaded Oblivion with Direct2Drive and the install works fine as well as the opening menu, but when I click play a window pops up saying this:

"The program Oblivion.exe has encountered a serious problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

This may be caused by a problem in the program or a deficiency in Wine. You may want to check http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/ for tips about running this application"

I've looked around without much luck. One thing I found weird in the install process was they never asked for an activation code of any sort. Also I apologize before hand, I'm rather illiterate when it comes to computers and CrossOver in particular.

Thank you for your time.

Hi,

If your Direct2Drive game includes a registration/activation key (as
displayed on your D2D account page), then rather obviously the game is
protected by one form or another of online DRM system. The actual DRM
mechanism used varies from title to title - most of them can be made
to work with wine/crossover....there are a number of different strategies...

Using Crossover Games;

1. Try using no additional packages -or- try installing crossover html engine (IE 8.0 mode) into the same bottle

2. Try installing microsoft html rendering engine 6 into the same bottle

3. Try installing microsoft html rendering engine 7 into the same bottle

One of those should work, if not, you may have to use Crossover Standard
to install/register/activate the game first, then create a archive of that
bottle and restore it into the Crossover Games environment -- you can download
and use the demo version of Crossover Standard for this. You do pretty much
the same thing, but with normal Crossover you've a couple of extra options...

Using Crossover Standard;

First try the steps 1 thru 3 above -- one of them should work, if not....

A. Try installing Internet Explorer 6 into the same bottle

B. Try installing Internet Explorer 7 into the same bottle

Note: do not install all these things into the same bottle - try each in turn,
starting with a newly created 'fresh' bottle for each attempt (otherwise things
may become muddled).

If you still can't get the online activation to work, let us know...

Cheers!

Thank you for your quick reply!

I tried all of this with no luck. It did work in a way, there's a part in the opening menu to go to the game website and when I click on it an internet window comes up within CrossOver, so it is connected to the web at the very least.

I'm baffled as to what the problem here is though. I keep assuming it has to do with activation seeing as D2D gave me a code and there is no where in the installation process or menu that I can enter it. Maybe it's something else though?

I can't really be sure -- as I say, D2D use a number of different DRM mechanisms,
some of which are beyond their control...ie; it's actually the game developer's
server being contacted to activate the game, not D2D as such. Sometimes, things
can go wrong here, other times it's as simple as the DRM failing of such, but for
sure if you've got a code to enter, it will be to be entered so the unlock keys
can be generated....

If you've tried the above and nothing worked, I think my next move would be to
email D2D support and ask if everything is OK with the registration/activation
process -- alternately you can ask them for a manual unlock code (where applicable)
to overcome such problems ; such really depends on the title itself. I've only had
to do this once or twice with D2D games, but each time I've been able to resolve
it (one time they gave me an unlock code, the second time they said there was a
server problem and gave me a refund)...let us know how you get on...

Cheers!

According to D2D it's simply not compatible with Mac or, I assume, this program. They were great about it though, they offered a full store credit refund.

Do you think I'd have better luck with a place like Steam, or just the game disc?

Hal wrote:

According to D2D it's simply not compatible with Mac or, I assume,
this program. They were great about it though, they offered a full
store credit refund.

Do you think I'd have better luck with a place like Steam, or just
the game disc?

Hi,

I'm glad to hear D2D's support crew lived up to my expectations of them ;
they've always been understanding/prompt at resolving issues like this one
way or another - I never have any trouble recommending them (even if the game
doesn't work 8)....

...you're on OSX?...hmm...ok, that seems like more than a coincidence..(I have
another D2D title wherein the online registration/activation works in linux but
it fails outright on the Mac)...Looks like I'll have to check that angle a bit
more closely....

I can't really advise which distributor's release will actually work for you.
If the disc based version has DRM on it, that definitely won't work on the Mac
due to the OSX scsi driver design....so don't buy a disc unless you want to deal
with disc based DRM. The Steam version may work, but I cannot guarantee that..ie;
some Steam apps work in linux not OSX for reasons beside DRM....(video card/drivers
is one area)...

Cheers!