DirectX 11 works with Crossover 20! (tested under MacOS Big Sur 11.1)

[Tralfazz]

So just for fun I thought I'd try running LOTRO using DirectX 11.

If you have time on your hands and read my entire thread about Crossover and Big Sur here...
https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...Big-Sur-11-0-1
...then you know that LOTRO runs great with Crossover and Big Sur.

Once the game is installed and you've gotten it to run successfully at least one time, you can enable DirectX 10 if you want to. If your choice is between DirectX 9 and DirectX 10, I suggest you stick with DirectX 9. DirectX 9 has a few minor graphics glitches mostly related to drawing distant target circles, nearby AoE squares (such as a Lore Master's tar patches), and some shadows and lighting effects get cut off in odd ways when moving through some areas. It's not a big deal in any way, you get used to it and none of it breaks immersion. DirectX 10 doesn't have those issues but it has really major ugly glitches in certain areas that cause landscape objects to flicker between their normal appearance and bright white (in Rivendell and the Shire and, to a lesser extent, Evendim based on my testing so far), and it doesn't handle water very well causing some river beds such as in Evendim to appear less full of water than they should or completely empty depending on the position and angle at which they are being observed plus things like the mist at the Rivendell waterfalls at the bridges just aren't handled well at all. DirectX 10 is a better choice when not in one of the areas where those glitches happen, but you can't switch between DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 without quitting and restarting the game so it's really better to just stick with DirectX 9. Things look beautiful with DirectX 9, I have no major complaints with it.

Even so, I thought I'd try DirectX 11. LOTRO has it available, it's just a matter of getting Crossover set up so that LOTRO will detect that DirectX 11 is an available graphics mode for it to use. And getting Crossover set up for DirectX 11 is trivial.

1- Launch Crossover.
2- In the list of "bottles" in the Crossover window, look for the bottle into which you have installed LOTRO. Right-click on that bottle name.
3- Look for SETTINGS, hover over that, then look for DXVK BACKEND FOR D3D11 and choose that.
3a- If you don't have an option to enable DXVK BACKEND FOR D3D11 then you need to install "DirectX for Modern Games" into your bottle first. Also note that your bottle must be a 64-bit bottle in order to use DirectX 11; you should have set it up that way anyway since you can't run the 64-bit LOTRO client unless the bottle is 64-bit.
edit 2021-02-13: My current best advice is to install "DirectX for Modern Games" even if you can enable DXVK BACKEND FOR D3D11 without it. "DirectX for Modern Games" installs additional and updated components which will improve the graphics performance and stability of LOTRO within Crossover regardless of your choice of primary graphics driver (DirectX 9 or DirectX 11).



That's all there is to it. On next launch of the LOTRO launcher app it will detect that DirectX 11 is available and will ask if you want to use it instead of whatever you were using (DirectX 9 most likely, but possibly DirectX 10). Just say YES and when you get into the LOTRO client you will be using DirectX 11. Note that DirectX 11 requires more "horsepower" than DirectX 9 or DirectX 10 so your framerates might be lower – they were not for me, I have mine capped at 30fps anyway. You can then go into the advanced graphics options and turn on even more eye candy.

The best part about DirectX 11 is that it doesn't have any of the glitches I've noted with either DirectX 9 or DirectX 10: No issues with distant target circles or nearby shadowy things such as Lore Master tar patches, no issues with tree flickering or disappearing river water, no issues with mist at waterfalls... no problems at all so far everywhere I've tested. And things look really nice. Things look really nice with DirectX 9, too, but they are a just that tetch better with DirectX 11.

Remember that the "Mac"/WINE client provided for us Mac users by SSG which runs only in versions of MacOS which are Mojave or earlier will run only DirectX 9. And that's fine, DirectX 9 works great and the minor graphic glitches are not a big deal and you might not even notice them much. But if you're running the normal Windows client installed into Crossover, do try DirectX 11 because it has none of the problems of DirectX 9 or DirectX 10 and looks amazing at the cost of only a little bit of framerate.
edit: 2021-03-18: Most people report the same or better framerates with DirectX 11 vs DirectX 9.

edit: 2021-03-19: Some people with Apple Silicon/M1 Macs and Intel Macs with Intel Iris Pro integrated graphics have reported failures to successfully run the LOTRO client with DirectX 11 even though they enjoy perfectly functional gameplay with DirectX 9. If you have a Mac with an Apple Silicon/M1 processor or Intel Iris Pro integrated graphics, it won't hurt anything to try DirectX 11 but you need to go into it as an experiment that might not work for your specific hardware.

