Flight Simulator X Parallels

[markw10]

I just bought Flight Simulator X and installed it on my desktop Windows XP PC and it works great. I'm not a gamer by far but that's the one game I do play. I now have a C2D MBP though and would to go all Mac and don't want to have to keep the PC for this one game. I know about the gaming issues of Parallels and prefer Parallels by far over Boot Camp. When I try to run FS X though it gives the message:
Flight Simulator is not working with your video card. Verify that you have the latest drivers installd for your video card. Flight Simulator will now exit.

From what I've heard often games run very slow under parallels but I've never heard about one giving that error so does it mean there may be some type of driver issue that I can update and get around it. I have done the windows update through Microsoft and it's not showing any updates.

 

[Silentwave]

I don't believe that parallels supports intensive 3d graphics at this time?

Though I remember hearing that either they or VMWare are working on it...

 

[ReanimationLP]

No actual 3D accelration = No FSX.

 

[Shore Points]

FWIW...I noticed today in the Mac section of my local CompUSA an interesting piece of flight sim software. Not Microsoft's...but just as realistic-looking.
Link: http://www.apple.com/games/articles/2005/06/xplane/

CompUSA wanted $50 for it. Looks good. I love flight sims....I just don't have time to get into one right now.

 

[bluedoggiant]

god this sucks, i guess im getting boot camp

 

[gkarris]

I just bought Flight Simulator X and installed it on my desktop Windows XP PC and it works great...

What PC do you have? I heard that this sim is essentially unplayable if you have anything less than a DX10 system (Vista, 4Gigs RAM, C2D, and DX10 card).

 

[gkarris]

FWIW...I noticed today in the Mac section of my local CompUSA an interesting piece of flight sim software. Not Microsoft's...but just as realistic-looking.
Link: http://www.apple.com/games/articles/2005/06/xplane/

CompUSA wanted $50 for it. Looks good. I love flight sims....I just don't have time to get into one right now.

Yes, this is an awesome flight sim. You can get it directly from the programmer:

http://www.x-plane.com/

 

[dimme]

I run flight simulator x or my R MBP thought boot camp and I am very happy with the performance. I also have X plane and it is a good simulator it does not compare with flight simulator X.

 

[megfilmworks]

I have tried to run the Garmin G1000 training app on several macs with parallels. It boots up to the point of having video card issues. But this software is very limited release, buggy and only runs on a very few PCs specially designed to run it. Hate to say it but I had to have a custom Dell made to run it.

 

[megfilmworks]

I run flight simulator x or my R MBP thought boot camp and I am very happy with the performance. I also have X plane and it is a good simulator it does not compare with flight simulator X.

Interesting, because I know a lot of engineers who use x plane as a test bed for very exotic (expensive) aerodynamic design. They love X plane.

 

[WirelessInn]

Flight Simulator X Parallels

I run flight simulator x or my R MBP thought boot camp and I am very happy with the performance. I also have X plane and it is a good simulator it does not compare with flight simulator X.

Same here, dimme. Very smooth FSX at hight settings to boot! i am very please with the peformance of WinXPPro in my MBP. Amazed in fact. Apple has indeed gone consistently a long way in terms of making its machines accessible from other computers (i.e. SuperDrive, being able to read NTFS, etc...)

Greetimgs: just installed BC and WinXPpro. Works exceptionally well indeed. Very smooth and very fast Win. Very few glitches. I am even running MS Flight Simulator X (very demanding program, as all know) and it runs very smooth. i am pleased - finally - with my MBP, following weeks haggling with its definitely inadequate WiFi performance: especially, since it has also been pointed out elsewhere in the Forums), WiFi performs very well UNDER WINDOWS!!!

Now, I want to try Mac Drive to be able to read/write to the Mac partition - of course, Mac OSX can already READ the Win partition. Does anyone here know if installing Mac Drive will in any way impact access speed performance by either Mac OSX or WIndows of their RESPECTIVE partitions?? I plan to run apps in both MACOSX and Windows (besides FSX!) which rely on fast disk access. I do not want to jeopardize that so far, the MBP provides for that!

