DCS on MacOS with Windows VMs

[metalnwood]

I will probably always have my pc for playing games on as I upgrade all the time, specifically the graphics until I am required to replace the MB for a new cpu architecture. So, I like to keep on the cutting edge to get the most from my sims. The mac finds it hard to compete on that front for me as far as games are concerned.

 

On everything else I am so glad that spent the extra money, finally, to get a mac and try it out after being a linux guy ever since the first single disk version appeared on a bbs. It's unix, polished gui, with all the commercial apps that I needed. I have been a developer, so a bit of a power user as well and found it awesome compared to windows.

 

We used to get royally screwed in NZ for mac prices, no doubt, but I did find that during the course of os upgrades etc it's usefull life was far longer than I was happy keeping a PC around for.

 

Now I look at their some of their prices and think, if you were to spec a pc up with the same quality components, a good case (not a $50) one is the price so much different? PEople like to compare cheap pc parts against a mac, not quality pc parts against a mac. I haven't found the diff to be bad because I choose the quality pc parts in the first place.

 

I can get the job done on both but I always choose the mac when I am not gaming.

[Haggart]

Why don't you just use a quick pc and virtualize OS X? So you get the fancy icons and the "I-drag-and-drop-everything"-experience (which makes me crazy everytime I've to touch a mac - I'm not a mouse pusher and I want to SEE what I'm doing, not just a "you dragged the music-cd on itunes and it automatically did everything" - I don't trust electronic farther than I can throw it) and can fly DCS anyway natively. In my opinion, the only thing we need in a virtualized enviroment running is a dedicated server... and that seems to be years away.

[Moa]

Kia Ora metalnwood!

Linux still beats Mac OS X for general development. For example, Apple's JDK is stuck at 1.6.0_u22 and they've abandoned it for Oracle to pick up the pieces. Wouldn't be an issue except there is a deadlock in the JDK that just happens to affect the superb GUI builder ('Matisse') in Netbeans. At this time there is no known fix date for the Mac. On Ubuntu it is often easier (eg. apt simply cannot be beaten, and the range of dev tools is huge - including bleeding edge JDKs) but doesn't look as slick. That said, I moved from two decades of using Linux for development to Mac OS X and the transition has been ok (although there is plenty of Linux stuff that Mac OS X simply doesn't have, but the Mac is good in other ways).

 

PCs are King of gaming. The question is, with phones and consoles, how long is the single-environment dominance going to last? (answer: we're already in the middle of the tectonic shift but not everyone can see the continent they are on moving).

Edited February 19, 2011 by Moa

[Moa]

Why don't you just use a quick pc and virtualize OS X? So you get the fancy icons and the "I-drag-and-drop-everything"-experience (which makes me crazy everytime I've to touch a mac - I'm not a mouse pusher and I want to SEE what I'm doing, not just a "you dragged the music-cd on itunes and it automatically did everything" - I don't trust electronic farther than I can throw it) and can fly DCS anyway natively. In my opinion, the only thing we need in a virtualized enviroment running is a dedicated server... and that seems to be years away.

 

Is your solution within the license terms of OS X? AFAIK MAC OS X is only licensed for use on Mac hardware. "Fixes" that are not legal never "count".

[jeffyd123]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but virtualization doesn't imply software rendering. Not to mention that HW virtualization capabilities have spread to mainstream CPUs (they were present on the server ones for some time), so virtualized OS can run natively on the CPU, and not via sw emulation.

 

 

Ahhh OK thanks Winz... I stand corrected. Last time i looked at it it was software emulation.... a friend of mine tried gaming on a Mac about 5 years ago and it didnt work.

 

another friend changed all of his office PCs to Macs about a year ago and has had "Not one single problem"...pretty impressive feat for Macs.

[AV8R]

Actually LockOn runs great on my MBP 17" whether its in VM windows, Bootcamp to Vista, or

Unity mode. DCS-BS and DCS-A10c runs well in Bootcamp mode.

 

My question is around why did they allow LockOn and not DCS run in VM modes?

The other issue is that perhaps this development team might consider a Mac version, released some time after the PC version.

 

Im not really interested in the MacOS vs Windows vs Linux discussion. Nor am I interested

in the Apple vs PC platform arguments. Those that have Macs its a moot point.

