Running Windows Apps on OSX Easily

#1 Win!

#2 fwiw, I found this to be a great free app for running windows apps on the mac. Of course, you also need a copy of XP to install in it, but it runs pretty good.

www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

If you need 3D then, IMO, there's nothing better than the grandaddy (but it's not free...):

www.vmware.com/products/fusion/

I use fusion 3, because I can run my win7 bootcamp partition in the vm when I'm in Mac mode, so I don't have to have things installed twice.

#3 Hey Jaimi, and hows the performace with a virtualized windows for T3D development? (If you tried, that is).

#4 Has anybody gotten PVRTextTool or Torsion to work with this? I tried installing PVRTexTool and I got it to open, but it just has an hour glass and beeps if I click anything. When I create the custom prefix are there any other settings I need to adjust? I just selected the install file and clicked install.

Thanks

#5 @Novack I have an Intel i5 with 4 GB RAM and a GF 9600GT running Ubuntu Linux 64 bit. Virtual Box is a GREAT software but I wasn't able to get 3D support running under a virtual Win 7 (from what I've read, it should be possible with 32 bit Linux for the host or Windows XP though).
I had tested VMWare with Win 7 on the same machine and TGE was running with about 0.5 FPS and TGEA with maybe 10 FPS and some rendering problems.
Maybe the 3D support works better on a Mac, but for me this isn't a solution to work with.

Even if my tests weren't made with a Mac, I hope this information helps :)

#6 @john: Why not use the Mac version of the PVR tool, included with T2Di 1.3?

#7 Thanks Stefan, sure the info does help.

#8 @Ronny: I didn't even realize that was there. Thanks!

#9 @Novack - Haven't tried it. I'll do it right now.

edit:

Torque 3D 1.1a worked fine under Vmware Fusion 3. There was a noticeable speed hit (At least 30%, maybe more), but there were no drawing errors. I had to turn on "Always optimize mouse for gaming" for the editors to work correctly.

#10 Thank you very much Jaimi! Thats not bad *at all*

Can I know more about your configuration? Specially about that partinioning you mentioned before, Im an absolute Mac noob.

#11 @Novack:

You can partition your hard drive on your mac so you can run windows natively. This is done with an application called "bootcamp". This will split your hard disk into separate partitions - one for OSX and one for Windows, and then run you through the windows install, and install all the Apple specific drivers for you. This will make it so you can boot either into OSX or Windows by holding down the Option button while booting.

Adding VmWare fusion allows you to run a virtual machine of your bootcamp partition - so while in OSX, you can still get to all your windows apps.

I also run NTFS-3G so I can access the NTFS partition from OSX: http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/

#12 Whoa! Thats a LOT of versatility for cross-OS development!!
I wonder how good directX does on Mac hardware?

Thanks very much again Jaimi, very crucial information.

#13 Wait, you didn't know that? :P

Another useful tip: If you have NVidia graphics, go to nvidia.com and grab the Windows drivers for your brand of poison. Unlike most laptop manufacturers, Apple don't actually change the chip IDs on their GPUs. Regular drivers work without trickery :)

As we all know, Apple don't write the best graphics drivers.

#14 @Ronny - yeah, that's true. :)

But, I must caution you if you have a macbook with an 8600GT - these run a little hot in the macbook, and have a history of overheating and causing problems. I suggest keeping the Apple drivers if you have this specific chip, as they have tuned it down a little to keep it safe.

#15 New BootCamp drivers were released just now, so people might have more luck with them in Windows 7.