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Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition port fixed!

paulthetall

It took a bit of time, but we managed (thanks to Gcenx) to build-in the fix into the Engine and applied it on the Age of Empires Definitive ports (yeah to all 3 of them, so if you had issues with Age 3 DE, then reinstall the port as well). I never had so many e-mails regarding one game port, so I am happy it’s fixed.

This fix/update means you have to delete the old port and reinstall it again (includes now the updated engine). Thanks for the waiting and bearing with us. It’s not easy to keep track and fix with some companies (like Origin/Ubisoft Connect/Steam) and Apple manage to break :P. Have fun!

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paulthetall

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86 thoughts on “Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition port fixed!”

  3. tnx paul,
    i my version is slow is and lagging in team game or even 1v1, i have 900 score in porting kit, i used to have 1200 score in benchmark with cross over before.
    what can i do is crossover ok now? can i install direct x 11 if so how

  4. After re-installing AOE2, the steam does not launch anymore.

    When I launch the port, steam performs an update and then disappears. The steam.exe process is in the task manager and I can see it in the dock, but the window itself is nowhere to be found and the Steam icon does not exist in the status bar.

  6. I am also getting ~900 ranked benchmark test score. Even with the lowest graphics, it can only reach 930 which forbids multi-player.

  8. I am getting a “Select the EXE for Age of Empires 2 DE” screen. Steam is not getting installed.

    Am I doing something wrong? Can anyone please help?

  9. When playing the port, the wineskin screen with “Install Software” is showing up.
    Can anyone please help me?

  10. @nima and anonymous. Can you do another delete and reinstall port and see if performance is better?

  12. Hey Paul, thanks for working on this for us! I’ve removed the wrapper, uninstalled porting kit and re installed everything from scratch. It worked initially, but when I closed and reopened the game, I can’t get steam to load. Just nothing happens when I click Play in porting kit.

    Do you have any ideas on what I’m doing wrong / how I can fix this?

    Many thanks!

  13. ^ Ok, I narrowed this down some more. It seems that having my external monitor connecting is causing the issue. This was never a problem before, but if my screen is connected (via hdmi) then stream doesn’t load

  14. I am also getting the “Select the EXE for Age of Empires II DE” pop up during initial install. The only option is to click cancel a few times, then the installer says it has completed successfully. However steam is not installed and nothing works.

  15. Hello Paul and devs,

    So I tried with “Steambuild 2” port. Although the steam and the game got installed, the game won’t “play”. I believe the fix was only build into the “AOE2DE” port.
    FYI, the original issue is getting the “Select the EXE for Age of Empires II DE” screen and unable to install steam on the AOE2DE port.

  16. I removed the previous port en reinstalled it and it works again! (1220 points with the test) The only problem i have now is that the retina checkbox isn’t working. But that isn’t that big of a deal. Thx!

  18. @louis, Can you do one more time delete of port and reinstall? I made a slight of adjustment.

  19. @paulthetall Can you please tell us what PortingKit version is the latest? There’s no way in the app to “check and install updates” and I don’t know what the latest version is since you have not posted that anywhere on this site. I also don’t know if we should be updating PK itself, or doing a full uninstall of PortingKit itself + winetricks.

    Anyway, reinstalling now, but I’ve done 3 reinstalls and Steam only launched once but hasn’t launched again since. Will let you know after this if it works or not

  20. Dear Paul,
    Thank you for your efforts which you bring into PortingKit and supporting the macOS community.

    The latest port of AOE2DE executes for me well under macOS 13.4.1(c), on M1 max. With maximum game settings I achieve a benchmarking performance of 1190 points.

    Cheers, M.

  21. Recently installed sonoma because I heard aoe runs with apple game porting toolkit and I couldnt get it working with macos 13.4.1.. now, I am on sonoma, aoe doesnt work on sonoma either and this comes out for ventura. I’ve tried it on sonoma but does not work as it is not supported yet :/ I cannot go back easily – Can anyone provide an estimate whether porting toolkit will become available on sonoma before official sonoma release in fall?

  22. Hey Paul, thanks so much for the great work! I’m having a problem with the installing process though, and its the same as some others have said: a screen saying ‘select the exe for age of empires 2 ‘ pops up. If you bypass this then the game doesn’t launch. I’m not great with computers, so I hope the fix is less difficult than it seems. Any thoughts?

  23. hey paul thank you for your work !!!!But I am same as others like “select the exe of age of empires 2′ pop up, where can i get this one to select? Normally at least i can get into steam to download and install the AOE2. Now I startede the AOE2 and then it pop up wineskin and no idea what to do.

  24. Hi Paul,
    Regarding the “Select EXE for AOE2DE” issue, I have “reported a problem” from within the porting kit app along with the installation logs and computer specifications.
    Please have a look at it.

  25. Hi Paul, still no luck I’m afraid. I just can’t get steam to load when my external monitor is connected. I’m on OS 12 Monterrey, M1, and if my screens unplugged it works but is tempermental, but if I connect my screen while steam is open it immediately quits and doesn’t load again.

