Parallels 3.0 and game compatibility...

I downloaded the VMware Fusion Beta for comparison. Both apps I've tried (Zoo Tycoon, Monopoly Tycoon and the APCD-Course Designer for Links 2003) worked

Seems as though Parallels have quite a bit to learn to keep up with VMware in terms of 3D gaming.

Update: Seem as though hitting the Windows key, breaking the focus on the app and going back into the game can sometimes work. Worked for Zoo Tycoon, Monopoly Tycoon but not the APCD. It doesn't work every time but shows the possibility for this to work exists at least

 

I've been told that game runs great, it's absolutely playable but there are two problems:
-the games appears 180 degree flippped (strange, isn't it?)
-in full screen mode (ie running Parallels in windows mode and game in full screen mode) there are visual artifact outside the game play area

To developers: do you think these kind of problems could be fixed in next release? (the only reason I can find to install Windows on my Mac is to have fun with this soccer game; but since I don't want to use BoootCamp the only solution would be a virtual machine under Parallels and of course I'll buy my own copy only if this game will be fully supported in future)


Thanks for reading

 

The same problem is reported with PESS6

 

RealFlight almost certainly won't work, because it requires DirectX 9 support, but Parallels 3.0 only provides "limited DirectX 8.1 support" according to the release notes. However you should note that you need to enable DirectX support in Parallels, because it's disabled by default. Go to Edit/Virtual Machine Settings, click Video on the left, and make sure the DirectX Support checkbox is checked. I already tried it with Phoenix RC, another RC flight sim that also requires DirectX 9 support, and it didn't work. It got farther than you did, and actually displayed the background scenery, but then it just hung. FWIW, Parallel's OpenGL support seems to be more complete, so Aerofly Pro Deluxe does work under Parallels, since it uses OpenGL instead of DirectX.

 

Phoenix RC, or any application that requires DirectX 9 support, will NOT work under Parallels 3.0, because it only has "limited DirectX 8.1 support", as the release notes tell you. I also own Phoenix, and was hoping this realease would allow me to stop having to reboot into Windows to run it, so I feel your pain.

 

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
You click it, and it just closes straight away with no messages. What's interesting though, is that when you run it via SA-MP it runs for a bit, like loads textures and chatbox etc. before crashing when trying to do things (about 5 seconds after doing stuff).

BootCamp partition on a 20" early 2006 iMac@2GHz with 2GB of RAM - around 500mb allocated to the VM

-tj

 

FinalFantasyXI

I was wondering since noone said anything in a while, did anyone figure out why the POL log in screen was just black with sound and control but you can't see the controls. Is it because I have DX9 on my installation by default? if so is there a way to revert when it is preinstalled like that? It may not make FFXI work but 1 step closer would be better than what I have now.

DX 8.1 is the requirement for FFXI so DX9 is not necessary but is already installed which sucks, I am thinking i might actually get better performance from 8.1 seeing as I have a MacPro with the nVidia 7300GT.

 

Madden 07

Could anyone be kind enough to tell me if Madden 07 will work adequately with this release or not? Thanks.

 

I just upgraded to Parallels 3.0 and it seems that FSX is finally loading without that graphics error. I'll let you know in a few minutes how it works

 

Does not seem like it's going to work ... I get as far as the "Free Flight" screen then anything I click on eventually leads to a program crash.

I'll keep trying. FSX is the ONLY reason I bought Parallels and Vista ... it's the only Windows program that I really want to run on my MacPro

 

FSX required DirectX 9.

Parallels only supports (some of) DirectX 8.1. (i.e. it does not meet the requirements of the game)

 

Same here. We've been ripped off.

 

Parallels does NOT have 8.1. It has parts of it but it does not run the proper 8.1 protocols which I am pretty sure was the reason it wont work.

VMWare Fusion was the same way as of 3.0, both do not run 8.1 in it's entirety which causes problems with most things that NEED 8.1.

 

Currently only Half-Life 1 is supported by Parallels Desktop 3.0, but you can try the following for Half-Life 2:
Right click on the game in the Steam menu, click "Properties" - "Launch options" and in the blank field type: "-dxlevel 70" (without quotation marks). Then launch the game and check the results.

 

Please see my Half-Life 2 compatibility page at:

http://shidayu.com/compat/pmwiki.php/Half-Life2

Currently, there is a show-stopping bug near the beginning. However, I have found some tweaks that get HL2 working quite well under the conditions.

 

Hang on now, the info page for PD 3.0 says this:

"Play Windows-only 3D games, such as World of Warcraft, Half-Life 2, and Unreal Tournament"

http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/3d/

That's a pretty sharp contradiction.

 

Yeah, that's a bit shady...

 

That is what I understood, what I was asking was does an install of DX9 effect Parallels? or does Parallels just take over and ignore the version installed?

 

Not terribly sure, but my guess is that even if DX9 were installed, the new functionality wouldn't be supported because the "virtual video card" as it were only supports 8.1c.

 

the thing that bugs me is it will run the FFXI benchmark3 and surprisingly well actually. I might try and see all the key strokes it takes to log into FFXI and get past the "hardware compatibility error" preventing boot(if anyone can point me to a solution my searches of the forums are returning none) and attempt to let the actual game load, I think if it can do the bench mark it can load the game... whether or not it is playable is up in the air until I try.