Can you play NS2 on a mac through vm?

Locke504Locke504 Join Date: 2010-04-23 Member: 71511Members, NS2 Map Tester
in NS2 General Discussion
My friend has a brand new macbook and was trying to play the game through vm.

The game installed and loaded fine but he can't select any options from the menu screen. Clicking "Play" for example does nothing.

Was wondering if anyone can confirm that the game does or doesn't work through a windows virtual machine.
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Comments

  • MkilbrideMkilbride Join Date: 2010-01-07 Member: 69952Members
    I doubt anyone knows much of anything...

    This is a custom Engine...completely new...it's going to be probably a few months before anyone gets under the hood, seriously.
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  • MuteLunaticMuteLunatic Join Date: 2012-11-09 Member: 168774Members
    Usually not. Drivers are often an issue as well as the way the VM software uses the hardware resources like cpu and memory. Mac OS does include bootcamp which allows you to easily setup a dual boot so that a portion of the HDD is set aside as a true windows machine. Because Apple uses standard Intel CPUs and video cards this should work just fine. The only problem is you need a copy of windows to install so you will need a legit Windows disk and key code. As long as you have those setting up the dual boot through boot camp is as easy as starting the boot camp application and following the directions.
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  • MakenshiMakenshi Join Date: 2012-10-30 Member: 164681Members
    I haven't really dealt with VM in depth in a few years, but if they are still going the route of emulating a generic graphics driver, then probably no.

    Also, do note that regardless of the hardware pass-through abilities, virtualization will always take a performance hit. The fact that your friend is using a macbook makes me feel inclined to say that the game will not run with him regardless of the maturity of the current virtualization technology since afaik macbooks don't really ship with anything better than a mid range mobile gpu
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  • Locke504Locke504 Join Date: 2010-04-23 Member: 71511Members, NS2 Map Tester
    <!--quoteo(post=2017506:date=Nov 9 2012, 04:30 PM:name=Makenshi)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Makenshi @ Nov 9 2012, 04:30 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2017506"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I haven't really dealt with VM in depth in a few years, but if they are still going the route of emulating a generic graphics driver, then probably no.

    Also, do note that regardless of the hardware pass-through abilities, virtualization will always take a performance hit. The fact that your friend is using a macbook makes me feel inclined to say that the game will not run with him regardless of the maturity of the current virtualization technology since afaik macbooks don't really ship with anything better than a mid range mobile gpu<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->


    It's a brand new retina display macbook pro. Think he said it was running a 2.9ghz quad core. Can't remember the card, but it's got to be top-o-tha-line for whatever they're stuffing in those things these days.

    But yeah, I don't really know much about how vm;s work for playing games. It's not to big an issue though, he has a PC back at the house apparently.
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  • GuspazGuspaz Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 2862Members, Constellation
    edited November 2012
    Is it possible? Maybe sort of, vm support for direct3d virtualization has come a long way. But you'd never want to do this. It would always have a really big performance hit.
    There are two other approaches that will provide a better experience in the long run. Those are WINE (simulate the windows API) and bootcamp (actually running windows directly on the Mac without virtualizing).
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  • stickybootstickyboot Join Date: 2004-01-29 Member: 25711Members, Constellation
    edited November 2012
    You are better off dual booting. VMs have terible performance with 3D graphics typically. Given that its a macbook, I'm guessing performance wont be terribly stellar either way, given the nature of mobile graphics cards. I would say dual booting would be where your effort should go. It will have the best payoff.
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  • beaglebeagle Join Date: 2010-12-04 Member: 75469Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    Yeah VM's don't usually get 'to-the-metal' access to the gpu hardware like the gpu hardware. They can, technically. There are some advanced hypervisors (vm 'servers') that can provide access, Xen apparently has something going on but I'm not sure how applicable that is to osx.

    KVM, the linux kernal VM has PCIe passthrough which might sort of wind up being useful but once again i'm not sure what virtualisation options there are on osx.

    tl:dr; 3d games don't work in vms unless you know what you're doing.
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  • Onii-chanOnii-chan Join Date: 2002-11-05 Member: 7164Members
    <!--quoteo(post=2017510:date=Nov 9 2012, 11:36 PM:name=Locke504)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Locke504 @ Nov 9 2012, 11:36 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2017510"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It's a brand new retina display macbook pro. Think he said it was running a 2.9ghz quad core. Can't remember the card, but it's got to be top-o-tha-line for whatever they're stuffing in those things these days.

    But yeah, I don't really know much about how vm;s work for playing games. It's not to big an issue though, he has a PC back at the house apparently.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    When it comes to macs, top of the line means budget level video cards from 2 generations ago.
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  • PunchinDonkeysPunchinDonkeys Join Date: 2012-09-07 Member: 158426Members
    I have seen macbook retinas play battlefield 3 at near max/ultra settings. Dual boot of course. NS2 seems well within that machines reach. Is he willing to sacrifice the drive space and money for windows 7? I say its worth it for NS2!
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  • MakenshiMakenshi Join Date: 2012-10-30 Member: 164681Members
    <!--quoteo(post=2017510:date=Nov 9 2012, 04:36 PM:name=Locke504)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Locke504 @ Nov 9 2012, 04:36 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2017510"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It's a brand new retina display macbook pro. Think he said it was running a 2.9ghz quad core. Can't remember the card, but it's got to be top-o-tha-line for whatever they're stuffing in those things these days.

    But yeah, I don't really know much about how vm;s work for playing games. It's not to big an issue though, he has a PC back at the house apparently.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    I have never, ever heard of a macbook getting a top of the line mobile GPU mostly due to power consumption issues and form factor. Top end mobile GPU are usually reserved for 18"+ laptops with only an hour or 2 runtime, and in some rare cases, 17" laptops.
    While I have no doubt anything Apple cost an arm and a leg, most of their products aren't geared towards gaming unless you count iOS apps
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