15104 still completely fails to support retina display

Discussion in 'Installation and Configuration of Parallels Desktop' started by ReubenR, Jul 13, 2012.

  1. jeffyjones

    jeffyjones Member

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    If you don't have one, then your trolling does not add to the discussion. Some people bought a Retina MBP on the basis of the marketed support, or bought Parallels for it on the basis of the marketed support. Those customers are well within their right to feel duped.
     
  2. >>> Message has been deleted by the user <<<
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 2, 2012
  3. YanaYana

    YanaYana

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    1,666
    Hello Again. Still no Problem reports. Can you place help us a little bit and share some information?
     
  4. jeffyjones

    jeffyjones Member

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    I don't think you looked hard enough. That, and what is it exactly you need to know? Dozens of people have described the problem, and if you try and run Parallels on a MBP Retina, you'll see it doesn't run the guest OS at the native resolution of the screen, it scales it.
     
  5. YanaYana

    YanaYana

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    1,666
    Thanks, i was confused by the Ticket Number label as you stated it. Cause ticket is a different thing usually and have different number. I will forward it to the dev team straight away
     
  6. koppah

    koppah Bit poster

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    I've already submitted a Problem Report. The problem is that Parallels is scaling the app up to make it work in Retina. Windows is therefore getting very pixellated. Changing the resolution of the Mac up to its maximum size using SetRes.app, then setting Windows to that maximum resolution and turning up the DPI settings in Windows to 150% makes Windows 8 look amazing, but making OS X almost unusable. Would be nice to be able to run Windows without pixel-doubling being applied.
     
  7. YanaYana

    YanaYana

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    1,666
    Can you please provide your Report ID?
     
  8. koppah

    koppah Bit poster

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    My report ID is 1418059

    These screenshots clearly demonstrate the problem, when the Retina display is set to 'Best', setting Windows to the resolution which matches the (apparent) display size will always result in better results. Setting the Retina Display to its maximum resolution, then Windows to the Maximum resolution is when you get the best results. This mean that Parallels is allowing OS X to pixel-double the window, even tho Windows itself is supplying enough pixels to begin with.

    Retina Resolution (Best), Windows 1440

    Retina Resolution (Best), Windows 2880

    Retina Resolution (Maximum, 2880), Windows 2880
     
    Last edited: Aug 9, 2012
  9. JoachimW

    JoachimW Junior Member

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    Come on, you must be kidding! You have issued press releases that you now support the retina screen and you are not even aware that you're running 1440 x 900 instead of 2880 x 1800?
     
  10. mokspok

    mokspok Bit poster

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    Agreed! It scales windows (either xp or 7) and looks terrible no matter what settings used. works fine on non retina
     
  11. koppah

    koppah Bit poster

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    Well, to be fair, they did add support so that the Virtual Display Adapter in Windows is able to go to 2880...
     
  12. petemill

    petemill Junior Member

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    Make a statement about this

    Yeah and that's a joke since when you set it to 2880, it is then dowscaled to 1440 then upscaled to 2880 making 3 out of every 4 pixels dissappear and windows under parallels to look horrible.

    @Parallels - stop asking us for Problem reports when this isn't a problem with the software, it's a problem with marketing for claiming there's a feature which isn't there.

    We can submit problem reports, but it's not going to help until the development team implements the feature... I submitted a problem report and the support had the cheek to tell me it's because I'm running Mountain Lion!!

    Please release a statement about why you made this false claim to your users, how the development towards supporting retina resolutions is actually going (possibly asking for feedback if you don't know how you should implement it), and when you expect to release that support in beta form or production.
     
  13. koppah

    koppah Bit poster

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    63
    Actually, they DO support it, but it has a strange caveat - you have to run your Mac at the highest possible resolution in order to get Windows to display at 'Retina' resolution. It really depends how you define it: either 'Retina' means 'runs well at the default Macbook's resolution', or 'Retina' means 'support the maximum number of pixels that the panel contains'.

    Either way, Parallels' marketing isn't WRONG per se, but it is frustrating to keep getting told by the support team that we need to submit Problem Reports, when we can only attach one screenshot, and you need the 3 I've attached further up the thread to demonstrate the problem.

    Parallels Support Team: please stop responding like robots, and just send the dev team an email with the info in this thread. :)

    Thanks!
     