- Roger T

 

[WirelessInn]

markw10[/B];3093740]I just bought Flight Simulator X and installed it on my desktop Windows XP PC and it works great. I'm not a gamer by far but that's the one game I do play. I now have a C2D MBP though and would to go all Mac and don't want to have to keep the PC for this one game. I know about the gaming issues of Parallels and prefer Parallels by far over Boot Camp.

Just FYI:

I have personally spent enough time in some other Forums' areas complaining/seeking input about the main issue still concerning me about my (June acquired) MBP. Namely, the unsatisfactory, unstable WiFi performance of that computer. Seems that remedy is still not on the way from Apple. I had heard that WiFi works well under BC+Windows, and since I just completed installation of BC+WindowsXP Pro, I was able to verify that INDEED, WiFi works very well under Windows. Which means that soem software/firmware problem still remains to be resolved about WiFi under Mac OSX.
OTHERWISE, I am truly amazed at the way Apple has made it possible to run Win natively. BC is very easy to install, and it allows for probably just about all KB windows functions, among other things. Win runs actually faster - seemingly - on my MBP/BC/Windows than on the Dell 9400 I owned up to recently (got stoled - was purchased April 2006). I just installed MS Flight Sim X - a very demanding program (13GB on disk for one thing, and requires top flight CPU and Graphics performance) - TOP NOTCH performance. Truly amazing.
Anyhow, I thought I'd report that BCamp/Windows is for me ALL GO: amall inconvenience in having to reboot, but well compensated by running Win at full capability. I selected that configuration over Parallels or VMWare on account of the fact that MS Flight Sim - along probably with other such demanding Win based games - require full graphics 3D capabilities. Looks like Apple delivered.

I understand that some rumors indicated that Apple will implement BCamp in Leopard in such a way as to make it possible for a small kernel of each OS to remain active while the other OS controls the machine, allowing for a quicker re-boot in the other OS...

Roger T

 

[dimme]

Now, I want to try Mac Drive to be able to read/write to the Mac partition - of course, Mac OSX can already READ the Win partition. Does anyone here know if installing Mac Drive will in any way impact access speed performance by either Mac OSX or WIndows of their RESPECTIVE partitions??
- Roger T

I used Mac Drive on my old Desktop PC with windows XP pro to access my mac firewire drives. I did not notice any slow down. I have the older version and for some reason I could not get it to install on my Mac Book Pro with windows XP home. I did not want to spend the money to upgrade the program. I have a flash drive formated to fat 32 and this works great to transfer files. I also have a fat32 partition on one of my firewire drives for larger files and archives.

 

[WirelessInn]

Flight Simulator X Parallels

I used Mac Drive on my old Desktop PC with windows XP pro to access my mac firewire drives. I did not notice any slow down. I have the older version and for some reason I could not get it to install on my Mac Book Pro with windows XP home. I did not want to spend the money to upgrade the program. I have a flash drive formated to fat 32 and this works great to transfer files. I also have a fat32 partition on one of my firewire drives for larger files and archives.

Thanks, dimme.
Looks like you are covered, hardware wise!!
I was thinking at some point of going the hdware way, having an external fwire drive wth a Mac partition and a Win (NTFS) one. Possible??

- roger T

 

[dimme]

Thanks, dimme.
Looks like you are covered, hardware wise!!
I was thinking at some point of going the hdware way, having an external fwire drive wth a Mac partition and a Win (NTFS) one. Possible??

- roger T

Yes just partition it with disk utility in OS X. I chose 2 partitions se the sizes you want and what type of partition (mac or ms dos). You also are not limited to 32 gigs in fat32 (which is the msdos) you can go bigger. I do not just because.

 

[bluedoggiant]

best way to run fsx deluxe on mac: 2.8GHz processor, about 2.5-7gig of memory, ati radeons latest 2600 pro hd video card, using bootcamp running any windows vista package (DO NOT USE 64bit!!!!!!!!), download directX10, and sit back, and err, well, pilot the ride lol

 

[pcorajr]

I use to play a lot of Flight sims until i started playing MMORPGS, but im starting to get back into it.

You guys recomend FS X to run on the 20" 2.4 and 3GB of ram? will it do good on this set up ?

