gonna have myself a hackintosh soooon! Can't wait!

[finbarqs]

what's so special about QE/CI? and rotation? I just care if my starcraft will run at full speed ahead!

Actually, the system just detects 1920x1080 immediately! so I'm good at that end!

 

[nerp]

Dumb question maybe, but can you just install OSX updates with a hackintosh or do you have to deal with workarounds and cracks, etc?

 

[finbarqs]

i just installed the regular updates with a hackintosh no probs...

 

[finbarqs]

after doing some research on QE/CI, I realized I NEED these in order to have GPU acceleration!

Since Snow Leo took out the "information" in the system profiler, I did some tests that people online said to do in order to see if you have it enabled:

Add a widget to the dashboard and see if I get the water effect (it does)
See if the finder menu is somewhat transparent (it is)
and see if I hold control down, I can use the scroll wheel to zoom in (it does)

Also, it says rotation is supported in the system profiler! That means I think my graphics card is fully functional! It doesn't necessarily need to say "Nvidia 8800GTX 768MB" I guess.... a "Nvidia Graphics Engine" with "512MB VRAM" is good enough for me, if everything works great!

How do I bring up the dashboard without hitting F12 on a normal 2 button wheel mouse?

 

[silverpig]

Dumb question maybe, but can you just install OSX updates with a hackintosh or do you have to deal with workarounds and cracks, etc?

Depends. Most small software updates are totally fine. I'd say 99%+. The numbered updates (10.6.6 -> 10.6.7 for example) are hit and miss. Lately they've been great, but up until the last 3 or so they always messed something up - video maybe, audio almost certainly, and sleep pretty much guaranteed.

 

[finbarqs]

oh yeah, my systems sleeps just fine, wakes up just fine... video works good... i'm gonna test out SC2 now! and I'm on snow Leo 10.6.7! updated from 10.6.0 with the 10.6.7 apple combo update! if sc2 works good, this has literally been the EASIEST hackintosh install ever! I literally didn't have to install any kexts, audio just works right out of the box, video works, heck... almost everything works!

 

[finbarqs]

quick update:

Tried SC2, and wow... runs like a dog! A very slow dog! I'm getting approximately 22 fps in ultra quality (the recommended quality they suggested) with only 2 players! (against AI) from what I remember on my W7 system it ran closer to 50-60fps! I guess there's still something not right with the video drivers...

 

[Emulex]

yeah you should try lion now! brb i gotta flash my mac pro 4,1 to a 5,1 got a pair of 6-cores on loan

 

[finbarqs]

after reading much about gaming in OSX, most gamers would just install Boot camp and pop in W7. Literally games will run up to > 50% better in Windows 7! that's nuts! and now that I think about it, my SC2 in W7 was closer to ultra settings....

 

[Emulex]

windows is far superior of an operating system. the newest malware kinda now requires you to use protection and will probably eat up all that extra battery and speed they had advantage. I guess this is the beginning of the end of the mac.

 

[Nothinman]

after reading much about gaming in OSX, most gamers would just install Boot camp and pop in W7. Literally games will run up to > 50% better in Windows 7! that's nuts! and now that I think about it, my SC2 in W7 was closer to ultra settings....

Welcome to second class citizenship, pretty much no devs care about gaming on Macs and any ports are usually bad tokens to make you think it might get better.

windows is far superior of an operating system. the newest malware kinda now requires you to use protection and will probably eat up all that extra battery and speed they had advantage. I guess this is the beginning of the end of the mac.

Windows is the better supported OS, nothing more. While I have no love for Apple or OS X, my issues are almost all with decisions Apple made that diverge it from a standard unix desktop like replacing X with their own proprietary crap and complete lack of package management.

 

[Tyranicus]

Welcome to second class citizenship, pretty much no devs care about gaming on Macs and any ports are usually bad tokens to make you think it might get better.

Not always true. I can play Portal 2 at the highest settings on my hack with no issues whatsoever.

 

[Nothinman]

Not always true. I can play Portal 2 at the highest settings on my hack with no issues whatsoever.

That's why I said usually, there are the occasional games that run just as well as Windows but they're rare.

 

[Ka0t1x]

windows is far superior of an operating system. the newest malware kinda now requires you to use protection and will probably eat up all that extra battery and speed they had advantage. I guess this is the beginning of the end of the mac.

That's why out of.. oh.. I don't know.. 10,000 MacBooks we've only had 4 reported cases? Having to enter admin password isn't enough protection?


Back to OP:
Most games for OSX aren't actually made for OSX, they're just ported over. An actual game that is made for OSX will run fairly well. You're only going to get about 80% of your GPU capacity, because the drivers are still lacking.

 

[Zaap]

The UD3P boards always were extremely easy to hack- that board probably matches some model of Apple motherboard almost spec-for-spec. With a proper DSDT, you don't need to do much else with it. (No idea if/how you set up a DSDT file).

As for 'boot camp' remember: it's a PC. Just pop in another hard drive and install Windows 7. (unattach the OSX drive during this, then reattach when Windows is installed.) If you're using Chameleon, it'll boot either OS.

 

[finbarqs]

The thing is... i'm not even getting 80% of my GPU capability... spec for spec... 22 fps vs. 55-60 fps in SC2 is closer to like 40-50% of my GPU capability!

