Wine/Winebottler issue running GTA IV

[The_SamminAter]

I'm trying to play Grand Theft Auto IV on my mac with Wine.
I've tried running it with Wine Stable (2.0.4), Wine Stable (3.0), and a wineskin that I found.
I think the problem is that after running LaunchGTAIV.exe, it's not running/launching GTAIV.exe. Is there any way to fix this? (I really want to play GTA IV)

This isn't a steam version of GTA IV.

The intro screen where it says "Grand Theft Auto IV" (before going blank)

After the intro screen (it goes blank, I think that the problem is that it isn't running GTAIV.exe)

[Gcenx]

I don’t know why you mentioned winebottler in the title when you actually don’t use it but instead used a prebuilt Wineskin..... both of these are not supported here.

Wine stable versions are always old due a more recent version like wine staging 3.21 or wine staging 4.0-rc1
Also you should be following the appdb instructions for setting up GTA4 correctly.

[The_SamminAter]

Ok, but I'm using an already set-up version that I brought over from a windows drive (which I had set up and played quite a while ago).

Shouldn't I just be able to run it though? There are YouTube videos of people running it on old wine versions. All I want to know is how to make my computer launch GTAIV.exe after LaunchGTAIV.exe, like it should be doing.

[Gcenx]

Ok, but I'm using an already set-up version that I brought over from a windows drive (which I had set up and played quite a while ago).

Shouldn't I just be able to run it though? There are YouTube videos of people running it on old wine versions. All I want to know is how to make my computer launch GTAIV.exe after LaunchGTAIV.exe, like it should be doing.

That depends if your wine prefix is setup correctly, the appdb does mention needing to do something specific to get the game running

Code: Select all

HOWTO remove GFWL from GTAIV
Games for Windows - LIVE does not work under Wine. GFWL components will crash any game that use the service. The only thing to do about it is to cut XLive out using XLiveLess Patch.

INSTRUCTIONS 

1) Download the latest XLiveLess patch from here.

2) Unpack xlive.dll into the game folder.

XLive is out and the game launch is unobstructed. Please note that from now on the online play via GFWL is disabled so as to prevent cheating. 

And no copying a game over from a windows install is not a good idea, you should be re-installing it into a clean prefix

[The_SamminAter]

Ok, but I'm using an already set-up version that I brought over from a windows drive (which I had set up and played quite a while ago).

Shouldn't I just be able to run it though? There are YouTube videos of people running it on old wine versions. All I want to know is how to make my computer launch GTAIV.exe after LaunchGTAIV.exe, like it should be doing.

That depends if your wine prefix is setup correctly, the appdb does mention needing to do something specific to get the game running

Code: Select all

HOWTO remove GFWL from GTAIV
Games for Windows - LIVE does not work under Wine. GFWL components will crash any game that use the service. The only thing to do about it is to cut XLive out using XLiveLess Patch.

INSTRUCTIONS 

1) Download the latest XLiveLess patch from here.

2) Unpack xlive.dll into the game folder.

XLive is out and the game launch is unobstructed. Please note that from now on the online play via GFWL is disabled so as to prevent cheating. 

And no copying a game over from a windows install is not a good idea, you should be re-installing it into a clean prefix

Why is it not a good idea? I already had the gfwl patch set up

[Gcenx]

Ok, but I'm using an already set-up version that I brought over from a windows drive (which I had set up and played quite a while ago).

Shouldn't I just be able to run it though? There are YouTube videos of people running it on old wine versions. All I want to know is how to make my computer launch GTAIV.exe after LaunchGTAIV.exe, like it should be doing.

That depends if your wine prefix is setup correctly, the appdb does mention needing to do something specific to get the game running

Code: Select all

HOWTO remove GFWL from GTAIV
Games for Windows - LIVE does not work under Wine. GFWL components will crash any game that use the service. The only thing to do about it is to cut XLive out using XLiveLess Patch.

INSTRUCTIONS 

1) Download the latest XLiveLess patch from here.

2) Unpack xlive.dll into the game folder.

XLive is out and the game launch is unobstructed. Please note that from now on the online play via GFWL is disabled so as to prevent cheating. 

And no copying a game over from a windows install is not a good idea, you should be re-installing it into a clean prefix

Why is it not a good idea? I already had the gfwl patch set up

When a program/game is installed into Windows it adds information to the registry that copying the game over would not duplicate, yes its possible to take your time to track down everything change that is made but that's time consuming. Also if something needs to be worked around to get working then I good bug report with logs and regression testing would help get the problem fixed.

The only few exceptions that I have found to this, but it's still always recommended to install the application or game again into a clean prefix to ensure nothing was missed, using Winetricks as needed or adding additional dylib if required.

Steam is an exception if you symlink "steamapps" so it lives outside of your wine prefix, in that way you only have a single copy of all the game files but Steam will take care of the usual registry entries as/if needed.

But games from other platforms are not always to lucky, applications this mostly will not work with unless it's capable of being ran "portable" then it saves all its settings into usual an ini file.

[The_SamminAter]

Ok,will try a fresh install

[The_SamminAter]

I've tried a fresh install, no luck

[Gcenx]

I've tried a fresh install, no luck

I purchased the game and I did get it working after some trial and error.
I made sure to add the xliveless xlive.dll into the game folder and skipped installing the components one first run.

I got the black screen too after the into videos, but I left it for a while and the game did load into the main menu. After starting a new game I had another blackscreen but this time I did head game audio. So I force quit the process and loaded it again but this time I disabled and lowered all the game settings under display and this time it did loaded into the game correctly.

[The_SamminAter]

I've tried a fresh install, no luck

I purchased the game and I did get it working after some trial and error.
I made sure to add the xliveless xlive.dll into the game folder and skipped installing the components one first run.

I got the black screen too after the into videos, but I left it for a while and the game did load into the main menu. After starting a new game I had another blackscreen but this time I did head game audio. So I force quit the process and loaded it again but this time I disabled and lowered all the game settings under display and this time it did loaded into the game correctly.

Thanks, you were right!

Now I can play GTA IV

[The_SamminAter]

One last question: Wine2 or Wine3 or Winedevel4?

[Gcenx]

One last question: Wine2 or Wine3 or Winedevel4?

It was Wine Staging 3.21, skipping 4.0-rc builds for my Steam prefix, I’m instead using WineCX18.1.0 (I patched and compiled CrossOver18.1.0) as I want access to the Steam Store that is broken again in Wine Staging compiles.

[The_SamminAter]

One last question: Wine2 or Wine3 or Winedevel4?

It was Wine Staging 3.21, skipping 4.0-rc builds for my Steam prefix, I’m instead using WineCX18.1.0 (I patched and compiled CrossOver18.1.0) as I want access to the Steam Store that is broken again in Wine Staging compiles.

I noticed that it was broken, is there any way that I could patch/compile WineCX18.1.0 (or you upload and put a link to it) to have access to my steam store?

Also, I was actually asking which would have the best performance, but I've found that Wine 2 works best for me.

Thanks