Parallels 3.0 and game compatibility...

[Shaun666]

Hi,
I frequently use Windows for running games that I used to have for my PC so I thought I would buy Parallels and give it a go. And now I have decided to download a not so demanding poker application (PKR Poker - pkr.com) and whenever I try to start it I get "Could not initialize client - Cant create a D3D device" I have asked their support and they said that they don't know how but they have heard that users are using emulators such as this. How can I fix it so that it will work?
Thanks

Shaun

[Stevamundo]

I assume that it needs 3D to run. If so, then you have to wait until Parallels 3.0 comes out.

[alzaba]

Does FSX under Vista work in parrallels??
I installed FSX but got a start up message saying my video driver was out of date?????

Anybody help??

[Farsinsen]

Did you manage to get PKR to run?

Just installed Parallels 3188 hoping that PKR would run. Still get the same error though:

Could not initialize client - Cant create a D3D device - -2005530516, -2005530518 (Render Init) (Render Init)

Anyone?

[darkone]

again, as steve said. the current released version of parallels does not include 3d support.

[snodman]

Right. Most games require direct access to the 3D card and the current release of Parallels does not support that. Version 3.0 (due to be released Real Soon Now) has such support.

[ricka]

Hi guys,

I thought I'd start a thread to talk about peoples experiences with Games under 3.0. I look forward to reading the responses.

Please post, the game name, the specs on your mac and how playable the game is under normal, super hi res and minumal settings.

Personally I want to know how half-life 2 plays.

Thanks,

--Rick

[Faye]

Well, so far I'm totally unimpressed. "Delivered in 3.0:...3d graphics, DirectX and OpenGL support" Great! I thought, I can finally play sam & max (oh yeah, I go for the hardcore stuff!)

Sorry, Can't initialise Direct X.

So far a waste of the upgrade fee.

Sigh.


Faye

[desh]

I'm using my bootcamp XP install and had to go into the VM properties and turn on Direct X. Once done, I was able to load and launch Eve-Online. Window mode (for the game) appears to have mouse coordinate issues and there were some graphical glitches to the progress dialogs, but once I went full screen things worked great!

[Faye]

Thank you thank you! Why don't they enable this by default?!

OK Sam and Max, danger beckons!

Oh, and don't run in coherence mode, or you'll get a mostly white screen with the game in the top left corner.

Seems to run at normal speed. Yay!

I take back "waste of upgrade.." heh, worth every penny.


Faye

[Mac Write]

Games I am interested in are Splinter Cell series, Rainbow Six series, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3,

Anyone have these?

[ClunkClunk]

I just tried it with a few of the games I have on my Boot Camp partition.

• X-Wing Alliance - No good. The game launches, and will let me start a mission, but the frame rate is about 0.5fps, not playable at all. Plus it seems the models are not textured, but are flat grey. It came out in 1999, so I wasn't really surprised.

• Oblivion - No good. It reported Unknown Video Hardware, and defaulted to Medium video settings. It tried to load, then crashed, and popped up one of those "Report it to Microsoft" errors.

• KOTOR - No good. The same error as Oblivion after it tries to load the start screen.

• Star Trek Elite Force II - Works wonderfully. I was surprised, as I haven't played this game in months, but it loads and runs perfectly through Parallels 3.0. I'd say the framerates are about 90% of what I get while booted in to Windows. I was pleasantly surprised.

[jvgfanatic]

Europa Universalis III - No good. Failed to create a graphics device. Not surprising as I think the specs for this game are rather high. I will take another look and try again. I'll edit my post if I learn anything.

It does run under boot camp, btw.

Requires 128MB video ram, i see that Parallels only allows up to 64MB. (This as is made clear by Andrew's post below, is irrelevant).

And yes, Andrew, I made sure the DirectX option was checked :)

Oh, and good news is that we Mac users will be getting our own EUIII soon enough, yay!

[gideony]

I get the feeling that us early adopters are really getting hosed here pretty well.


Of course, we CHOSE to be early adopters... but I know I made that decision based on Parallels not disappointing in prior tests. This round, however... they aren't bringing anything all that new to the game, and poor implementation of what they did.

So, I'm disappointed. I've been waiting for this 3d support to actually buy Parallels, but tested the earlier versions... I'm glad I finally have it, but I feel cheated. I'm going to try a few games I have later, but I doubt any will work.

[Andrew @ Parallels]

Guys,

Please don't forget to check on DirectX checkbox in Video tab in VM config for DirectX games. Video RAM size is not relevant - keep it default. Both OpenGL and DirectX support use native video RAM on your host video card. Video RAM settings is relevant only for Windows GDI resolution.

[eyamanak]

Star Wars: Empire at War, Forces of Corruption expansion starts and runs OK. It's pokey, but it's already kinda pokey under native Boot Camp on my MacBook 2GB.

Civilization 4 crashes when you get to the Main Menu. It launches ok, opening intro video runs, but starts choking. Audio during the intro is fine.

--Erick

[jvgfanatic]

Well I decided to increase the screen size for EUIII and now I'm getting the error:

"requires 128MB of video ram"

Ahem. well, I've got plenty more than that on my 17"MBP2.33

I'm assuming that it's actually an incorrect error. EUIII requires DirectX 9.0c and hardware pixelshaders. It does run under Boot Camp but Parallels seems to want to choke on it (or it chokes on Parallels, hard to say :))

[spullara]

Whenever it tries to start I get a:

Engine Error:

failed to lock vertex buffer in CMeshDX8::LockVertexBuffer

Oh well, bootcamp remains the only solution to get my fix.

[rkadowns]

I'm going old school here to report that Drakan, Order of the Flame appears to work fine. FWIW, the game works while in coherence mode if the game is set to run in full screen mode but not in windowed. Doesn't seem to be a problem when the VM is in full screen mode either way.

Not that the requirements of this game are anything to worry about, I'm quite impressed at how smooth the game runs. Nice.

[AlanH]

I think I detect a backward step.

Civilization III Conquests used to run OK in version 2.5 of Parallels, but having downloaded and installed the version 3 trial it doesn't run at all. All I get is a splash screen for a few seconds, then zilch.

[DsurioN]

Here are a few games I've tried so far:

Ballance (Marble rolling game) - Launches, but is "invisible". I can hear the menu clicks when i click in the black screen with my mouse. Had to terminate with task manager.

Luxor 2 - Launches, but again is invisible.

Bejeweled 2 - Runs perfectly well

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 - Runs relatively well, there are some graphical glitches with the lawn and such though. Menu actually seems more sluggish than the game itself...

All in all, things work relatively well, I'm pleased to report. I don't know why some games are able to launch but not display anything.

[mpetry]

SupCom fails with a dialog box of "Minimum Vertex and Pixel Shader version 2.0 required.
Please ensure sytem has current video drivers."

I'll have to continue to keep work and play separate.

Or at least until a future release.

[czenzel]

Has anybody tried to run any games on Vista instead of Windows XP in Parallels?

[jvgfanatic]

I think I detect a backward step.

Civilization III Conquests used to run OK in version 2.5 of Parallels, but having downloaded and installed the version 3 trial it doesn't run at all. All I get is a splash screen for a few seconds, then zilch.

eeek. I've got some 2D strategy games that ran great in 2.5. I hope they still work in 3.0!

[stokkes]

Anyone get Half-life2 running half decently?

MBP CoreDuo 2.16Ghz, 2GB of ram ATI X1600

Runs rather slowly.. not really playable.

[Luctus]

When running Guild Wars with default settings, the graphical glitches makes it impossible to even log in. After setting DirectX 8 compitability and disabeling shaders in Guild Wars, the graphical glitches goes away, but it's still unplayable due to far too low framerate. Also, when trying to play in full-screen mode, it leaves the taskbar and the bottom part of desktop still visible.

Tried on a MacBook@2Ghz with 1,2Gb of RAM.

[bxlewi1]

It's unplayable on my MBP 2.33, 3GB, X1600 @ 256MB. Not native speed at all (I've played it in boot camp and it plays like butta)

Anyone get Half-life2 running half decently?

MBP CoreDuo 2.16Ghz, 2GB of ram ATI X1600

Runs rather slowly.. not really playable.

[XeRXeS]

Putting in my two cents for the slightly obscure set of games that most people won't even try :p


System
=====
Computer: iMac
CPU: 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 2gb RAM (768mb assigned to VM)
Virtual OS: Windows XP SP2


Games tried thus far
=============
Half-Life (Standard install from "Half-Life Generation" box set, not Steam) - Runs perfectly smoothly with OpenGL at 1280x960, only offers up to 1024x768 in the Direct3D tab for some reason but that works fine as well.

Hitman: Codename 47 - Installs and runs fine, works absolutely perfectly and smoothly at high resolution (I was testing 1280x1024 though it goes up to 1600x1200) with all graphics settings enabled (including Anisotropic filtering) on both OpenGL and DirectX rendering.

Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix - Installs and runs fine, seems fairly smooth regardless of graphics settings.

Thief - Installs fine and runs but lags unplayably badly.

Thief II - Same result as Thief.

System Shock 2 - Same result as Thief and Thief II (though uses a similar engine). Particularly difficult as it isn't really compatible with Windows XP to begin with and takes some tweaking to even get running.

(Notably Thief, Thief II and SS2 are all DirectX 7.0 games but also by the same company and with similar / same engines, so it's hard to know what is at fault for the speed.)

No One Lives Forever 2 - Installs and runs fine, crashes out completely when you try and start a game. When patched to v1.3, renders cutscenes THEN crashes out. :P

Dungeon Keeper - Won't run, but I don't think it does on Windows XP at the best of times, so that can't really be helped. ;)

I'm still tinkering with a lot of random games just to try things out, so I'll post more as I find them :P

[purephase]

Half-life 2 will launch, but it's not really playable. Still impressed though. I could definitely see less video intensive games working just fine.

[Alex Suraci]

Ragnarok Online runs great, but there's one problem: Most 3D elements - buildings, and other things like lamp posts and such - don't load. The shadows and NPCs and everything else works fine, though.

[Kylew01@mac.com]

I cannot open any of the Microsoft games that come with Windows Vista (business edition). Every game gives me the same error. I tried this on two different computers and got the same result. One computer was off of boot camp, one off of an image.

Kyle

[stokkes]

Odd you say that, HL2 runs fine in native windows on my system (through bootcamp).


It's unplayable on my MBP 2.33, 3GB, X1600 @ 256MB. Not native speed at all (I've played it in boot camp.)

[Ambival]

Was waiting for the upgrade to arrive so I could play Titan's Quest without having to reboot. Installed the game and it refused to start. Applied all of the latest patches and now the screen goes completely white, the sound stutters and after a bit, Parallels crashed completely.

I'm running a 2.66 Mac Pro w/512M ATI video and 3 gig memory. So far, it's been a complete bust.

[Falconfire]

FFXI = glitching before even getting out of POL (as in you cant see anything period in the login screen, though its there as it makes the sounds as if it where displaying properly)

without DirectX it will show up, but then you cant log to FFXI from POL.

Going to set autologin for my POL account and see if it changes once you get into POL.

considering that its usually glitched when its not running in Direct X, and its not even showing up when it is I dont hold much hope for it working. Too bad too, glad I am using the trial.


Edit: no go, auto logs in fine, but its never displays a window anywhere, back to bootcamp for me until Parallels team can fix this.

[bxlewi1]

Yes, I was using that to compare to the VM speed. I should edit that post.

Odd you say that, HL2 runs fine in native windows on my system (through bootcamp).

[Cyphin6]

Supreme Commander and Civ4 doesn't run at all, the only games I really want to play in Windows :(

[Mac Write]

I try to launch SplinterCell Choas Theory and and it quits saying encountered a problem. Doesn't get past the splash screen. see attached screenshot. In the Splinter Cell config utility it says Video memory only 16MB.

[Ambival]

You can change the detected amount of video memory past 16m in the VM editor, but that seems to only help you get past video checks.

As a follow up, I've installed Neverwinter Nights 2 (my other favorite title) and the latest updates. "No Direct3D Compatible Devices found!". And yes, "Enable Direct X" was checked in the VM editor settings.

[Maize]

My system: MacBook Pro Core Duo 2.0GHz, 2GB RAM.

Sam & Max (the new Telltale episodes): They work, but performance is poor. I wouldn't call them wildly playable. Some weird graphical glitches when switching between various modes or resolutions in the game.

Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express: Game with all options except animation effects turned on plays fine. Some textures are... quite weird. Game is very dark, main character has blanks for eyes. Very creepy! The whole screen is shifted up by some number of pixels, which can make the interface bar at the top of the screen a little harder to hit. Blue segment at the bottom of the screen in the area exposed by the upward shift of the rest.

[sandau]

MBP Core Duo, Windows XP

CounterStrike:Source, running the video stress test:

Parallels to boot camp partition: 11fps @ 1024x768 / DirectX8.1, 1024mb ram
Boot Camp - 55.74fps @ 1280x800 / DirectX9, 2gb ram

[iowastate89]

MacBook Pro (3GB, 2.33GHz core duo 2), enabled directx and at least got the start screen...

Initially got a warning that my video card might not have enough memory to play...