[Gaelmegil]

After following these steps, the game loads, I get the Dev logo screen, I get the Three Peaks splash screen, and then just a black screen.

Unselecting the DXVK BACKEND FOR D3D11 option now gets me stuck on the launcher.

Surely there must be an easy fix back to directx9, but I'm not seeing it. Thanks!

[Tralfazz]

After following these steps, the game loads, I get the Dev logo screen, I get the Three Peaks splash screen, and then just a black screen.

Unselecting the DXVK BACKEND FOR D3D11 option now gets me stuck on the launcher.

Surely there must be an easy fix back to directx9, but I'm not seeing it. Thanks!

Before going back to DirectX 9, please try this:

My first guess is that you are still using the 32-bit client. DirectX 11 requires the 64-bit client. Please check your UserPreferences.ini file. The line...
GameClientType=X
...must be set so that the value of X is 3 in order to run the 64-bit client.

In addition, the UserPreferences64.ini file must be set to use DirectX 11. Go into your UserPreferences64.ini file. The line...
GraphicsCore=Y
...must be set so that the value of Y is D3D11.

And finally, since the 32-bit client can't use DirectX 11, set that to DirectX 9. You will probably never use the 32-bit client again, but if you do, you want it to work. So in UserPreferences.ini, go to the line...
GraphicsCore=Z
...and be sure that the value of Z is D3D9.

Check that those lines are all exactly correct, including capitalization.

Remember that any edits to your .ini files must be done while the game is not running.

This should be a simple fix, the above should set you right up. Please report back either way with your results.

edit: QUESTION- Did you install DIRECTX FOR MODERN GAMES into your bottle? If not, please do that. After installing those Windows components, use the SIMULATE REBOOT command in Crossover or just quit then restart Crossover before attempting to launch the game again.

[Gaelmegil]

Here's the update. I get the same problem. Launcher opens, lotro starts, Standing Stone graphic, Three Peaks splash screen, then black...


I think I had installed DIRECTX FOR MODERN GAMES already, but I did it again and rebooted.

Then in UserPreferences.ini, I have:
GameClientType=3
GraphicsCore=D3D9

In UserPreferences64.ini, I have:
GraphicsCore=D3D11

I do notice that in UserPreferences64.ini, I have something that to me (dumb, knows nothing) looks weird:
WindowedResolution=83886845

The same line in UserPreferences.ini is:
WindowedResolution=1280x720

[Tralfazz]

Here's the update. I get the same problem. Launcher opens, lotro starts, Standing Stone graphic, Three Peaks splash screen, then black...

Well, that's odd. We'll fix it, though.

Silly question: Are the .ini files you edited as described in my last message located in your current boot volume's ~/Documents/The Lord of the Rings Online folder? If not, that's why the instructions in my last message didn't work. If so, again, no worries, we'll fix it this time! (The reason I'm even asking this silly question is that your reported symptom is exactly what I would expect to happen if one were to attempt to run the 32-bit client with DirectX 11 enabled.)

Do this:

1- Look at the first message in this thread and be sure your bottle's "Settings" look exactly as they do in that image. Then be sure the game is not currently running. It's OK if Crossover remains running.

2- Go into both your .ini files with TextEdit and look for the ScreenMode=X line. Tell me what X is in both files. (This is just to satisfy my curiosity, we're going to change the important one in Step 3 below.)

3- Regardless of the current values, please change the value of X in UserPreferences64.ini to FullScreenWindowed. (You can leave the value in UserPreferences.ini as it is, whatever it is; we aren't going to use the 32-bit client.)

4- Go to System Preferences->Displays. Hold down your option key and click on SCALED. The resolution that appears highlighted is the resolution you have set for your display. Write it down. Then close System Preferences.

5- In UserPreferences64.ini, look for the Resolution=Y line. Change the value of Y to be exactly equal to the resolution you wrote down from System Preferences. Then save UserPreferences64.ini and quit out of TextEdit.

Now try to launch the game. Please report back with your results.

I do notice that in UserPreferences64.ini, I have something that to me (dumb, knows nothing) looks weird:
WindowedResolution=83886845

The same line in UserPreferences.ini is:
WindowedResolution=1280x720

It IS weird but normal for LOTRO. It just means that at some point you manually resized the window when in windowed mode on the 64-bit client. If it bothers you, change it to 1280x720. If you had the 64-bit client set to run in Windowed mode, it is unlikely but not impossible that was causing the problem and if so, setting to 1280x720 might fix it. My above instructions work around it, though, by using FullScreenWindowed mode instead.

