Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Forum

Of the fifteen applications that I've so far attempted to bring over to my MacBook using CrossOver Games, this is one of only three with which I have been completely unsuccessful.

Specifications:

OS: OS X 10.6.2

CPU: 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo

GPU: Nvidia GeForce 9400M w/ 256MB

VER: CrossOver Games 8.1.4 Registered

APP: Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, Retail Version with 3 CDs. I made attempts at getting it to run using the base unpatched version, a patched to Official 1.2 version, and a patched with Unofficial 6.8 version.

CONFIG: I have attempted the various posted hints and tips from the WineHQ AppDB forum, such as using Regedit to set the UseGLSL and OffscreenRenderingMode keys, as well as leaving it in its vanilla state. I've tried running the application in a virtual desktop and not in one. I've also tried quite a few other configuration and registry settings, which I'll detail below.

PROBLEMS:

As with many other posters on this and the WineHQ AppDB forums, I encountered minor difficulties with the installation, due to multi-disk issues. But, following the listed advice, I was able to complete the installation by copying all of the files from the three CDs into a single folder (copying CD1 last to overwrite any shared files) and then running the installation from there. This worked just fine.

The primary problem that I encounter, is that the game opens with a gray "Loading..." screen, which stays up for perhaps four minutes, then switches to the main game window. Selecting any option to Start or Load a new game leads the program to crash after chugging away for a minute or two.

DETAILS:

When I create a log while attempting to run the program, I find a large number of "err: " lines. The first of which that occurs on every run (regardless of setting) is as follows:

err:d3d_caps:IWineD3DImpl_FillGLCaps Invalid nVidia version string: "2.1 NVIDIA-1.6.6".

I found several posts regarding this error in my research. Apparently, there is a naming/parsing issue in that the current parser is expecting a space after NVIDIA, rather than the dash that the recent Mac NVidia drivers have been using. Here is a link to one such thread discussing the issue:

http://archives.free.net.ph/message/20090525.101855.b9bad34c.en.html

Apparently, (and I do not really understand the nature of programming, let alone open source projects with their various forks, so I apologize if I misspeak on this issue), there are patches out there that some people have compiled that permit for a proper parsing of the way NVidia is currently naming their Mac drivers. Additionally, from what little I could understand, it sounds as though some of the Wine people are planning to drop this functionality entirely, so perhaps the error will disappear whenever CrossOver is updated with whichever version of Wine no longer uses that function. But again, I may misunderstand how fixes/changes propagate throughout the Wine and CrossOver builds. I am not sure whether these "err: " lines are actually causing problems or not.

The second error that I always receive, regardless of which configuration I use is as follows:

err:x11settings:X11DRV_ChangeDisplaySettingsEx No matching mode found 800x600x32 @11802992!

The frequency number varies, but is always something outrageous. There are five or six people posting a similar result on the WineHQ AppDB forum. For whatever reason, the game is attempting to run at refresh rates that are many orders of magnitude too high. I was thinking perhaps this might be due to the fact that the game is failing to recognize what kind of video card I have installed due to the first error, but that is just my uninformed speculation.

I have attempted many, many ways to circumvent this program and force the game to use a 60Hz refresh rate/frequency. Some of the things I've attempted include:

1. Using the -refresh command line, since VtM:Bloodlines uses the Half-Life 2 engine. My attempts at using the various HL2 command lines demonstrate VtM:Bloodlines definitely recognizes and uses all the same options as HL2, but for whatever reason -refresh does not prevent the game from attempting to run at million+ frequencies. Note that -refresh does have an impact, however. If I set -refresh to anything other than "60", the game crashes immediately with a different error.

2. I've tried the -novid, -dxlevel 80, -dxlevel 81, and -dxlevel 70 command line options since various people posted success using those parameters (though not in reference to this specific refresh rate problem).

3. I tried changing a couple settings that looked relevant in the config.cfg file that VtM:Bloodline uses, namely the cpu_max and r_displayRefresh settings.

4. I also tried forcing things on the CrossOver side, setting the ForceRefreshRate DWord value to 60 with regedit.

Regardless of whatever I try, the game attempts to run at some crazy high refresh rate. I believe this leads to the third error message I always receive, which is the following:

err:d3d:resource_init Out of adapter memory

Very good analysis! I can confirm your findings: Bloodlines indeed uses a (randomly) very high refresh rate.

Here's a fix that SHOULD work: http://forumplanet.gamespy.com/bloodlines_tech_support/b50391/20211232/p1/?0

Fascinating, Frank7777!

I'm going to repost the relevant aspect of your linked article, in case that message ever gets deleted on the external site:

In the shaderapidx9.dll you need to look for the following sequence of bytes:
00 74 1C 8B 44 24 28 C7 86 34 1B 00 00 00 00 00
80 8B 40 0C 89 86 30 1B 00 00 E9 87 00 00 00 8B

and replace these with:
00 90 90 8B 44 24 28 89 BE 34 1B 00 00 8B 40 0C
C7 86 30 1B 00 00 3C 00 00 00 E9 87 00 00 00 8B

The refresh rate is controlled by changing the 3C value (3C = 60 HZ).

I'll definitely give the hack a try later on. It would be fantastic if this worked!

Thanks, again.

If it doesn't work let me know, because then there are some other alternatives that might work (although this solution is the best by far).

If it does work, also let me know please!

Frank7777 wrote:

If it doesn't work let me know, because then there are some other
alternatives that might work (although this solution is the best by
far).

If it does work, also let me know please!

I wrote a small util to perform the patching process, seeing as more users are suffering from this problem. Find it on http://forumplanet.gamespy.com/bloodlines_tech_support/b50391/20211232/p1/?0 in case anyone else is interested.

Frank7777,

I tried the posted hex edit hack (actually I tried the second, slightly longer, one that you listed in the forum posting). It might work. That particular error message regarding the inappropriate refresh rate no longer appears in my crash logs.

Sadly, the program crashes abruptly with other errors (access violations in engine.dll), so it is difficult at this point for me to confidently verify this fix. These new errors could be entirely unrelated to the above-posted fix, however.

I'm currently in the process of trying out various combinations of the "Unofficial Patch", the "True Patch", alternate engine.dlls, different regedit and config settings, and alternate shaderapidx9.dlls. Overall, it's a heck of a tough program to get running.

Can you paste the error messages you get here?