Plus I'm not going to Boot camp or install W7 on it. I have another system with W7 on it! it's an i7 @ 3.8, 12GB, GTX 480, X-Fi, 160 G2 w/2x 1TB Black, 1x 1.5TB Black, Dual NEC 20WMGX2.

my hack is a q6600 G0, 8GB, 600GB Velo, 2x 500gb 7200, 8800gtx single Viewsonic 2450 LED (which the 20WMGX2 blows out of the water) I didn't even have to hack my EP45-UD3P! Just install the package this one package, and mount Snow Leo to my external HDD, and installed everything off of that, and everything was working right out of the box! combo updated to 10.6.7. This was by far, the easiest hack I've seen or read about!

 

[Zaap]

Right, but without a proper DSDT, the problems you're seeing with the graphic card (which is enabled most-likely from GraphicsEnabler=yes) are likely due to the lack of a DSDT translating the BIOS code to your hardware correctly.

Even if the hardware components are identical, the BIOS is the problem, since Macs use EFI. So a DSDT translates the incompatible code into what OSX can understand, then everything works as it should.

Also, not using kexts could be a bad thing- just like I can install Windows on a bare system and most stuff will appear to work right after the install. But we all know that things only actually work CORRECTLY when the proper drivers (many third party) are installed. Similar with OSX: OOB often works in a basic sense, but a kext (driver) may actually work better.

[EDIT: I see that you installed a 'package' so I'm assuming you used something like the Lifehacker method? If so, that probably installed most of the needed kexts in the Extra folder and mkext file.]

By the way, for mostly cosmetic things like the CPU reading properly, search Google for AboutthisMac.zip and try running it. Usually, it corrects the CPU reading- but it's just a cosmetic detail. If you really want to be sure your RAM, CPU, GPU etc. are truly recognized and used by the system correctly, it's a combination of DSDT and SMBIOS tweaks. There's tons of info on the web about it if you're truly interested. Otherwise, if performance is good enough for you, then enjoy.

One thing I'd advise- make yourself a backup install on a 2nd partition or drive. I can't emphasize this enough. It'll 'cost' you 20GB or so of space, but if you screw with the backup rather than the main install, and render it unbootable- hey, it's just a back up and your main install is fine and there's no starting over each time. If whatever you tests works on the backup, you know its safe to apply to the main. Likewise, If something does screw up your main install, you can always get back into it from the backup, and so on.

To me, it's insanity to run a Hackintosh with only one bootable OSX partition, but if you enjoy living dangerously...

 

[silverpig]

Welcome to second class citizenship, pretty much no devs care about gaming on Macs and any ports are usually bad tokens to make you think it might get better.



Windows is the better supported OS, nothing more. While I have no love for Apple or OS X, my issues are almost all with decisions Apple made that diverge it from a standard unix desktop like replacing X with their own proprietary crap and complete lack of package management.

It's not a COMPLETE lack of package management. The new App Store for OSX is a for-pay package manager.

 

[Nothinman]

It's not a COMPLETE lack of package management. The new App Store for OSX is a for-pay package manager.

True, I haven't had a chance to see that in action or see how it works behind the scenes. But I would guess that there's no dependency resolution and such since pretty much all Mac apps include all of their dependencies in the bundle.

 

[finbarqs]

Right, but without a proper DSDT, the problems you're seeing with the graphic card (which is enabled most-likely from GraphicsEnabler=yes) are likely due to the lack of a DSDT translating the BIOS code to your hardware correctly.

Even if the hardware components are identical, the BIOS is the problem, since Macs use EFI. So a DSDT translates the incompatible code into what OSX can understand, then everything works as it should.

Also, not using kexts could be a bad thing- just like I can install Windows on a bare system and most stuff will appear to work right after the install. But we all know that things only actually work CORRECTLY when the proper drivers (many third party) are installed. Similar with OSX: OOB often works in a basic sense, but a kext (driver) may actually work better.

[EDIT: I see that you installed a 'package' so I'm assuming you used something like the Lifehacker method? If so, that probably installed most of the needed kexts in the Extra folder and mkext file.]

By the way, for mostly cosmetic things like the CPU reading properly, search Google for AboutthisMac.zip and try running it. Usually, it corrects the CPU reading- but it's just a cosmetic detail. If you really want to be sure your RAM, CPU, GPU etc. are truly recognized and used by the system correctly, it's a combination of DSDT and SMBIOS tweaks. There's tons of info on the web about it if you're truly interested. Otherwise, if performance is good enough for you, then enjoy.

One thing I'd advise- make yourself a backup install on a 2nd partition or drive. I can't emphasize this enough. It'll 'cost' you 20GB or so of space, but if you screw with the backup rather than the main install, and render it unbootable- hey, it's just a back up and your main install is fine and there's no starting over each time. If whatever you tests works on the backup, you know its safe to apply to the main. Likewise, If something does screw up your main install, you can always get back into it from the backup, and so on.

To me, it's insanity to run a Hackintosh with only one bootable OSX partition, but if you enjoy living dangerously...

yeah, i used the life hacker method (making it super easy)

But if I can get my SC2 graphics to be closer to what my W7 can do, using DST or whatever, please let me know how to do it! I would in a heartbeat! I edited the uknown CPU info so it'll show up "intel bla bla bla"

the 8800GTX doesn't show up as a 8800GTX but rather a Nvida Graphics Engine w/ 512MB VRAM. do you have any thoughts on that? maybe I just don't have the right "kexts"