Latest Crossover / MacOS / Battle.Net / Diablo II Resurrected not working together.

Latest Crossover Preview (20260323) works without hiccups. https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/d2r/t/d2r-not-launching-on-maccrossover-urgent-issue/170232

simown wrote:

What else can we do?

There is nothing that you can do – other than to contact Apple, and hope they fix the bug (assuming that there is one), or to contact the game developer, and ask them to take out the new code in their game that is running into the bug.

I really want this to be fixed.

The question is, whether there are enough people who want the niche case fixed, that Apple will decide that it is worth devoting resources to fix it. Especially given that Apple already plans to phase out Rosetta 2 in macOS 28 (which will presumably come out in fall of 2027, about a year and a half away).

MacWorld – The final countdown for Intel Mac apps has begun

"Apple announces that Rosetta is finally being phased out with macOS 28."

Using Intel-based apps on a Mac with Apple silicon – Apple Support

"Rosetta is currently available for any Mac with Apple silicon, and it will remain available through the forthcoming macOS 27 — the next major macOS release. Starting with computers using macOS 28, Rosetta functionality will be available only for certain older, unmaintained games that rely on Intel-based frameworks."

While Apple doesn't say which "certain, older, unmaintained games" they mean, it is likely that they are referring to 64-bit macOS/Intel games. I can't say that it I will be happy to see Rosetta 2 go, but it is what it is.

John Hammer1 wrote:

It's not just about the impact on some specific game the OP reported. It's about a bug in Rosetta2. Even though the next version of MacOS coming this fall is likely to have only a partial implementation of Rosetta2 and even though it is eventually going to be fully deprecated, many Mac users will rely on Rosetta2 for quite some years to come. Patching out a bug seems to be a reasonable ask of the developer of Rosetta2, which happens to be Apple itself. There is no reason this specific API call should continue to fail to resolve now that it has been identified and reported to Apple.

My post had nothing to do with bugs. The bugs just reinforces my point about the house of cards needed to play Diablo here. It was purely based on knowing how difficult it can be to get non-native apps to run on a system using WINE....games are even more difficult.

Games are the most difficult apps to get running smoothly & properly even on their native supported systems. Games tend to push the current limits of the hardware so developers are known to take questionable risks to make a game run reasonably well on supported systems. Those "hacks" may not always play well with the WINE hacks, or the GPU proxy layer & may be doing things Rosetta2 was never made to handle.

It is a bit like the Telephone Game/Whisper down the line game that a teacher performed in elementary school with my class. What was whispered to the first person was not the same as what the last person spoke....the message got mutated....it is kind of similar here with all of these different layers that must perform exactly as it would on an Intel-based Windows system. There is no way it will be perfect since the WINE developers are doing their best to reverse engineer the entire Windows APIs & translating them to another set of APIs on the Mac. Something similar occurs with Rosetta2, but with CPU instruction sets. There are so many ways things can break at each point.

People generally buy games to have fun. Is it fun searching forums & the Internet for clues on how to make the game work? Chances are it will break again with the next update to macOS, or the game, or WINE, or the GPU proxy layer. I'm sure some people enjoy the puzzle of getting things to work out, but most do not.

People who want to play games on their M-series Macs should select a game made for an M-series Mac.

But what is your best-case outcome?

arguing with other users like yourself who have no apple contact anymore than yourself, even if you convince them all, then what?

These people you debate with are not some gatekeepers keeping the disapproval of apples rosetta implmentation from being improved. you can debate with these random people forever or you can voice your opinion to apple

Product Feedback - Apple

or reach out to their official support channels with real apple employees using

Get Support (apple.com)

And or

Contact - Official Apple Support

And or

Contact - How to Contact Us - Apple

Or

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

but suppose it's a question of how one wish to spend ones spare time at the end of the day.

spordniar wrote:

D2R was running perfectly with M4 + Crossover, until Blizzard decided to add some new anti-cheat feature, that triggered a bug in Rosetta 2.

The anti-cheat will always be causing problems for these online games. If it wasn't Rosetta2, it would be WINE itself needing fixed to address the issue. There may even be a time where Blizzard will even block anyone using WINE or ban them. IIRC, this has happened before....perhaps with World of Warcraft (WoW)....I recall there was a lot of uncertainty.

Linux gamers have been dealing with this for decades while running the games/apps on the same CPU architecture. I didn't even think about the anti-cheat issues when I posted my previous comments.

Just be glad that Blizzard is using a version of anti-cheat that can actually function with WINE....some anti-cheats won't work with WINE at all. But you will still always be worried about the next software update breaking things again.

