CIV5 is out, running it via Parallels currently.

[Shivetya]

Setup, i5 with the 4850 @512mb. 8gb Ram. I am running Parallels 6.0 dedicating three cores and four gb of ram to an XP/SP3 instance.

Notes.
- occasionally a group of tiles will go black, have to exit game to menu, change resolution back and forth to clear. Sometimes it clears on its own.

- 1900x1200 runs fine with everything on. Realize I am in a Window though the game thinks it is in full screen.

- You can play without an internet connection, but you are required to have it to install. No steam spam!

- You can play without the DVD in the drive, even without an Internet connection.

- to disable the intro movie find the user config file and set it to 0 for the movie

I am probably going to upgrade to 7 soon. I am blue screening occasionally, IRQL_NOT_LESS_EQUAL errors. I had these in bootcamp with LOTRO and Parallels gets them less frequently than Bootcamp. LOTRO would not even run in Bootcamp after the first time.

 

[strang]

I'm on a 2010 MacBook Pro, i5 2.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM, GeForce 330m 256 MB VRAM and Windows 7 64-bit. Game runs ok, I think future patch will get rid of some bugs. Performance isn't the best but doable. I just started to play so I'm not really in big battles yet.

Game is set to 1280x800, no AA, default preset. I wonder if 512 MB VRAM will make it better.

 

[Shivetya]

I'm on a 2010 MacBook Pro, i5 2.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM, GeForce 330m 256 MB VRAM and Windows 7 64-bit. Game runs ok, I think future patch will get rid of some bugs. Performance isn't the best but doable. I just started to play so I'm not really in big battles yet.

Game is set to 1280x800, no AA, default preset. I wonder if 512 MB VRAM will make it better.

Once I get 7 installed I will try it in boot camp, right now boot camp is unstable for me for anything that used direct x. Why it works under parallels but not boot camp I do not know. Under Parallels I only have 256mb ram from the vid card available but in boot camp I would have the full 512 my machine has.

 

[laserbeam273]

I'm on a 2010 MacBook Pro, i5 2.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM, GeForce 330m 256 MB VRAM and Windows 7 64-bit. Game runs ok, I think future patch will get rid of some bugs. Performance isn't the best but doable. I just started to play so I'm not really in big battles yet.

Game is set to 1280x800, no AA, default preset. I wonder if 512 MB VRAM will make it better.

You using boot camp? I've got an older 15" MBP.. how much above minimum specs do you think you are? My specs are:

MBP 15" early/late 2008
2.4GHz C2D
4GB RAM
8600M GT 256 MB - my biggest concern
200 GB @ 7200 RPM
and XP on bootcamp

I'm not sure if I'd be able to play it, what do you reckon?

And what's it like overall? Is the graphics good enough on your mac, or does it feel insufficient? How's the gameplay?

 

[txa1265]

- to disable the intro movie find the user config file and set it to 0 for the movie

Haha ... thanks for that! I played a bit yesterday afternoon, then again last night and restarted to set everything to max ... and liked the movie once, but after having it play ~30 seconds into the movie plus the adverts before recognizing the ESC key was annoying and I though "have to figure out how to disable THAT tomorrow!"

 

[Shivetya]

You using boot camp? I've got an older 15" MBP.. how much above minimum specs do you think you are? My specs are:

MBP 15" early/late 2008
2.4GHz C2D
4GB RAM
8600M GT 256 MB - my biggest concern
200 GB @ 7200 RPM
and XP on bootcamp

I'm not sure if I'd be able to play it, what do you reckon?

And what's it like overall? Is the graphics good enough on your mac, or does it feel insufficient? How's the gameplay?

Looks good to me... compare to specs on this thread
http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83251

More mac related is on http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87584

 

[doh123]

I haven't wanted to spend the money on it yet.. I still enjoy Civ4.

but... a few people have reported being able to get it running under Wine just fine (on Linux at least with the DX9 mode), so I'd definitely try that before having to run Windows to play it.