  26. About Mac OS Sonoma, it breaks almost everything except for the latest engine which also still needs work. When Sonoma gets out we hope Porting Kit is Sonoma ready with CX23 although there will be dozens of games which will not work on Sonoma which requires older engines not compatible with Sonoma.

  27. About Select exe. First make sure you updated to Mac OS 13.4, have your Mac rebooted since your last try to install (wine processes which still be active might be the cause of the issues. If it still occurs after that, go to preferences and select the checkbox for experimental mode. let Porting Kit update, restart when asked. Restart again after that, and check in the porting Kit info which PK version you have. Porting Kit 5.14.4 it should say. Then try again.

  28. I’m having a weird problem right now. After the new version I can install everything and play aoe2de, but after closing everything, if I try to open it again it crashes (show the steamwebhelper crash window). The steam update window appear for moments before closing and crashing. Restarting does not solve that, the experimental mode does not solve that. The only thing that makes it open again is completelly removing aoe2de from porting kit and installing everything again from the scratch – then it opens one more time and is usable, until it’s not again. I’m on m1 macos 13.4.1.

  29. Same issue for me. ‘Updating Steam’ box flashes up for a second then disappears.

  30. It only works the first time, after that Steam will never launch again. I think everyone else is experiencing this also :(

  32. I checked myself I can restart the game as many times I want without issues. However what I do noticed is that when closing steams some processes seems to hang of steam making starting steam not doing much. When going to “tools” in top bar (portingkit menu) then kill all wine processes, then I am able to start steam properly again and play the game.

  33. Hi Paul, I had tried before though killing processes inside though task manager but that didn’t work, I wasn’t aware of the Kill all wine processes yet. I was playing a bit before checking this one, but no luck for me. Tried with and without experimental tools, both just killling wine processes and together with clearing caches. Same happens, steam open trying to update and then closes. A bit after comes the message that steamwebhelper crashed.

  34. Getting the same issues. Launches the first time then steam never launches again. Have killed all wine processes and done complete reinstalls of both the port and porting kit. Always works the first time and then steam doesn’t launch after that. Shows up in the dock and taskbar but won’t actually open.

  36. macos 13.4.1 and tried first with experimental and then disabled it, restarted and tried again.

  39. i clicked on “show in finder” and then opened the game throught there and that seemed to do the trick, steam didnt crash this time.

  40. Regarding the “Select exe” issue, I followed the steps mentioned by Paul and it fixed the issue. Now I am able to play.
    Thanks a lot Paul.

    For others reference, Paul’s comment – https://www.paulthetall.com/age-of-empires-2-definitive-edition-port-fixed/#comment-1596
    — actual steps I did:
    – Updated MacOS to 13.4
    – Updated Porting Kit to 5.13

    (I also noticed that the game is running a lot smoother than before. Not sure if it is Mac Ventura or Porting Kit or the recent update of the game itself)

  41. Was on macos 13.0 and then updated to 13.4.1. No change.

    Have tired both experimental and normal version of portingkit

  42. I’m dying to test sebastian’s workaround but after downloading aoe+updates 4 times in the last 3 days, I’m going with anonymous solution, leaving steam open 24/7

  43. Hello, thanks Paul for your great work, I greatly appreciate it!
    I am having the same issue like other users here. The game only works after the first clean and full installation (port AND game). I had completely uninstalled and installed it several times. In my case, when I want to use it another time after closing it, when I click on the AoE port the wine64-preloader popup opens, loads something quickly and it stays in the background and nothing happens. Other times nothing happens at all but if I click the port again it tells me there is already a process open.
    Reading comments I’ve started wondering if I need to install separately the Steam port (before this update I didn’t need it). In that case which Steam port should I install? Any other suggestion or workaround? Thanks again.

    Game: Age of Empire 2 DE
    Computer: MacBook Air 8 GB
    OS: 13.4.1 (c) (22F770820d)

  44. Interesting update. After few hours I noticed the steam icon on the top bar of my Macbook. I clicked on it and I received a message of an error in launching Steam saying steamwebhelper.exe was not responding. I chose the option to restart the Steam software and it started, once there I was able to start again the AoE2DE game. But the problem remains, if I close it, it won’t start straight away. Weird.

  45. Yeah, I’ve done everything: uninstall the whole thing including WineTricks and then reinstalled everything including PK from scratch. Steam and AOE will launch once and then Steam will never launch again. FWIW, Crossover also has a huge thread about Steam not launching at all and they are aware of it. https://www.codeweavers.com/support/forums/general/?t=27;msg=279837

    There’s a lot of launch options in that thread that people try to pass in, but honestly, I don’t want to waste time with that because it will of course break in he next update and require new launch options.

    I think apple getting into this with their game porting kit really makes things exciting for us to try and get an official thing.

    Running 13.4.1 (22F82) on an Apple M1 Max no external monitor, just the laptop.

  46. also clearing all caches? Using “tools” -> “clear caches” (installed ports are found in your profile -> applications folder. These can be re-added again after clearing cache). Also we expect CX23 coming up very soon as well, so worst case scenario that engine will work for the ones who have still issues.

  47. Yep, cleared all caches. Restarts. OS fully updated. Everything else force quit. No wine apps running in activity monitor. Still nothing.

