Crossover 21.0 Notes – Please read before upgrading from 20.0.4 to 21.0

[Tralfazz]

Today (2021-08-03), Codeweavers released v21.0 of Crossover for Mac. I have performed some testing with Crossover 21.0 and LOTRO under both MacOS 11.5.1 Big Sur and MacOS Mojave 10.14.6 on two different Intel Macs (a 2019 iMac and a 2012 Mac Mini). Everything continues to work well.

The key takeaways from my initial testing:
–If you have a license which offers a free upgrade from Crossover 20.0.4 to Crossover 21.0, and LOTRO is your only concern, there is no reason to wait to upgrade because LOTRO works just as well in 21.0 as it did in 20.0.4 (actually, slightly better, see below). So I recommend you upgrade at your earliest convenience.
–If you currently have a license for Crossover 20.0.4 but are not eligible for a free upgrade to Crossover 21.0, there is – at the moment I am writing this – no compelling reason to pay for an upgrade because the very slight performance enhancements to LOTRO (see below) aren't worth the cost. Not yet, anyway.

To quote the upgrade announcement from Codeweavers:
"One of the more exciting features of Wine 6.0 is the Vulkan backend for wined3d. This feature is on by default on macOS for 64-bit Direct3D 10/11 games if DXVK is not enabled."
I tested this by setting LOTRO to run DirectX 11 (which I always use when I play) and then disabling DXVK to try the new Vulkan backend for wined3d.

The game client ran after I hit PLAY in the LOTRO launcher application but all I got was a red screen in both Full Screen Windowed and Full Screen. The game was running, I could hear all the sound effects, I could even use key commands and use ESCAPE followed by RETURN to quit out of the client. So this did not work for either of my Macs in either Mojave or Big Sur.

The key takeaways from testing Vulkan wined3d:
–It didn't work for my Macs so I toggled my bottle's DXVK BACKEND FOR D3D11 back to checked-on. But...
–...if you have been successfully running LOTRO in Crossover but either couldn't get it to run in DirectX 11 at all or had to switch back to using DirectX 9 because DirectX 11 wasn't working well for you, I suggest you try this yourself. Different Macs have different video cards (or integrated video systems) and different built-in drivers, so my result might be different than your result. And if you can play in DirectX 11 rather than DirectX 9, you should – DirectX 9 is fine but does have a few glitches and can't display certain eye candy effects. I especially recommend that users of Apple SOC Macs (that is, "Apple Silicon" Macs such as those with M1 chips) try this.

I tested various screen modes and resolutions and graphics settings to be sure everything still worked as expected. Everything is the same in Crossover v21.0 compared to Crossover v20.0.4, with one positive exception: In Crossover 20.0.4, if playing in Full Screen mode and then switching to another desktop space or otherwise minimizing the LOTRO client application to the Dock, the game could not be recovered and had to be force-quit. In Crossover 21.0, the game can be run in Full Screen mode and the user can switch to other desktops or otherwise minimize the LOTRO client application to the Dock and the game will properly recover back to Full Screen mode when the wine64-preloader (the WINE wrapper application for the LOTRO client) is clicked in the Dock.

The key takeaway from the screen mode testing:
–This is a very nice improvement! Full Screen Windowed mode still works just fine and there's no really compelling need to switch to Full Screen mode. However, the game will run just a bit smoother/better/with higher framerates in Full Screen mode compared to Full Screen Windowed mode. So while I strongly recommend AGAINST using LOTRO in Full Screen mode under Crossover 20.0.4, it is fine – not necessary, but fine – to use Full Screen mode under Crossover 21.0.

Finally, I will make some recommendations to all Crossover LOTRO users:
1- When MacOS Monterey is released, do not apply it to the boot volume you use when you play LOTRO. Until someone (probably me...) does some testing there will be no way to know if LOTRO will work with Crossover and Monterey. I already know that Crossover 20.0.4 will NOT work under Monterey, Crossover 21.0 also will NOT work under Monterey. Codeweavers is working on a minor point update to Crossover 21 which will get it working under Monterey, at some point in the future but it's not here yet.
2- Don't install the Monterey beta, either – you should never install an OS beta unless you're a developer or are being paid to perform testing. Beta OSes aren't "A special preview just for me? Yay!" They are "This thing isn't ready to be sold/released yet and we need a bunch of dummies willing to waste their time to weed out the bugs for us."
3- If for some reason you need to use MacOS Monterey the moment it comes out and can't wait for good 'ol Tral to test Crossover and LOTRO with Monterey first, at the very least do not install it over your current daily boot volume on which you do your work or play LOTRO. Leave your daily driver boot volume alone! Install Monterey into a new APFS volume or onto an external boot drive, that will allow you to play with it and test things before installing it over your primary boot volume and saying goodbye to Big Sur forever.
4- If you don't want to/can't afford to/just won't for whatever reason upgrade from Crossover 20 to Crossover 21, remember that you must then not upgrade from MacOS Big Sur 11 to MacOS Monterey 12. Crossover 20 will not – ever – work under MacOS Monterey 12 so if you want to continue to play LOTRO with Crossover 20 you need to stick to MacOS Big Sur 11. You can, of course, install Monterey onto another boot volume but you will need to boot into Big Sur to play LOTRO with Crossover 20.

edit: There is currently (2021-08-03) a special discount code from Codeweavers for Crossover Mac 21:
"Save 30% when you buy CrossOver with a one-year subscription with deal code CX3021."
This is direct from Codeweavers, no third-party retailer or naughty websites are involved.

edit: Codeweavers just (2021-08-12) released a technical note that Crossover 21.0 is working with the current MacOS 12 Monterey beta. Note that Monterey is still a BETA and is therefore subject to change. The same technical note stated that Crossover 20.0.4 is also working with the current MacOS Monterey beta – when run in Monterey, Crossover will prompt you to upgrade to v21 but v20 does, in fact, work. Please note that I do not run OS betas so I have not tested this myself, this information is from today's technical note release from Codeweavers only. If Monterey is released with no further changes that affect the ability of Crossover to run under that OS, it is very likely that Crossover 21 will run on Monterey the day it is released. It is possible that Crossover 20 will also run on Monterey, although this is less likely – I will test both versions of Crossover with LOTRO as soon as Monterey is released so check back here in the Mac Tech Support forum for that at some point in the future.