VMWare Fusion and games

[racolvin]

... it ain't happening

I loaded VMWare Fusion on my new Mac Pro, got it all updated, etc. Installed XP Pro SP3, got it all updated, etc,etc.

Then I went to install Runes of Magic, which isn't an overly demanding game from a specs standpoint (DX9, 128Mb video mem) and by spec that all fits in with VMWare. Well it don't work

I'm going to give it another shot when my new NVidia GT120 arrives, since it may be a problem with the ATI2600 card that's in it now but I'm not gonna hold my breath.

Any pointers out there from anyone who has tried to run games in VMWare?

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

It's hit and miss really. It would be better if you just use Boot Camp.

 

[racolvin]

I could do Boot Camp but don't really want to, so I was giving this a go. Oh well

 

[TheStu]

Or heck, even CrossOver Games.

 

[racolvin]

CrossOver Games? esplain please?

 

[Nothinman]

CrossOver is a version of WINE, it's an implementation of Win32 for Linux and OS X. It's not virtualization or emulation like VMware so when it works it's usually close to native speed.

 

[racolvin]

Interesting ... I'll give that a Google and see. Thx

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Cross over has a list of what games work.

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
CrossOver is a version of WINE, it's an implementation of Win32 for Linux and OS X. It's not virtualization or emulation like VMware so when it works it's usually close to native speed.

Very cool. I'll have to check that out. I just want to run Alice, Quake III and UT. If I can do that on a Mac without using Bootcamp I'll be VERY happy.

 

[Nothinman]

Q3 and UT should have native ports, I vaguely remember reading about Mac ports and I know they have Linux ports since that's what I used.

 

[Kmax82]

Yea.. UT2k3/4 has a nice OS X port. Haven't tried Q3A, but that was working well for me in VMWare. I haven't tried UT in VM, but I do very little gaming on my computer anymore. I do have it through Steam, though, so I'll try and download it and see how it works.

 

[mmntech]

I would just use Bootcamp. That's what I use for gaming on my laptop. It seems Crossover games isn't 100% compatible with everything is supports where as Bootcamp is. Switching between operating systems is a bit of a pain but it's a heck of a lot easier in the long run.

 

[Nothinman]

Switching between operating systems is a bit of a pain but it's a heck of a lot easier in the long run.

Meh. Maintaining a Windows installation isn't worth it, I opted for not playing games I couldn't get working in WINE a long time ago.

 

[TheStu]

I remember hearing a while ago that Apple was working on letting users essentially sleep one OS and then bring up the other one, without having to fully reboot. It would accomplish the same task, but in a fraction of the time.

 

[Kmax82]

Originally posted by: TheStu
I remember hearing a while ago that Apple was working on letting users essentially sleep one OS and then bring up the other one, without having to fully reboot. It would accomplish the same task, but in a fraction of the time.

I never heard that rumor. I rarely use Windows, but for those rare times I do want to play a game, that'd be awesome!

 

[Nothinman]

I remember hearing a while ago that Apple was working on letting users essentially sleep one OS and then bring up the other one, without having to fully reboot. It would accomplish the same task, but in a fraction of the time.

That might be possible with a hypervisor but it would be extremely difficult to keep the hardware in a consistent state. They'd either need to expose the hardware to the guest OS and hope for the best or require special drivers for both OSes that go through the hypervisor and make it arbitrate access. Because if OS X thinks it's going to sleep and then Windows wakes up all of the hardware again OS X is going to freak out if the hardware isn't still sleeping upon resume or the hardware might freak out if OS X tries to restore a state that's invalid in whatever state Windows left it.