CrossOver Support - Community Forums

I've been using CrossOver Games to play Half-Life 2 for a few weeks with very minimal problems. However, while playing yesterday the game crashed and now when I try to load it goes to fullscreen and the screen turns black, white, and then turns into a black window in the upper-left of my desktop. The only reason I could think that it happened was that I changed my video settings in the game to the recommended settings, which were higher than the ones I had been using. But, I was playing at those higher settings for almost two hours before the fatal crash, so I'm not sure if that even has anything to do with it.
I had a similar problem with Team Fortress 2, however that was corrected by the method pointed out in this ticket (http://www.codeweavers.com/support/tickets/browse/?ticket_id=656440;list=16;ticket_level=3), which was making a new bottle and copying the "steamapps" folder from the old bottle to the new. That method didn't work with Half-Life 2 and now I have no idea what to do.
The Launch Options are set as:
-novid +mat_hdr_level 0
I've tried to add -dxlevel 80 and also -dxlevel 70 to see if that made any difference, but it doesn't. I've looked through other help tickets but couldn't find anything else that I could try. All of my other Valve games (TF2, Portal, even Half-Life 2: Episodes 1 and 2) run fine. Any suggestions?

Here are my specs:
iMac 2.4 GHZ Intel 2 Core Duo
1 GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro: 256 MB

EDIT: I even tried making a new bottle, installing steam, then re-downloading and installing Half-Life 2, and it's still doing the same thing...

Nobody has any idea what I could do? :(

Try adding: -window -width 1024 -height 800

Also, have you simply tried rebooting since your last attempt? I can't think of much else that could help you here.

Jeremy Newman wrote:

Try adding: -window -width 1024 -height 800

Also, have you simply tried rebooting since your last attempt? I
can't think of much else that could help you here.

I've tried adding that and it opens up an all white window in the middle of the desktop and nothing happens. I've tried rebooting several times. This is terrible. I've put in a bunch of hours into the game and now it won't work for some random reason but all of the other Valve games do. I even opened a new bottle, redownloaded and reinstalled Steam AND redownloaded and reinstalled the game, and still the same problem. Bah....

Almost sounds like something was corrupted.

Try deleting:

"Program Files/Steam/steamapps/<your username>/half-life 2/"

This should blow away all the HL2 local data. Note, this leaves the .gcf files, I doubt they are courrupt.

They will get created again when you relaunch HL2. You can probably copy out your save game files if you don't want to loose your place in the game.

Another thing you can do, it's a bit of work, is to move all your steamapps/*.?cf files, and everything in the "steamapps/common" to a temp dir. Delete the bottle from CrossOver. Re-install Steam from scratch. Then copy all those files back into the newly created steamapps dir. This will give you a clean install with all fresh settings, and save you from having to re-download all the games again.

You may want to backup your username dir in steamapps, just so you can copy your savegames back.

I tried deleting the half-life 2 folder, restarted steam, and it still doesn't work.

I am a little confused by the second thing you recommend. My steamapps folder doesn't have a folder "common". I copied the entire contents of the steamapps folder, deleted the bottle, installed a new bottle with steam from scratch, and then copied the steamapps folder back, and it is still not working. Are there certain files in the steamapps folder I should not be copying?

Is it possible that I might need to delete and reinstall COGames? I'm at a loss as for what to do next...

perhaps not very helpful but i am experiencing the exact same thing. tried reinstalling both the game and the crossover games app to no avail. CS source, DOD and HL2 deathmatch work fine tho.... strange

same specs too...

iMac 2.4 GHZ Intel 2 Core Duo
2 GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro: 256 MB

I'm having almost the exact same problem, except I'm on Ubuntu with a Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS 256 MB). I've tried everything you tried to fix it. Half-Life 2 Episode 1 still works fine for some reason.

Did Valve release some update to HL2 that messes with everyone running it under CrossOver?

Well, I'm kind of glad to know I'm not alone. I have the same exact issues though my machine is a bit different.

Macbook Pro 2.4 GHZ Intedl 2 core Duo
2GB Ram
Nivide Geforce 5600: 256 MB

I actually never got the game to work at all. I am new to Crossover and am trying the trial before I buy it. So far, not so good.

Since I have a trial, they were willing to give me some customer support.

The guy that emailed me had these suggestions:

"First, try changing the bottle type that contains Steam from win2000 to
winXP. Open Crossover, Manage Bottles, Configure, Control Panels,
winecfg, and then at the bottom of the control panel window you can change
the bottle type. See if that helps.

Next up, try adding "-dxlevel 81 -window -novid" to the Steam launch
properties and see what that does.

Finally, if neither of those help, open Crossover and go to Run
Command, pick the bottle containing Steam & HL2. Browse to the windows folder
and pick regedit.exe. Once regedit opens navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Wine/Direct3D/UseGLSL and report what's listed there. Close
all that and add "-console" to the Steam properties and try running HL2
again."

