Regading the new cube rotation in Beta5

First let me say how cool it is that the Parallels team read these threads for suggestions/requests...
and actually implement them! Outstanding stuff.

So... in an earlier thread thread I requested that Parallels absorb the functionality and raw cool of the 3rd party app, Virtue Desktops by Tony Arnold. This app allows the user to have more than one desktop, and to hot-key swap between them with a cube transition (among others). Many users had seen the beauty of combining this with Parallels, i.e. giving Parallels its own desktop, putting it in fullscreen mode there, and then being able to instance swap from Windows <---> Mac OSX.
Here's the screenie:



Now... in Beta 5 Parallels HAVE implemented a fancy cube type transition, with some help from Tony Arnold. The transition itself works well and is pretty! HOWEVER, unlike the Virtue Desktop solution, the Parallels feature isn't really a _useful_ thing - it's pure eye candy, and is the kind of that you would try a few times then switch off. Parallels have simply introduced some new code for the "go to full screen", so in order to rotate to XP full screen you must first be looking at a mac desktop with a big-assed XP window overflowing the screen. The result is of course a pretty-but-slow method of toggling from full screen to windowed mode. What the Virtue solution offered was very different - it wasn't a way to go full screen <--> windowed mode. It was a way to go Mac OS <--> Windows directly.

I guess this makes me wonder exactly what I was hoping they'd implement!

Really what was needed is to have a special working mode wherein switching to the Parallels app from any other app automatically makes the cube-rotate-to-fullscreen. Similarly, while using XP hitting some key-combo rotates you back and gives focus to the previous mac app. Or to Finder if we can't tell what previous app was.

 

Why not just use Virtue? I have done that and it works flawlessly switching between the VM machine and the rest of the OS X desktop. The CTRL-SHIFT-Right arrow works fine even from the full screen VM.

 

oxonian,
So you would like to have a new mode of Parallels VM when it creates some kind of a Virtualized OS Desktop where you can switch to and while Guest OS doesn't show itself on a Primary OS desktop ? Will it make your work more comfortable ?
If so, i guess we can try to implement it in the upcoming versions.

 

At first I was disappointed because I had to have this Huge Parallels window to get the full resolution when i went full screen. And then i adjusted something, and i have no idea what it was, and now i can have a parallels window of any size on my desktop, and then go full screen at full resolution. Then go back to windowed mode and the res be set back to the small window( if that makes any sense).

 

Yep, that's one answer. Virtue is nice well behaved software, and so I'd unhesitatingly recommend to any mac user that they do so. I personally wouldn't use Virtue for anything except this Parallels synergy (I would not, for example, want to spead my Mail on one screen and Photoshop on another) - but I totally get it that some people do.

My thought was simply that, if this functionality were put directly into Parallels, well that would be a neat thing and Parallels would be all the better for it!

Yeah I think so, exactly. Basically I suggest one of you guys installs Virtue Desktop, and trys it out with Parallels. Then you'll see exactly what I mean! If you're still interested then, you might aim to incorporate similar functionality as follows....

On the primary OS desktop I might see the Parallels Property Page window but not the actual Guest OS screen. Well, OK, maybe as Parallels starts up the Guess OS it might be there in a window, but once its working I'd hit a button "Move Guest OS to Dedicated Desktop". Then I'd be shown a warning dialog "Press <key>+<key> to flip back to Regular Mac Desktop". From then on I could flip from Windows XP desktop, say, to the regular mac desktop at the press of a button. Just to reemphasise, this is not about resolution switching. The Mac OS and the Guest OS are constantly at full native res. We switch between which one is on screen at a given time.

For maximum functionality and cool, make the hot key combo work regardless of what OSX app has focus, just like Virtue Desktops does, so that I can be using Mail.App (say) and hit the key combo to instantly swap to Parallels and run the transition. Hot key again to flip back with the previous app having focus.

 

Yep, I can throw another vote that this would be a very welcome feature, to make switching between VM's and desktop easier and less intrusive.

 

any chance someone knows what this user adjusted??... I've got ful screen to look beautiful in 1440x900 on my macbook, but switching out leaves a huge window on my MAc desktop..

 

Vitue like feature

I agree with the previous post regarding the full screen transition effect. Right now it only serves as an eye-candy feature. It has not real functionality.

I have Virtue installed and configured with two desktops. Mac OS X and Windows XP. When I switch from Mac OS X to Windows XP, it gives me a nice transition from my mac desktop to the fullscreen windows xp desktop. The only thing I have to do to start working in XP is click the mouse anywhere in the window to give control back to windows.

If Parallels could implement this feature in their application that would be fantastic. To step it up a notch, make it so when you switch to Windows XP mode, it automatically gives control to XP so I dont have to even click in the window.

Just my opionion. This is how I will have it working with Virtue if Parallels does not implement this functionality.

 

Yeah, but it sells!
D

 

I wholeheartedly agree with several other posters: Virtue + Parallels is an amazingly fun and useful combination. The full-screen animations in Parallels, as currently implemented, are not so useful. I've disabled them, in fact.

I frankly see no reason to duplicate the effort that the Virtue developer has done. What would be better for Parallels to do, IMO, is to pay the developer of Virtue a modest sum to insure that Virtue remains compatible and functional with Parallels---perhaps even have him implement a couple of Parallels-specific features.

And for everyone else here who uses Virtue---do the man a favor and donate... it's worth it, isn't it!!

 

All you have to do is shut off the "change Mac OS X resolution" option and make sure Full Screen mode isn't automatic. Then, outside of full-screen, pick a resolution where XP is only a nicely sized window on your desktop (for me it's 1024X768 on my MBP).