After selecting "start new game" (music was playing ok), it hung with a very slow galaxy spinning around, and eventually crashed out :( FWIW, just like on my Dell, the fan really kicked in fairly quickly in GalCiv (very heavy hungry on the processor)

(Also this was for Dark Avatar, all up to date via stardock central)

Hopefully they will improve compatibility soon!

[cbandes]

So when the ads promised 3D gaming support I thought maybe it meant that I could run 3D games in 3.0. As others have said, Oblivion and GalCiv are disasters, and really those are the only two games that matter to me at all at the moment.

I realize that we take a risk when pre-ordering to save some cash, but in this case I feel like I was robbed. 3.0 offers no new features of any value except 3D support, and that support is not working.

Yes, I enabled DirectX in the VM prefs, yes I made sure DirectX was installed properly, yes I have a legit license... No, I will not accept shoddy software - this is inexcusable.

Parallels - what is your plan for giving us real support and/or refunds?

[rackbreaker]

MBP C2D, XP -- same result as above with Civilization 4 (intro plays fine, crashes on trying to launch main menu). Event viewer shows this error:

"Faulting application civilization4.exe, version 1.6.1.1841, faulting module msvcrt.dll, version 7.0.2600.2180, fault address 0x00037094."

[akp]

Enabled DirectX3D support in 3.0, but cannot run Joost (not a game, but a video app that requires DirectX) nor can I run "7 Wonders of the Ancient World" - a simple Bejeweled like puzzle game.

[evansims]

On a (Quad) Mac Pro, Boot Camp partition, 2GB of RAM and an ATI X1900 XT:

EverQuest 2 runs satisfactorily, though one has to crank their graphics options virtually to the minimum. Major graphical issues at character select screen.

Battlefield 2142 doesn't even load for me - screen goes black, then it terminates. No errors, just desktop.

[macCesar]

I was able to install and play 'Operation Flashpoint Cold War Crisis' with very good speed. I think its the same speed as when I tested it with BootCamp when it was first available.

I know its an old game.. but that's the only one that I have for PC.

[Mac Write]

Good news, upping VRAM to 64MB got it past the check. I read that that didn't matter thought as it accessed the VRAM directly, and the VRAM slider was for resolution only.

Bad news, still get the same error message!!!

[Slowduck]

Supreme Commander and Civ4 doesn't run at all, the only games I really want to play in Windows :(

Actually, if you follow the hints from earlier in the thread about going into your VM settings and enabling DirectX, CIV IV will load...but on my macbook pro core 2 duo 2gig ram, windows xp home on parallels 3.0 it says that my graphics capabilities are way too low, sets EVERYTHING to low and then is unplayably laggy....

I wonder if anyone knows of other settings to tweak to make sure this games plays....

[mechcon]

I'm trying to get Deus Ex working.. anyone here managed to get it to work well? please share your experience :)

[lundman]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R loads fine, and runs.. a bit slow though. Not had much time to check it.

[jeadhob]

Cannot get Vanguard SOH to run. I posted about it on a previous post but basically when it boots into bootcamp... no issues. When it loads up from Parrelles, the Catalist drivers don't properly load ( i guess they there is a different driver set up) and the shaders are not up to the level that Vanguard requires. If anyone else has got this to work in parrelles I would love to know your fix. Btw, i can get all the way up to the character selection screen then the game bombs out... Also, is there a way in parrelles to get it to use all the VRAM that an Intel Imac has? I max out at only 64MB which is half of its total??? Thanks in adavace

[WillLisac]

mac pro (quad) 5GB ram, x1900 graphics...

call of duty 2 plays very poorly... i was hoping for a lot more but i guess we will just have to wait

[Davman]

MacBook Pro C2D Running WinXP

Game Support


GTA: San Andreas - No (Crashes VM back to OSX desktop)
Lord Of The Rings Online No (Cannot find desired display mode)
Tomb Raider: Anniversary Yes (Only when VM is fullscreen. Very very very slow)

[AlanH]

I think I detect a backward step.

Civilization III Conquests used to run OK in version 2.5 of Parallels, but having downloaded and installed the version 3 trial it doesn't run at all. All I get is a splash screen for a few seconds, then zilch.

I've found a fix. I had KeepRes=1 set in my conquests.ini file. This tells the game not to change XP's configured screen resolution when it starts. I changed that back to its default of KeepRes=0, and Civ3 Conquests now runs fine again.

[crag]

Same as others. Civ4 loads then crashes as the game menu appears.

GalCiv won't even run.

On a MBP 17" 2.33 Intel, 2GB RAM and 256 Video Card.

I was gonna try WOW just for kicks. I mean the Mac client for WOW is dame good. But what's the point? I doubt it'll work. And even it it did, all the settings turned down and the low FR will kill it.

I'll give you guy some time before I drop this software all together. Looks like back to Boot Camp for the time being :(

[labber]

Well the one game i was hoping work doesn't seem to work. It start the game and then the screen goes to black for maybe 20 - 30 seconds and then it just goes back t the desktop. I have checked the direct x box and turned video memory to 64mb (even though you said it doesn't matter). I'm assuming its because the version of direct x is only 8 (according to a previous post that ran a benchmark) Any word on when direct x 9 support will be incorporated?

[NATO]

Just reporting in on what games I've tried so far:

Thief - Installs and runs, but is unplayably slow

Thief II - Installs and runs, but it unplayably slow

Thief : Deadly Shadows - Installs, but crashes out to the desktop after the intro FMVs

Half-Life : Works fine in both OpenGL and Direct3D

Chessmaster 10th Edition - Installs, but runs only in OpenGL mode (Graphical corruption in Direct3D), but performance is absolutely perfect in OpenGL mode.

Grim Fandango - Installs and runs, but is quite laggy.

[Ankou]

Dear customers
Please, remember, what Parallels Desktop 3.0 is the first released virtualization software to deliver 3D support to the Mac. There are still some limitations on using the 3D support, please consider the following:
° The current version have been tested with and has the confirmed 3D support for the limited number of applications listed in the Release Notes (Macintosh HD - Applications - Parallels - Release Notes.pdf). It doesn't mean that the program not in that list won't run, but we can't guarantee the 3D support for it.
° Parallels Desktop 3.0 virtualizes both OpenGL and DirectX 3D support, but you should enable the DirectX support manually in the VM configuration in order for it to work. Open the VM configuration - click on the "Video" option and make sure that "Enable DirectX support" is checked.

-- Removed part about copy protection issues
-- Reason - violation of Parallels official postion
-- Andrew @ Parallels

Please excuse us for the inconvenience, we are working hard on solving the issues above. The minor (free) update will be delivered for Parallels Desktop 3.0 soon and it should help you with the problem.

[labber]

Is there any noticeable difference for between boot camp and a virtual disk when it comes to running games. Is one better than the other?

[Nightwolf]

System:

Mac OS X 10.4.9
Intel CoreDuo 2,0 GHz
1,5 GB Ram

Parallels 3.0 - Windows XP SP2

Carmageddon TDR 2000 - No
Diablo 2 Classic - No
Diablo 2 : LoD - No

[Bllaxx]

MacBook Pro C2D Running WinXP

Game Support


Lord Of The Rings Online No (Cannot find desired display mode)

If you edit the UserPreferences.ini to let it start in Windowed-mode, the error does not appear anymore. But, the screen just goes white and nothing more seems to happen...

[darkvad0r]

Hi all,
I own a MBP C2D 2,33GHz, 2GB of RAM with ATI X1600 (256MB of VRAM) and I've been trying to run Frets on Fire, so far with no luck (coherence, full screen and windowed mode). Here's the log:

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "FretsOnFire.py", line 64, in ?

File "GameEngine.pyo", line 155, in __init__

File "Video.pyo", line 68, in setMode

pygame.error: Unable to reset window for OpenGL context

[Art]

I eventually got Total Annihilation running fine (Win98 compatibility mode), but the colors are awful :(

[Shidayu]

My system information in signature. I installed Windows XP fresh after upgrading to Parallels 3.0 to avoid conflicts with previously-installed software.


Half-Life 2

Settings: All graphics options to their lowest levels, resolution to lowest value with normal (non-widescreen) aspect ratio.
Areas tested: Didn't have much time, but will test more later. Installed through Steam, loaded it up, and short run through the game. Got to where Barney brings Gordon into the interrogation room and calls up Dr. Kleiner on the communications screen.
Reaction: Game runs okay; considering that I have one of the first MBPs to roll off of the assembly line, the game seems responsive enough to be worth a look in Parallels virtualization. Framerate is quite sluggish even at the lowest settings. I will be testing more tonight, but my impression is that more game "action" will cause the game to grind down to an unplayable state.
Quirks: If the game is run in Coherence, portions of the game screen will be blank white, but you can see enough to tell that something is happening back there somewhere. Also, if the game is run with a widescreen aspect ratio, the in-game menus go about 100px up the screen from where they should be. Mouse input, however, still thinks the menu controls are where they "should" be, so you have to "click" on elements by finding the right spot on the screen about 100px away.If anyone here knows of any tricks to try to improve performance, even at the cost of quality, I am all ears.

While it is not the same fluid gameplay I am used to with a pure Windows box I used to own long ago, this is an extremely promising leap for Mac switchers and gamers. Much praise to the Parallels team for doing this up right, and I am eager to see future updates.

[moseph]

Microsoft's Flight Simulator X SP1 does not work and its MS certified. The start screen loads but when you hit fly it crashes.

Microsoft's Flight Simulator 2004 loads the start screen but the window that shows the aircraft that you have chosen is blacked out and when you start the game all you see is black.

Lock On Flaming Cliffs 1.12b starts up but it crashes when you hit fly.

However I am able to use some developer tools which use DirectX. I didn't expect the games to work but it would have been nice. It doesn't speak to great for version 3.0 and the claim it makes in the advertisement.
"New! Run today’s most popular PC games on a Mac with support for 3D graphics"

I would recommend getting the trial first before paying for it if DirectX support is one of the main purposes for getting Parallels 3.0. It certainly is not worth the cost to upgrade at this point since it has limited 3D support.

If anyone has any suggestion on what to try feel free to post them.

[moseph]

Dear customers
Please, remember, what Parallels Desktop 3.0 is the first released virtualization software to deliver 3D support to the Mac. There are still some limitations on using the 3D support, please consider the following:
° The current version have been tested with and has the confirmed 3D support for the limited number of applications listed in the Release Notes (Macintosh HD - Applications - Parallels - Release Notes.pdf). It doesn't mean that the program not in that list won't run, but we can't guarantee the 3D support for it.


You have Half-life 2 in the advertising and that would lead one to believe that the support is pretty solid.


° Parallels Desktop 3.0 virtualizes both OpenGL and DirectX 3D support, but you should enable the DirectX support manually in the VM configuration in order for it to work. Open the VM configuration - click on the "Video" option and make sure that "Enable DirectX support" is checked.
I am pretty sure most of the people in this forum figured that out especially if they figured out how to do the upgrade with little instruction.


° There are also some issues possible with running your 3D application due to the copy-protection mechanism used in it. Some copy-protection systems won't recognize the original CD connected to the Virtual Machine and may stop you from successfully running the software. Please check if your state laws permit you to work around the copy protection software as long as you have the original program disk. Unfortunately we can't provide you any details on bypassing the copy protection as it can be considered violation of the some countrys' laws regarding intellectual property.
Most popular games have copy protection. Your advertisement said it would work with the hottest popular games. There is no fine print stating that the 3D support is very limited at the moment. http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/


Please excuse us for the inconvenience, we are working hard on solving the issues above. The minor (free) update will be delivered for Parallels Desktop 3.0 soon and it should help you with the problem.

Please excuse us if we advise our customers to avoid purchasing Parallels due to lack of compatibilty and support. Your post is appreciated however the BS isn't. And I certainly don't think it's professional for you to be advising people to go around copy protection because your software is incompatible with the most popular games.

[enicholas]

SimCity 4 complains that it can't initialize DirectDraw.

The Movies complains that it can't initialize DirectX.

Half Life works great.

[DaMaDo]

I tried eve online, EQ2 and WoW. Eve launched but I didn't even click on my character to fully log in since the background was like a slideshow. EQ2 I logged in but the screen never fully came up. It was all black then sometimes I'd see some names pop up and the screen would turn white/blue. WoW seemed to work but a little choppy. I had it at 800x600 though.

I also get this error:
http://www.damado.com/pics/error.jpg

This happens every now and then.

[nesheroj]

Ragnarok Online (korean) is pretty playable though buildings are invisible. Now testing Ragnarok Online 2

[nschum]

on a low-end MBP C2D w/ 2GB RAM in XP


* Sam & Max:
runs fine, pushing the fan a little harder than usual and no antialiasing

* Anno 1602
runs fine, but starts out in 16 colors, had to alt-tab into Display Properties in-game to change to 32bit.

* Master of Orion 2
runs fine, ditto 16 colors

* Typing of the Dead
runs fine

[evanhatesspam]

Sid Meier's Pirates

Crashes following main menu of game, when clicking on 'Start Game'

Direct X enabled in Parallels
Patched-up Win XP SP2
Latest Parallels b4124
MacBook Pro 17" Core Duo, 2GB RAM
OS X 10.4.9 patched-up

[mkummer]

Microsoft's Flight Simulator X SP1 does not work and its MS certified. The start screen loads but when you hit fly it crashes.

