Video of 3D Game/Acceleration on VMWare Fusion

There is a YouTube video making the rounds, purporting to show VMWare Fusion running a 3D Accelerated/Direct-X based game in Windows, running under Mac OS X, and doing it fairly smoothly.

Fake or real? Looks real, but considering that VMWare Fusion shares a codebase with the VMWare Workstation (for Windows), it seems like even if it was a Windows-based machine with various changes to make it look like Mac OS X, it still is pretty clearly running under VMWare, which means that at some point it would end up in Mac OS X.

It doesn’t look like it’s a new game, but it’s still impressive.

Macworld: Running Vista Home on a Mac

Macworld has a hands on with Microsoft Windows Vista Home, loading it up under Parallels Desktop and Apple’s Boot Camp. They were able to install it under Parallels.

Excerpt:

If you care about running Windows on a Mac, you’ve undoubtedly heard that the end user license agreement (EULA) for Windows Vista Home Basic and Home Premium forbids you to use these versions of Microsoft’s latest operating system release with virtualization software—software that allows you to run operating systems other than the Mac OS in a windowed environment within the Mac OS. Such virtualization software includes the popular Parallels Desktop for Mac. What the reports on this matter don’t reveal is whether this is simply a legal restriction or also a technical one….
Cutting briefly to the chase, Vista Home Premium installed perfectly well. Once it was up and running I noticed that the Aero effect was nowhere to be seen—Parallels simply couldn’t emulate the kind of graphic card/power necessary to make it work. I then asked Vista to install the latest Vista updates—something I understood to be a problem for others who tried it.

Vista Home Premium running on a Mac via the latest Parallels Desktop beta

No problem. Vista downloaded the updates, installed them, I restarted, and everything continued to work.

Parallels Desktop – Build 3150 – Release Candidate 2

Parallels Desktop for Mac Build 3150, Release Candidate 2 is available for download from here (Parallels.com). This virtualization application for Mac OS X offers mainly fixes/updates regarding USB 2.0 devices, as well as a bunch of Coherence improvements

Release Notes/Information from Parallels.com
PLEASE REMEMBER: this is a Release Candidate software. While this build gives you the rough understanding of the final set of features to be available in Final Release later on, it is still a “Candidate” and thus is still not recommended for production use. Do backup your virtual machines before trying them with this build.

This build provides several very important fixes to the problems found in previous Betas and Release candidate:

* The widest list of fixes are USB ones. Web cameras including iSight should work fine since now. Many other devices reported by beta-testers should work as well.
* Another wide list of fixes and improvements are Boot Camp fixes.
* Since RC2 it is possible to utilize Boot Camp partition installed not on the same disk as Mac OS X is.
* Many BSOD conditions are fixed.
* For advanced users it is now possible to edit Boot Camp partitions configurations via VM’s .pvs configuration file (check this thread for details http://forum.parallels.com/post42129-1.html).

* Several Coherence improvements:
* Windows’ Start menu is now shown if one clicks Parallels Desktop icon in Dock if user has his “Show Windows Taskbar” option set to off
* VM now remembers if it was last shut down in Coherence mode and starts in it next time
* Clicking on Windows application on Mac now starts VM in Coherence mode with selected application.

* Stability fixes – lots of segmentation fault (Parallels Desktop window closes unexpectedly) conditions are now fixed;
* The nasty memory leak found in live screenshot in dock feature is now fixed.
* And many other fixes…

Several important known issues:
* Mouse pointer may disappear during Parallels Tools upgrade. To have it reappear, right-click your mouse or uncapture and capture again the keyboard input
* Parallels Tools setup does not autostart in Windows NT guest OS. You should manually start the tools installation process.
* Windows 98 does not restart if the process is initiated within guest OS. You should manually restart it.
* Aggressive connecting/disconnecting of multiple USB devices may result in guest BSOD or segmentation fault.
* Some USB devices don’t work yet.

Parallels Desktop – Build 3120 Release Candidate 1 (RC1)

Parallels Desktop Build 3120, Release Candidate 1 is now avaialble. It can be downloaded from Parallels.com. Besides several bug fixes and improvements concerning USB 2.0 devices, a big feature has been true ‘Drag and Drop’ functionality, with the Mac and Windows filesystems being able to see each other, to exchange documents.

Release Notes:
PLEASE REMEMBER: this is a Release Candidate software. While this build gives you the rough understanding of the final set of features to be available in Final Release later on, it is still a “Candidate” and thus is still not recommended for production use. Do backup your virtual machines before trying them with this build.

This build introduces a new feature and provides several very important fixes to the problems found in previous Betas:

* The widest list of fixes is USB ones! Web cameras should be working since this build. A number of other devices reported non-working by beta-testers in previous builds should work now as well. The known issues list is below:

* iSight doesn’t work yet. You will notice it sending data, but no picture available
* Several other web cameras won’t work with similar symptoms;
* Logitech web cameras are reported not to work with drivers pack versions 10.4 and 10.5;
* Connecting USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 devices to VM simultaneously will most probably lead to both of them not working;
* Some Palm devices will still not to work.

* True “Drag and Drop” functionality – a long awaited feature that lets you seamlessly drag and drop files and folders from Windows to Mac OS X and vice versa. Parallels Desktop now shares the entire Mac file structure between OS X and Windows – no more worrying about which copy of the file is the most recently updated!
* If, for some reason, you need to return to previous “Drag and Drop” implementation, just enter VM Configuration Editor, select Shared Folders and uncheck the “Enable Global Sharing for drag-and-drop” option.
* Stability fixes – lots of segmentation fault (Parallels Desktop window closes unexpectedly) conditions are now fixed – thanks to everyone for reporting those!
* The nasty bug with Suspend/Resume and invalid windows areas handling while in Coherence is now gone.
* And many other less evident fixes…

CodeWeavers CrossOver Mac: “The Real Dirt”

CodeWeavers has put together a comprehensive look at CrossOver Mac, in terms of what CrossOver Mac does and does not do. If you are interested in CrossOver Mac, which is a compatibility layer instead of true virtualization software, you should check this out. Compatibility layers offer something different than a typical virtualization application – for some people this maybe exactly what they are looking for.

Excerpt:

At CodeWeavers, we believe strongly in truth in advertising. This section is an honest appraisal of what CrossOver Mac can and cannot do, written after review of our own testing and what our testers have found. Hopefully this will help you to determine whether or not CrossOver is for you.

Just the Highlights:

* CrossOver Mac is a product with amazing promise. You can install Windows software easily, the program launchers should appear in the finder, it integrates nicely with the file system, it can run any type of program, including games and other complex software. And all of this without having to buy or run a copy of Windows.
* The catch is that CrossOver doesn’t run every Windows program, and some programs that do run, run with flaws.
* However, CrossOver does work very well for many people, so it is always worth a try. And when you do run into a problem, we have many excellent systems to help you triage that problem, including our compatibility center and our support systems.

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