Now, when you transtion to full screen, it will adjust the XP window to max resolution to fill the screen (1440X900 on MBP). When you go back from fullscreen, it readjusts the XP window to the lower resolution (I prefer 1024X768 on my MBP).

I think Parallels has implemented it perfectly. The settings definitions aren't crisp (i.e. disable Mac OS X resoltuion adjustment, etc.) but if you do what I've described, it functions exactly as it should.

 

By the way, I don't have Windows running yet, but I do have CentOS 5 Linux running full screen. Using Virtue to switch between the two is so seamless that I can have a keyboard focus on each system, and I do not need to reestablish that focus by clicking the mouse when I switch from one system to another. It really is that seamless---and it is very nice.

 

thanks adamsfbay... that's all I needed .. btw there's a way to change and turn off the roatating cube.. warp is a pretty nifty transition!!

Edd

 

I agree. The cube effect is very cool, but it must implemented in a proper way to be of any real use. I believe this is the best way to do it:
-Add an icon to the Menubar at the top. It could be a Windows Logo icon, or whatever. When clicked, you can click "Boot:{Guest OS List here}"
-After it is clicked, Parallels is started and the Guest OS selected is auto booted into Full Screen. This is where you see the cube effect.
-You can go back to Mac OS X by clicking an icon in the Windows Task bar. Parallels is still open and Windows still running when you do this however. Once clicked you'll cube back into Mac OS X, and you can go back to Windows by clicking the icon in step 1.

Hope that wasn't too confusing. Let me know if you don't understand any of what I said

Steve

 

adamsfbay, cool that you've found settings that mean the window in the Primary Desktop is small. But with respect I think you are missing the point I explained (and many other's have agreed with).

You see, what you have at the moment is a pretty way to go from the state
[Parallels in control, guest OS in a small window]
to
[Parallels in control, guest OS in full screen].
This isn't very useful, because if I want to be switching between (say) using Mail.App on the mac side and Photoshop on the XP side, then I *never* want to be seeing XP in a small window. What I need is a way to *instantly* go directly from using Mail.app to using Photoshop in full screen. And back to Mail.app. And then back to Photoshop. Snap snap snap. Ideally I don't want to switch to Parallels and _then_ go full screen - I want a certain hot key combo to go direct. This is what Virtue does for me now. Neither Mac OS nor XP are ever trying to change resolution - both are native resolution all the time.

The functionality is the main thing, doing it by Cube animation is a bonus. But its a great way to make the transition because just as the animation suggests, the 'other world' is there for you around the corner. A perfect visual metaphor. That's why people love doing this (via Virtue ATM). It feels so correct, so natural and neat. Using the cube animation to effectively just change the resolution of the XP view, as now, is less intuitive, less meaningful.

This functionality would really alter the way I use Parallels. Or more precisely, it would mean I don't need Virtue to get things the way I want. Of course I'm happy to keep using Virtue - but if the functionality can be put into Parallels directly, well then why not!

 

I totally agree with oxonian ... the cube effect is nice, but I need to leave XP running at Full Screen on the 'other' desktop, and be able to "cube" between OS X and XP without leaving the Full Screen.

Lets say the following was enabled in the VM configuration - Full Screen. Therefore, when the VM is started, PW immediately "cubes" to XP at full resolution, and allows the User to "cube" back to OS X by releasing the Mouse and Keyboard (Ctrl-Alt or as defined by the User). When in OS X, there could be a Menu Bar item (top-right) for PW that shows current running VM's, and allow you to switch to them via "cube" effortlessly. Say I have VM's for XP and Linux both running. In OS X, I have the menu item that shows both VM's. I select XP, and I "cube" to XP. When I release XP (Ctrl-Alt), I "cube" back to OS X. I then select Linux from the Menu, and "cube" to Linux, and when I release, yep ... you guessed it, I "cube" back to OS X.

Note that the only reference to these VM's running in the OS X Desktop is the Menu Item, and that the PW Application Icon in the Dock - there is no VM window present on the OS X Desktop. This leaves a clean, and uncluttered workspace in OS X. However, if I wanted to take a VM out of Full Screen, then I would access the VM, do the "Take out of Full Screen" action (I think it is Ctrl-Enter), which would "cube" me back to OS X with the VM now running as a Window on the OS X Desktop.

My 2 cents, and it is what I would really want from this feature.

 

Yeah, it's not just the transition effect with Virue, it's the transition itself.

What I'd really want is a function that *hides* (and unhides) Parallels with a global hot key.

Full screen Windows desktop
*bang*
Full screen MacOS desktop
*bang*
Full screen Windows desktop
*bang*
Full screen MacOS desktop

The cube transition is a bonus, but not really necessary.


EDIT:
Just because I said that, I realised that Command + H sot of does this.

It hides Parallels, just like any other app. You can't bring it back with the same key though.

 

this is precisely what I'd like to see, too as described by Oxonian and others. I'd want to still have the option of going from full screen to windowed mode to test websites at varying resolutions.

 

I know that the instantaneous switching Virtue provides is the best solution... automatically switching from one full screen OS to another full screen OS without having to see one in a small window at any point. I don't really care if Parallels builds it in or not since it is indeed already available using Virtue.

However, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the alternative method of instantanly swapping which is simply to hit Apple-H to hide the Parallels OS when you are in. I use Windows inside Parallels and when I want to go back to OS X I just hit Apple-H. To return to Windows later I can either Apple-Tab to it or just click the icon in the dock.

 

virtue question

This is indirectly related. Apparently to get Virtue to work as it did on PPC machines, you have to enable "cross-task control". Is this necessary to have PW open on a "windows XP" desktop each time it's opened? If so, what are the security issues involved with doing this?