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Portal not working on MacBook

karmachu said:
I have a 2.16 GHz Macbook w/ 2 GB RAM and have the same issue, however I have gotten Portal to work by using CrossOver 6.2.

At the end of the Steam install process it gave me an error saying essentially that my system resources did not meet the requirements, blah blah, but using CrossOver's force install completion option, launching Steam after that worked fine.

In-game it gets a little tricky, because except for the main menu, the menu system doesn't display correctly -- The text on the rest of the menus just doesn't display, and the same goes for the console. However, I can still enter commands into the console successfully.

The video in fullscreen mode is also displayed off-center, but running it in windowed mode worked fine. Portals onscreen cause significant performance slowdown but otherwise it's fine.

Despite the menu problem, I've been able to save and load by choosing and remembering a specific save game slot.

I've been running Portal with simple launch options: -windows -console
Click to expand...
I had it working like that before as well, but then I got a strange bug that wouldn't go away where my character was constantly turning left. If I moved the mouse right it would have no affect, and moving it left would increase the speed. I actually played through a few levels like this, but it became impossible as the levels became more difficult, and it wasn't very fun. :(
 
So to sumarise, a Mac can run HL2 (source engine) based games fine via bootcamp, as long as they contain a GPU (graphics chip) matching the software requirements (i.e. has 'hardware transform and lighting')

So this rules out the macbook and mac mini with its GMA950 Intel GPU - correct?

By the way, my work Dell Latitude laptop PC also has the GMA950 GPU and crashes also when I go through a portal, so this isn't a Mac specifc issue.
 
l33r0y said:
So to sumarise, a Mac can run HL2 (source engine) based games fine via bootcamp, as long as they contain a GPU (graphics chip) matching the software requirements (i.e. has 'hardware transform and lighting')

So this rules out the macbook and mac mini with its GMA950 Intel GPU - correct?

By the way, my work Dell Latitude laptop PC also has the GMA950 GPU and crashes also when I go through a portal, so this isn't a Mac specifc issue.
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I can run Garry's mod fine (MacBook, no Pro), so it's not all source based games that cause problems.
 
l33r0y said:
Sounds promising. What settings?
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+mat_forcehardwaresync 0 +snd_async_prefetch_priority 1 -console -heapsize 256000 -dxlevel 70 -width 1280 -height 800 -novid +cl_drawmonitors 0 +r_shadowrendertotexture 0

The same as I tried for portal but DX7.
 
I'm using WinXP with Bootcamp 2.0/Leopard on my 1st generation black Macbook and it's still crashing when trying to walk through a portal. It's really annoying because the game works fine until you get to the other side of the portal, then goes kaput. I'm sure it's a simple fix for Valve. It would be nice if they just went ahead and fixed it...
 
OK, this is curious. I was just trying this again, a few times, and it's not actually the moment you step into the portal that it crashes, it's the moment you're entirely out. Even if your vision is on the other side of the portal, if any of your collision box is still in the portal, the game seems to keep running. I'll need to try this again.

Huh. That's not exactly it either. I went most of the way through the portal, and stood there for about five seconds, looking around, everything apparently fine, then it crashed.

I stood without going through the portal, throwing the radio and clipboard and cup peices through it. After about the same amount of time, it crashed.

Yeah. This time I didn't interact with the portal in any way, and it still crashed after about the same amount of time.

So if you run into the portal, it crashes right away. If you do nothing, it crashes after several seconds.

...

WHAT THE HELL

I coppied over some save files from another computer, and loaded them up. It worked. I created a portal. It worked.

I'm uploading a video now. (The video is only a few FPS, terribly low quality, I was recording it only so I could accurately keep track of when the game crashed, not for the content itself.) This is confusing as hell. There's something about the first level that causes the game to crash, but it's not the portals. The video should be here when it's finished.

Bah. This makes my head hurt.

EDIT: The first level doesn't crash in the commentary mode.

I've played through the first 15ish levels with no issues, until it decided to crash. I think this was unrelated to the other stuff though, so me happy.

EDIT: No, it's crashing whenever I start playing, either a saved game or a new game, a few moments after the level loads. Aaaaaaarg.
 
?

So can anyone confirm how much of the orange box works on a macbook (2Ghz, 1GB ram) under bootcamp XP?
Thanks.
And as for this portal thing, thats just weird? So it seems it can run the engine ok...just a glitch...are normal windows users / ppl on better macs getting these same crashes?
 
CrossOver is the way to go

I've been following this thread for some time, trying all the options (my system is a 1.83 ghz macbook core duo w/2 gigs of ram) but with no success. I wrote steam support, and they repeated the answer i've heard on this forum, that the GMA 950 graphics simply aren't supported by Valve in the Orange Box games, even with bootcamp and XP running.
But then, I decided to try running orange box in a WINE instance, and I downloaded the free trial of CrossOver from Codeweavers. This runs, obviously, within OS X, and I was able to get Portal running fine (once i added the -window option in preferences, which corrected a bit of off-centeredness). I finished portal last night on my macbook, and i have to say that in general, the frame rate was decent but not great. The few times when there are lots of things happening on screen (not that often, but the final boss was quite laggy) are the only times when it was distracting, but it worked! The only other problem was some of the menus lacked their text, but that was a minor problem all things considered. I'm going to try installing TF2 tonight and see if the frame rate is a dealbreaker there - I'm not too hopeful that I can run this fast enough in CrossOver, but if you have bought Orange Box and own a macbook with GMA 950 graphics, this is the only way I know of to play. I think there's a 30 day trial for crossover, then I believe it's about $50 or $60 after the trial.
 
