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Team Fortress 2 Installation- Macbook 2.4ghz, 160HD, Intel X3100 GMA 144mb.

J

johnnnytk

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 25, 2008
25
0
Team Fortress 2

So this is for all of you macbook users who love TF2 and trying to configure out if your macbook can run TF2 or not. Well, lets cut to the punchline, if you have been reading other forums about TF2 running on a mac, a lot of people got it to work and a lot of people can't get it to work. For me, no, I didn't get it to run smoothly.

Here's a step by step way I did it from reading other forums about installing TF2 on the mac.

Trial 1
CrossOver
1. Downloaded CrossOver 7.0 - 30 day trial (Does everything like the real program but only 30 days)
2. Installed CrossOver 7.0 Trial Version
3. Downloaded Steam's installation file
4. Installed Steam through CrossOver bottled package.
5. Steam loaded and now installing/downloaded TF2
6. Steam works fine as of right now in Full Screen
7. Picked a server and joined one.
8. Right when I get into the server, the Continue button on the right hand corner is stopped.
9. The audio is laggy and skipping.
10. Game freezes.

Trial 2
CrossOver
Same steps now with a different properties setup.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/418295/

From this forum with everything Orange Box it shows what people did also for there macbook. Apparently it works great, no problems what so ever and it runs smoothly.

Another user put a pic up of TF2 running on the macbook (not Macbook Pro) and it runs fantastic around 30fps.
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/8621/picture4rw9.png

This is what I put as follows on the other users settings on his macbook that runs smoothly. Its a mix of two posts about there settings into 1 setup as shown below.
-heapsize 512000 -dxlevel 81 -width 1152 -height 720 –window –novid

Conclusion: FAILED < Same problem as Trial 1

Trial 3
Bootcamp
1. Set partition roughly around 10gb.
2. Installed Windows XP.
3. XP is now running as main operating system.
4. Loaded Windows - Bootcamp Drivers (NOTICE: This is an important step to make Windows work on your mac if you want everything such as internet, etc)
5. Downloaded Steam
6. Downloaded TF2 install
7. Loaded everything, runs a lot smoother than CrossOver since its now on Windows.
8. TF2 is running fine then it doesn't upload the whole way. It shuts down before it even gets to the intro video.

Conclusion: FAILED

Trial 4
Parallels
1. Downloaded Parallels Trial
2. Installed Parallels
3. Installed Windows Virtual Drive
4. Same steps as bootcamp minus the windows - bootcamp drivers (Parallels makes the virtual windows drive go compatible with the mac internet etc)
5. Installed Steam
6. Installed TF2
7. Prompts me with a message saying "Unknown Driver or something along the lines of there is no video card recognition"
8. Intro video loads, then it closes.
9. Windows only showed 512mb of RAM when its 2gb default

Conclusion: FAILED
****************************************************
Okay so pretty much, I'm having a tough time making this game work. Out of the three programs I used so far, CrossOver got me the furthest into the game. Many many people got it working but it boggles me how it doesn't work. If anyone who has TF2 running great can write a detailed step by step way to make TF2 work that would be great. Hints, steps, anything.

With this thread, I'm sure it will help a lot of people.

To end this post, here is proof of the white macbook that someone else got it working.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbPkZ23bMME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JMThq77r1s
 
Ha, I've been looking to play this game on my Mac myself. Thanks for the heads up, saves me a lot of time..

Guess I'll stick to consoles.
 
if you can get it going in crossover then bootcamp should surely perform better!

i must admit that i havn't tried tf2, but i got company of heroes going on my macbook, pretty much unplayable, but it works :)

is the x3100 supported by tf2?
 
vandozza said:
if you can get it going in crossover then bootcamp should surely perform better!

i must admit that i havn't tried tf2, but i got company of heroes going on my macbook, pretty much unplayable, but it works :)

is the x3100 supported by tf2?
Click to expand...

The question, you just asked me is what I've been thinking about the whole time trying to configure TF2.

Many users got it working with the macbook and I'm still lost on how it works so fine. Have you looked on the youtube videos and the picture that was posted? The two videos that user posted runs TF2 great. All macbooks come with the Intel X3100 GMA 144mb vid card. Therefore, I believe it works but we're screwing up somehow or something, haha.
 
vandozza said:
did you find this - https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6956-UGCB-7160

might help!
Click to expand...

Okay, so pretty much you answered a good question. Now is the X3100 GMA a 945? I think thats an older macbook.

On Steams forum, it says that many users are having compatibility issues with an intel integrated video card. They are currently working on updated drivers that will fix it.