Microsoft's Flight Simulator 2004 loads the start screen but the window that shows the aircraft that you have chosen is blacked out and when you start the game all you see is black.

Lock On Flaming Cliffs 1.12b starts up but it crashes when you hit fly.

However I am able to use some developer tools which use DirectX. I didn't expect the games to work but it would have been nice. It doesn't speak to great for version 3.0 and the claim it makes in the advertisement.
"New! Run today’s most popular PC games on a Mac with support for 3D graphics"

I would recommend getting the trial first before paying for it if DirectX support is one of the main purposes for getting Parallels 3.0. It certainly is not worth the cost to upgrade at this point since it has limited 3D support.

If anyone has any suggestion on what to try feel free to post them.
On my MacBook Pro 17 its about the same: FS 98 runs only in 540x480 window, FS 3004 shows only black screen. Tiger Woods PGA 2006 installs but does not load...

[Caesar]

Can someone please test Pro Evolution Soccer 6?


Thanks :D

[AlanH]

Actually, if you follow the hints from earlier in the thread about going into your VM settings and enabling DirectX, CIV IV will load...but on my macbook pro core 2 duo 2gig ram, windows xp home on parallels 3.0 it says that my graphics capabilities are way too low, sets EVERYTHING to low and then is unplayably laggy....

I wonder if anyone knows of other settings to tweak to make sure this games plays....
That's a shame, though not really unexpected. Civ4 has always been excessively demanding on graphics hardware considering it's a turn-based strategy game. So the fact that Aero won't run in Parallels 3.0 was a pretty strong clue that Civ4 wouldn't, either.

I have Civ4 and Warlords for Mac OS, but I wonder if Parallels' promised Aero-capable update will get the DirectX support level up high enough to allow me to use it for Beyond the Sword, and cut out the porting delays/bugs/incompatibilities.

[cbandes]

I find it offensive that they claim to be the first 3D capable virtualization sw when both VMWare and Crossover beat them to market with equally (in)capable virtualizers. Nobody has a good solution yet, but Parallels' is as bad or worse as the already-available competition. This is a blatant example of false (if not fraudulent) advertising and it is unacceptable.

[AlanH]

They claim the first *released* product with 3D support. Fusion is still beta. Dunno about Crossover's release status, but it isn't virtualization, it's OS API simulation.

[VTMac]

Unfortunately, this type of disappointed was bound to happen. Virtualizing GPU is exceedingly difficult and rather than set expectations appropriately, Parallels have remained largely silent about what would or would not be possible during the beta period.

The vast majority of posters on this thread have wildly unrealistic expectations of what is possible with current state of the art (PC level) technology in terms of GPU virtualization.
(In fact, what seems to have been done is layering APIs, not virutalizing, but that's another story...)

It will likely be 1-2 before things "just work" at a level consistent with that typical business apps displayed today for a broad spectrum of games & applications.

(And to be clear by "just work", I mean not only functionally but also acceptable performance. ie 75-80% of native.)

[Falconfire]

They claim the first *released* product with 3D support. Fusion is still beta. Dunno about Crossover's release status, but it isn't virtualization, it's OS API simulation.


The problem with this is VMWare could claim they are a "Release" product too. They dont because they know there are a lot of bugs and thus have not tried to sell the product. Parallels 3.0 is about at the same level as VMWare Fusion 4 is at right now, but charges 70 bucks to use it, and money to even upgrade to 3.0 (despite the fact that IMHO ANYONE who bought 2.0 should have access to 3.0 as there are huge bug fixes and support improvements that should have been in the program before release)

I understand SWSoft is not a company of the size VMWare is, but still it's in their best interest to be more upfront about the actual implementations of things, and to continue to support the previous userbase who spent money for only a half finished program.

As it is I have a assistant superintendent and a tech coordinator who are flipping furious they are being made to spend more money just to get features that should have been in the released product.

[KrisKT]

I tried to play RealFlight R/C Flight Simulator G3.5 and it doesn't work.

I get the same error message that I got before I upgraded to Parallels 3-

3D rendering is not supported by your 3D graphics card

I have a MacBook Pro Core2Duo with 3GB RAM and all software is updated. Games native to Macs with graphics intensive programs run great.

The RealFlight software runs great on a very basic 2 year old PC laptop which has an older graphics card and only 512 MB of RAM.

What gives? Since this isn't a popular title, will it likely not work for a long time. That is the only reason I upgraded Parallels.

Oh well...

[lanceweber]

Hey guys, I tried for about two hours to get Civ4 up on Par3 last night. I patched it to 1.61, overrode every graphics related setting in the .ini file - starting with the one to skip the minimum hardware check and branching out from there to things like fullscreen, bink, nomovie, etc.

The end result is the same everytime; Civ4 will get to the main menu, try to animate the second frame of clouds on the background and crash. I saved the full debug .DMP file, but at this point I'm thinking there needs to be a dialogue between the Firaxis and Parallels teams.

I run both the PC and Mac versions of the game, and I would love to be able to run Civ4 under Parallels because, frankly, relying on Aspyr for Mac compatible versions of Civ has been painfully frustrating at best.

[mbeaver]

Well DDO didnt work under the following:


MacBook Pro CD 2.16Ghz
2GB RAM

Using Windows Vista I get the following error:

"The Game encountered a fatal Windows API issue when attempting to start. Try rebooting your machine and starting again"


I will try on XP and let ya all know what I find!

[moseph]

Unfortunately, this type of disappointed was bound to happen. Virtualizing GPU is exceedingly difficult and rather than set expectations appropriately, Parallels have remained largely silent about what would or would not be possible during the beta period.
Maybe they should have thought against making a retail version that makes a claim about offering 3D support for the most popular games and software.


The vast majority of posters on this thread have wildly unrealistic expectations of what is possible with current state of the art (PC level) technology in terms of GPU virtualization.
(In fact, what seems to have been done is layering APIs, not virutalizing, but that's another story...)
This is where i disagree with you about having unrealistic expecations. If a retail version claims to support the hottest most popular games that should lead the reader to have these kind of expectations. I agree that they are wild expectations if the advertisement said that it had limited 3D support. I think Parallels needs to change its advertising for now to state that the support for 3D is limited.



It will likely be 1-2 before things "just work" at a level consistent with that typical business apps displayed today for a broad spectrum of games & applications.

(And to be clear by "just work", I mean not only functionally but also acceptable performance. ie 75-80% of native.)

I agree with you for the most part and am simply trying to add to the conversation.

[dan537]

FFXI = glitching before even getting out of POL (as in you cant see anything period in the login screen, though its there as it makes the sounds as if it where displaying properly)

without DirectX it will show up, but then you cant log to FFXI from POL.

Going to set autologin for my POL account and see if it changes once you get into POL.

considering that its usually glitched when its not running in Direct X, and its not even showing up when it is I dont hold much hope for it working. Too bad too, glad I am using the trial.


Edit: no go, auto logs in fine, but its never displays a window anywhere, back to bootcamp for me until Parallels team can fix this.

If you run POL Viewer in fullscreen instead of Windowed it runs fine. My problems started when FFXI loaded, everything was shifted up into the top, left-hand corner.

[VTMac]

Maybe they should have thought against making a retail version that makes a claim about offering 3D support for the most popular games and software.

This is where i disagree with you about having unrealistic expecations. If a retail version claims to support the hottest most popular games that should lead the reader to have these kind of expectations. I agree that they are wild expectations if the advertisement said that it had limited 3D support. I think Parallels needs to change its advertising for now to state that the support for 3D is limited.


As I said originally (I'm agreeing with you) Parallels contributed to this by both their silence on questions asked by various posters about capabilities as well as their marketing. (Which if the technology could live up to would be pretty good btw.)

[idiolect]

Eve Online works remarkably well, with only some graphical corruption on status bars (i.e., loading progress.) Otherwise, it's completely playable and renders normally on my first-gen Macbook Pro 2ghz/2gb - the in-game experience seems identical to playing on a PC.

[Slowduck]

Hey guys, I tried for about two hours to get Civ4 up on Par3 last night. I patched it to 1.61, overrode every graphics related setting in the .ini file - starting with the one to skip the minimum hardware check and branching out from there to things like fullscreen, bink, nomovie, etc.

The end result is the same everytime; Civ4 will get to the main menu, try to animate the second frame of clouds on the background and crash. I saved the full debug .DMP file, but at this point I'm thinking there needs to be a dialogue between the Firaxis and Parallels teams.

I run both the PC and Mac versions of the game, and I would love to be able to run Civ4 under Parallels because, frankly, relying on Aspyr for Mac compatible versions of Civ has been painfully frustrating at best.


HAHAHAH!!!! I get farther than you! I get to hit the play now button and watch as the screen goes blank and listen to leonard Nimoy drone on and on about lava flows and intelligent life finally hatching....then.... NOTHING.

I don't know which is worse...being disappointed right away or having a glimmer of hope dashed on the rocks 20 minutes later...

I too am a little annoyed at the response from Parallels support. Copy protection? come on. THis isn't a copy protection issue, its a performance issue.

Its very disappointing that they post beautiful screenshots of 3d games running on parallels 3.0 yet except for half life 2, it doesn't sound like ANYONE has gotten ANYTHING to run in 3d on this software...

...usually software should pass the giggle test before releasing it...even if you ARE trying to beat others to "release". Thank god I paid $40 bucks for this upgrade....

:-(

[AlanH]

The problem with this is VMWare could claim they are a "Release" product too
That's not a problem for the Parallels advertising copy writer, it's a problem of VMWare's making.

[wesley]

Parallels excels in engineering, but loses a lot of points from marketing and tech support. Not that this is anything new...

Oh, and KartRider (Korean online racing game) works, although the texture colours become a bit weird after your car gets 'attacked' and stays that way until you finish the race. Performance isn't quite satisfactory yet with Intel Mac mini's integrated graphics.

[AlanH]

The end result is the same everytime; Civ4 will get to the main menu, try to animate the second frame of clouds on the background and crash.
I hesitate to ask, since it's come up frequently in this thread already, but have you enabled DirectX support in the VM video configuration? You didn't mention it in your post.

This symptom was reported by at least one Civ4 user who had not enabled DirectX. After doing so he reported that Civ4 loaded and ran, though not at a playable speed.

[bconnolly01]

I installed GTR2 and when I run it it says "original disc cannot be found or authenticated." ... have double checked and the correct disc is in the computer and connected to parallels ... in fact the autorun even executes

[mbeaver]

Well DDO didnt work under the following:


MacBook Pro CD 2.16Ghz
2GB RAM

Using Windows XP or Vista I get the following error:

"The Game encountered a fatal Windows API issue when attempting to start. Try rebooting your machine and starting again"


So DDO: Stormreach as of now is a no go unless there is some suggestions on how to fix the error...

[ckuske]

The DirectDraw tests in dxdiag don't even run in Parallels. That can't be a good sign.

[radesix]

I've tried the games delivered with Windows Vista. Solitare, Hold Em, Hearts etc.

None of them work. Varying degrees of issues from immediate shut down of the game to immediately shut down of the VM.

I won't try any other games if the Vista delivered games don't even work. I am thoroughly unimpressed.

[DaMaDo]

Do I need to install ATI drivers or should it just use the parallels ones? Someone got eve online to work but it's just a slideshow for me on a mac pro 2.66 with X1900XT 3 gigs RAM

[radesix]

DirectX 9? Why not DirectX 10????

[Falconfire]

That's not a problem for the Parallels advertising copy writer, it's a problem of VMWare's making.
Good job missing the point of the whole passage (that Parallels is selling the kind of support that another company is giving away free BECAUSE they know its not ready for prime time)

[bbf]

I have exactly the opposite problem to a lot of people...

This may not be relevant to most, but my wife loves old adventure/puzzle type games - not very CPU intensive, but a lot of the later ones are 3D. I just tried out Faust-Seven Games of the Soul (DirectX 6), and it works beautifully (next up, Gabriel Knight 3...). The only problem is the frame rate is too high (331 frames/second) - if I move the mouse off center, I spin around. Is there an easy way to throttle the speed of an old app that runs too fast on new hardware?

Blaise

[radesix]

Dear Parallels Team

This release wasn't worth paying for. This release should have been a minor update to 2.x.

I would have been more than happy to experience this disappointment for free and pay for a stable solution later.

How many tens of thousands of users will pay for the upgrade only to have 15 or 20 games or so even remotely capable of working?

[slinberg]

I was really hoping Diablo II would run under 3.0, but it doesn't. Fresh installs of Diablo II and D2: Lord of Destruction pass the video test now, but just peg the CPU at 100% when launched and do nothing further.

I know it's on the old side for a game, but that's all the more reason it should hopefully run IMO, as the system reqs are modest. I enabled 3D and upped the video RAM to 64mb (max).

If a future patch fixes whatever's wrong, I'll be very pleased and a lot less productive.

[framerate]

If you run POL Viewer in fullscreen instead of Windowed it runs fine. My problems started when FFXI loaded, everything was shifted up into the top, left-hand corner.