 

[slimjimtx]

Mac Mini?

I haven't had any luck getting the demo to run either through Parallels or booting directly to Windows via Bootcamp...

This is the Mini (A1283) so, it's not exactly ancient hardware, or anything...

I'm running Parallels 6.0 and Windows 7, 64bit.

I get the same behavior both in Bootcamp and in Parallels. The demo starts with a screen asking whether I want to use DX9 or DX 10/11 and no matter which one I choose, the app just dies.

I was looking forward to playing, too. I suppose if it comes down to it, I could just wait for the native Mac version...

 

[Shivetya]

I haven't had any luck getting the demo to run either through Parallels or booting directly to Windows via Bootcamp...

This is the Mini (A1283) so, it's not exactly ancient hardware, or anything...

I'm running Parallels 6.0 and Windows 7, 64bit.

I get the same behavior both in Bootcamp and in Parallels. The demo starts with a screen asking whether I want to use DX9 or DX 10/11 and no matter which one I choose, the app just dies.

I was looking forward to playing, too. I suppose if it comes down to it, I could just wait for the native Mac version...

Its possible its stuck on the movie, pressing Enter stops the movie (not escape - go figure). You should also try editing the user config file so the movie does not play to see if it is locking up on it.

 

[strang]

You using boot camp? I've got an older 15" MBP.. how much above minimum specs do you think you are? My specs are:

MBP 15" early/late 2008
2.4GHz C2D
4GB RAM
8600M GT 256 MB - my biggest concern
200 GB @ 7200 RPM
and XP on bootcamp

I'm not sure if I'd be able to play it, what do you reckon?

And what's it like overall? Is the graphics good enough on your mac, or does it feel insufficient? How's the gameplay?

I'm not that much above minimal requirements. The only configuration difference that's noticeable for games is that my video card is the newer 330m, but that is still a 256 MB card. Higher texture settings suffer in most games I play. Nowadays I do so much more gaming on the consoles (I have all 3) that the only games I play on the PC are the exclusives. Civ 5 is definitely one to get though. I literally sit on the couch for hours playing this while watching TV. It's a good game to leave and come back since it's turn-based.

 

[Shivetya]

Update.

OK, I have deleted my XP/SP3 partition and replaced it with Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit). After getting past some setup issues I loaded CIV 5.

I am running everything max while in Bootcamp with 2560x1440 resolution and haven't had a slow down. I have been warned it will come, especially as you move into the modern age.

I can use DX10/DX11 which has a lot less graphical display issues, when running in Parallels I am restricted to DX9 which gives me some odd problems, namely the tiles can go black - any resource on them is still properly colored.

 

[elleana]

Been playing it on my regular windows gaming box, but you guys have got me very tempted to install boot camp on my mbp so I can play on the road. Steam cloud makes things so convenient. Runs fine on a mid 2010 i5 right.

 

[Moniquinin]

Hi. I am hoping someone can help me with this since I am not really savvy regarding Parallels and am pretty useless with Windows. I've been trying all day to get Civ 5 to run on my MBP and have not been successful, so if someone could tell me what I'm doing wrong, if I have to configurate Parallels differently, or even if it'll work using Bootcamp (although I haven't done that yet since I prefer not to have to reboot every time to change OSs). Maybe my setup is too old for Civ 5 to ever work - if someone could just advise me, that would be great.

I've only just installed Parallels 6 with Windows 7 Ultimate (or whatever it's called) to see if I can play Civ 5 so I've only used both things for like two days. I installed both using default settings offered by their installers so maybe some manual tweaking is necessary. In any case, I have no idea what to do. My setup is the following:

MacBook Pro
Mac OS X 10.5.8
2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 1067 MHz DDR3

And regarding my graphich cards, I have no idea what this means but I know it's important - my System Profiler says I have 2:

NVIDIA GeFORCE 9400M
VRAM (Total) 256

NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
VRAM (Total) 512 MB

But only the first one seems to be connected to my display (?)