Hey im running portal just fine on my macbook, except one thing: I cant see trough the portals, they appear to have no exit. Im running the game with -dxlevel 81 in the launch options. So i play with no lag but the portals are a bit bugged. But, i found out that it doesent really matter, so its totally playable this way, at least on the first 10 lvls. Im using bootcamp and windows xp on the newest macbook with the GMA X3100 graphics card.

Btw, all source games run fine with -dxlevel 81, CS:S, TF2, HL2, etc...
 
hamholio said:
I'm trying to run Portal through Crossover at the moment -- it looks like it runs fine, but, yeah, it's off center. How do I do this?
Click to expand...

If you're asking how to put the -window option in, just add this line (along with any other options you want, such as, for instance, -width 1200 -height 800, and so on) in the launch options tab. Just begin each option with a "-" and put a space between each one.
 
you only need the -w VALUE command cos it'll sort out the height automatically :D

Will need to adjust my macbook to run this stuff...

here are the newest mac books (x3100) drivers
 
Has anyone figured out a fix for this yet? I remember running HL2 just fine on my Macbook (GMA 950) a while back.

I just got the Orange Box for X-mas today, and I'm having constant crashes, in both Portal and TF2.

In portal:

Using -dxlevel 80, it loads okay, and I get into the game, but then a few seconds after I step through the first portal, I get a blue screen and it instantly restarts my machine.

If I use any other dx settings (such as 90, or removing the custom options altogether) it just crashes "hl2.exe" and goes back to the desktop.

I'm using Bootcamp 1.4, with updated graphics drivers. Hope someone has a clue to fixing this! Thanks! :D
 
I've posted a question on Valve's support forums, and I'm still waiting for a response.

If I use "mat_dxlevel 70" in the game, I can play fine until I try to step through a portal, then it blue screens.

Using "mat_dxlevel 90" allows me to play without any crashes, but there seems to be a problem with the shading/lighting, as glass panes and other shading-related textures are extremely bright, while other textures like the weight cube are displayed properly.
 
Help me get Portal to work on OSX

So I treated myself for Xmas and finally installed Steam and bought myself a load of lovely games - Orange Box etc.

I know this thread is 3 years old - can you give me any definitive advice for running Portal in OSX on my macbook? (4GB, X3100 graphics, 2.2GHZ)

I've tried all the launch options given in this thread:
Code: 
-mat_dxlevel 70
-mat_dxlevel 90
-dxlevel 80
+mat_forcehardwaresync 0 +snd_async_prefetch_priority 1
+mat_forcehardwaresync 0 +snd_async_prefetch_priority 1 -console -heapsize 256000 -dxlevel 80 -width 1280 -height 800 -novid +cl_drawmonitors 0 +r_shadowrendertotexture 0
+mat_forcehardwaresync 0 +snd_async_prefetch_priority 1 -console -heapsize 256000 -dxlevel 80 -width 800 -height 600 -novid +cl_drawmonitors 0 +r_shadowrendertotexture 0 -window -dxlevel 80

but had no luck :( People in this thread have said they run Portal fine on X3100 graphics in BootCamp / XP so it should be workable in OSX right ?
 
RedTomato said:
but had no luck :( People in this thread have said they run Portal fine on X3100 graphics in BootCamp / XP so it should be workable in OSX right ?
Click to expand...

No. System requirements for Windows are generally lower than for OS X, even for the same game.
 
rbarris said:
Intel graphics chipsets such as the GMA950 and X3100 are not supported by Source engine games running in OS X.
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Hello rbarris, if you look at the post above yours, there's a link to a YouTube video showing Steam Portal running on OSX on a X3100 macbook, same as mine. Here's the link again:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0v6YIFH7_8

EDIT: I now know this to be an unsupported configuration which ran at one time, but caused so many support calls that Valve understandably put in a hardware check to stop it from running. See my update below.
 
Last edited:
Hello again rharris.

Many thanks for your answer, and I have edited my ignorant response above. I didn't realise you work for Valve. I looked elsewhere and found that the fact that the game ran on the GMA950/X3100 initially was an oversight.

It was an unsupported configuration which ran at one time, but caused so many support calls that Valve understandably put in a hardware check to stop it from running.

Devs have stated that they were never intended to be supported, and there were multiple posts on the forums promising that a future update would break compatibility altogether by implementing a hardware check.
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http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1561707

I work in IT support myself and I fully understand the need to restrict operations to known good hardware configurations. It's just that this issue wasn't clear to me before.

I'm posting in this thread as it might help others to understand why there are so many videos out there showing Valve games running on Macbooks etc when now they currently don't.

rharris said:
I helped write the original requirements and as I recall they said "ATI X1600 or higher, or NVIDIA 8600M or higher". Intel chips were omitted from the support list for performance, correctness and stability reasons on OS X.
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