 

I will say this, over the decades of owning many desktop, home made systems and laptops;

this MBP 17" is the best laptop Ive ever owned on many levels. And you dont have to pay

full price of over $2500 to get one, go for a lovingly used one and you pay a fraction of that.

 

Lastly, on this MPB I have on it:

IL2 1946 v4.10m, LB2, SteelBeastsPro, LockOn, DCS-BS and DCS-10c-B4 and FalconAF.

Makes a great for a in house portabl or mobile gaming system. Yes I prefer my PC tower for at home gaming

because of the flexibility of changing hardware over time and the lower costs. But for a laptop, Mac is it.

They look, feel, and run like a laptop Id design for myself. Go on, go to an Apple store and indulge yourself. ;)

Edited February 19, 2011 by AV8R

[Moa]

@AV8R:

 

> My question is around why did they allow LockOn and not DCS run in VM modes?

 

This is probably not deliberate. It is probably just a result of some change in DCS (for example, no DX11 support in your VM, or any of many other possibilities) and no effort has been made to make DCS work or testing in VMs. Completely understandable with EDs resource constraints and the marginal nature of those wanting to run A-10C in a VM (incidentally, I'd love to run it in Parallels on my 17" MacBookPro, but realise the priority for the required testing is simply too low for ED at this time).

 

I bet it is more than enough work to make DCS work on the Windows XP, Vista, and Win7 flavours; then also check both the 32 & 64 bit versions of each, yada yada.

Edited February 19, 2011 by Moa

[winz]

Lockon uses different copy-protection.

Afaik it's starforce, that's prohibiting VM use, not the actual DCS engine.

[Sickdog]

I began with Beta 1 on my 2010 iMac 27". I never dreamt of running on Parallels (VM), but bootcamp ran it pretty nicely. Sure I couldn't have all the detail settings on max, but overall it was pretty good. But, I finally got jealous of everyone playing with all the eye candy turned up, so I pulled the trigger on building a decent but economical PC. Not sure if I'm the only one out there with my setup, but the cool thing is I'm able to plug my PC video output into my beautiful iMac 27" and run my mac in target display mode so it's an external monitor. Looks gorgeous and loving how well a10 runs and looks now. And, at the touch of a button I still have my superior mac for everything else besides a10!

[stormrider]

Currently Flaming Cliffs, DCS-BS and DCS-A10c cannot run under a virtual machine on a Mac.

LockOn does however. A workaround is to run these sims under a dual boot Mac (bootcamp),

but then we lose the multitasking advantages of running on a Mac if we switch the OS to pure Windows.

 

The request is that the development team consider allowing DCS to run within a virtual machine.

 

Below is LockOn running on a MacBookPro running Snow Leopard 10.6.6 with VMware's Fusion

3.1.2 and Windows Vista Home Premium. It runs great on a MBP 17" with 4GB memory

and an Intel dual2core 2.4 ghz processor. Even DCS-A10c b4 runs under bootcamp with medium

settings.

 

 

:pilotfly:

 

It not worth it unless you have a pumped up Mac Pro.

I speak for myself but I bought a new macbook pro last november, and playing under Bootcamp W7 64bits I can get the game to run almost smooth. I suppose that by running under emulators like Parallels or anything of tha sort will rest it unplayable or at least not as good as by simply running from bootcamp which isnt that big deal anyways.

[Dimebag1]

Native mac support for dcs a-10c doesn't make sense; the DCS mantra — model everything to the most minute detail and allow, nay, force the user to know these systems and manipulate them towards a distant goal— is at odds with the mac mantra— simplify the user load and user interface to the point where a trained monkey could operate it.

 

To put it simply, real mac users (those sad people who use only macs and refuse to even ms word on a pc) would refuse to even switch the battery switch on the warthog on, let alone go through a 5-10 minute startup procedure. H.A.W.X was made for these people who like to think the have control when really the autopilot switch is on. They were those kids who had a fake steering wheel in their parents car and actually believed they were in control.

 

BTW, I think I have the right to make these mac jokes, I'm married to a mac person, so I never hear the end of how macs are supposedly better than pc's. I've even been forced to use one every now and then as I've had to put off getting a new pc for years to feed her mac habit.

[thisisentchris87]

You silly Microsoft and Apple noobs.

 

RSTS/E or OpenVMS is gooder.

 

:P