Anyway...It took me all day to get Civ 5 to actually run to a certain point, using the DX 9 option. The intro movie was too choppy and erratic so the first thing I did was disable it in the user config file. I also had to set all graphic options to low for the game to load past the leader splash page (where it narrates how great the leader is and asks if he can do it again, as it seems to be loading). At this point, if the graphic settings were high, Parallels would crash. After setting them all to low, a game was able to actually start and I was able to play two turns - found a city and move the other unit, but then it crashed. I haven't been able to get beyond this.

If someone could please just advise me that would be great. Like I said, I am completely inexperienced with Parallels, maybe I am overlooking something, or maybe I just don't have the hardware. I'd love to get this to work since it's the only reason I put Windows on my Mac to begin with.

Thanks so much in advance ;-)

 

[colocolo]

Moniquinin, tow things:

1.- It will always run better in Bootcamp than in Parallels. Do not expect much unless you are willing to boot into Windows - I would recommend using Parallels only to get a feel of the very early game. That is what I did with a computer slightly better than yours, and had to cope with some glitches and obvious slowdowns. To actually play more than a few turns, I booted directly into Windows.

2.-That aside, you must switch to the second graphics card in your list. The first won't cut it at all, especially using Parallels.
To accomplish that, open System Preferences -> Energy saver, and near the top you will see "Graphics:", with two options. Select "Higher Performance" over "Better Battery Life".
After having done that, relog to your user account. That will complete the switch.

 

[Moniquinin]

Colocolo --> Muchísimas gacias!!! Asumo que entiendes ya que dice que eres de Chile, but just in case, thanks so much! See I learned something new since deciding to post - that I can switch memory cards.

I will see if this works beyond one turn, but then I've realised I apparently must go the Bootcamp route, which is confusing i itself because the Assistant that I have on my MBP only offers the option of installing XP or Vista. I shall google this and see what I find.

So can I then assume that there is no "tweaking" of Parallels' configuration from its default installation that will make performance better?

 

[Shivetya]

Colocolo --> Muchísimas gacias!!! Asumo que entiendes ya que dice que eres de Chile, but just in case, thanks so much! See I learned something new since deciding to post - that I can switch memory cards.

I will see if this works beyond one turn, but then I've realised I apparently must go the Bootcamp route, which is confusing i itself because the Assistant that I have on my MBP only offers the option of installing XP or Vista. I shall google this and see what I find.

So can I then assume that there is no "tweaking" of Parallels' configuration from its default installation that will make performance better?

When you start the Parrallels loader it should show which VMs you have configured. Before you start the actual VM you can use one of the icons on the bottom bar of the Parallels window to set the resources given to that VM.

By default, regardless of memory/cores I think Parallels only gives 1 core an 1g (maybe 2g) so any game run is going to suck.

Regardless, bootcamp to run CIV 5. Its buggy under DX 9 which is all the Parallels supports. CIV 5 works many times better under DX 10/11. While I can play CIV 5 using Parallels I have way too many issues with the game that way. In fact, if I force it to be DX 9 while boot camped its damn unreliable (it has never crashed in Parallels but it did blue screen 7 while running dx 9)

 

[doh123]

Darkuser over at the Portingteam.com has gotten a Wineskin port going pretty good of Civ5. I played it awhile, and while there are some graphics issues at certain graphics settings, overall it runs really nice. Of course it can only run the DX9 version, but still better than using a VM.

So its very possible to get this working in Wine or Wineskin.

 

[racketeer71]

I have good results with the Civ5 DEMO (I won't buy the full game) via CrossOver Games.

I had problems with all-gray terrain at first, but switching to Windowed mode and setting the graphics settings HIGHER solved the problem.

The game runs fine (for as long as the Demo works), although the CPU runs HOT HOT HOT (76 Celsius).