[Gaelmegil]

Well, that's odd. We'll fix it, though.

Silly question: Are the .ini files you edited as described in my last message located in your current boot volume's ~/Documents/The Lord of the Rings Online folder? If not, that's why the instructions in my last message didn't work. If so, again, no worries, we'll fix it this time! (The reason I'm even asking this silly question is that your reported symptom is exactly what I would expect to happen if one were to attempt to run the 32-bit client with DirectX 11 enabled.

To the best of my knowledge, yes. I manually changed my 64.ini file back to D3D9, and it started right up and ran normally. In game, I then chose DX11 from the pulldown menu in graphic options. I closed LOTRO and the 64.ini file I edited was back to D3D11, so I'm guessing I'm using the right ones.

Do this:

1- Look at the first message in this thread and be sure your bottle's "Settings" look exactly as they do in that image. Then be sure the game is not currently running. It's OK if Crossover remains running.

Check, looks the same.

2- Go into both your .ini files with TextEdit and look for the ScreenMode=X line. Tell me what X is in both files. (This is just to satisfy my curiosity, we're going to change the important one in Step 3 below.)

UserPreferences.ini: ScreenMode=FullScreenWindowed

UserPreferences64.ini: ScreenMode=FullScreenWindowed

3- Regardless of the current values, please change the value of X in UserPreferences64.ini to FullScreenWindowed. (You can leave the value in UserPreferences.ini as it is, whatever it is; we aren't going to use the 32-bit client.)

Check.

4- Go to System Preferences->Displays. Hold down your option key and click on SCALED. The resolution that appears highlighted is the resolution you have set for your display. Write it down. Then close System Preferences.

1440x900

5- In UserPreferences64.ini, look for the Resolution=Y line. Change the value of Y to be exactly equal to the resolution you wrote down from System Preferences. Then save UserPreferences64.ini and quit out of TextEdit.

Now try to launch the game. Please report back with your results.

UserPreferences64.ini: Resolution=1440x900


I get the same results as described before. It starts to load up normally, but instead of the character select screen, it's just black. (Edit: I did just realize that the first screen that comes up for me under DX9 is Sauron and Gothmog. This screen doesn't show up when I start up with DX11...straight to Standing Stone)


I so much appreciate your help and patience! I'm doing my feeble best!

[Tralfazz]

...Lots of good stuff done, helpful replies, but didn't work...

I'm glad you tried to launch the 64-bit client with DirectX 9 because I was going to ask you to do that next just to be sure nothing else had gone wrong.

Next step: Please tell me exactly what model of Mac you are using, confirm that you are running the latest version of Big Sur (11.2.3), confirm that you are running the latest version of Crossover (20.0.4), and how much RAM you have in your Mac.

Before you write back with that information, try this:
1- Edit UserPreferences64.ini so that GraphicsCore=D3D9.
2- In Crossover, create a new Windows 10 64-bit bottle. Name it whatever you want, you're (probably) not going to keep it, it's just for testing purposes. I will refer to it as "your test bottle" going forward.
3- Install DIRECTX FOR MODERN GAMES into your test bottle.
4- Check the "Settings" of your test bottle to be sure they match the image in the first message of this thread; except DEFAULT BOTTLE should NOT be checked. Your original bottle should have DEFAULT BOTTLE checked; you can have only one DEFAULT BOTTLE.

We are now going to use the environment of your test bottle to launch LOTRO. We are NOT going to install LOTRO into that bottle, there's no reason to go through the time to do that or eat up more of your drive space. We are going to use the LOTRO install in your original bottle, which we know is good because it is running the 64-bit client with DirectX 9 just fine.