 

[bluedoggiant]

I use to play a lot of Flight sims until i started playing MMORPGS, but im starting to get back into it.

You guys recomend FS X to run on the 20" 2.4 and 3GB of ram? will it do good on this set up ?

yes, is this the new imac? again, yes, a 2GHz with2GB of memory and an old video card apparently ran good with all the settings set to medium high, so that shud be EVEN better, maybe sum highs and medium highs, im getting my 24inch imac, 2.8GHz processor with 4gigs of memory with bootcamp running windows vista wen leopard comes out, remember, get WINDOWS VISTA!!! any package is fine, just dont get the 64bit version, why vista? the newest directx10 (a compliant video card to make things look EVEN MORE realistic), is exclusive to windows vista

 

[WirelessInn]

Flight Simulator X Parallels

bluedoggiant "bootcamp running windows vista wen leopard comes out, remember, get WINDOWS VISTA!!! any package is fine, just dont get the 64bit version, why vista? the newest directx10 (a compliant video card to make things look EVEN MORE realistic), is exclusive to windows vista"

Hey, Bluedoggiant, what's this about Vista? Directx10 better for FSX? So far I am running WinXPPro under BCamp and things run well. Also the SP1 pack from Microsoft improves FSX a bit. So, you advise to look at upgrading to VISTA when Leopard comes out?


pcorajr "You guys recomend FS X to run on the 20" 2.4 and 3GB of ram? will it do good on this set up ?"

Much to my delight, and following weeks of debating whether to even attempt to slap FSX onto my MBP 2.4ghz - 2gbmem - 17" - NVidia GeForce 8600M GT - gb 7200 rpm HD - I did it and was met with very satisfactory results. Your machine should be plenty strong for FSX. Do not forget to also install FSX SP1!

bluedoggiant best way to run fsx deluxe on mac: 2.8GHz processor, about 2.5-7gig of memory, ati radeons latest 2600 pro hd video card, using bootcamp running any windows vista package (DO NOT USE 64bit!!!!!!!!), download directX10, and sit back, and err, well, pilot the ride lol

Wow... That's a heck of a machine. I bet you it'll run FSX full bore and fully features!

Thanks all for the replies.

- Roger T

 

[pcorajr]

yes, is this the new imac? again, yes, a 2GHz with2GB of memory and an old video card apparently ran good with all the settings set to medium high, so that shud be EVEN better, maybe sum highs and medium highs, im getting my 24inch imac, 2.8GHz processor with 4gigs of memory with bootcamp running windows vista wen leopard comes out, remember, get WINDOWS VISTA!!! any package is fine, just dont get the 64bit version, why vista? the newest directx10 (a compliant video card to make things look EVEN MORE realistic), is exclusive to windows vista

Great thanks very much for the quick reply, I am going to be installing Vista and BC this weekend so i am looking forward to playing FSX I have Vista ultimate installed on my old PC thank god that I got the retail copy cuse it allows me to swuitch that install over to my iMac.

bluedoggiant


pcorajr "You guys recomend FS X to run on the 20" 2.4 and 3GB of ram? will it do good on this set up ?"

Much to my delight, and following weeks of debating whether to even attempt to slap FSX onto my MBP 2.4ghz - 2gbmem - 17" - NVidia GeForce 8600M GT - gb 7200 rpm HD - I did it and was met with very satisfactory results. Your machine should be plenty strong for FSX. Do not forget to also install FSX SP1!
- Roger T

Great im glad to hear it's working good i have the extra ram in order and will be reciving it by the end of this week.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Interesting, because I know a lot of engineers who use x plane as a test bed for very exotic (expensive) aerodynamic design. They love X plane.

X-Plane is much more 'technically accurate' (Yes, it is used as an engineering tool. Back in college in 1996, we used it when doing aerodynamic analysis,) but Flight Sim just LOOKS better, and is a much more user-friendly 'game'.

If you want über-realism, go for X-Plane, if you want fun, go for MSFS. (I've been using MSFS since version 3 on DOS, and even still have version 4 for Mac on my PowerBook G4.)