 

[doh123]

Crossover is good... helps pay for making Wine better...

or you can just use Wine and other 3rd party Wine programs that are free

Playing it just fine without Crossover or Windows

 

[Moniquinin]

Ok so I got Darkuser's ported version (I installed wine - followed a tutorial I found) and the game STILL craps out at the same moment it did at first running it on Parallels - the loading screen where the civilization is introduced, i.e. "We greet thee, oh mighty Ramesees, bla bla bla"

I found Darkuser's port via Demonoid and I noted some people were having the same problem, but still no posted solution. If anyone has any insight, that would be great.

And Doh123, not sure what you're saying here. How are you playing it just fine?

 

[doh123]

Ok so I got Darkuser's ported version (I installed wine - followed a tutorial I found) and the game STILL craps out at the same moment it did at first running it on Parallels - the loading screen where the civilization is introduced, i.e. "We greet thee, oh mighty Ramesees, bla bla bla"

I found Darkuser's port via Demonoid and I noted some people were having the same problem, but still no posted solution. If anyone has any insight, that would be great.

And Doh123, not sure what you're saying here. How are you playing it just fine?

I'm using Darkuser's port...

it uses Wineskin (which is my project)... you do not have to install or use Wine... all that is done for you, you just download his port and run it.. nothing special.... thats what I make Wineskin for.

mine doesn't crash, it runs fine... I have a 2010 MBP 13" with a Geforce 320m.

What are your machines specs?

Parallels uses wined3d for graphics, so if you get the same crash its not surprising since it using almost the same method for the graphics. I know some people are trying to get this to run on Geforce 7000 series GPUs, and I doubt that will ever work. Just cuz it works with Windows isn;t the same, cuz in Wine Direct3D has to go to OpenGl to work, and the 7000 series has some OpenGl deficiencies. Even at almost bare minimum settings (2 options turned up from "min" to "low", its still pretty slow on my 320m.... but its Civ, it doesn't have to be fast to play.

 

[Moniquinin]

Doh, hi

I read in another forum I'm a member about you - let me just say thanks for what you've done.

My specs are:

MacBook Pro
Mac OS X 10.5.8
2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 1067 MHz DDR3

And my graphich cards are:

NVIDIA GeFORCE 9400M
VRAM (Total) 256 MB

NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
VRAM (Total) 512 MB

Someone here advised me on how to switch them, initially I had the first one connected, but that made no difference. I just want to finally know if it's just impossible to play on my machine. I am a HUGE fan of Civilization and it would be a great shame if I can't. Right now I cannot afford to get another laptop, but if there is anything I can do to this one to make it work that would be outstanding.

The other mac forum I am a member of has a port out on it, but I'm not sure if it's the same one we're talking about. I've asked if it's Darkuser's but haven't gotten an answer. It's tagged as an [Intel-Crossover]. I'll tell tou which forum if you want in an IM - don't know if they'd appreciate me advertising them anywhere.

Thanks again for your incredible contribution and help ;-)

 

[doh123]

MacBook Pro
Mac OS X 10.5.8
2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 1067 MHz DDR3

NVIDIA GeFORCE 9400M
VRAM (Total) 256 MB

NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
VRAM (Total) 512 MB

I haven't tested it on 10.5.8 ... it might be something to do with that.

My older Macbook Pro is that same machine, with 10.5 on it, i just use for development stuff. I'll try to copy Civ5 over to it and mess with it and see what i find.... later tonight or tomorrow when I get time.

 

[Moniquinin]

Thanks. I kind of got a feeling that it might be that I'm not running Snow Leopard on it. I'm looking into upgrading the system very soon, but it'll be great if you can figure out why it's not running.

 

[mcash1]

Has anyone played this on a 27" iMac with the 1GB 5750 card (either in boot camp or not?)

I'm interested in how it performs late game on huge/marathon settings high detail.

thx!