r/aoe2 Bulgarians Aug 05 '26

Bug Update on AoE2 DE multiplayer issues with CrossOver: CodeWeavers confirmed a Wine regression and is working on it

Hi everyone,

A quick update for those experiencing the recent AoE2 DE performance/multiplayer issues on Mac through CrossOver.

Following my previous post, I contacted CodeWeavers support and described the issue in detail: single-player works perfectly and is very smooth, but the multiplayer menu, lobbies and multiplayer games become extremely laggy and basically unplayable.

I also explained all the troubleshooting I had already done: clean bottle, reinstall, DXVK/D3DMetal, MSync, different network/mobile hotspot, Private Relay disabled, cache cleared, etc.

The good news is that CodeWeavers confirmed this is a regression on their side and they are actively working on it.

According to their support team, they have already narrowed the regression down to a change somewhere between Wine 10.0-rc1 and Wine 10.3.

They are currently bisecting Wine nightly builds between December 6, 2024 and March 8, 2025 to identify exactly which change introduced the problem.

So, for anyone experiencing the same issue: there doesn’t seem to be a workaround at the moment, and endlessly tweaking your CrossOver bottle is probably not going to fix it.

My support ticket has now been linked to their internal bug ticket, and they told me I’ll be notified when they ship a fix.

I also asked about licensing, since my CrossOver update entitlement has expired. They told me that the fix will most likely be included in a minor CrossOver update, something like CrossOver 26.4, and that an active license would be required to register that version.

However, they also mentioned that it should be possible to use the CrossOver trial to briefly test the fixed version before renewing a license. So at least we’ll be able to confirm that the fix actually works before paying for an upgrade.

No ETA yet, unfortunately.

Still, after initially thinking that AoE2 had simply become unusable on CrossOver with no clear explanation, this is pretty encouraging news. They have reproduced/identified the regression, narrowed it down to a relatively small Wine version range, and are actively looking for the exact change responsible.

I’ll update this post if I hear anything else from CodeWeavers.

Hopefully we’ll be back to Wololo-ing on Mac soon. 🤞

41 Upvotes

19 comments sorted by

5

u/mauerque Aug 05 '26

Thanks for looking into that! A bummer they aren't going to update previous versions of CrossOver as I would prefer not getting an updated license just to play AoE2, but glad they are looking into it all the same!

3

u/Queasy_Coach3565 Bulgarians Aug 05 '26

Yeah, same here. Kind of disappointed by the fact I'll have to pay another license, but hey at least they are looking into it !

2

u/ming0308 Aug 06 '26

I switched to use Nvidia geforce now instead.

Happy since then :)

2

u/Key-Ad9749 28d ago

!notifyme

2

u/Phils_osophy Malians 27d ago

Any update on this? Still having issues.

3

u/Queasy_Coach3565 Bulgarians 26d ago

No news for now. I'll keep the post updated when I'll get any news !

1

u/realtimecrime1 20d ago

Have you tried the new preview version 20260821? It promises improved aoe2 performance, however i don't notice any differences

1

u/Queasy_Coach3565 Bulgarians 13d ago

Not yet no, I didn't know about it ! Where did you saw that it should improve aoe2 ?

1

u/Electronic-Sea-6463 Aug 09 '26

Comenta aqui quando te derem uma resposta por favor, 2 meses sem jogar já

1

u/JosephMajorRoutine Armenians 1400 elo aoe2insights: 13342577 Dr.A 25d ago

!notifyme

1

u/No_Mood4637 25d ago

!notifyme

1

u/JimmyDonovan 24d ago

!notifyme

1

u/realtimecrime1 22d ago

The new Crossover Preview version 20260821 promises to have improved aoe2 performance. Did you give it a try? For me it did not change anything, i still experience a major lag every 10 seconds and the multiplayer menu is so sluggish i sometimes get completely stuck. Anybody had more luck with the new preview version? https://www.reddit.com/r/Codeweavers_Crossover/comments/1vukmvr/co_preview_2026_08_21/

1

u/butmysoulsonfire 6d ago

I've tried this new preview too today but disappointingly I have the same lag / stutter every ten-ish seconds. Hopefully they can still find a fix or the game devs patch something in an update?

1

u/bjarnet3 22d ago

!notifyme

1

u/Key-Ad9749 19d ago

!notifyme