You must have had DirectX turned off, because even running it in fullscreen like you say it's just a black screen with music and sound.

If there's another fix, please let us know!

[pejoka]

Guys,

Please don't forget to check on DirectX checkbox in Video tab in VM config for DirectX games. Video RAM size is not relevant - keep it default. Both OpenGL and DirectX support use native video RAM on your host video card. Video RAM settings is relevant only for Windows GDI resolution.

I recommend that Parallels set the DirectX on by default in the next build. AND, make the setting easier to find. Even knowing it was there took me a while to locate!

MacBook-2GB-10.4.9-Build4142-XPsp2

[dan537]

You must have had DirectX turned off, because even running it in fullscreen like you say it's just a black screen with music and sound.

If there's another fix, please let us know!

I did have it turned on. I had the same symptoms as you trying to run it in Windowed mode. I would love to remove Boot Camp if someone can get FFXI running. I'm going to take another shot at it tonight.

[pejoka]

I tried to play RealFlight R/C Flight Simulator G3.5 and it doesn't work.

I get the same error message that I got before I upgraded to Parallels 3-

3D rendering is not supported by your 3D graphics card

I have a MacBook Pro Core2Duo with 3GB RAM and all software is updated. Games native to Macs with graphics intensive programs run great.

The RealFlight software runs great on a very basic 2 year old PC laptop which has an older graphics card and only 512 MB of RAM.

What gives? Since this isn't a popular title, will it likely not work for a long time. That is the only reason I upgraded Parallels.

Oh well...


I am also really interested in getting RealFlight 3.5 to work under Parallels (apparently it works fine under BootCamp 1.2, and presumably 1.3). I too got this error at first, but sure enough the DirectX checkbox option (under VM configure:Video tab) was not checked by default, and it needs to be for the graphics to work. After turning on DirectX the simulator did start up, and got to the plane on the runway with sound and motion but immediately threw up an error saying something was incompatible with the HAL and will fail... 3 secs later the program crashed. At least there is hope... someone from Paralells probably needs to look at the specifics though. Maybe it will get fixed along with all of the other problems with games. It just has to be one of the major markets for Parallels, though, wouldn't ya think?

MacBook-2GB-10.4.9-build 4124-XPsp2

[Shepherdboy]

Sid Meier's Pirates

Crashes following main menu of game, when clicking on 'Start Game'

Direct X enabled in Parallels
Patched-up Win XP SP2
Latest Parallels b4124
MacBook Pro 17" Core Duo, 2GB RAM
OS X 10.4.9 patched-up


I've been able to run Pirates without crashes. However, it runs too slowly to be playable.

Direct X enabled in Parallels
Patched-up Win XP SP2
Latest Parallels 4124
MacBook Pro 15" Core Duo, 2GB RAM
OS X 10.4.8

Shepherdboy

[AlanH]

I'm guessing evanhatesspam is another user who hasn't turned on DirectX support in the VM video config options.

[dandiemer]

Enabled DirectX3D support in 3.0, but cannot run Joost (not a game, but a video app that requires DirectX) nor can I run "7 Wonders of the Ancient World" - a simple Bejeweled like puzzle game.

why not run the mac version of joost.

[lanceweber]

HAHAHAH!!!! I get farther than you! I get to hit the play now button and watch as the screen goes blank and listen to leonard Nimoy drone on and on about lava flows and intelligent life finally hatching....then.... NOTHING.

I don't know which is worse...being disappointed right away or having a glimmer of hope dashed on the rocks 20 minutes later...

Hmm, yeah I'm not sure who got the better experience...okay, let's face it, we're debating who lost worse :)

I hesitate to ask, since it's come up frequently in this thread already, but have you enabled DirectX support in the VM video configuration? You didn't mention it in your post.
No harm is asking, you never know when someone has missed the obvious! But in this case I do have it checked. I presume you're the same AlanH who moderates the Mac section on CivFanatics? I lurk there frequently *wave*!

[AlanH]

I presume you're the same AlanH who moderates the Mac section on CivFanatics? I lurk there frequently *wave*!
Hmm! Might be :rolleyes:

[crag]

Hmm! Might be :rolleyes:

*waves*

So tell me have you gotten Civ4 to run?

[bconnolly01]

I just installed EA Sports FIFA 07 and way too stuttery to use ... (directx option selected)

[AlanH]

*waves*

So tell me have you gotten Civ4 to run?
I haven't even tried. I don't even have Civ4 for Windows, as I refuse to dual boot.

I wasn't at all surprised to learn that it won't run in Parallels. It has crazy graphics demands for a turn based strategy game, and matching those in a virtualized environment will not be easy. I certainly didn't fall for the hype and drop $40 for v3 on the off-chance that it might. I'll wait and see.

[scudderfish]

I can't even get HL2 to give me more than 0.5fps at 800x600 with the -dxlevel 70 option. I only upgraded because I was led to believe I could play HL2 on it. I want a refund.
:mad:

[benaddict]

I find it slightly amusing that the video on the Parallels site and the webpage vaunts World of Warcraft as one of the games you can now run through virtualisation. Why not just run the Mac native version?

[Stadsport]

MacBook 2ghz Core 2 Duo with 2GB ram.
Ragnarok Online: Runs best in windowed mode, runs full speed with high settings, but walls don't render no matter what. I'll tinker with it some more.
Guild Wars: Must run in -dx8 mode or almost nothing shows. Very low framerate with some rendering problems.

[supagold]

City of Heroes works, but it requires some tweaking - here's how I got it working:

1) Edit the City of Heroes shortcut. Add -compatiblecursors 1 in the Target Box. Under the Compatibility tab, set compatibility to Windows 2000.

2)Download the TweakCOH tool (http://www.net-marks.com/software/tweakcoh). Use it to set City of Heroes to run windowed. I also turned down the graphical options in here.

I just got it working with these settings. Probably some of them aren't necessary, and I'll be testing to see what I can turn back on. If anyone is interested in my results or has questions, send me a PM. I'm getting decent preformance with a 1600x1000 window on my MBP 17".

Edit:

Windowing isn't necessary to get the game to run, after all. However, at 1680x1050 (MBP 2.13 Core Duo, X1600), I'm getting about 10 FPS with all graphical options turned down/off. Even throwing Rendering Scale all the way down only gets me to about 15 FPS full screen.

[Da_Brain]

[QUOTE=enicholas]SimCity 4 complains that it can't initialize DirectDraw.

I get the exactly same thing here. This is an old game by today's standards and was really surprised that it doesn't run.

At this point IM very dissapointed and probally will ask for a refund.

I don't expect miracles BUT if they state, run the latest greatest 3-D games and we can't run software that requires direct X 7 that was purchased 3 or more years ago, well what more can I say.

I don't think my expectations were that high to run old direct x software.

Oh well! Live and learn. I won't make this mistake again!

[myflyertrains]

Microsoft Train Simulator Installs, but then when launched says that there is no hardware 3d acceleration. Darn!

[AlanH]

@Da_Brain & myflyertrains: Did you enable DirectX in the VM video settings?

(I need to get a record made of this question!)

[tomlewellen@mac.com]

MYST Uru (Complete Chonicles) launches the setup tool OK, but when you go on to play the game, it plays the usual sounds for the startup screens (broken up, but their), shows the progress bars for the initial loads, then ends up with a black screen with the white cursor.

So, it also is not yet able to be played with this initial release.

[Da_Brain]

SimCity 4 complains that it can't initialize DirectDraw.

[QUOTE=AlanH]@Da_Brain & myflyertrains: Did you enable DirectX in the VM video settings?

(I need to get a record made of this question!)

Sure did! BTW I bet a lot of ppl are buying this JUST for gaming, I would suggest this be the default.

[myflyertrains]

@Da_Brain & myflyertrains: Did you enable DirectX in the VM video settings?

(I need to get a record made of this question!)
Yes enabled Directx and tried raising the VM. No difference. Call of Duty does seem to run though.

[Deere4840]

--- Microsoft Flight Sim 2002 Professional ---
it lays a big egg. At least it worked in Parallels 2.x
All it does is crash when I try to fly in Parallels 3.
I can get it to run again by disabling the DirectX checkmark in the Parallels configuration menu.

--- rFactor ---
It also lays an egg during the configuration.
I can't even get to the game before a crash.

Luckily I qualify for the free update (if they will ever respond to my request for the license key).
Thankfully I didn't get this primarily to play games on my computer or I'd be a little angry right now.

Tested on:
Mac 3GHz 8-Core | ATI X1900XT 256MB

[endlesszero666]

So I tried to install Elder Scrolls Oblivion hoping to see how it performs under Parallels, but after the install I recieved this error:

Failed to initialize render.
NiXAdapaterDesc::GetDevoceCaps() failed.

If anybody has any ideas, let me know, I would love to try this out.

[akashra]

Of the games I've tried so far, none work
Lego Star Wars II - "Failed to initialize DirectX"
Supreme Commander - either can't find the CD or gives "This system does not meet the minimum requirements"
Command and Conquer 3 - crashes on startup.

[sterno]

Well the one game i was hoping work doesn't seem to work. It start the game and then the screen goes to black for maybe 20 - 30 seconds and then it just goes back t the desktop. I have checked the direct x box and turned video memory to 64mb (even though you said it doesn't matter). I'm assuming its because the version of direct x is only 8 (according to a previous post that ran a benchmark) Any word on when direct x 9 support will be incorporated?

Yeah I have exactly the same problem and tried exactly the same things. I found that if I ran dxdiag, the video tests worked for all direct3d tests. But when it did directdraw it barfed. So perhaps it's something to do with that?

[akashra]

Dear customers
Please, remember, what Parallels Desktop 3.0 is the first released virtualization software to deliver 3D support to the Mac. There are still some limitations on using the 3D support, please consider the following:
Wow. This is a huge stretch of the truth. Of the apps in the list in the readme, only four are DX/D3D.
To say that it 'delivers 3D support' and that there are 'still some limitations' when it can't even run the DX/D3D demos, tests and samples is appalling and frankly just utterly dishonest.

[sterno]

Not to be a downer, but I'm pretty disappointed. I had this great vision of running my favorite windows games on my OS X side and freeing up all that disk space bootcamp was wasting... Not so much.

When I can play the games I want (specifically Battlefield 2142) I'll be picking up a copy. But for now I don't see any obvious benefit to the upgrade.

:(

[perfection]

I Am VERY DISAPPOINTED with 3.0
Parallels crashes when i boot up windows. Sometimes when i click Full-Screen, windows disappears and i see only my Mac OS X desktop.

Also, i have enabled DirectX Support but when i run Counterstrike or ConditionZero the graphics sucked. Everything is white in color! What should i do?!?
By the way, i cannot load a game when i am in Full Screen! I only can load a game when parallels is in windowed mode.

I'm on a MBP 2.0GHZ, 2GB RAM!

[Cyphin6]

Parallels 3.0 is waste of money for those who are looking for gaming, theres no easy way to put it, no 3DMark I have tested can even get past the load screen without a Windows Error Message, no game I have installed can even load without directX Draw errors or etc. It's UNBELIEVABLE I can't believe this feature was released, such an underwhelming release.

But I will say I do give props to everything else, I feel Windows XP runs near native speeds, but gaming was a feature they failed on in everyway, I mean can we get a moderator to tell us what exactly they tested that even closely worked thats acceptable quality, overall I'm happy but in terms of gaming they should be persecuted for this terribly built feature.

[SolGrundy]

SWSoft gets a big F- for this release. Or at least, their marketing department does. I kept trying older and older games to see what would work, and here are the results, on a MacPro with 3GB memory and an ATI Radeon X1900 XT with 512MB VRAM:

Half-Life 2: Fail Screen doesn't completely update, unacceptable frame rate.
Civ 4 Warlords: Fail Eventually gets to main title screen, shows only the eyes and teeth of the animated character in the main menu, won't let me click on menu items.
Sam & Max Season One: Fail Section of screen cut off, frame rate too low to be playable.
The Longest Journey: Fail Section of screen cut off, no text displayed anywhere.
Fallout 2: Fail "Can't initialize input devices"
FreeCell: Fail Crashes only with Microsoft's standard error-reporting dialog box. That's right, FreeCell doesn't run.

I'm running Vista Premium. After testing all of these, I look in the release notes to see that Direct3D is only "supported" under XP, not Vista.

Listing Direct3D support as a major feature of version 3.0: Pass
Mentioning that Vista isn't supported BEFORE I pay money for the upgrade: Fail
Mentioning that it's XP-only ANYWHERE in the marketing text for version 3.0: Fail
Giving me a real list of features included in version 3.0 before charging me $40 for it and warning that time is going to run out if I don't act before buying: Fail
Making the list of compatible games available before release, or even mentioning that the game support is a small percentage of the games available: Fail
Advising people on the (not accessible from the main page) forums to try to circumvent other publishers' copy protection to get around compatibility issues: Double Plus Extra Fail

I'm confident they'll be able to fix the problems eventually, since the company's track record has to make significant improvements in the software very quickly. But this release was completely botched. And the marketing and support in particular have left a really bad taste in my mouth.