I was using WINE on Linux 25 years ago which required lots of experimentation to run any app much less a game...there would always be quirks & glitches. I know it has taken 25 years for WINE to get to the point where it can actually play some current AAA games on Linux at launch as well as on Windows....at least when using Proton on Steam. But even those Steam games using Proton have trouble with anti-cheat.....and other things. It is nice when it works, but it will break.

People new to Proton & WINE don't understand since they haven't seen the hardships to get to where it is now, however, it is still a very fragile setup....even more so when you add Rosetta2 & whatever new GPU library is needed for the M-series Macs. Codeweavers makes it look so wonderful & easy, but there are no guarantees that anything will work seamlessly.

I'd hope Code Weaver share more details on what the actual issue is, but they never care to share the details, they just said Blizzard added something that triggered Rosetta bug and it's up to either Blizzard to remove this feature or Apple to fix the Rosetta 2 bug.

Blizzard is unlikely to do anything unless Blizzard advertises support for macOS. IIRC, years ago Blizzard did make a macOS version, but chose not to do so again. That is very telling, so take heed. Blizzard will not be removing the anti-cheat......it is a permanent part of the game because there are so many people out there who like to cheat at the online component of the games. The whole cheater experience is why I will only play single player games these days even on a game console.

Neither Blizzard nor Crossover "dropped the ball" – they used existing API calls which are not working when translated through WINE because of this bug in Rosetta2. The bug didn't cause a problem earlier because that specific function was not used by the application in the past.

KucataMeduza wrote:

I don’t really understand the point of “this is a Windows game.”

Rosetta 2 is Apple’s own compatibility layer. CrossOver depends on it. This setup worked before and now it doesn’t — that’s the definition of a regression.

Exactly. But Diablo2 also depends on a special WINE GPU translation layer strictly for M-series Macs which is another point of failure. A change or bug in any one of them (macOS, Rosetta2, WINE, WINE GPU translation for M-series, or even the game itself) will break the game, yet the game still runs fine on Windows. That is five points of failure. Where is the problem that can fix it....it is in at least one of those five points of failure? Blizzard won't fix it if the game is still running fine on Windows.

Playing Diablo2 on Windows, only has two points of failure, but Blizzard will fix the game regardless if the game is at fault or Windows. Just two points of failure.

Playing Diablo2 on a game console (assuming Diablo2 is available) also has two points of failure....once again Blizzard will fix the game to make it work.

Are you suggesting that on an Apple Support forum the solution is to abandon macOS and buy a Windows PC?

That is not what I said. I said if you want a smooth enjoyable gaming experience, then select a game made specifically for macOS & M-series Macs.

Or play a Windows game on a Windows PC which meets or better yet exceeds the game's Recommended System Requirements. Or play the game on a dedicated gaming console (if the game is made available for one). Those are your best options for getting support from the game's developer if something doesn't work correctly.....maybe.

Playing an Intel CPU native game made specifically for Windows will always be a risk. You will always be wondering when the next gameplay interruption will occur....and how long will that interruption last before that game can be played again?

You and others here think Codeweaver's CrossoverMac is a magic guaranteed way to play an Intel based Windows game. That is the only way such a game can be played on macOS. There are no guarantees it will work, much less always work. Maybe Diablo2 will play smoothly, and maybe it won't. Seems like right now it doesn't work at all. Will it ever work again?

And what if Blizzard thinks WINE is a security risk in regards to promoting cheating? Like I said before, IIRC there was concern among Linux gamers years ago about whether Blizzard was going to ban (permanently) Linux users using WINE to play one of the Diablo games or WoW. Ultimately nothing happened, but there was some confusion and some people were banned temporarily because they played a Blizzard game using WINE.

I know some WINE gaming history, because I lived it & used it on Linux (still a couple less points of failure than running a Windows Intel game on an M-series Mac, but still very problematic).

Because if Apple expects people to remain in their ecosystem, bugs in their own translation layer should be taken seriously and fixed — regardless of what application exposes them.

What Intel macOS native app has this Rosetta bug? Maybe if there is such an app with that bug, then maybe if Apple considers it important, then maybe Apple will fix it. Maybe.

Do you think there is any incentive for Apple to fix the bug if only Codeweaver's CrossOverMac has the issue? Think about it.....to allow a Windows Intel based game to run on an M-series Mac through yet another third party app. Why would Apple spend time & money to allow Diablo2 to run on an M-series Mac when the Diablo2 developer (Blizzard & Microsoft) doesn't feel like spending time & money for a native macOS app?

While I do appreciate Codeweavers and the WINE team for what they do......I have used WINE since the early 2000's to have some Windows only apps run on Linux........I'll present things from a different point of view. Why do you want to support Blizzard & Microsoft by giving them money when they don't care about you playing their game on macOS? Just something to consider.