  48. I am having a weird problem now. Even though I am able to play, the game experience stuttering every 8 game-seconds.
    From Reddit & Codeweavers forums, I realized that it is a known issue. However, I started experiencing this with the latest port.

    If anyone know a fix please share it with me.
    Thanks in advance.

  50. Hi again,

    Regarding the stuttering issue, I saw some comments on other forums about updating “DXVK”. I assume this should be already handled in the port as the comments are posted 1yr ago.
    However, can anyone please confirm if I need to update this? If yes, how can I do it?
    Thanks a lot.

  51. i can confirm that opening porting kit and right clicking age of empires and clicking “show on finder”, then opening the game from there, works every time, i haven’t had an error since i started using this method. i’m on macOS Ventura 13.0

  53. can you try Age of Empires 3 port and see if the issue is there as well (you can install age 2 in there as well).

  54. As Sebastian mentioned, if i go to “show on finder” and I run the age from there it works for me

  56. Hi Paul, I tried with the new fix but same for me it’s not working. I still got this message : “Select the EXE for “Age of Empires 2 DE”
    Thanks a lot,
    Arthur

  57. @paulthetall the .exe issue is still not fixed, please help. We can’t even install the game past this point.

  59. Also update to latest experimental mode of Porting Kit and test that as well.

  61. (I’m on the 5.14.5 version of porting kit – i restarted several times as well)

  62. I am on MacOS 13.5. I have tried both version 5.13.8 and 5.14.5 of Porting Kit. I have removed the game and reinstalled it from scratch. Unfortunately, after the installation of Steam, the window just disappeared and nothing happened, although I can see steam.exe and steamwebhelper.exe in Task Manager.

  63. Okeej…made another change which might be the solution for the issue for the people experiencing it…retry install please.

  64. Hi Paul, I still have this message requesting the .exe for Age of empire 2 : – /
    Thanks for your efforts anyway !

  66. Latest version from 01/08/2023 is not working on Macbook Pro 8GB M1 Ventura 13.5.

    I will run one time but will not start again. Tried reinstalling several times

  68. I’m on a Macbook Pro M2 Max running 13.4.1(c). I downloaded and reinstalled Porting Kit and then the port. I was able to get steam to open and play the game once but I will not open again. I have restarted my system and no luck.

  69. Hi Matt! Do you use the steam build 64 bit install on portingkit before you open steam? Then install aoe 2de? I haven’t been able to play since the problem started in June. Desperately hoping for a fix. Have tried multiple deletions and reinstalled multiple times.

  70. I have the same problem as the previous three posters (Steam only launches as intended once, immediately following install). However: if I try opening it again later, a little Steam symbol will appear in the menu bar at the top of the screen after 10-20 seconds. Clicking on that brings up an error window that steamwebhelper.exe has crashed, with several options. Clicking “Restart Steam” (first option) then launches Steam properly. Single player works for the most part, though I get the occasional crash to desktop (seems to happen more frequently when I want to change maps). I haven’t tried multiplayer.

    Ventura 13.5
    MacBook Air M1 8GB

  71. I didn’t try to install the latest version, but it’s working for me opening porting kit, right click on the port, ‘show in finder’ and open the game from there. Sometimes it also works with the relaunch steam on steamwebhelper.exe crash window but it’s not 100%. I wanted to install the latest port version to check but I’m afraid to lose this workaround.

  72. Hi Victor! I have to first open the 64 bit steambuild before I can open aoe 2 de in steam. Exactly what is it you are right clicking? In portingkit or in steam?

  73. HH, I open porting kit, go to library tab and right click the list item “age of empires 2 – definitive ed.”, then show in finder and double click the age of empires there

  74. I’m still not able to get Steam to start after a new installation. The Steam update appears for a second and then disappears… (mac air m1, ventura 13.5 and porting kit 5.14.5 (5.14.5)). Any ideas?

  75. I can only get steam to launch after a new installation of Porting Kit and AOE2:DE.
    M1 Mac, ventura, 5.13.8

  76. Not sure if it is the cause, but previously I never succeeded in launching steam after installation when my system language was Chinese. After setting it to English, steam launched successfully after installation, and I was able to download and run the game flawlessly.

  77. However, I should mention that the game crashes after clicking the button to select a new map in single-player random map game.

  79. I have downloading the latest version of Porting Kit 5.13.8 and now every time I try to Use Age of empires 2 HD it never launches and doesn’t make the file properly, makes the skin successfully after pressing cancel a bunch of times because the age of empires exe. doesn’t pop up anywhere. played just fine in June 2023 just tried since then last night and now it gives me nothing but problems, wineskin will ask to “install software” but won’t do it anywhere, all my options are greyed out. Please help I have so many hours in this game and really don’t want to buy a PC just for this.

  80. Hi can you sent me an email using the contact, then I will try to figure out what goes wrong on your machine.

  83. i was able to open and play but 3 days ago this issue got worse, so I uninstalled and installed everything and now im unable to play

  86. Nope. When you try to start the game you get a black screen, music and boom: “Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition encountered a problem”… :’-(

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