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Parallels 3 to support 3d graphics
- Thread starter swiftaw
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I got the email yesterday as well, as I own a copy of Parallel 2 - which I think is already really nice and handy; I don't feel like rebooting for my little use...
However, regarding the "upcoming" new version, I think it's funny that you have the options of:
- pre-buying blindly what you don't know yet for 50% discount,
- buying later an update for 30-ish% discount.
I mean, esp. when it comes to 3D, you might want to see how many fps you get under Quake, for example? That is, that the 3D is usable, accepted by 90% of the games/software, ... Not Quake with 5fps, and only 2 games.
But hopefully, the product will be as good as the previous versions, and holding to the promises. Maybe the Parallel company is afraid of what Leopard might bring in when released (like, any evolution of the Boot Camp beta), and they try to secure sales as much as they can.
However, regarding the "upcoming" new version, I think it's funny that you have the options of:
- pre-buying blindly what you don't know yet for 50% discount,
- buying later an update for 30-ish% discount.
I mean, esp. when it comes to 3D, you might want to see how many fps you get under Quake, for example? That is, that the 3D is usable, accepted by 90% of the games/software, ... Not Quake with 5fps, and only 2 games.
But hopefully, the product will be as good as the previous versions, and holding to the promises. Maybe the Parallel company is afraid of what Leopard might bring in when released (like, any evolution of the Boot Camp beta), and they try to secure sales as much as they can.
Any word on an official release date? I don't see that on their site.
I'm stoked because I get the update for free!
I'm stoked because I get the update for free!
I'm NOT happy that the UPGRADE price ends next week, since there isn't even a beta to test yet. Parallels is getting more and more arrogant as time passes.
Before I drop that kind of money on a product I dang well want to test it. 3D support is one thing...good 3D support is another.
Before I drop that kind of money on a product I dang well want to test it. 3D support is one thing...good 3D support is another.
I agree with you. However, the full price is $79.99, the limited-time-blind upgrade is $39.99, and the normal update price after that date is $49.99. I think it's worth 10$ just to wait and see whether it's a good update...
I thought the upgrade from Toast 7.x to 8.x for registered users at $79.99 instead of the full $99.99 was more of a rip-off. I'm still not convinced the "new features" were worth 80% of the price
I thought the upgrade from Toast 7.x to 8.x for registered users at $79.99 instead of the full $99.99 was more of a rip-off. I'm still not convinced the "new features" were worth 80% of the price
I agree. Utter waste for me. Its like toast gets the tiniest little extra update and a crapper interface with every update.
In fact the best thing about Toast8 is the tray icon which says a lot
Easy... Better performance... You won't get the same kind of performance in a VM (which parallels is) than in the native OS. Which is why you'll get better performance booting straight into XP from bootcamp rather than parallels.
That being said, I haven't tried parallels yet for a few reasons, and maybe there won't be that much of a performance hit... My Mac is due here in the next couple of days, and I noticed that if you buy the current version of parallels, (any time after May 1st) you get a free upgrade to v3, so I'll definately be ordering it right away... I wasn't going to pay for an upgrade... Really glad I didn't order it with my machine like I was planning.
Parallels Desktop 3.0 coming soon with 3D graphics support
source: http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/05/31/parallels-desktop-3-0-coming-soon-with-3d-graphics-support
Some other links about Parallels Desktop 3:
Yes, you heard right...PARALLELS DESKTOP 3.0 IS ALMOST HERE!
Parallels 3.0: Another Compelling Reason To Buy A Mac
And the Quake 3 screenshot somewhat larger:
And two screenshots of Half Life 2 in Parallels desktop 3:
Parallels has been one of the most-preferred solutions for running Windows on your Mac for some time now, but with today's announcement of the release candidate for Parallels Desktop 3.0, it looks like it's going to get a whole lot better.
The big new feature is, of course, 3D graphics support (that's Quake 4 in the screenshot). Parallels 3 will soon support both DirectX and OpenGL games in the virtual machine, so you can get your gaming fix in without having to reboot into Windows. Ars Orbiting HQ testing of the private beta on a Core 2 Duo iMac has revealed that the 3D support offers decent speed for Counter-Strike; however, there were a few texturing issues here and there. That said, the news is still good for all the Mac gamers out there, and we expect there to be vast improvements to the software by the time the first public beta comes out.
Rounding out the new features are SmartSelect and Snapshots. The first of these, SmartSelect, works with Coherence and allows you to choose any Mac or Windows application as the default for a file type. So if you like Excel under Windows better than on the Mac but still want your links to open in Safari, you'll be able to do that easily. It even handles mail attachments gracefully. The last big feature, Snapshots, lets you save the state of your virtual machine and roll it back to an older state whenever you want, just in case something goes wrong. It's not necessarily a marquee feature like 3D graphics support, but it's still nice to know it's there.
The Parallels team is promising 50+ features in the new release, along with 100+ new fixes. Speaking of release, Parallels 3.0 won't be out for public consumption for another few weeks. However, the release candidate is ready as of today, so we know it's coming soon. If you're just too excited to wait, you can buy the upgrade for $40 until June 6th. After that, it'll $50 to upgrade from previous versions. It's a worthy software buy if you use Windows a lot. Or like 3D games.
More big news about Parallels Desktop 3 will be available at WWDC, so hang in there, folks.
source: http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/05/31/parallels-desktop-3-0-coming-soon-with-3d-graphics-support
Some other links about Parallels Desktop 3:
Yes, you heard right...PARALLELS DESKTOP 3.0 IS ALMOST HERE!
Parallels 3.0: Another Compelling Reason To Buy A Mac
And the Quake 3 screenshot somewhat larger:
And two screenshots of Half Life 2 in Parallels desktop 3:
I just realized something... How many people play games in windows? I really hope you'll be able to do full screen 3D... I imagine if you have the whole VM open in full screen, its more likely to work, but I'm hoping for coherence mode full screen capabilities... That being said, the screenshots are done windowed to show its running in a VM. Its not as convincing to take a screengrab of a game and post it without showing what the host O/S is.
Right. **thumbs up**
So does that mean you can just click "full screen" and play it without having it windowed in OSX?
Parallels or VMware with 8-core Macpro
Just wondering if Parallels or VMware would work with 8-core Macpro.
Just wondering if Parallels or VMware would work with 8-core Macpro.
Why wouldn't they?
...I'm more wondering whether you'll have the same Quake results with an iMac (like mine, Core Duo 2, 2.33GHz) as with an 8-core Mac Pro they will certainly use when showing their stuff around...
Regarding performances of Parallel 2: it runs really good, but there are some sluggish moments - you still run two systems with only one machine, there are some lags sometimes, esp. when you go from one software to the other one; maybe also the memory mapping -.
Oddly enough, I've felt the worst lags when having another OS X account running at the same time.
It is a closed beta so this is against the rules of both the beta and this forum.
i wish there were a beta... i guess that can explain why there havent been many updates to v2.5 recently.
Thanks for the clarification and defending me.
Funny, xUKHCx isn't the Sysop or Moderator but had to chime in anyway. Everyone is trying to judge others. Don't be gay, don't ask for beta, don't have sex, don't be another race, don't be another nationality, don't don't don't.
I'm tired of everyone being a cop.
I agree! The latest stable release is a "must-have" for the Mac... even if you don't use Windows, it is great because you can load Foxfire and IE and see what your sites look like to the 90% that haven't switched.