[crag]

I'm gonna report this in another thread ful of fanboys. Cause I doubt their wad through all these pages.

[Washu]

I just tried Pro Evolution Soccer 5 and it seems to run fairly well at default settings apart from the fact that the display is upside down. Mac Pro 2.6/4GB RAM/X1900XT.

[cynic]

I just tried out VMware Fusion. Sam&Max runs fine there. One can also take a look at the new Unity feature in the new beta, which in my opinion is totally great.

Somehow I have the feeling the beta of Fusion is a bit more 'round' than the Parallels 3.0 release... :(

[AlanH]

I think I missed something. Why is Fusion Unity better than Coherence? I see drop shadows, but that doesn't change my world. I don't see any other goodies.

[Farsinsen]

Hmm,

Just installed the 3.0 trial and still can't get PKR to run. The error message seems to be the same: "Could not initialize client - Cant create a D3D device - -2005530516, -2005530518 (Render Init) (Render Init)"

Dosen't 3.0 have direct 3D support as expected, or am I doing something wrong?

[cynic]

Well... it also supports minimizing windows to the dock, which makes the taskbar unnecessary. Futhermore it also supports Expose, so that all your os x and vm windows are nicely put next to each other, insted of just putting the whole 'invisible' vm windows into expose.

I hope to see these features soon in parallels...

[AlanH]

It's repeated all over these forums, but I'll post it here again ...

Did you enable DirectX support in the VM video properties screen?

[dippyskoodlez]

Thank you thank you! Why don't they enable this by default?!



Actually this IS enabled by default.

However, on a clean install.

When you do an "Upgrade" it saves your preferences.

Of which, Direct X is not there, so it doesn't stay enabled.

I actually did a fresh install, and direct X was on by default.

I'm gonna report this in another thread ful of fanboys. Cause I doubt their wad through all these pages.


Get your refund instead of thread crapping, troll.

[dietero]

After installing 'Phoenix' on Windows XP running in Parallels 3 it would not run at all, merely produce an error message. I had not activated DirectX.
After enabling DirectX in 'VM configurations' "Phoenix" will start with it's Splash screen and ask me to "Begin" Controller calibration.

The problem is that the Windows curser goes behind the Phoenix begin window making it impossible to click on any part of the "Phoenix" Screen. Has anyone run into this?

"Phoenix" operates correctly on my 'Bootcamp' installation of Windows XP.

What am I missing?:confused:

[Luke Dog]

I was eagerly awaiting this release.. and well.. lets just say I didn't pay the upgrade fee to continue to run Quicken.

directx fails in dxdiag (yes I turned it on) and every game I attempted didn't work. This was after it crashed my 2.5 image and I had to reinstall XP. Thank god I backed up my data.

3.0 should have been 2.6.

I will call next week to get a refund.:(

[johnnykrisma]

I was hopeful that Halo would run well since it's older, but no dice. It launches, plays all the intro videos and then goes black as the game itself comes up. Any chance this will work in the future??

[cynic]

I am pretty sure it will... some day.

3D support in virtualization is brand new and it still needs a lot of work. However, it is already working a bit. If you take a look at VMware Fusion, the 3D support is also not really 'good'. Give it some time...

[dippyskoodlez]

I am pretty sure it will... some day.

3D support in virtualization is brand new and it still needs a lot of work. However, it is already working a bit. If you take a look at VMware Fusion, the 3D support is also not really 'good'. Give it some time...


Exactly.

They can't just "patch" every game and all of the future games, because they don't know EXACTLY whats wrong.

Its not like they can just go "oh, XXXX.dll is now included, all direct x shaders work!" They have to convert direct X into OpenGL so that OS X can render it.


If the game -opens- now, Its(probably) likely it'll be fixed soon :) The foundation for 3d is in place, now it just needs to be built up. That takes time.

The reason some games work, is because not all games utilize every aspect of everything made... so the stuff that is finished, works like a champ. :)

Also take into consideration, this is their job... and this is a weekend.. so give them some time to code a fix, test it, and release it :D

[Luke Dog]

I am pretty sure it will... some day.

3D support in virtualization is brand new and it still needs a lot of work. However, it is already working a bit. If you take a look at VMware Fusion, the 3D support is also not really 'good'. Give it some time...
VMWare Fusion is free right now. I'd rather be disappointed for free.

[snidley]

I am a bit concerned about the tone of the developers here. Its a bit of an elitist attitude. Lets look at the brochure for 3.0 Hardware-Accelerated 3D Graphics: Strong support for OpenGL and DirectX brings Windows’ vast library of 3D-intensive applications to the Mac. Without leaving their Mac desktop, users can play popular Windows-only 3D games such as Quake, Half-Life 2, and World of Warcraft, as well as work with complex Windows-only 3D CAD programs.
Do the developers believe the buyers of their program should expect that they can actually play, Halflife, Quake, World of Warcraft. Additionally the marketers used the term strong support. Would any of the reviewers here consider this strong support?
People realize you have been misled. I say this to the developers because you do have a competitor now in VMWARE. I would strongly suggest you reconsider how you are treating the users here and misleading them. History generally doesn't bode well for companies that conduct this practice. It would have been better to simply state we are developing 3d support and have a first generation with limited game support and limited playability vs the terms used here.
Just a thought.

PS how to do we get a refund for 3.0 if it doesn't work as advertised?

[iFrodo]

Do the developers believe the buyers of their program should expect that they can actually play, Halflife, Quake, World of Warcraft.


AFAIK, and if you really mean only these games, they work. I've personnaly tested Quake 3 and it works fine.

Additionally the marketers used the term strong support. Would any of the reviewers here consider this strong support?


Indeed, the sentence is wrongly turned, as there is indeed a strong support of OpenGL (all what I tested that use OpenGL, does work and work well), but not at all of Direct X which is ony a LIMITED Direct X 8.1 support (as stated correctly in the release notes).

EDIT: As of Direct X, at least 3D Mark 2001 (which purpose is to benchmark Direct X 8.1) works, from what I've tested... So the support of "limited" direct x 8.1 is indeed delivered ;)
Also I played at the demo of Sam&Max Culture SHock, and it run ok without any graphics issue.

[Morgenl]

Windows 95/98 legacy puzzle games such as Myst and Dracula will now play in conversion mode in Windows XP with DirectX enabled. Sound quality varies. Motion alternates between smooth, jerky and carreening about - but games are playable.

[Kender]

System Specs: iMac C2D 2.33ghz - 2 gig of RAM, 256mb w/ GeForce 7600GT (256mb)

City of Heroes works, but it requires some tweaking - here's how I got it working:

I'll try your tweaks and see if they work. Thanks!

DX: Checked. Yup.

RAM is set to 1gig (out of 2) and VRAM is now at 64mb.

CoH: "Your card or driver doesn't support GL_NV_vertex mode" (even after the tweaks. :( )
R6 Vegas: I get the startup movie, then it just craps out. (Vegas requires 128mb of VRAM, I guess. Silly game)
NWN2: "Could not find any compatible Direct3D devices - The Application will now exit."

[crag]

If the game -opens- now, Its(probably) likely it'll be fixed soon :) The foundation for 3d is in place, now it just needs to be built up. That takes time.

The reason some games work, is because not all games utilize every aspect of everything made... so the stuff that is finished, works like a champ. :)


Not what their website says. Must I cut-n-paste the copy again dippyskoodlez? I get the impression that you either work for SWSoft or someone there is blowing you. Cause you like the only defender running from thread to thread defending the company with lame excuses.

If the software was not ready for prime time then they should've said so. Not released a piece of crap filled with promises and beta test it on us. After we paid.

Oh and what game works? Half-life on their list doesn't. Oh sure it loads but you get like 2FPS. Not excatly playable.

[dippyskoodlez]

Not what their website says. Must I cut-n-paste the copy again dippyskoodlez? I get the impression that you either work for SWSoft or someone there is blowing you. Cause you like the only defender running from thread to thread defending the company with lame excuses.

If the software was not ready for prime time then they should've said so. Not released a piece of crap filled with promises and beta test it on us. After we paid.

Oh and what game works? Half-life on their list doesn't. Oh sure it loads but you get like 2FPS. Not excatly playable.

http://blog.lushlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/nobody-cares.jpg

[crag]

http://blog.lushlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/nobody-cares.jpg

Well, you do. That much is obvious. So what games work?

[ricka]

Wow, thanks everyone for chiming in on this thead. Based on your feedback and my own issues with bootcamp I have asked for a refund of my "upgrade" fee. The link for refunds is here per Tim of Parallels.

http://www.parallels.com/support/request/

--Rick

[voidptr]

Under XP:

Half Life - Seems to work ok.

Starcraft - Installs, runs, but the color palette is all screwed up and unplayable.

Total Annihilation - Same as Starcraft. Tried enabling 256 color palette and Win 95 on the compatibilty tab, but it's still screwed up. Parallels doesn't seem to handle switching to 256 color vga modes correctly.

[dippyskoodlez]

Well, you do. That much is obvious. So what games work?

Games I have tested:

C&C RA series
AOE II
MOHAA+Expansions
Unreal Tournament

Known not working:
NFSMW (This is a hard game to play as its prettymuch full DX9 shader wise) and TBE.


I haven't tested others yet, because I -work- and others I don't own.

Pretty much anything Q3 based works great.

The sign was for your endless whining and complaining you didn't get what "they promised". Stop the thread crapping, its annoying and a waste of bandwidth, noone wants to hear your crap.

edit: also note, this is inside of windows Vista.

Do note, most of the above games aren't even on their list. I infact, got MORE than promised. What do you have to say about that?

[buddhak0n]

Yep I'm working on this one as well... LOTRO... Once I tweak it so it works.. I'll let you folks know.

Ok the Lord of the Rings Online seems to want to run under Parallels it just is running into Direct X problems I guess...

What happens is the initial login screens go fine but no matter if you set it to 640X480 or whatever resolution when it pops up a window to display the game itself you get nothing but whitespace.... however the sound is playing in the background and the game is proceeding as normal ( for instance you can enter your way thru the DVD intro and into the Character selection screen however the video is obviously not rendering so you can't see what you are selecting... I've even gotten into the game itself but obviously it's unplayable since it's only a white screen...)

any suggestions on how to tweak it to try and get it to display some pixels... anything at all would be greatly appreciated... I'm in the process of tweaking around some the userpreferences settings to see if possibly I might stumble onto something since this is primarily the ONLY thing that I use my windoze box for and if I can get it to run on my Macbook Pro 2.33 dual 2GB etc etc...... I can say goodbye to wintel dozers for a bit.
:D

[buddhak0n]

http://blog.lushlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/nobody-cares.jpg
Eh I CARE... Especially if I consider myself to have been defrauded <g>.

Nobody Cares? that's ridiculous. Just like you're not allowed to come down my street and steal 100 bucks out of my car. You're not allowed to advertise a product and say it'll do one thing and then have it completely not work for what it was designed to do...

I'm not saying I wouldn't give somebody an opportunity to fix the problem.. but let's get real...

NOT ONLY Didn't I get something that worked... I ordered mine though the Apple store so Guess what? I got doinked for the 79 from them when they sent me build 3188 .. yeah that's right a week after release of the newest build oh and then when I get to parallels website... they charge me AGAIN for an upgrade to a software package that should've been sent to me as the correct version the FIRST time and THEN on top of that all.

The stuff doesn't work ... Now I'm not at the point that I'm like give me MY MONEY ... give me MY MONEY... but let's get real..

Who Cares? Well federal authorities who prevent fraud care .... LOL that's who.

[buddhak0n]

And seriously guys... did you even TEST this software before you sold it...

When I try to do something as simple as play a simple Video in VISTA under it , it says it can't... I'm not talking about some amazingly complicated 3D rendering in some state of the art cuttting edge video game that requires major resources and all kinds of technical know how on behalf of the developers at parallels.

I'm talking about a 10 second video of a bear jumping around in a river with a couple of fish .... Hilarious... who told you guys to release this stuff?

[engyew]

Trying to run MapleStory (for my daughter), get the message:

Failed in finding proper screen mode for Gr2D


The Support FAQ for MapleStory at http://www.maplesea.com/support/technical.aspx says:


Gr2D_Dx81.dll error

There are 2 common causes of "Gr2d" dll errors.

a) Gr2D_Dx81.dll
b) "Failed in finding proper screen mode for Gr2D"

Gr2D_Dx81.dll
For Gr2D_Dx81.dll errors, please update your DirectX version to the latest. You can obtain the installation file from this link

"Failed in finding proper screen mode for Gr2D"
To fix this error, please install the video card driver that the manufacturer provides and not the default Microsoft version. ......

--------------------------------------
Retraction:

OK MapleStory works well. I did not turn DirectX support on. According to my daugther MapleStory works well on my MacBook - faster than the old Dell she's using! lol! I gues thats good. Thanks Parallels.

:D

[Wick3d]

Well first off I got off pretty lucky because I forsaw something like this happening, so I waited and d/led the trial version when 3D support came out, so I am not in a rage about money. The rest of you have a reason to be angry, but you are blowing it way out of proportion.


I am going to laugh hysterically when everyone refunds their product, only to have a patch solve their problem a week later. Give the stupid update some time and it will work.


