Parallels 8 under MacBooks with Retina displays is not scaling properly

I've got a brand new 15" MacBook Pro with a retina display (latest hardware at the moment).

I've also got a couple of large monitors hooked to it, including a 27" Samsung with 1900 x 1440 resolution.

Things run and look great on the large Samsung monitor, including Parallels 8.

When I move them onto the MacBook Pro's screen, most apps adapt properly and are still readable.

Unfortunately, Parallels 8 is not reading something properly and thinks it's running in a 2880 x 1920 display resolution device, and the result is totally unreadable from a practical standpoint.

The amazing thing to see is that it's actually readable in terms of raw resolution rendering, although you need a magnifying glass to read anything!

The MacBook Pros with Retina displays have some kind of scaling built-in that can be adjusted via the screen settings. Normally it's scaled down to preserve the aspect ratios of whatever is running in the secondary monitor(s), so when the apps are dragged into the laptop's screen they're still readable.

Parallels 8 needs to be updated to properly observe this scaling setting so it doesn't change its parameters and make the entire VM unreadable.

-David

 

Wait, are you running your external displays in mirroring mode? You should be running in extended desktop. I don't understand where the 2880x1920 is coming from.

Steve

 

I actually have two displays attached to my MacBook Pro, but one is usually off because it apparently taxes the CPU enough to make the laptop's fan run on high.

Why would I want to run the external displays in mirroring mode? I'm using them as secondary monitors, not as projectors for others to view!

Here is what "About This Mac" in the Displays tab says is the resolution of each display (I was a little off in my earlier numbers):

Built-in Color LCD Display : 2880 x 1800
SyncMaster Display : 1920 x 1080
DELL 2005FPW Display : 1680 x 1050

The first one is the Retina display, and its Resolution is set as: Best for display.

If I check Scaled, then it shows it's set between 1280x800 and 1680x1050 -- It doesn't say exactly other than "optimal", so I'm going to guestimate it's running at 1440x925.

As I said, when I move windows from the other two screens into the laptop's screen area, they shrink a little bit, but they behave as if the display's resolution is 1440x925.

However, when I have Parallels 8 open in my SyncMaster screen and move it into the laptop's screen area, it completely re-sizes itself and shows up as if the screen's resolution is 2880x1800 -- which it *IS*, except it's being SCALED BY THE OS to 1440x925.

The problem is, Parallels 8 is not detecting the presence of the scaling.

This isn't rocket science. Find someone with a MacBook Pro that has a Retina display and see how Parallels 8 looks on it. My guess is it's going to be impossible to see anything because it's so freaking tiny and not being scaled to behave as if it's a smaller-res display. (There are other posts here where people are complaining about how Parallels looks in their retina displays. They just couldn't / didn't explain why.)

-David

 

David,

Can you reproduce your problem and generate a Problem Report via Parallels Help menu and post report ID here.

 

Are you telling me that nobody else who owns a MacBook Pro with a Retina display is experiencing this issue?

Aside from the other folks reporting problems being able to read their Parallels VMs in their retina screens here on the forums?

sheesh ...

Here's the report#: 26713866

Just notice in the attached screenshots that the ENTIRE lower screen is the Parallels 8 desktop! It is maximized. The Delphi IDE and a couple other windows appear inside of it, and I cannot move the mouse outside of an area making up roughly the top-left quadrant of the display.

When I move the Parallels 8 desktop into the 27" display area, the same Delphi IDE fills the entire display area. What you're seeing in the retina display is how the IDE looks at 2x the resolution. It's unreadable, even though it's taking up the exact same number of pixels on-screen.

 

David,

The short answer to your problem is to un-check this option: VM Configuration > Hardware > Video > Resolution: Enable retina resolution.

You have a Windows XP VM for which retina resolution is enabled. Once this VM is moved to retina display it starts rendering with pixel precise resolution, which is indeed too tiny unless you tune UI scaling options in XP itself, and even then it would be far from perfect. Retina resolution option for XP is there mostly for completeness, it is off by default. You must have turned it on inadvertently.
As to the other folks, most of them have Windows 7 or 8 VMs. Windows 7 and 8 have much better support for high DPI displays and PD automatically adjusts Windows settings to take advantage of retina resolution, which is not possible for XP.

 

Couldn't you have just posted that in the first place?

This is a new computer. I've never had anything with a retina display before. So PD probably detected it and enabled it by default because I've not seen that panel in a very long time.

After unchecking it, I'm able to run PD on the laptop screen and it is now readable.

Thanks
-David

 

This is quite helpful. I was having the same problem. For some reason retina was on by default when I installed on my new MacBook pro retina that I purchased in April this year.

Also, When is it appropriate to turn the Retina on? You mentioned that it is there for completeness.

Thanks.