I thought I would share them in case someone else would have more luck. The first two suggestions wouldn't work. The last one I don't quite follow. I found the UseGLSL file but I don't know what he means by "report what's listed there." It says disabled next to mine. Maybe this has to do with the video card (open GL?) and enabling this would fix the problem. I don't know how to do that though.

The representative did say that "We are trying to pinpoint this issue ourselves," so it must be pretty common. It seems to happen with people running newer intel macs with non intel graphics cards (ATI, Nivida). Hopefully they can figure it out before my trial ends since I would really like to get this working.

Yes, we have a bunch of reports of this problem recently. We're tracking it at a central place here:

http://www.codeweavers.com/support/bugs/browse?cmd=bug_edit;bug_id=4147

It has links to the involved support tickets, but not much information so far. Please bear in mind that the bugtracker is not a support system. If you notice something interesting, you're welcome to post to it, but for general "how-do-I-do-XXX" questions please use the support ticket system or the forum.

Stefan Dösinger wrote:

Yes, we have a bunch of reports of this problem recently. We're
tracking it at a central place here:

http://www.codeweavers.com/support/bugs/browse?cmd=bug_edit;bug_id=4147

I tried to look at this bug (as I am having a similar-sounding problem) but cannot. The message pop-up says that "Access to bug 4147 is restricted".

tom

Ah, I see you found it before I could reply to your question. It's strange, the bug report isn't marked private. I'll ask our admin.

I think it may have something to do with valve's updates. The only game in orange box that I haven't fully updated is Team Fortress, which also happens to be the only game that runs (perfectly too).

Same problem here

Macbook Pro 17"
2.33 Ghz Core 2 Duo
2 GB mem
OS 10.4.11

Stefan Dösinger wrote:

Yes, we have a bunch of reports of this problem recently. We're
tracking it at a central place here:

http://www.codeweavers.com/support/bugs/browse?cmd=bug_edit;bug_id=4147

Stefan,

I notice that bug 4147 remains "restricted". Who knows, there may be something in there (or linked to it) that might get one or more of us unstuck. So ......

Thanks for your continuing help.

tom

Thomas Borman wrote:

I notice that bug 4147 remains "restricted". Who knows, there may be
something in there (or linked to it) that might get one or more of
us unstuck. So ......

I don't know why it can't be opened, I forgot to ask Jeremy about that. There's no helpful information in there though, at least nothing that isn't posted in this thread.

I had this same issue happen after a recent Steam update.

What fixed it for me was using the unsupported build of CXgames.

Ubuntu 64-bit Hardy Heron
Core 2 Duo 2.1 Ghz
4GB Ram
Nvidia Geforce 8600 GTS

Roger Telco wrote:

I had this same issue happen after a recent Steam update.

What fixed it for me was using the unsupported build of CXgames.

Ubuntu 64-bit Hardy Heron

This approach worked for me too, on the Mac. See "HL2 under Steam hangs at startup" thread.

Unfortunately for me, this isn't an option.

I finally found my HL2 install CDs. Downloaded CXGames demo a couple of weeks ago, but installed it today, and spent part of the evening installing HL2. Which doesn't work.

Right now, I can't see any good reason to purchase CXGames, and in seven days, I won't be able to test it again to find out.

Just a little frustrated.

I downloaded the CrossOver Games trial about 6 days ago now, and just got the Orange Box. Throughout the week I have been running Steam and playing Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War demos with no problems. I have installed all the games from the Orange Box and I am now having this issue.
It only happens with FPS so far...as my Warhammer demos are still working fine. HL2 Shows a white screen, plays the Valve sound, but not the video, then it goes black, and then into a window mode that has been mentioned. The same things happens for TF2, and both episodes of HL2. The strange part is, I tried all the games, and the first time HL2: Episode 1 worked. I played about 15 mins of it, because I have not finished HL2 and didn't want to ruin anything... but now I can no longer play it...

I really hope this gets fixed because I am willing to pay for the program if this problem gets solved... :/

EDIT: I just found out that -dxlevel80 makes Portal work....but nothing else... :/
EDIT 2: Portal has stopped working, even with -dxlevel80. I shut down CrossOver Games and when I got back on it no longer worked...and I am now out of Trial... it is a shame. :(

I just got the trial too, thinking this would be an interesting product; I'd heard of codeweavers for a while, and with the release of Crossover Games, which supposedly marketed itself as being 'more frequently updated' with specific attention to making games work, I thought I'd give it a shot. Hell, it advertises itself as being able to play HL2 on it's product page!

Of course, I gave it a shot, despite the ridiculous 7 day trial limit, and right off the bat am riddled with this problem. A bit of searching, and it's clear this has been a known issue for months, and still, no update for this 'more frequently updated' software package (hilariously enough, it works much better, albeit with no movie support, in Crossover 'Professional', with a liberal 30 day trial period).

Even if it does work in a nightly release, I really don't see how you expect to sell such a terrible product on the promise that it works in the nightlies. Release a product that works, and then MAYBE I'll buy it.

Until then, don't expect any money from me.

Mike,
try again with CrossOver 7.1, released yesterday. It should fix the problem