I recently upgraded to Parallels 3 so that I could play some old games of mine. Problem is, they, well, they still don't work. I start one, and if it does start, it's so unbelievebly slow it's unplayable. I can't help but think I must have missed something vital, like some option to enable gaming? The only thing I've found is the "enable DirectX" checkmark in the VM configuration. My setup is a first gen MacBook, 1G ram with 512 allocated to the VM, 16MB to the virtual video card. I know that's not exactly screaming, but these aren't terribly intensive games... the box on Tintin says Pentium 233 MMX, 32Mb RAM, with a 3D video card 8MB RAM. Something's wrong... should I download the latest DirectX? (I read somewhere that it overwrites parallels files, so I haven't yet) I missed something, what is it? Major thanks to whoever can figure out what's up!
Is it slow the whole time, or are there sections of very slow (low frame rate) play? I found that even on a very fast Mac there are times when 3D frame rate drops to 1 or 2 per second, but is OK for other parts of a game. Perhaps just an issue with this build of Parallels.
It's odd. Some games just wont start whatsoever, and others will take ages to load and then work at about a frame per 5 or 10 seconds. I have a hunch that installing directX 9 might help... I just need to hear someone say it's OK for me to do so without mutilating the parallels tools files. By the way, is this my system or a unique problem? Does anyone have a similar setup to mine, while everythings working? I do hope this problem can be solved without having to buy extra memory...
I've tried with CS 1.6 and it works like charm. Runs very very smooth! Haven't tried other games so far. In my view on Parallels, the guys will update the DirectX support in coming update. At least they'll try to reach Aero compatibility for Windows Vista. Speed is limited to one core and VM emulation though.
Update; after trying a bunch of different things, I reinstalled Parallels Tools and the speed issue went away. Now there are just odd graphical glitches in some games and this strange "program had to be shut down" message pops up preventing others from working. Wouldn't be surprised if that's just some bugs needing to be worked out in the next release or something. On to figuring out which specific games work or not... By the way, does anyone still know if I should avoid DirectX 9 or not? Does it screw up parallels or not?
As I read it, the older DirectX files are from WINE implementation that's used in Parallels to bring 3D support. Overwriting them with newer files may result in broken 3D support, although I admit I am curious as to what would actually happen.
