DirectX Game Parallels Crash Killed OpenGL??

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DarylF2

Member
I had an odd experience...

I tried enabling DirectX for my WinXP VM in Parallels 3.0 and then running Total Annihilation. It was abysmally slow, INCREDIBLY slow; it was much faster under Parallels 2.5! It bogged down my Mac Pro 3.0GHz Quad Xeon (with 4.0GB RAM and 512MB X1900XT) so badly that I couldn't even kill Parallels... Eventually, Parallels crashed.

Ever since, OpenGL hasn't worked in my WinXM VM. DirectX is okay (except for TA...), but OpenGL viewports are all black in all apps. I tried restoring a VM from before the TA crash and the problem persisted. I tried disabling DirectX acceleration and the still persisted. I tried rebooting the Mac Pro and the problem still persists! I haven't yet reinstalled Parallels, but it looks like the crash messed up part of Parallels itself...

Has anyone else seen anything like this?
 
I've noticed the black windows in SolidWorks 2007 as well.

I'm beginning to wonder if there is a general problem with Parallels working with the Mac Pro.

I've turned hardware OpenGL OFF in Solidworks and it works reasonably well (at least as well as in 2.5), however when I turn ON hardware OpenGL in the SolidWorks settings I get HORRIBLE performance, black windows, blotchy mismatched graphics, etc.

Since you have a Mac Pro I can also assume you have a Cinema HD display, if this is the case we have something in common. My hypothesis is Parallels cannot run OpenGL well enough in an extremely high resolution environment (1900X1200) either in windowed mode or full screen.

Maybe the Mac Pro owners are being left out since there are not too many of us around.

Heck Parallels promised us multiple processor support in 3.0...where is it?

I'd like to get Andrew with Parallels comments on this.
 
opengl gives black screen

we have two applications that we use on a daily basis that use opengl, and neither of them show up anymore in parallels 3.0. All I get is a black window. I have tried with 'enable direct x' on and off, and there is no difference.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
I drive two monitors: a 24" Dell 2405FPW at 1920x1200 and a 20" Dell 2001FP at 1600x1200, so high-resolution issues may definitely be related to these OpenGL issues...

It is possible that these OpenGL issues are unrelated to the Parallels crash when trying to play Total Annihilation. I had thought I had tried OpenGL in Parallels 3.0 before that, but may be mistaken. So this could be completely unrelated to the crash.
 
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bgose said:
Heck Parallels promised us multiple processor support in 3.0...where is it?

I'd like to get Andrew with Parallels comments on this.
Click to expand...

Multiprocessor support will be part of one of upcoming 3.x free updates later this year. OpenGL issues will be investigated and we will provide fixes as soon as possible.
 
The Windows Folding@Home client GUI window uses OpenGL, I believe. It's black with occasional bursts of while activity on my 4 GByte quad core MacPro w. Geforce 7300GT. Not important, but I thought I'd try it out.
 
HOORAY, Parallels is listening! It seems I can always count on Andrew to reply to serious posts.

Andrew, you are my favorite Parallels person! Go buy yourself a drink and bill me for it.

Cheers!

Now, how long is it going to be until we can actually USE Parallels for WORKING instead of screwing off playing games and other extraneous bull-hockey?

One other question for you Andrew, why is SolidWorks 2007 listed in the documentation as a supported 3D accelerated application? SW 2007 does not work using hardware OpenGL in 3.0. It's only passable using software OpenGL in 3.0 as long as you're not trying to rotate it using a SpacePilot or actually do any real work with it.

Why put this in the docs and then hang us out to dry?
 
Thanks Parallels Team, and my opengl 'fix'

Thanks for replying Andrew, I really appreciate an active support team. So to get some work done, I disabled the parallels windows graphics driver, so the display properties (in windows xp sp2) says '(default monitor) on ' so no driver is loaded, openGL is rendering in software, but at least it works again. Thought I'd pass that on if anyone wanted to avoid uninstalling parallels 3.0 for opengl functionality, until a few point releases hopefully fix these issues.
 
Since posting OpenGL fixes seems to be all the rage on this thread, I'll post mine for SolidWorks.

1. Launch Windows in Parallels.
2. Open SolidWorks.
3. Go to: Tools => Options =>
4. Under the "System Options" tab select "Performance"
5. At the bottom of the System options window turn on "Use Software OpenGL" by clicking the radio button.
6. Close the "System Options" window by selecting OK.
7. Open any file you like and begin "working"

This does not require you to remove the parallels video drivers from the virtual machine for SolidWorks.
 
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