  14. petemill

    petemill Junior Member

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    11
    This is not supporting the retina display, and I have to stand by the fact that their marketing team is wrong about the support and wrong to release a PR saying it's here - this is just supporting a screen at 2880 resolution and they didn't need an update to do that, it would have worked straight away (apart from the bug which prevented the native resolution of 2880 to show up which it already should have - but it's useless). In fact when you change to this resolution and turn off HiDPI (unsupported by Apple, but passively recommended by Parallels) you lose the only assets they updated to be compatible at retina (read: HiDPI) resolutions. Even in the screenshots Parallels provide, they run at this resolution and you don't see the only thing they updated to support Retina - the icons and the text outside of the VM!

    Furthermore, changing your resolution to 2880 is not possible using vanilla Mac OS X. You have to install a utility not provided by Apple or Parallels to do that. But again, changing to 2880 turns off HiDPI mode - and support for retina infers support for HiDPI, which they do not provide. This is about supporting retina in windowed mode as well as full-screen. Neither are in Parallels Desktop at the moment. Not to mention Mac OS X is useless at the hacked 2880 native resolution, so you might as well run bootcamp - the thing that Parallels is marketed to prevent.

    Supporting retina resolution means drawing to a different graphics buffer so that Mac OS X does not scale up the graphics with horrible artifacts and pixel removal - Parallels does not do this, save for their new icon.

    Here are Apple's guidelines for supporting high resolution displays - these techniques have not yet been implemented for the virtual machine window: http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/GraphicsAnimation/Conceptual/HighResolutionOSX/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40012302-CH1-SW1

    If I had to analyse Parallels actions - they're not stupid (they must have some amazing engineering talen), they must be aware that they have not implemented support for HiDPI / Retina but still marketed it as if they have. Of course, making the changes in their drawing subsystem may be quite a re-architecture task - something that is more suited for Parallels Desktop 8. However, in the meantime, they may have wanted to capitalise on new Retina Macbook purchases (it's the only Mac that truly has a feature no windows laptops have, so they may have assumed lots of converts (new Mac OS users who could use a windows virtualising solution) would start with the Retina Macbook. So they update the logo and other icons to be 2x, make sure all the text is written using normal Cocoa APIs, don't update the actual virtualising code at all and rush out a press release stating the new update supports Retina... angering all the new Retina Macbook owners who purchase Parallels Desktop because of their announcement.
    It's not that they haven't implemented it yet - that's understandable. It's that they've told everyone they have - and sold a product to us under false pretences. Inexcusable for a company like this.
     
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2012
  15. koppah

    koppah Bit poster

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    While I understand your frustrations, it might be more constructive to call and email them with your concerns. Even go on Twitter, and figure out the handle of a Parallels engineer. That way, you can voice your concerns directly to the team. :)
     
  16. Emma74

    Emma74 Bit poster

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    Hi, very new to Mac and Parallels... installed Parallels Desktop 6 successfully but when i tried to create VM this is what I am getting:

    "The virtual machine performance may be degraded because the hardware virtualization support is disabled on the host computer.
    It is recommended to enable the hardware virtualization support in BIOS settings."

    I dont have any previous Parallels installed (i installed and uninstalled same version several times) and I already have Windows 7 installed by Boot Camp.

    How to fix it? I have very little knowledge of computers and this is really frustrating me. Any help is appreciated.
     
  17. Specimen

    Specimen Product Expert

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    3,242
    Most likely explanation: Parallels 6 is not compatible with OSX 10.8 (Mountain Lion), only Parallels 7 is.
     
  18. MAXWELLT

    MAXWELLT Bit poster

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    I purchased Parallels based on their claim that they have retina support!!! They obviously do not!! I am switching to vmware fusion 5 which I have just confirmed truly has retina support. You simply click "Use full resolution for Retina display" under display settings.

    Parallels. I better get my money back for your blatant false advertisement!!!!!
     
  19. jeffyjones

    jeffyjones Member

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    Well that definitely changes some things. If VMware does in fact support native retina resolution, perhaps it's time to switch.
     
  20. Mountain Jack

    Mountain Jack Bit poster

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    So funny, parallels has issued a press release stating that they have retina support, whereas VMWare has not. Then it turns out that the reverse is true. What makes the story even funnier is the choice by Parallels choose the phrasing "full retina support". That is Bold.
     

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