As for games, I played Guild Wars on lowest quality and it was pretty much unplayable due to the fast paced nature of pvp. As this is a popular game, I fully expect that things will be ironed out in due time and that I will be able to play.

Guys, do you really think that the producers were trying to scam you? If you are freaking out about this, put yourself in their shoes. They are not game testers, most of them probably never game at all. You cannot expect them to try every last title on the face of the earth. If you read around, you will find out that they have a list that will be UPDATED as more games become playable. So I highly recommend that you all hold back on the refunds for awhile.

[engyew]

dxdiag in Parallels says:

DirectDraw Acceleration: Not Available
Direct3D Acceleration: Not Available
AGP Texture Acceleration: Not Available

Notes:

The file PrlVideo.dll is not digitally signed, which means that it has not been tested by Microsoft's Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL). You may be able to get a WHQL logo'd driver from the hardware manufacturer.
DirectDraw test results: All tests were successful.
Direct3D functionality not available. You should verify that the driver is a final version from the hardware manufacturer.


I guess that means Direct3D doesn't work.

btw. I have DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

------------------------------
Retraction: OK. It does work. I just have to turn DirectX support on (which is off by default)
:D

[Magginoodles]

I downloaded the VMware Fusion Beta for comparison. Both apps I've tried (Zoo Tycoon, Monopoly Tycoon and the APCD-Course Designer for Links 2003) worked :confused:

Seems as though Parallels have quite a bit to learn to keep up with VMware in terms of 3D gaming.

Update: Seem as though hitting the Windows key, breaking the focus on the app and going back into the game can sometimes work. Worked for Zoo Tycoon, Monopoly Tycoon but not the APCD. It doesn't work every time but shows the possibility for this to work exists at least :cool:

[Caesar]

Can someone please test Pro Evolution Soccer 6?


Thanks :D

I've been told that game runs great, it's absolutely playable but there are two problems:
-the games appears 180 degree flippped (strange, isn't it?) :)
-in full screen mode (ie running Parallels in windows mode and game in full screen mode) there are visual artifact outside the game play area

To developers: do you think these kind of problems could be fixed in next release? (the only reason I can find to install Windows on my Mac is to have fun with this soccer game; but since I don't want to use BoootCamp the only solution would be a virtual machine under Parallels and of course I'll buy my own copy only if this game will be fully supported in future)


Thanks for reading :)

[Caesar]

I just tried Pro Evolution Soccer 5 and it seems to run fairly well at default settings apart from the fact that the display is upside down. Mac Pro 2.6/4GB RAM/X1900XT.

The same problem is reported with PESS6 :(

[bilbob]

I tried to play RealFlight R/C Flight Simulator G3.5 and it doesn't work.

I get the same error message that I got before I upgraded to Parallels 3-

3D rendering is not supported by your 3D graphics card

I have a MacBook Pro Core2Duo with 3GB RAM and all software is updated. Games native to Macs with graphics intensive programs run great.

The RealFlight software runs great on a very basic 2 year old PC laptop which has an older graphics card and only 512 MB of RAM.

What gives? Since this isn't a popular title, will it likely not work for a long time. That is the only reason I upgraded Parallels.

Oh well...

RealFlight almost certainly won't work, because it requires DirectX 9 support, but Parallels 3.0 only provides "limited DirectX 8.1 support" according to the release notes. However you should note that you need to enable DirectX support in Parallels, because it's disabled by default. Go to Edit/Virtual Machine Settings, click Video on the left, and make sure the DirectX Support checkbox is checked. I already tried it with Phoenix RC, another RC flight sim that also requires DirectX 9 support, and it didn't work. It got farther than you did, and actually displayed the background scenery, but then it just hung. FWIW, Parallel's OpenGL support seems to be more complete, so Aerofly Pro Deluxe does work under Parallels, since it uses OpenGL instead of DirectX.

[bilbob]

After installing 'Phoenix' on Windows XP running in Parallels 3 it would not run at all, merely produce an error message. I had not activated DirectX.
After enabling DirectX in 'VM configurations' "Phoenix" will start with it's Splash screen and ask me to "Begin" Controller calibration.

The problem is that the Windows curser goes behind the Phoenix begin window making it impossible to click on any part of the "Phoenix" Screen. Has anyone run into this?

"Phoenix" operates correctly on my 'Bootcamp' installation of Windows XP.

What am I missing?:confused:

Phoenix RC, or any application that requires DirectX 9 support, will NOT work under Parallels 3.0, because it only has "limited DirectX 8.1 support", as the release notes tell you. I also own Phoenix, and was hoping this realease would allow me to stop having to reboot into Windows to run it, so I feel your pain. ;)

[tomozj]

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
You click it, and it just closes straight away with no messages. What's interesting though, is that when you run it via SA-MP (http://www.sa-mp.com) it runs for a bit, like loads textures and chatbox etc. before crashing when trying to do things (about 5 seconds after doing stuff).

BootCamp partition on a 20" early 2006 iMac@2GHz with 2GB of RAM - around 500mb allocated to the VM

-tj

[Akumu]

I was wondering since noone said anything in a while, did anyone figure out why the POL log in screen was just black with sound and control but you can't see the controls. Is it because I have DX9 on my installation by default? if so is there a way to revert when it is preinstalled like that? It may not make FFXI work but 1 step closer would be better than what I have now.

DX 8.1 is the requirement for FFXI so DX9 is not necessary but is already installed which sucks, I am thinking i might actually get better performance from 8.1 seeing as I have a MacPro with the nVidia 7300GT.

[ultimadesigns]

Could anyone be kind enough to tell me if Madden 07 will work adequately with this release or not? Thanks. :)

[AllenRockwell]

I just upgraded to Parallels 3.0 and it seems that FSX is finally loading without that graphics error. I'll let you know in a few minutes how it works :)

[AllenRockwell]

Does not seem like it's going to work ... I get as far as the "Free Flight" screen then anything I click on eventually leads to a program crash.

I'll keep trying. FSX is the ONLY reason I bought Parallels and Vista ... it's the only Windows program that I really want to run on my MacPro

[unused_user_name]

FSX required DirectX 9.

Parallels only supports (some of) DirectX 8.1. (i.e. it does not meet the requirements of the game)

[pogo]

I can't even get HL2 to give me more than 0.5fps at 800x600 with the -dxlevel 70 option. I only upgraded because I was led to believe I could play HL2 on it. I want a refund.
:mad:
Same here. We've been ripped off.

[Falconfire]

I was wondering since noone said anything in a while, did anyone figure out why the POL log in screen was just black with sound and control but you can't see the controls. Is it because I have DX9 on my installation by default? if so is there a way to revert when it is preinstalled like that? It may not make FFXI work but 1 step closer would be better than what I have now.

DX 8.1 is the requirement for FFXI so DX9 is not necessary but is already installed which sucks, I am thinking i might actually get better performance from 8.1 seeing as I have a MacPro with the nVidia 7300GT.


Parallels does NOT have 8.1. It has parts of it but it does not run the proper 8.1 protocols which I am pretty sure was the reason it wont work.

VMWare Fusion was the same way as of 3.0, both do not run 8.1 in it's entirety which causes problems with most things that NEED 8.1.

[Ankou]

Currently only Half-Life 1 is supported by Parallels Desktop 3.0, but you can try the following for Half-Life 2:
Right click on the game in the Steam menu, click "Properties" - "Launch options" and in the blank field type: "-dxlevel 70" (without quotation marks). Then launch the game and check the results.

[Shidayu]

Currently only Half-Life 1 is supported by Parallels Desktop 3.0, but you can try the following for Half-Life 2:
Right click on the game in the Steam menu, click "Properties" - "Launch options" and in the blank field type: "-dxlevel 70" (without quotation marks). Then launch the game and check the results.

Please see my Half-Life 2 compatibility page at:

http://shidayu.com/compat/pmwiki.php/Half-Life2

Currently, there is a show-stopping bug near the beginning. However, I have found some tweaks that get HL2 working quite well under the conditions.

[bxlewi1]

Currently only Half-Life 1 is supported by Parallels Desktop 3.0, but you can try the following for Half-Life 2:
Right click on the game in the Steam menu, click "Properties" - "Launch options" and in the blank field type: "-dxlevel 70" (without quotation marks). Then launch the game and check the results.
Hang on now, the info page for PD 3.0 says this:

"Play Windows-only 3D games, such as World of Warcraft, Half-Life 2, and Unreal Tournament"

http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/3d/

That's a pretty sharp contradiction.

[Shidayu]

Hang on now, the info page for PD 3.0 says this:

"Play Windows-only 3D games, such as World of Warcraft, Half-Life 2, and Unreal Tournament"

http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/3d/

That's a pretty sharp contradiction.

Yeah, that's a bit shady...

[Akumu]

Parallels does NOT have 8.1. It has parts of it but it does not run the proper 8.1 protocols which I am pretty sure was the reason it wont work.

VMWare Fusion was the same way as of 3.0, both do not run 8.1 in it's entirety which causes problems with most things that NEED 8.1.

That is what I understood, what I was asking was does an install of DX9 effect Parallels? or does Parallels just take over and ignore the version installed?

[Shidayu]

That is what I understood, what I was asking was does an install of DX9 effect Parallels? or does Parallels just take over and ignore the version installed?

Not terribly sure, but my guess is that even if DX9 were installed, the new functionality wouldn't be supported because the "virtual video card" as it were only supports 8.1c.

[Akumu]

the thing that bugs me is it will run the FFXI benchmark3 and surprisingly well actually. I might try and see all the key strokes it takes to log into FFXI and get past the "hardware compatibility error" preventing boot(if anyone can point me to a solution my searches of the forums are returning none) and attempt to let the actual game load, I think if it can do the bench mark it can load the game... whether or not it is playable is up in the air until I try.

[bombastinator]

While the game refuses to run full screen it will start up in windowed mode.

This is followed by an odd hang in that it says : true color 32 bit required. now the vista display settings has a 32 bit mode labeled 'highest' instead of true color.

This looks like a minor fixable bug. Not sure if theres a handy work around though.

[Wick3d]

I d/led DirectX 9 and 10 to see what happens. 9 had some error message, but 10 didn't seem to have any problems, though Parallels most likely does not utilize it.

[mster142]

Im looking into play Civ City Rome, I downloaded everything and installed the directx on my VM and install seems to go fine but when I try to run the game says that it cant locate DirectX ??

any ideas on how to fix this ?

VGA-compatible BIOS version 2.01
Parallel 2.5 build 3188

[draconis1]

Hello,
While I have gotten a few games that I regularly play to start in 3.0, and they all play rather well, I have yet to be able to play City of Heroes. I can start the game, even log in a charecter; however, the game always starts at 800x600 on a fresh install. When I go to the options menu to change the resolution, not just the game, but the entire iMac freezes and must be rebooted. Has anyone been able to succussfully play this game?

Thanks,
Draconis

[jeroenhmg]

While the game refuses to run full screen it will start up in windowed mode.

This is followed by an odd hang in that it says : true color 32 bit required. now the vista display settings has a 32 bit mode labeled 'highest' instead of true color.

This looks like a minor fixable bug. Not sure if theres a handy work around though.
Morrowind Elder Scrolls 3 here too... crash message as follows on XP service pack 2 from Boot Camp partition:

Render Creation Error: "Creation failed: could not match desired fullscreen mode"

This happens no matter what, VM in windowed or fullscreen modes.

[Uhlhorn]

Silent Hunter III: Can not initialize 3D engine. Any ideas?

568

Supported OS: Windows® XP/Vista Only
Processor: 2GHz Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon (4 3GHz Pentium or AMD Athlon recommended)
RAM: 1 GB (2 GB recommended)
Video Card: 128 MB RAM DirectX® 9–compliant, video card capable of rendering Pixel Shader 2.0 (256 MB RAM recommended) (see supported list*)
Sound Card: DirectX 9 –compliant sound card
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c or later (included)
Hard Drive Space: 6 GB
Multiplayer: 128 kbps upstream or faster (512 kbps upstream or faster needed to host online games)

[dkp]

DirectX 9 is not supported in Parallels. OpenGL 1.4 and DirectX 8.1 only. Use BootCamp.

[AlanH]

DirectX 9 is not supported in Parallels. OpenGL 1.4 and DirectX 8.1 only. Use BootCamp.
XP/Parallels supports OpenGL 100% up to 2.0 on my MacPro. 1.4 may be a limit imposed by Intel GMA hardware on specific Macs, not by Parallels.

[cetuma]

Not to be a downer, but I'm pretty disappointed. I had this great vision of running my favorite windows games on my OS X side and freeing up all that disk space bootcamp was wasting... Not so much.

When I can play the games I want (specifically Battlefield 2142) I'll be picking up a copy. But for now I don't see any obvious benefit to the upgrade.

:(

The good news is Battlefield 2142 should be native Mac soon.

[rooster42]

This sucks. . .I thought I heard that was one of the games that worked?

I'm getting the same error. . .Guess it's back to boot camp!

