Is Parallels at risk of becoming obsolete?

Discussion in 'General Questions' started by mr_q, Aug 6, 2012.

  1. mr_q

    mr_q Member

    Messages:
    26
    Let me first state I adore Parallels. It runs as a start up item in OSX. I often click over to it for productivity needs.

    But let's not BS each other for a moment.

    Unless someone from Parallels comes to this thread with data to support their case, most people, under OSX, are using Parallels to play video-games. I know that statement is filled with fire. I also know that a lot of us simply don't play games. What I will submit is that I do use P7 only for productivity reasons, often. The attraction, though, is knowing I can fire up a PC game and relax for a bit when needed. It stops me from running to Boot Camp or god forbid maintain a Windows PC. Even Parallels themselves is a tad guilty of pandering to the wannabe-gamer in all us OSX users with its marketing.

    So my question for them, how serious are they? P7 is quite quickly showing its age with no DX11 support. Many "AAA" games simply will not run unless this option is present. Also, P7 is hitting a wall with GPU emulation done via the CPU, even for the games that do run. We have heard nothing from the dev team. DX11 has been with us for some time.

    What do I (you) want?

    I want to see some progress in this area. P7 has near 1:1 cpu virtualization. It's so accurate that we use it for render nodes at work. By render I mean rendering, "pre-rendered computer generated graphics", under the Windows environment. What we would like to see from the devs is that they are at least looking at, or even better working on, GPU virtualization via OpenCL or CUDA. Or their own custom offerings.

    I am sad to think Parallels may simply become a tool of productivity only, and the exciting times of a safer alternative platform for gaming, for us OSX users, may be a thing of the a past. Especially with the App Store slowly filling with more and more "AAA" games along with Valve's Steam. I like Parallels, I've been with them for a while, and I think they have a wonderful product. I hope I am not alone in thinking they can do more and achieve greater success. Don't let someone else take your market, fight for it.
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2012
  2. johnnykrisma

    johnnykrisma Junior Member

    Messages:
    13
    I have no idea who Parallels general market is, but I have never played a game in Parallels. I play CoD4 on my Mac but I need Windows in various shades for work. I test on all versions of IE and we have some apps that just don't like anything else, I also run SQL Server and it's associated management tools. I'll occasionally fire up a Fedora VM to do some testing

    It seems to me, if you're really into gaming, you'll just buy a PC, if you're a casual gamer, why would you worry about things like DX11? I dunno, that's just my opinion. If the only market is games, than you might be right, but from my vantage point, I see many other use cases.
     
  3. danieltharris

    danieltharris Member

    Messages:
    87
    I use it for running things like Visual Studio, SQL Server, and various other work related tools.

    I could never imagine playing games in a virtualised OS, when I used to play games on PC I always wanted every extra FPS I could get.

    I play games on console only these days, as it's just fine for casual BF3 etc, even if the graphics aren't as good, maps aren't as big, less players etc.

    I always assumed most people used Parallels on their Mac for running Visual Studio for work, and would either already own a PC for gaming if they were really into it.

    You could just run Boot Camp to get the best performance out of your games couldn't you? Also what's so hard about "maintaining" a Windows PC...?
     
  4. Yourguide

    Yourguide Bit poster

    Messages:
    7
    I bought Parallels 8 for Development (CodeCharge Studio, Visual Studio, Notepad++) within Windows 7.
    I must admit I was pleasantly surprised to see that after loading Steam I could play trackmania and Trials 2 within my VM.
    I went ahead and purchased a newer Steam Game, Tony Hawks Pro Skater HD... and even it... (though it has some troubles at first) seems to play ok on my Macbook Retina.
    I think Parallels has done a superior job in getting Games to work within a VM.... IMHO
     

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