My host system is a MacBook Pro running Mac OS X 10.5.6, with 2GB RAM and a 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. My guest system is Windows XP, updated to SP2 using Windows Update from within Parallels. Some time back, I switched from Parallels 3 to VMWare Fusion because of the latter's Direct X/Pixel Shader support. Press releases and reviews said that Parallels 4 now supports DirectX/Pixel Shader, and runs faster than VMWare, so I tried to switch back to Parallels 4. I can tell that Parallels is running my WinXP installation faster than VMWare, but I'm not getting any Pixel Shader support in Parallels 4. Specifically, the applications run, but objects that expect to be rendered in 3D get rendered as white shapes. In an identical (except for Parallels Tools vs. VMWare Tools) installation of Windows with identical installations of these applications, VMWare Fusion renders these objects perfectly, though the overall performance is slower than Parallels 4. The only reason I use a virtual Windows machine on my Mac at all is to gain access to a very few Windows-only programs, all of which require Pixel Shader support. If I cannot get shader support on Parallels 4, it is useless to me and I'm out $90 for nothing. Out of the box, Parallels 4 installed with the following configuration options: 3D graphics enabled, video RAM 128 MB, main RAM 512 MB. Following instructions from Parallels Desktop Support, I changed the main RAM to 700 MB. Doing so actually slowed down both the guest and the host, but did not result in 3D objects rendering properly. When I run the DirectX diagnostic (dxdiag) within Windows, everything seems to check out. But still, the apps don't work right, as described above. I can only conclude that there is either a Parallels setting that's incorrect in my installation, an incorrect Windows setting, or a problem of some sort with the video adapter (faux video card). I don't understand why the apps work fine under VMWare Fusion but not Parallels 4. Any advice? Other than deinstalling Parallels 4 and going back to VMWare Fusion?
More info on this problem I think I have figured out the cause of my problem, but I don't know how to solve it. Maybe somebody here can help. I think my problem results from the following confluence of factors: 1. My Windows apps require DirectX 9.0 or higher. 2. My Windows XP installation disk installs DirectX 8.1. 3. If I run Windows Update in my virtual machine, it takes me all the way to DirectX 9.0c. 4. BUT, Parallels 4 doesn't support DirectX 9.0c with Pixel Shader 3, only DirectX 9.0 with Pixel Shader 2. Anybody know a way to upgrade Windows XP from DirectX 8.1 to 9.0 without going all the way to 9.0c? (VMWare Fusion runs these apps just fine with Windows XP SP2 and DirectX 9.0c, but it's slower than Parallels.)
