Got Half Life 2 working in Parallels

[nosodualie]

This thread was moved from "Windows Guest OS Discussion".
Alicia

THIS IS FOR BUILD 5160 ONLY! Read later in the thread for Build 5540.

After much frustration and fiddling I finally was able to get the Half Life 2 demo working in Parallels, though I haven't played it all the way through yet - tired %=)

This is how I did it:

I am using a Mac Book Pro 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo w/ 4GB of RAM. Parallels is running Win XP.

First I made sure Direct X was enabled in the Virtual Machine. Then I set the video memory to 64MB (the maximum). I have 1.5GB of memory allocated to Parallels.

After installing Steam and downloading the Half Life 2 demo, I right clicked on H-L 2 in the Games tab and selected Properties. Under General I then clicked "Set launch options...". I then entered the following string:

-console -dxlevel 81

(if you get an OS error try the following string: -consol -dxlevel 81 -novid)

and clicked OK.

I then launched the game in Steam. After it starts you will notice that the Console window appears. You can dismiss it as it is only there to help the game startup - it will crash if it isn't enabled as above. The next time you start the game remove "-dxlevel 81" from the launch options window as it won't be needed again, but make sure you leave "-console" in place so you can start the game.

The video in the beginning is a bit flaky, but it will run. When you get to the options screen and have dismissed the console, go into the Options/Video screen and change the settings. I set mine to 1440x900, Widescreen 16:10, Full Screen, but you can play around with it and use whatever works for you.

Next, go into the Advanced video settings. Set Shader detail to Low. This will avoid a nasty bug in the Apple NVidia driver. If you don't use NVidia you should be OK. I found that performace is a bit better with Details and Textures set to medium. I also turned on Antialiasing and set shadow detail to High. That's it.

When the game starts the intro video is bit messed up, but after it is finished the game switches to the res you set and runs fine from that point. So far it hasn't crashed but I haven't got to the end of the demo yet. It looks GREAT and the performance is decent though not stellar.

If this works I'll definitely give the full version a go.

[nextg]

Still no luck. Getting the same "attempt to read from virtual address" error even with the strings you suggested. By the way, where are the "advanced video settings" you speak of? I can't find them anywhere.

[nosodualie]

After HL2 starts up you can access the Advance Video settings in Options>Video>Advanced....

Can you actually start the game? When are you getting that error? That looks like some kind of network error. Did you install Steam in the default location?

[nextg]

Yes, I used the default location to install Steam. The problem comes when I click the Launch button to start the game. It waits about 30-45 secs. before giving me the error. As a reminder, it read:

"Steam.exe (main exception): Win32 StructuredException at [varying binary address ending in B362]: Attempt to read from virtual address 24 without appropriate access rights."

Then Steam quits on me and I try to log in again. Once the main Steam window comes up, the same error comes up and Steam quits again. As noted above, there's always a different binary address every time, but they all end in "B362."

[operator911]

Any problems with you guys using a Mighty Mouse?
It seems really finicky to me - most of the time I spend spinning around looking at the ceiling or the floor and so I can't really control my movements and the game is unplayable. Otherwise I was actually able to get it to work without having to do the console dx81 thing on my MBP 15" with 2.33GHz C2D, 3GB Ram.


EDIT: never mind, I figured out that you have to tell parallels to resize the Mac OSX Desktop to the screen resolution of the game. Not sure how NOSODUALIE was able to get 1440x900 on resolution for the game, since I don't have that option. Anyhoo it works... just real choppy.

[Eru Ithildur]

His computer is one gen ahead of yours... And he may have allocated more video memory. It also has a more beefy graphics card.

[nosodualie]

Yeah you need to dumb down the graphics. Put everything on the lowest level. Max out your RAM if you can and give as much as possible to Parallels/video.

nextg: I'm no Windows man but it sounds as if you have some sort of permissions problem within Windows. Are you sure you have full privileges for your account? Either that or you have some kind of problem with your Hard Drive, such as cross-linked files or something. Your Parallels drive file may be therefore corrupted. Try booting from your Mac OSX CD and running Disk Utility to repair any damage.