At least when I'm using Linux I know I'm on a niche system and will have to do lots of work to do things the average Windows user can do in "seconds". Mac users don't realize they are in nearly the same boat outside of the AAA apps, except with games.....they may be in a worse position than Linux gamers these days.

I'm only trying to give Mac users some perspective here, and a bit of a history lesson regarding WINE (aka CrossOverMac). Reality/truth is not always pleasant. You and everyone else are free to ignore my 2 cents.

If you want to play games, then a Mac is not the best choice of computer to do so. The majority of games are made for Windows and only hacks allow them to possibly run on other systems. If Blizzard cared, then they would make a fully supported Mac version.

It is bad enough you want to run a Windows game on a Mac, but an M-series Mac on top of that. An M-series Mac adds so much more difficulty to running such a game because it requires even more hacks than it does for an Intel Mac. You now have to worry about Rosetta2 and also need an extra hack to deal with the M-series GPU which may allow some games to work, but I understand graphical performance will not be that great for many games.

FYI, in a few years it is expected that Rosetta2 will no longer be available with later major versions of macOS, so the whole Windows gaming on an M-series Mac will no longer be an issue since it won't be possible to do so.

If you want to run Diablo, then play it on a Windows PC or on a game console where it is fully supported by Blizzard. Otherwise you will be trying to fix game issues whenever Blizzard, macOS, or even Codeweavers update their software.

Continued....

I mean, M-Series MBP has so much promising potential to become both a powerful workstation and an amazing gaming laptop, and I've heard Apple wants to reposition its MBPs to have more presence in gaming, that's why they collaborated with Cyberpunk 2077 to make it run natively on MBPs, so I do not agree totally with the statement "If you want to play games, then a Mac is not the best choice of computer to do so."

I highlighted the relevant part there. Native games will generally be fine, at least for a while until they become too difficult or expensive to support with update patches. We'll have to wait and see if any other game developers decide to commit. Developing for macOS is a huge adjustment and probably won't be seen for years & only for a game still on the drawing board...... by then Apple may have given up again.

Unfortunately most game developers are either developing a Windows only game, or they are focusing on the gaming consoles.....those are the platforms where they can make their money, perhaps even on mobile devices.

Years ago a few developers provided macOS native versions of their games, while a few others handed off the macOS game porting to a third party. The games ported by third parties sometimes would only connect with other Apple users and not to the Windows versions of the games due to how the networking match making code worked (huge difference between Windows & Mac). And if the Mac version could connect with Windows users, then when a game update came to the Windows version, the Mac users were left behind until that change could be included by the third party so Mac players could only play with other Macs....it would take time for the ported game to be patched (if at all).

Ever since the iPhone became popular with people for gaming apps, some of the popular AAA games were ported to the iPhone, but not the Mac. There is a reason for this....numbers & money.

I just hope Apple would dedicate just a little bit of resources to maintain Rosetta 2 code base, it's already doing an amazing job, we just need a little bit more care from the team.

If Apple is going to drop Rosetta2 like they did Rosetta 1 for PPC, then there is very little incentive for them to worry about one Windows game not running correctly on an M-series Mac using third party hacks. Apple has other more important bugs to fix which they've decided to leave untouched for years. Apple's focus is on the future and the next big shiny thing after Liquid Glass......somehow I doubt the transparency issues with Liquid Glass will be fixed even though they actually do impact the daily usage of macOS (those "bugs" were allowed to remain with 26.2.....I'm not holding my breath on them ever being fixed).

if they are preparing to kill off Rosetta 2

macOS Tahoe 26.4 if your apps won't work in macOS 28

then fixing issue which do not seem to affect that many apps

may not be top priority for them

so the more of you try to bring it into their focus by using their feedback channels

Product Feedback - Apple

the better

This is Apple's user to user Forum.

To send Apple feedback, use > Feedback - macOS - Apple

It's not just about the impact on some specific game the OP reported. It's about a bug in Rosetta2. Even though the next version of MacOS coming this fall is likely to have only a partial implementation of Rosetta2 and even though it is eventually going to be fully deprecated, many Mac users will rely on Rosetta2 for quite some years to come. Patching out a bug seems to be a reasonable ask of the developer of Rosetta2, which happens to be Apple itself. There is no reason this specific API call should continue to fail to resolve now that it has been identified and reported to Apple.

No its actually a bug in rosetta2 which is failing to properly translate x86 instructions to ARM.

You can say "theres no need for this going forward" or "its no longer supported" but you cant deny its a failure of the software as designed.

If your only solution to a problem is to tell people "youre using it wrong", its best to not participate in the conversation, as you add nothing. Computers can be made to do literally anything. Any failure of them to do so is a choice by someone.

It is up to those third-party vendors to fix the problem.

Contact a third-party vendor - Apple Support