Game will not launch [MacOS]

[heredosjs]

I've been playing a lot of HOI4 recently and I was excited to try Victoria 3 but I'm running into persistent issues at launch.

I installed the base game through Steam on MacBook (Sonoma 14.5). I can open the launcher from the Steam client, but then, after showing the loading screen for a moment, the screen goes black except for the pocket watch loading mouse. The game just hangs there for a 10+ minutes before I either force quit the application or it crashes my laptop entirely, causing a full reboot.

Before two crash reboots, I force quit once, then deliberately restarted the laptop, reinstalled the application, and had to force quit another launch. I also validated the installation through the Steam client.

 

[AndrewT]

If your model of Mac only has an Intel video system, that is probably the cause of your problem. This game now only uses Vulkan as a renderer, not openGL any longer. And Vulkan does not run well or in some cases at all on Intel video Macs. FYI this game has never been supported on that hardware platform since release, so really it's a matter of luck that it ever worked!

If that is the situation, all you can do is revert to a previous game version in the Steam betas tab for the game. Or play on any other machine you have access to with supported hardware. OR if you have Apple Bootcamp installed, play in Windows there. Or, if you've just bought the game, seek a refund from that store.

Other options include ussing an eGPU, or a hosting service such as GeForce Now.

If however that is not the case - ie that your Mac has AMD video or is on Apple Silicon - that's a different matter; let us know here and we'll look into your case more closely.

 

[heredosjs]

Thanks for the quick response. It looks like I am using Intel graphics, so I think I'll try an earlier version. What is the most recent version I'll be able to run?

 

[heredosjs]

I tried every major version back to 1.1 with no luck, so I don't think it's going to work out for me until I break down and get a PC. I've requested a refund from Steam. Thanks anyway.