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.
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.
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