4- In the sidebar of the main Crossover window, click once on the name of your test bottle to select it.
5- In the main Crossover window, in the "Programs" section, double-click on "Run Command..."
6- Click on the BROWSE button and navigate to YOUR ORIGINAL BOTTLE NAME/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/StandingStoneGames/The Lord of the Rings Online/LotroLauncher.exe and then click on the OPEN button.
7- With the pathing to LotroLauncher.exe in the COMMAND field, click on SAVE COMMAND AS A LAUNCHER.
8- You will see a new program icon appear in the Crossover main window called LotroLauncher. Once you see that, hit the CANCEL button in the "Run Command..." window.
9a- Now double-click on the new LotroLauncher application icon in the main Crossover window. This will launch LOTRO in the same way your original bottle's "The Lord of the Rings Online" application icon does – except this one will use the environment of your test bottle rather than your original bottle. The LOTRO launcher applications should appear.
9b- Note that you might be asked to give permission to Crossover and/or LOTRO. You might need to give permission to your ~/Documents folder, possibly your microphone; grant whatever permissions are requested. IF ASKED FOR PERMISSION BUT YOU DO NOT GRANT PERMISSION TO YOUR ~/DOCUMENTS FOLDER, YOUR .INI FILES CANNOT BE READ AND THE GAME WILL USE ITS DEFAULTS AND WE DO NOT WANT THAT TO HAPPEN.
10- If you fail to get into the game, something did not go right with permissions in Step 9b. Try again, or report back and I'll break this part down into smaller steps.
11- When you get into the game, use the in-game options panel to set DirectX 11. Then quit out of the game. Then relaunch the game. The game will attempt to launch using DirectX 11.
12a- If you fail to get into the game at this point, the fault is with your hardware or your installation of LOTRO, not a problem with your original bottle.
12b- If you successfully get into the game at this point (with DirectX 11 enabled), the fault is with your original bottle, not your installation of LOTRO or your hardware.

If 12a holds, there is nothing we can do. The chance that the problem is caused by one of the LOTRO components is extremely tiny, it is almost certainly due to an OS-level graphics driver for your specific Mac/graphics card or a minor incompatibility of your Mac's specific graphics card with this game under DirectX 11. I have seen this happen with some – not all, but some – M1/Apple Silicon Macs but never with an Intel Mac. Delete your test bottle and change your UserPreferences64.ini file so that GraphicsCore=D3D9.

If 12b holds, that's actually the result we want. You just made some mistake when you created your original bottle. You have a number of options at this point:
I- Pah-tooie on DirectX 11! DirectX 9 is good enough, you don't want to spend any more time trying to get it to work. Delete your test bottle and change your UserPreferences64.ini file so that GraphicsCore=D3D9. (This is not a good option, at least drop down to Option II; but if you're running out of patience that's OK because this is just a game not the operating system for a heart-lung machine and DirectX 9 is good enough.)
II- Always use the "LotroLauncher" application stub (i.e. that icon in your main Crossover window) to run the game. Your LOTRO stuff will be in your "bad" original bottle but will run within your "good" test bottle (which you might want to rename if you choose this option). This will allow you to run the game with DirectX 11 at the minor cost of a little bit of wasted drive space and some possibly confusing extra icons in your main Crossover window.
III- Delete both bottles, create a new bottle (Windows 10 64-bit), install DirectX for Modern Games into it, be sure the bottle's settings are as shown in the first message of this thread, and then reinstall LOTRO into that new bottle. This is of course going to be time-consuming because you will need to download the whole thing again, but if 12b holds this is what you should do eventually when you have some time on your hands because it will allow you to keep a clean one-bottle install of the game and run DirectX 11.

Please answer the questions near the top of this message and report back with your results from this last procedure.

[Gaelmegil]

I'm going to play some Spring Festival this evening with directx9, but I will try all this tomorrow and report back. I'm happy to experiment as long as you're happy provide to provide! I very much appreciate it!

(Edit: Got around to trying this tonight)

Specs:
15" Retina Macbook Pro, late 2013
2Ghz quad-core intel core i7
8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB Graphics

Big Sur (11.2.3)
Crossover (20.0.4)

The results:

I think I did everything you described correctly. Successfully launched the game, worked fine. Then as Step 11 said, I changed to DirectX 11 in the in-game options panel. Quit, started again.

First attempt, the launcher stayed stuck on "Initializing..." for a couple of minutes before I quit. Second attempt (and subsequent 3rd-5th attempts), I merely recreated the same problem as before: No Sauron/Gothmog screen, then normal Standing Stones screen, normal Three Peaks splash screen, then all black. I waited on the black screen several minutes each time before quitting, just to make sure it wasn't just going slowly.

If I understand it right, 12a is the sticking point.

Back to DirectX 9 and the spring festival! I can't thank you enough for your help...I've learned a ton doing all this!

[Tralfazz]

15" Retina Macbook Pro, late 2013

I was hoping it would be an M1 Mac because that would have been consistent with some other people's failures to run DirectX 11.

I think I did everything you described correctly. Successfully launched the game, worked fine. Then as Step 11 said, I changed to DirectX 11 in the in-game options panel. Quit, started again.