I am now running the FULL version of H-L 2. It works just fine in Leopard too BTW. The NVIDIA graphics bug does NOT appear to be fixed :( So you will need run with Shaders set to LOW. Also, after installing Leopard and H-L 2 full version I got a warning from Steam that my drivers are out of date. I just ingored it since I know more about my system than Steam does ;-)

There is only one are in the game that I have found where I crashed to desktop. I was able to get through this area (right after you meat the French guy who helps you out) by putting ALL settings to low and looking at the ground. Once I did this I was able to return the settings to Medium and finish the demo.

Update: After playing for several hours %=) suddenly the "d" key started acting weird. Everytime I pressed it I would be dumped to the Windows desktop. I exited the game and tried to restart Windows but I got a beach ball instead. Not sure if this is related to Leopard or not but it definitely appears to be a Parallels bug.

Update: Confirmed that after a couple of hours of play the "d" key will suddenly dump me to the Windows desktop. Parallels then hangs when I try to restart Windows. I have to force quit it then restart it. Oddly, when I then go back into H-L2 all my video settings are reset to the defaults.

[nosodualie]

Fixed in build 5540.


You no longer need to use the console (Advanced...-console -dxlevel 81) to start the game. In fact for me this causes the game to hang on start.

Also getting some very odd errors and when trying to change the video preferences, similar to the ones posted above relating to memory addressing. Looks like that is a driver issue after all. Fortunately I had every set to low because now I can't change preferences at all.

[Eru Ithildur]

Note for others... Build 5540 is a BETA.

[nosodualie]

Build 5540.

Am getting outstanding performance now that I've enabled "Direct X Shaders" in the Virtual Machine. The memory addressing errors I was getting earlier have also disappeared after enabling this experimental feature. I have also been able to increase the textures, models and shadows, etc., to Medium, with narry a performance hit. This is looking better all the times. Now if I could just get Parallels to stop crashing when I start it up or shut it down.

[Eru Ithildur]

It crashes when you start/shut-down? Start a thread (if you haven't already) and give me the link.

[nosodualie]

Actually it hangs. I have to force quit. I'll start a thread on it tomorrow. A leave a link here.

[nosodualie]

H-L 2: Episode One also runs in Parallels.

[Eru Ithildur]

Have you tried a fresh install to see if it experiences the same problem? I had that problem on a client's machine before.

[nosodualie]

I have not tried a clean install of parallels. The only time it's really a problem is when a) the game hangs, which causes Parallels to CTD; b) quitting the game and restarting it without completely exiting and restarting Parallels will cause Parallels to hang.

Perfroming a clean install is a bit daunting. I need to do a complete backup very soon - though i do have my WinXP drive file backed up.

[Eru Ithildur]

I meant a fresh install of Windows XP... It shouldn't be that daunting if you have the .hdd file backed up... Not to mention, if you have the available space, you will not need to delete your old .hdd file.

[nosodualie]

I could do that, though i use a corporate version and I'm pretty sure it's very clean already.

[Eru Ithildur]

Corporate Version? A disk image that your company pushes out?

[nosodualie]

Not exactly. It's a full install of a corporate-licensed version. It has very few add-ons, but all the patches are pushed out automatically when I connect to the corporate network.

I did have to clone the system when I built a bigger drive file so that could be an issue. I will try a clean install as soon as I can and see if that helps.

I have been running Half-Life 2: Episode One by the way. It cannot handle some of the DX 8 effects at all. I had to dumb it down to DX 7 to get it to stop crashing. This has resulted in some, erm, interesting effects =D

[Eru Ithildur]

Yeah, I would recommend trying a fresh install, the image may have gotten corrupted somewhere along the way.

[gunnyman]

I can't seem to get past the steam login.
I had this same problem in Boot Camp until I switched from the wireed ethernet connection to wireless. I think Steam has issues with the TCP/IP stack under Leopard.