As for gaming in Parallels, both Parallels and VMWare only support DirectX 8 at present, which rules out all games that require DX9-class hardware. This includes FSX. (Which is too bad, as it's the only reason I boot Boot Camp anymore, all my other games play in Parallels just fine.) (Also note that even games that run fine on native DX8 hardware (Radeon 8500/GeForce 3) still need the DX9 drivers, which Parallels doesn't have.

 

[bluedoggiant]

bluedoggiant "bootcamp running windows vista wen leopard comes out, remember, get WINDOWS VISTA!!! any package is fine, just dont get the 64bit version, why vista? the newest directx10 (a compliant video card to make things look EVEN MORE realistic), is exclusive to windows vista"

Hey, Bluedoggiant, what's this about Vista? Directx10 better for FSX? So far I am running WinXPPro under BCamp and things run well. Also the SP1 pack from Microsoft improves FSX a bit. So, you advise to look at upgrading to VISTA when Leopard comes out?


pcorajr "You guys recomend FS X to run on the 20" 2.4 and 3GB of ram? will it do good on this set up ?"

Much to my delight, and following weeks of debating whether to even attempt to slap FSX onto my MBP 2.4ghz - 2gbmem - 17" - NVidia GeForce 8600M GT - gb 7200 rpm HD - I did it and was met with very satisfactory results. Your machine should be plenty strong for FSX. Do not forget to also install FSX SP1!

bluedoggiant best way to run fsx deluxe on mac: 2.8GHz processor, about 2.5-7gig of memory, ati radeons latest 2600 pro hd video card, using bootcamp running any windows vista package (DO NOT USE 64bit!!!!!!!!), download directX10, and sit back, and err, well, pilot the ride lol

Wow... That's a heck of a machine. I bet you it'll run FSX full bore and fully features!

Thanks all for the replies.

- Roger T

1st thing, directx10 is a compliant video card that makes things more realistic, and its exlusive to windows vista, it wont improve game performance, now will make it worse, just put less impact on ur video card to set even higher terrain and scenery settings to make things look like as if it were REAL-LIFE, u can upgrade to vista anytime, just make sure u get 32 bit, apparently bootcamp only supports that, even if ur processor is 64bit, maybe the bootcamp that will come with leopard is capable of running a 64bit os

2nd thing actually, i dont think its that much, fsx will run great on 4gigs (just enough that u wont ask for more), the processor isnt so exciting, altho its VERY good, but the video card is wut will make it great, its the lastest one

 

[bluedoggiant]

directx 9 vs directx 10 (vista exclusive)

directx 9:

directx 10 (same image):

directx 9:

directx 10 (dont be fooled, this isnt real, but can happen on directx 10):

theres alot more of these comparisions here: http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9550

 

[bluedoggiant]

addition to last post

theres a rumor that sumone is making an alpha version of directx 10 for xp, apparently he works for microsoft, just search the new for: directx 10 for xp, u have to manually install it, im not sure if it actually works, ive done it on my computer, no difference

 

[WirelessInn]

Flight Simulator X Parallels

bluedoggiant[/B];4101371]1st thing, directx10 is a compliant video card that makes things more realistic, [......] u can upgrade to vista anytime, just make sure u get 32 bit, apparently bootcamp only supports that, even if ur processor is 64bit, maybe the bootcamp that will come with leopard is capable of running a 64bit os

2nd thing actually, i dont think its that much, fsx will run great on 4gigs (just enough that u wont ask for more), the processor isnt so exciting, altho its VERY good, but the video card is wut will make it great, its the lastest one

Bluedoggiant: you say directx10 is a "compliant video card" - you mean that current computers either HAVE such compliant cards or NOT??? Also, Vista 32 and 64 bit BOTH offer/ support upcoming directx10? For example, the nVidia GEForce 8600Mgt installed in current MBP is directx10 compliant?

regarding your point 2.: fsx on 4 gigs - must rock indeed/ does pretty good on 2 gigs! You say the video card is "what makes it great, it's the latest": what v.card are you talking about if I may ask?

Thanks again - your subsequent pics rendered via directx10 ARE awesome - the water ripples especially!

- Roger T