Any ideas anybody? :mad: :D

[Nightwolf]

ezQuake runs fine

http://ezquake.sf.net

[PrinceZordar]

Oblivion requires DirectX 9.0. Parallels only supports up to 8.1

-Z

[avp]

I have question about MSFS 2004 in Parallers 3. I make correct install and run the game. Menu is loading correctly, select airport, airplane and start the game. After loading texture and game contant, i see only black screen and sound from the game. In Virtual Machine Setup i have DirectX enable. Any solution please?

[bpc101]

Any luck in getting PKR to work?

I also bought Parallels back in February not realising that this wouldn't work. I want to upgrade to 3.0 but would also like to get rid of Bootcamp, and for that I need PKR to work!

[paanta]

CS 1.6 doesn't actually seem to be compatible. Half-Life plays fine, but the only mode that works in counter-strike is software rendering. OpenGL mode leaves off all the models' skins and doesn't show a lot of the textures. D3D is dark and choppy. Yes, I've enabled DirectX in the VM settings. This is on a new MB Pro 2.2ghz w/ 3gb of RAM, so I'm not exactly hurting for performance, either.

Am I doing something wrong, or is Parallels _not_ actually able to give 3d acceleration to CS (as it was advertised as doing)?

[eriqthegeek]

It's playable ... sort of. All the building textures are screwed up, you can kind of see parts of the outline but then the rest of it is just white blocks. There's also some graphics corruption in the upper left corner of the screen. Runs at a good speed.... even good in windowed mode.

It's sooooo close but I can't quite bring myself to play it with some of the graphics all screwed up.

[Frank Friedlos]

Drakan. Great game! Glad someone else agrees.

[Stuart.]

I know they are not 'modern' games - I don't have any recent ones to test out, but fwiw:

I have just played 1/2 an hour or so of Unreal Tournament 2003 and about the same of Deus Ex and both work very well thank you.

UT2003 runs with every single video option switched on without any performance degregation - in fact running with them all turned off produced no increase in performance which was curious. The game seemed a little slow (no - not a decrease in framerate, just slower than normal, which means it is running closer to my reaction time, so I'm getting great frag counts :D ), but that seemed to be corrected when I threw a bit more RAM at the VM. So good fun.

Deus Ex - runs like a bought one, I notice a number of redraw errors- objects sitting on tables (for example) where a corner of the object seems to penetrate the table surface, but I can live with that. Otherwise, it runs as well as it ever did on a PC.

Anyway - don't know about the rest of you, but I'm having fun.


Oh - again fwiw, Train Simulator didn't work, as it wants hardware acceleration, but I guess I'm the only person who cares whether that one works or not. :rolleyes:

[themario3000]

Ok so I finally got parallels working but I can't play any of my games. :( I went into the cofigurations and checked the directx box. I have the machine 1000 mb (1 GB) of ram and 64 Mb of video ram. My real computer has video ram and 2 gb of ram. Please help. Some of the games I have tried to play are the following: lord of the rings returne of the king, lord of the rings battle for middle earth 1 and 2, pirates of the carabian, age of empires 2 and 3, and dungon lords. Thanks

[jeroenhmg]

Morrowind Elder Scrolls 3 here too... crash message as follows on XP service pack 2 from Boot Camp partition:

Render Creation Error: "Creation failed: could not match desired fullscreen mode"

This happens no matter what, VM in windowed or fullscreen modes.

In addition: another error for Morrowind:

Render Creation Error: "Unsupported desktop resolution. Change windows resolution to "True Color (32bit)"."

This is with the desktop resolution of Windows set to 32 bit, 800x600 trying to play Morrowind in a window, 640x640 requested and shaders off.

Far Cry:
Set the renderer to OpenGL in the INI files, set everything to low, sound in compatibility mode to get rid of unwanted noise and resolution at 800x500. The game is not really playable on a Mac Book Pro C2D 2.33, 2GB RAM, x1600 with 256MB. Too laggy, no real rendering problems.
This game is listed on the product information pages but should not really be there since it is unplayable.

[sbnoble]

Hello,
While I have gotten a few games that I regularly play to start in 3.0, and they all play rather well, I have yet to be able to play City of Heroes. I can start the game, even log in a charecter; however, the game always starts at 800x600 on a fresh install. When I go to the options menu to change the resolution, not just the game, but the entire iMac freezes and must be rebooted. Has anyone been able to succussfully play this game?


I was able to get City of Heroes to run on a new MBP by following supagold's hints:
http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?p=64183&highlight=city+heroes#post64183
(I didn't use the tweaker, I was able to switch to Windowed mode within the game.)

But no amount of graphics tweaking could get it faster than about 5 to 10 frames per second. Granted, I was in PocketD at the time so it might have done better in a calmer location. But it really was not playable.

Note that CoH requires DirectX 9, which Parallels does not support ("Limited 8.1"). I did notice that the drivers installed by Parallels claim to support DirectX 9 (dxdiag), which is probably why the game attempted to run despite the lack of true support.

I ended up installing Boot Camp on the destination machine instead. FWIW, a new MacBook Pro does generate a LOT of heat running CoH in BootCamp, but the fans did come on full blast. I saw some posts in the CoH forum about someone's (older?) MBP overheating due to the fans not comming on, but that doesn't appear to be a problem with the new MBP and BootCamp 1.3.

Of course, whenever CoH does run under Parallels, it'll be back to that for all the usual safety, reliability, and convenience reasons.

[Shidayu]

ezQuake runs fine

http://ezquake.sf.net

Awesome! I have been looking for a nicer QW client than what is out there natively for OS X. This might be the ticket.

[Shidayu]

Ok so I finally got parallels working but I can't play any of my games. :( I went into the cofigurations and checked the directx box. I have the machine 1000 mb (1 GB) of ram and 64 Mb of video ram. My real computer has video ram and 2 gb of ram. Please help. Some of the games I have tried to play are the following: lord of the rings returne of the king, lord of the rings battle for middle earth 1 and 2, pirates of the carabian, age of empires 2 and 3, and dungon lords. Thanks

I would actually recommend:
* Turning down the memory from 1GB to 512MB
* Turning down the video RAM from 64MB to 32MB

I got better performance by using more conservative values. The Video RAM value really doesn't mean much, anyway. Just give it 32 to satisfy most games' minimum requirement checks. Parallels will use as much VRAM as it can get its hands on for 3D applications regardless of this setting. (They put it there for tweaking screen resolutions, that's pretty much it.)

[crabuback]

DusrioN writes

>>Rollercoaster Tycoon works reasonably well.

Did you have to do anything besides enable Direct X to get to run? For me it loads fine, but I lose use of the cursor, so I can't select Play or anything else.

[Archy]

Hello,

I have installed and launched PKR in Windows XP virtual machine.

Current Parallels Desktop version supports DirectX 8.1, PKR needs DirectX 9.0 to run properly. But there is a way to launch it in current Parallels release.

To run this game:
1. Install 4128 build.
2. Stop VM.
3. Open config editor, in Video Tab enable DirectX.
4. Run VM.
5. Go to Start->Programs->PKR->Play PKR (min spec).

[robbo007]

Anyone get Oblivion working? I can get to the first screen then it crashes. I think all the VM is pretty cutting edge technology and very ropy. Don't think I would invest in this software until they get it right.

Nothing is going to beat a native machine running a game. Lets hope the rest of the game makers out there realise that there is a massive community on the MAC platform that want to play games natively and not under a VM.

Rob

PS: anyone tested VMware Fusion 4 Beta with games? Any better?

[cynic]

Well at the keynote a few days ago we saw Apple investing exactly in what you mentioned.

[cparker]

FarCry is one of the 3D apps that Parallels says works.

For me, MouseLook doesn't work, and the HUD "slides" in and out. The HUD problem is not too bad, but not having MouseLook makes it unplayable. There are no ways to turn left and right only strafe.

Please let me know if anyone has gotten these things working under Parallels. Cause I couldn't get it working.

I'm running a MBP CD 17" 2GB, XP, and Far Cry patched to 1.4 which is the latest I believe.

Thanks!
Chris

[Ungenious]

Counter-Strike 1.6 supposedly works, but it has plenty of bugs too. Unplayable in my opinion.

This thread might help, or at the very least you might help others:
(http://forums.parallels.com/thread12826.html)

-Me

[unused_user_name]

From the UbiSoft website:

FarCry SYSTEM REQUIRMENTS:
# Video Card: 64 MB DirectX® 9.0b-compatible graphics card
# Sound Card: DirectX® 9.0b-compatible PCI card
# DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0b (included on disc)

Parallels does not support DriectX 9, only 8.1.

Please read the system requirements for programs before you try to use them on "hardware" (in this case emulated hardware) that does not support it.

EDIT:

On looking further, it seems that FarCry also has an OpenGL mode... and the OpenGL mode is supported by Parallels. Are you using that?

What hardware are you running on? A Macbook's OpenGL hardware is really crappy.

Run this test (http://www.realtech-vr.com/glview/changes.html) in Windows (in Parallels) to see what versions of OpenGL are supported. I can't find an OpenGL requirements listing for FarCry
.

[cparker]

In addition: another error for Morrowind:

Render Creation Error: "Unsupported desktop resolution. Change windows resolution to "True Color (32bit)"."

This is with the desktop resolution of Windows set to 32 bit, 800x600 trying to play Morrowind in a window, 640x640 requested and shaders off.

Far Cry:
Set the renderer to OpenGL in the INI files, set everything to low, sound in compatibility mode to get rid of unwanted noise and resolution at 800x500. The game is not really playable on a Mac Book Pro C2D 2.33, 2GB RAM, x1600 with 256MB. Too laggy, no real rendering problems.
This game is listed on the product information pages but should not really be there since it is unplayable.
Far Cry:
I just tried using OpenGL as the renderer, and I get Mr. Black Screen.

ADMIN:
WTF? Why are you dumping all the game related posts into ONE post! Since the wonderful forum system CAN'T search inside a post, I have to trudge through 11 pages to see if someone has responded. <sarcasm>THANKS! </sarcasm>

[Ungenious]

Of note: the MacBook has an inferior GPU than the MacBook Pro. So playing games that are graphics intensive (even slightly dated such as WoW) will run slowly... even with 2GB RAM. So note this before blaming Boot Camp or Parallels for slow framerates.

[perfection]

Has anyone tried playing Warcraft 3? Is it playable?
As far as i know, the graphics for counterstrike is horrendous. everything is White..... sometimes the terrains are normal but the characters are white.. depends on my luck..
any help please?!?!?

i'm on a macbook pro , 2gb ram !
thanks!

[Shidayu]

Has anyone tried playing Warcraft 3? Is it playable?
As far as i know, the graphics for counterstrike is horrendous. everything is White..... sometimes the terrains are normal but the characters are white.. depends on my luck..
any help please?!?!?

i'm on a macbook pro , 2gb ram !
thanks!

Personally I won't try running WC3 under PDM simply because it runs natively under OS X.

[buddhak0n]

Of note: the MacBook has an inferior GPU than the MacBook Pro. So playing games that are graphics intensive (even slightly dated such as WoW) will run slowly... even with 2GB RAM. So note this before blaming Boot Camp or Parallels for slow framerates.

I'm trying to get LOTRO to run with a MacBook Pro... whole shebang... don't have a "frame" rate problem.. I have a complete WHITE Screen problem...

Any word on updates to this build that will allow for Direct X 9 games like LOTRO to run.. It's really the only reason I bought the software but since I've had it , i've found other uses for it... like running Office 07 through Vista so I don't have to play around with Mac office stuff etc.

I'm going to keep it and I'm going to run it.. It runs Vista without a hitch but it locks up .. you can't resume a VM session but when running I was shocked at how well it ran Windoze.... Most of the locking up problems I would bet are much more a win Bloez problem then Parallels.. just having been through every MS release since 1982 or so... lol

But I was SHOCKED how well it installs and just let's you flip up a Windows Vista session without reconfiguring your network settings or your Ipconfig or anything quite frankly.

FROM Strictly a Windows standpoint Parallels 3.0 does a great job of installing and just bang right out of the box it's configured to go.. You can pull up an IE window and just start surfing .. or run Office 07 etc... but the game support although claimed really seems to suck... I haven't gotten any games to run on it really but then again I'm a one game kind of guy .. and it won't run the game I want .. can't testify to Half life or any other shooter or Age of Empires etc... all I WANT IS FOR LORD OF THE RINGS to fire up!@

HELP ME! lol

[Shidayu]

I'm trying to get LOTRO to run with a MacBook Pro... whole shebang... don't have a "frame" rate problem.. I have a complete WHITE Screen problem...

Any word on updates to this build that will allow for Direct X 9 games like LOTRO to run.. It's really the only reason I bought the software but since I've had it , i've found other uses for it... like running Office 07 through Vista so I don't have to play around with Mac office stuff etc.

I'm going to keep it and I'm going to run it.. It runs Vista without a hitch but it locks up .. you can't resume a VM session but when running I was shocked at how well it ran Windoze.... Most of the locking up problems I would bet are much more a win Bloez problem then Parallels.. just having been through every MS release since 1982 or so... lol

But I was SHOCKED how well it installs and just let's you flip up a Windows Vista session without reconfiguring your network settings or your Ipconfig or anything quite frankly.