First attempt, the launcher stayed stuck on "Initializing..." for a couple of minutes before I quit. Second attempt (and subsequent 3rd-5th attempts), I merely recreated the same problem as before: No Sauron/Gothmog screen, then normal Standing Stones screen, normal Three Peaks splash screen, then all black. I waited on the black screen several minutes each time before quitting, just to make sure it wasn't just going slowly.

If I understand it right, 12a is the sticking point.

Back to DirectX 9 and the spring festival! I can't thank you enough for your help...I've learned a ton doing all this!

Wow, this is the first time I've seen a failure like this on an Intel Mac. But yes, we're stuck here, there is some system-level or hardware incompatibility with DirectX 11 which we can't resolve. Definitely try it with your next new Mac when you get one, though!

I'm sorry this didn't work out for you. But really, DirectX 9 is very good, it's what you've been using all along while playing under Mojave with the "Mac"/WINE client so you shouldn't feel you're missing out on anything important. Thank you for trying, the results of your attempts will almost certainly end up helping someone else in the future.

[Gaelmegil]

I'm sorry this didn't work out for you. But really, DirectX 9 is very good, it's what you've been using all along while playing under Mojave with the "Mac"/WINE client so you shouldn't feel you're missing out on anything important. Thank you for trying, the results of your attempts will almost certainly end up helping someone else in the future.

Yeah, DirectX 9 is all I know and I'm running the same as ever currently, so I'm content. Out of curiosity, and since I could probably do it more quickly, now that I semi-know what I'm doing, I'll give it a shot on my work computer sometime if that will help the team.


Thank you so much for your patient guidance and help getting me going on Crossover!

[Gaelmegil]

I have a short follow-up question about this.

When LOTRO or Crossover have updates, would it be worth trying DirectX 11 again, or should I leave it alone on this computer until I try all this again on a new machine?


Many thanks!

[Tralfazz]

When LOTRO or Crossover have updates, would it be worth trying DirectX 11 again, or should I leave it alone on this computer until I try all this again on a new machine?

I think we proved pretty conclusively that your Mac's Intel Iris Pro integrated graphics are not compatible with DirectX 11 as things currently stand.

That said, it takes about 30 seconds to test (get into the game, change DX9 to DX11, quit, get back into the game, if it works keep playing, if it doesn't, quit and change that one line in the UserPreference64.ini file back to DX9). So if you get a MacOS update on your Mac it might be worth trying again, but the chance that a future version of MacOS will include updated graphics drivers for your specific Mac model at all, let alone updated drivers that will make DirectX 11 work with your machine's integrated graphics; is very close to zero. No update to the game is going to change compatibility, either; it's not LOTRO's fault at all.

On the other hand, it is possible that Microsoft will update the DirectX 11 components. If that happens, a reinstall of "DirectX for Modern Games" will get those updated components into your bottle and that actually has at least a chance of providing the needed compatibility. You'd have to stay on top of Microsoft announcements to know to do that, or subscribe to this thread because if I learn about such an update I will post about it here. A subscription to this thread will result in an email being sent to you when a new message is posted in this thread, sometimes it will be something of no interest to you, but I suspect that this thread won't get a lot of traffic other than me rarely posting something about a revised install procedure or the availability of revised Windows components to put into a LOTRO bottle.

This article provides the list of compatibility of DirectX 11 with various Intel integrated graphics. If you examine it, you will see that the Iris Pro is not listed even though some variations such as the Iris Plus are listed:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us.../graphics.html

So that's bad news for your laptop. It's not VERY bad news, DirectX 9 is just fine. If you have access to any other Mac, now or in the future, definitely do try DirectX 11 on it as any Mac with a discrete graphics card ought to be compatible and at least some integrated graphics will be compatible as well.

[Incarniac]

Just wanted to reply on this thread that now that I got the 64-bit client working in CrossOver on my Mac mini M1 (16GB RAM) on macOS Big Sur 11.3, I also have DX11 running. No opinions / experience on stability yet, as I've just launched into the game and created a new character.

For more details, see post #169 and post #170 over in the "Success with Crossover 20 and MacOS Big Sur 11.0.1" thread.

[WhifOfDespair]

Hi Tralfazz,

Thanks again for the useful Mac support threads.