The fix says to try this

1. On the launch properties...
+mat_bumpmap 0 +mat_picmip 2

2. If that doesn't work. On the console commands...
mat_max_worldmesh_vertices 1024

"If that command allows the game to run without crashing, then please add it to your game config files. Your config file is located in the SteamApps folder, under your Steam account name and the folder for the game you would like to play. For example:

C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\< Account Name >\team fortress 2\tf\cfg"

*Source: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6956-UGCB-7160*
 
vandozza said:
i know we are talking about the newer macbook, just correcting your statement that ALL macbooks are x3100 based. :)

the 945 was the chipset that included the gma 950 gfx.

regardless did you try the suggested fix for onboard intel gfx issues? the one we both posted.
Click to expand...

I wished! I'm at work right now (Central Time) and I can't do anything until like 5pm. :( But yeah, thanks for the help. I'll let you know if it works when I try it.

Did you say you had the same problem too?
 
its not really a problem yet, as i havn't tried... but i would like to.
ill have to pull tf2 off my pc's steam account though, and restore it onto my macbook. its midnight here, and thats all a job for another day.

good luck though, keep us informed on your progress!
 
vandozza said:
its not really a problem yet, as i havn't tried... but i would like to.
ill have to pull tf2 off my pc's steam account though, and restore it onto my macbook. its midnight here, and thats all a job for another day.

good luck though, keep us informed on your progress!
Click to expand...

I'll let you guys know how my progress is going.
 
My friend has TF2 on his MacBook, same specs as yours. I installed it for him. We just used Crossover Games and It worked perfectly out of the box, with pretty decent frames too, albeit at 800*600. We installed using a boxed copy of TF2, don't know if that makes a difference.
 
yanr said:
My friend has TF2 on his MacBook, same specs as yours. I installed it for him. We just used Crossover Games and It worked perfectly out of the box, with pretty decent frames too, albeit at 800*600. We installed using a boxed copy of TF2, don't know if that makes a difference.
Click to expand...

Same specs, everything? Okay okay, is there anyway you can help me out with the configuration to boot this successfully? Did you put anything in the launch properties such as -window, etc?

I don't know why it stops at the Continue button and it freezes :(
 
yea yea! I had the same problems with the freezing. But now I found a startup config that works perfectly.

-novid -heapsize 512000 -width 800 -height 600 -dxlevel 81 +mat_bumpmap 0 +mat_picmip 2

Have fun!
 
axibert said:
yea yea! I had the same problems with the freezing. But now I found a startup config that works perfectly.

-novid -heapsize 512000 -width 800 -height 600 -dxlevel 81 +mat_bumpmap 0 +mat_picmip 2

Have fun!
Click to expand...

Wait wait wait, haha, so your telling me this launch setup works?

Before I go on, you had the same problem I had and this setup works?! Oh man, I need to try this. Here I go...
 
axibert said:
yea yea! I had the same problems with the freezing. But now I found a startup config that works perfectly.

-novid -heapsize 512000 -width 800 -height 600 -dxlevel 81 +mat_bumpmap 0 +mat_picmip 2

Have fun!
Click to expand...

I'm still having a problem. Specifically, on the load up screen when you chose a server and get intot he game the audio/video freezes. I wish I knew how to screen capture on a mac but anyways, I can't get it to work that way.

It seems though that it worked fine on full screen but it still froze windowed or fulls creen on the mac. Any suggestions?
 
-dxlevel 81 was all it took for me in Boot Camp. It sets your video options to DX8.1-capable settings. You only need it the first time you run TF2; I had to take it out in order to set the resolution to 800x600 and have it 'stick.'

You might also want to bring the detail levels down a bit from the defaults.

I've only ever tried the game fullscreen, so I have no idea if it works or not in windowed mode.
 
For me the problem was that i forgot heapsize at first and that it didn't run on a higher resolution than 800x600. It runs on both, windowed and full. Without any crashes or audiofreezes. (on crossover games with a macbook 2,4 ghz)
 
axibert said:
For me the problem was that i forgot heapsize at first and that it didn't run on a higher resolution than 800x600. It runs on both, windowed and full. Without any crashes or audiofreezes. (on crossover games with a macbook 2,4 ghz)
Click to expand...

I still have the audio/video lag. :(
 
not sure if cl_smooth 0 is a variable in TF2, but in counter strike source it helps out.
 
soms said:
not sure if cl_smooth 0 is a variable in TF2, but in counter strike source it helps out.
Click to expand...

I appreciate it a lot for the help. This forum is meant for users like me that are having problems getting Steam games to work on a mac. Thanks for the info and I'm going to try it out!

I'll let you know what my progress is. Once I get it to work, I'll go detail by detail of what I did with photo's etc. :)
 
I was in a similar situation and was planning to install TF2 with VMWare Fusion, has anyone ever tried it with that?
 
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