FROM Strictly a Windows standpoint Parallels 3.0 does a great job of installing and just bang right out of the box it's configured to go.. You can pull up an IE window and just start surfing .. or run Office 07 etc... but the game support although claimed really seems to suck... I haven't gotten any games to run on it really but then again I'm a one game kind of guy .. and it won't run the game I want .. can't testify to Half life or any other shooter or Age of Empires etc... all I WANT IS FOR LORD OF THE RINGS to fire up!@

HELP ME! lol

Probably not going to happen for a while. Parallels clearly states that 3.0 only supports 8.1c.

[Shidayu]

I'm trying to get LOTRO to run with a MacBook Pro... whole shebang... don't have a "frame" rate problem.. I have a complete WHITE Screen problem...

Any word on updates to this build that will allow for Direct X 9 games like LOTRO to run.. It's really the only reason I bought the software but since I've had it , i've found other uses for it... like running Office 07 through Vista so I don't have to play around with Mac office stuff etc.

I'm going to keep it and I'm going to run it.. It runs Vista without a hitch but it locks up .. you can't resume a VM session but when running I was shocked at how well it ran Windoze.... Most of the locking up problems I would bet are much more a win Bloez problem then Parallels.. just having been through every MS release since 1982 or so... lol

But I was SHOCKED how well it installs and just let's you flip up a Windows Vista session without reconfiguring your network settings or your Ipconfig or anything quite frankly.

FROM Strictly a Windows standpoint Parallels 3.0 does a great job of installing and just bang right out of the box it's configured to go.. You can pull up an IE window and just start surfing .. or run Office 07 etc... but the game support although claimed really seems to suck... I haven't gotten any games to run on it really but then again I'm a one game kind of guy .. and it won't run the game I want .. can't testify to Half life or any other shooter or Age of Empires etc... all I WANT IS FOR LORD OF THE RINGS to fire up!@

HELP ME! lol

Probably not going to happen for a while. Parallels clearly states that 3.0 only supports 8.1c.

[dailo]

Counter-strike source is pretty playable. Not the best FPS, but pretty decent as I can play without a lot of stuttering. Pretty awesome, never thought I would be able to do this on my Mac! Thanks parallels!

counter-strike.tiff (http://www.williamton.com/pics/counter-strike.tiff)

[timadlr]

@dailo: Is this a joke, or is it really running well? (The screenshot looks pretty crapped)

[timadlr]

BTW: Could it be that only OpenGL-games runs really? Cause i've tried BF1942 (which is clearly a DirectX 8.1 game), it doesn't fire up at all!

[airolson]

The 15th Anniversary release of Another World (http://www.anotherworld.fr/anotherworld_uk/) works swimmingly!

[dailo]

No joke! Sure the FPS is pretty low, but it plays alright. Its good enough for a quick CS fix, but if I am going to play for a long time I'd switch to Boot Camp for sure. I also have everything set to low, but there might be some tweaks that might improve performance.

[bgose]

MacBook Pro C2D Running WinXP

Game Support


GTA: San Andreas - No (Crashes VM back to OSX desktop)
Lord Of The Rings Online No (Cannot find desired display mode)
Tomb Raider: Anniversary Yes (Only when VM is fullscreen. Very very very slow)


For Tomb Raider Anniversary see this thread.

http://forum.parallels.com/thread13169.html

Hopefully, this will help to get it running faster and more playable.

[phavelar]

I haven't had luck with HL2 it does not even starts for me.
HL1 works, but not HL2.
Anyone experienced similar problem?

[timadlr]

When I tried CS:S came up, and ran. Not that well, but it did. Haven't tried HL2 though.

[Atmosphere]

I just installed Swat4 on XP running on a Macbook C2D 2G Ram... in full screen mode it seems to run pretty good so far. In a window - it's a little slow at 1st - but then it works very well.

My settings for parallels: 256MB, 8MB Video Ram
I set the graphics to lowest in the game 1st... and am running in 800x600

But so far so good :)

[ShinseiRyu]

Regarding FFXI, I was initially having the same issues with the black screen in POL but POL not being frozen/locked up (sound working and you can hear the changes you make but not see). Changing the options for POL to load full screen as opposed to "Start in windowed mode" allowed me to see POL and consequently load FFXI, but once you get into FFXI the screen garbles up with half POL and half old images of the desktop.

[billin]

Hey all,

I saw someone post about C+CG:ZH crashing on startup when run in Parallels 3.0. In my experience, I get the splash screen, then an error dialog saying that it requires DirectX 8.1 or higher, or my video card may not be compatible.

My setup:
MacBook Pro 2GHz Core Duo, 2GB RAM, Radeon X1600 w/ 256MB
Running at 1440 x 900
Parallels Desktop 3.0, build 4128
WinXP Pro installed on a BootCamp partition
"Enable DirectX support" checked
Main memory set to 1028MB
Video memory set to 64MB (I also tried it at 32MB)

Anyone had any success running Command and Conquer Generals in Parallels?

Bill

[wildbluyonder2000]

Well just from reading all these posts its obvious we should demand our money back and file a lawsuit against parallels for false advertising. Graphics are the only reason I got this. What a load of crap. :mad:

[tabhastal]

"Without leaving their Mac desktop, users can play popular Windows-only 3D games such as Quake, Half-Life 2,..."

What were you guys smoking?

(Full text of news release at http://www.parallels.com/en/news/id,11791)

[claud9999]

Games I've tried, to no success:

Broken Sword - The Sleeping Dragon - comes up, graphics are really f*cked up
Sub Culture - crashes immediately (using the D3D version)

Games I haven't tried, I would kill to be able to play, but I am not holding out hope of support for a couple more versions:

Battlezone, Battlezone II
System Shock 2
Dungeon Keeper 2
Carmageddon 2
Hardwar

Unsure if these older games work on more modern versions of Direct X, I wiped my BootCamp partition when I moved to a 250GB hd in my MacBook, yes! Guess I'll stick to playing my DS until this stuff gets ironed out.

[Anhaedra]

I have tested these so far...

Fallout 2: Runs, good speed, but the colors are wrong.
Planescape Torment: Runs fullspeed, some mouse tracking problems but it's not a big problem.
Deus Ex Invisible War: Runs, very, very slow, unplayable
The Chronicles of Riddick: Does not run, gives error about OpenGL not being the correct version
Gothic 2: Will not start
Morrowind: Error about screen resolutions, as seen in other posts
Oblivion: Starts, but crashes at main menu. Also tried with Oldblivion, nothing changed
Arx Fatalis: Black screen
Live for Speed: Screen is displayed higher than it should be, but it runs, slowly.
Hitman 2: Runs slowly. It also runs in Crossover Office at a very nice speed, so you'd be better off doing that for now...
Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed: Would not run for me

Overall I'm pretty impressed that DirectX games work at all. :)

[Ramzeska]

I tested some games:
VM configuration 512 ram and 64 video ram XP SP 2;
GTA Vice City - slow but playable;
Max Pain 2 - works good, but in white color;
CS 1.6 - very good in directx mode;
3DMax 5.0 - work;
3DMax 7.0 - work only in software mode;

when Lineage C4 start you see warning " The game not be consistant because AGP is deactivated" , after it you see black screen and lineage`s cursor, after it if you use high acceleration level windows crash , if you use normal acceleration level lineage crash and goto windows desktop.

P.S. Thanx for 3d

[biglar]

I installed and ran Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 without a problem. The game needs to be run in 800x600x32 resolution only -- high resolutions will lock up the computer. The game seemed to run at a good speed; as you increase the size of your park, the game will run slower -- however, this is true on any machine.:)

[jester]

Guys,

Please don't forget to check on DirectX checkbox in Video tab in VM config for DirectX games. Video RAM size is not relevant - keep it default. Both OpenGL and DirectX support use native video RAM on your host video card. Video RAM settings is relevant only for Windows GDI resolution.
__________________
Best Regards,
Andrew @ Parallels


I'm trying to play some games, Like Command and Conquer 3, BASE (parachute base jumping tha on other pc doesn't need a lot of graphic).
I'm trying to find the configuration for the directx but I can't!
Can u show me the procedure of it!
I've got Macbook pro with parallels build 3188
regards jester

[buirseach]

guild wars crashes the VM


oh, and has anyone experimented with updating direct x?

[Stevamundo]

Bicycle Casino in XP. It played perfectly in 2.5. Last night for the first time in 3.0 I tried to play it and didn't work. I'm guessing that it's because I have DirectX enabled.

[ppawel]

I just tried the demo for Operation Flashpoint, and it runs beautifully under 3.0.

I'm quite impressed!!

[ppawel]

Here's a few more I tried:

Jagged Alliance 2 Gold -- runs flawlessly (ran ok but with probs in Parallels 2.x)
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri -- runs flawlessly (didn't run at all in 2.x)
X: Beyond the Fronteir -- doesn't work
Aces High V2 -- doesn't work

[boringo]

My install base:

Mac Mini Core Duo 1.6Ghz, 1Gb RAM

VM: Windows 2000 Pro with 128Mb RAM

I LOVE that you are trying to run the Thief series. One of my favorite games of all time. In my config, Thief 1 runs like a champ. It's a little laggy to start, but once the game is rolling it is very responsive and gameplay is terrific.

I tried installing and running Thief II, but ran into issues. Install went great, but upon running the game, I got some error about having an incompatible video card. Not sure what that was about - anyone have any suggestions?


Putting in my two cents for the slightly obscure set of games that most people won't even try :p


Thief - Installs fine and runs but lags unplayably badly.

Thief II - Same result as Thief.

(Notably Thief, Thief II and SS2 are all DirectX 7.0 games but also by the same company and with similar / same engines, so it's hard to know what is at fault for the speed.)

[boringo]

What OS/specs are you running for your VM? I got Thief 1 to run great on a Windows 2000 Pro VM with only 128Mb RAM allocated.

[docphi]

Guys,

Please don't forget to check on DirectX checkbox in Video tab in VM config for DirectX games.


Andrew,

Where is this checkbox? I've got the latest build and it's nowhere to be found. :confused:

[docphi]

Whooops! Found it! Never mind...

[jwiegley]

I think the DirectX support in Parallels is only for certain specific apps right now. I've not been able to get a *single* one of my games working, and all for different reasons:

Chessmaster 10th Edition - Graphics are all screwed up and get drawn incorrectly

Neverwinter Nights - The menu screen is completely black so you can't see or select anything.

It's like this for everything I've tried, so I'm pretty much writing off DirectX support until a later release.

John

[snoopy04]

ffxi now works in the latest July 17th build, needs lots of graphics memory though, I run it on my ATI x1600 128mb with graphics artifacts when I allocate 32 megs to parallels for D3D. but it does work sorta. I wouldn't run up the graphics settings at all but runs well other than that on 2gigs of system memory(absolutely necessary).

[kovacs]

Parallels v3 is a joke as far as 3D gaming (or any gaming) is concerned. I'm on holiday and bought some games to have fun. No Mac games were available and I'm on a lousy cellphone dialup connection so I can't download anything either.

Rise of Nations: Installs and plays. Graphics are messed up (lots of white areas in place of buildings). The mouse pointer goes all over the place and after 10 minutes I realized it was impossible to play the game.

Civilization 3 Complete: Installs but refuses to launch because it is unable to verify that the original disc is inserted. Great.

Civ 4...no dice of course (same as other people have reported).

MacBook Pro 2Ghz, 2GB RAM. 1GB RAM for Parallels. DirectX enabled.

[Napster]

Parallels.com states: New! Run today’s most popular PC games on a Mac with support for 3D graphics

So I assume Guild Wars is a hot game.. So I try to install it with a MBP C1D 15" 2GB RAM X1600XT 256MB.

Obviously GW must not be a "popular" game.. I mean ONLY 1+ million registered users.. what was I thinking?? I guess popularity must mean 1.3 million users or maybe more.. who knows...

Well this is what it did. See picture below...

GW started upsidedown and has 4 squares in the bottom left corner..? 2 black and 2 white. As far as I am concerned the Parallels team can play some 4 square on my machine.. now that would be an entertaining 3D game :)

http://www.paintballupload.com/uploads/118496861551.png

[AlanH]

Civilization 3 Complete: Installs but refuses to launch because it is unable to verify that the original disc is inserted. Great.

MacBook Pro 2Ghz, 2GB RAM. 1GB RAM for Parallels. DirectX enabled.
Civ3 Complete works OK here. I seem to recall I had to turn *off* the DirectX checkbox, though.

[jwiegley]

Every time I try to start "Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind" under Parallels, it says "Unsupported desktop resolution. Change windows resolution to "True Color (32bit)"". Of course, I've already set it up for the correction resolution and for 32-bit. This happens whether windowed or full screen.

But finally I was able to find *one* game that worked -- kind of: Syberia. If, after running, you hit the Windows key to bring up the menu, then click on Syberia to select it again, the graphics will finally get drawn correctly and things work.

The DirectX support is just Not There. It should be advertised as a beta feature, or just plain not for gaming, the way it is on the website.

John

[jwiegley]

Two other games I tried:

jDoom works fine; the graphics are very smooth, but the character animations (meaning: the time it takes to switch weapons) is oddly slow.

Descent 2XL crashes on startup.