How to Play AoE II HD on Mac using Wine (easy/complete guide)

[hot_gril]

This thread has been closed because I have moved the instructions to a Steam guide here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=247537337

Please do not comment on this thread. Leave comments on the Steam guide.

[hot_gril]

Actually, I've noticed that it lags in the menus and gets low ping in lobbies, but it runs fine ingame. That is, I've never been the slowest player with this. The only problem with that is people might see the 530 ping and boot before the game starts.

[chohing]

hi aeneas, i cannot seem to get the gameplay to show up. i only see the top bar and the bottom bar for building and units. middle gameplay is black. wonder if you can help. thanks

[Aquana]

You don't need to rename the launcher, its interface is behind a black window. Use exposé!
If the map is black, add "-nostartup" to the launch options.

[chohing]

hi aquana sorry i not sure i understand
so for aok hd.exe i don't need to change? what is expose?
how do you add "-nostartup" to launch options

[chohing]

thanks aquana. it worked!

[hot_gril]

Originally posted by Aquana:

You don't need to rename the launcher, its interface is behind a black window. Use exposé!
If the map is black, add "-nostartup" to the launch options.

Hmm, this might be an OS-specific thing. I've updated to Mountain Lion since I made this page and still can't play the game unless I rename the launcher (after that it works fine).

And yes, you NEED to do -nostartup. I meant to type that in the OP but forgot, so I've edited it! Sorry about that, guys.

[bixz21]

Hi Aeneas, thanks for the guide. When I first ran aoe, Steam gave me some error about the SSE not being compatible, but that mysteriously went away on its own. Now, when I click "play" nothing happens. A window that says "Preparing to launch" appears briefly, and then nothing. If I keep clicking "play" a bunch of times, then a window pops up telling me that the app is already running. Any ideas? Thanks again.

[hot_gril]

Originally posted by bixz21:

Hi Aeneas, thanks for the guide. When I first ran aoe, Steam gave me some error about the SSE not being compatible, but that mysteriously went away on its own. Now, when I click "play" nothing happens. A window that says "Preparing to launch" appears briefly, and then nothing. If I keep clicking "play" a bunch of times, then a window pops up telling me that the app is already running. Any ideas? Thanks again.

What does SSE stand for? Did it give you the error before or after you installed Age of Empires II HD?

[hot_gril]

Originally posted by bixz21:

Hi Aeneas, thanks for the guide. When I first ran aoe, Steam gave me some error about the SSE not being compatible, but that mysteriously went away on its own. Now, when I click "play" nothing happens. A window that says "Preparing to launch" appears briefly, and then nothing. If I keep clicking "play" a bunch of times, then a window pops up telling me that the app is already running. Any ideas? Thanks again.

Oh wait, I never mentioned changing the Windows version to 7 under "Configure Wine", not that I'm sure if it matters. I've updated the OP to include this in step 3. Try and see if that fixes it for you.

Sorry, I did the original post from memory! I hope this ends up working for everyone.

[PercyMain]

"Sorry, I did the original post from memory! I hope this ends up working for everyone."

:p

[bixz21]

I tried changing it to Windows 7 and there was no change. Then I got desperate and uninstalled Steam and started over. Now it works! I still changed the settings from XP to 7 so I dunno if that made a difference or if I just messed it up the first time. Either way, thanks!

[hot_gril]

Originally posted by bixz21:

I tried changing it to Windows 7 and there was no change. Then I got desperate and uninstalled Steam and started over. Now it works! I still changed the settings from XP to 7 so I dunno if that made a difference or if I just messed it up the first time. Either way, thanks!

OK, good to hear.

[leah.hagler]

I've gone through and done everything you recommend, and I'm STILL getting the black map screen within the game itself. Steam within Wine won't let me right click on the games, so I added "-nostartup" as a launch perameter in my normal Mac Steam application, but the problem has not been fixed. Any advice? I've got a MacBook Pro, OS 10.8.4

[hot_gril]

Originally posted by leah.hagler:

I've gone through and done everything you recommend, and I'm STILL getting the black map screen within the game itself. Steam within Wine won't let me right click on the games, so I added "-nostartup" as a launch perameter in my normal Mac Steam application, but the problem has not been fixed. Any advice? I've got a MacBook Pro, OS 10.8.4

Startup parameters are on a per-computer basis. If you add -nostartup on the Mac Steam, it doesn't transfer to the WINE Steam since they are considered different computers.

If you can't right-click games in Steam on WINE, that's a problem I don't know how to fix. You can still add the -nostartup parameter by editing the Steam preference file. I looked in my files and found the file that stores the startup parameters:

(path to WINE prefix)/drive_c/Program Files/Steam/userdata/(some number)/config/localconfig.vdf

Open it in TextEdit. I found where in the file the startup parameters are stored. Search for "Valve" in TextEdit, and this should be the only place where it shows up. Now, sorry about this, but I have to dump this in here so you know what I mean:

"Software"
{
"Valve"
{
"Steam"
{
"apps"
{
"440"
{
"LastPlayed" "1344322800"
}
"4760"
{
"LastPlayed" "1378427337"
}
"8930"
{
"LastPlayed" "1370727654"
}
"221380"
{
"LastPlayed" "1378440942"
"LaunchOptions" "-nostartup"
}
"4700"
{
"LastPlayed" "1377054051"
}
"4780"
{
"LastPlayed" "1377536485"
}
}
"LastPlayedTimesSyncTime" "1378440647"
}
}
}

Notice that there are other apps that have no launch options. Just add that "LaunchOptions" "-nostartup" line to all of your apps since none of the other ones in your WINE Steam matter, and save the file. This should change the startup parameter properly, but whether or not that will fix the problem is a different story. Hope it works out.

[leah.hagler]

That worked, thank you so much!