Just adding a data point:

Refresher: I'm running on an old 2014 16" MBP (best laptops of the last decade and still going strong!). Big Sur 11.6

I upgraded to Crossover 21.0 today and tried launching LOTRO.
Upon getting logged in and past the launcher, it flashed a (Windows) dialog noting that it detected that my system supported DirectX 11 and would I like that enabled.
Based on this thread, I shrugged, went ahead and clicked yes.
Unfortunately, after progressing smoothly (and, it seemed, quickly) through the various launch screens, after it got to the one with the two evil bad dudes (red-eyed guy and faceless hooded guy) with the actual, "Loading ...." progress bar, it moved quickly through the progress bar and then the loading image just stayed up.

I could hear the music of the Character page playing, implying that the program had logically moved to that panel. But the loading screen image would not go away.

I was able to ctrl-UP to escape and then right-click on the wine app in the dock to quit.

I then tried several iterations of making sure the Bottle settings did / did not have the "DXVK for Backend for D3D11" checked, whether the UserPreferences64.ini file had D3D11 or D3D9 set before launch (if the former, it doesn't prompt) but the end result was always the same unless I set the .ini setting to D9 and said "No" at the prompt.

So I guess the data point is that for my old dinosaur, I'm still going to stick with D9. Which is perfectly fine. At ultra-high res it all looks great anyway.

I do think that with Crossover 21, it seems a little quicker to load and get from the launcher to the Character panel and start the game. In fact all the loading screens in-game also seem a little quicker. Just an impression, though. No hard measurements.

[Tralfazz]

Hi, Whif! Thanks very much for your report.

You are experiencing behavior which seems to be common – not universal, but common – when DXVK Backend for D3D11 is unchecked and DirectX11 is set in the LOTRO UserPreferences64.ini file with Crossover 21. This happens because when DXVK Backend for D3D11 is unchecked in Crossover 21, the new default Vulcan backend for D3D11 is enabled in its place. And the new default Vulcan backend doesn’t work well with all versions of MacOS and all Mac video cards/integrated graphics. I get similar behavior as you described with both my Intel Macs (a 2019 iMac with a Radeon 555X graphics card and a 2012 Mac Mini with integrated graphics) except I can successfully use DirectX 11 when I enable the DXVK Backend for D3D11 in either Crossover 20.0.4 or Crossover 21.0.

I say this is common but not universal because other people are reporting very good LOTRO performance in Crossover 21 with DirectX 11 using the new default Vulcan backend for D3D11. In some cases, noticeably better performance than with the DXVK backend.

It’s unfortunate that your Mac’s specific hardware isn’t compatible with DirectX 11 with either D3D backend. As you reported, DirectX 9 works for you and while it has a few minor in-game glitches it does seem to provide the greatest level of compatibility with various combinations of Mac hardware and Crossover versions. I’m glad that’s working well for you!

edit: If your 16” MacBook Pro has a discrete graphics card, you can force it to use that discrete graphics card rather than the Intel integrated graphics. Without the “force” your Mac will switch between the two based on battery level and whatever task it is attempting to run, and some applications will not use the discrete graphics card unless it is “forced” to do so. This can be done, to a limited extent, in System Preferences but is better to do using Terminal commands. I can walk you through either process if you need that assistance. After setting your laptop to always use the discrete graphics card, you might try DirectX 11 again – try it with the DXVK backend first (by checking it on in bottle settings) and if that doesn’t work then try it with the Vulkan backend (by checking DXVK off in the bottle settings).

[WhifOfDespair]

Hi, Whif! Thanks very much for your report.

edit: If your 16” MacBook Pro has a discrete graphics card, you can force it to use that discrete graphics card rather than the Intel integrated graphics. Without the “force” your Mac will switch between the two based on battery level and whatever task it is attempting to run, and some applications will not use the discrete graphics card unless it is “forced” to do so. This can be done, to a limited extent, in System Preferences but is better to do using Terminal commands. I can walk you through either process if you need that assistance. After setting your laptop to always use the discrete graphics card, you might try DirectX 11 again – try it with the DXVK backend first (by checking it on in bottle settings) and if that doesn’t work then try it with the Vulkan backend (by checking DXVK off in the bottle settings).

Unfortunately, I only have the integrated Intel Iris Pro chipset graphics. I've really truly loved this laptop and it has been just so valuable for 7 years now. But I guess it finally is starting to look a little long in the tooth.

I'm slowly working my significant other on the idea that it's finally time I bought one of these new MacBook Pros .... Now that these new ones have gone back to many of the same features that make the old one I have so great: The classic keyboard with it's superior feel & action over the butterfly, the many ports, the full 16" screen, MagSafe, etc., etc. It's not just about them being about a zillion times faster .... though that's pretty cool too.

But alas, we have mortgages to pay and kids to get through college. Every expense has to be carefully justified.