please help regarding BootCamp Vmware and L4D

[billmister]

Hey guys please help. Ok to make long story short, i would like to play games, but i don't play enough to buy a console. I owned doom 3 and played it for 8 months before beeting it because i used to play 2 hours maybe a week. And i LOVED that game for my mac!!

Truth is, mac sucks in terms of options for games, other than that, i LOVE MACINTOSH AND WOULD NOT GO TO PC!!!

Here is my dilema. I have windows 7 RC because i use it to use msn Messenger with video chat with my family in Peru (please do not comment to make them switch to skype, or aim as i'm not going to make 20+ people switch). Now i installed it via Virtual disk by VMware. It runs GREAT on my computer.

I was seeing all these cools games and notice they have them for PC. SOOoooo here is what i want to do, and please tell me if it will work so i can do it tonight.

I want to delete the VM drive, and Use BOOT CAMP to install Windows 7 (i know it's only for testing but it's background is from vista so i think it should work). Then once installed and installed all the drivers, pull it to the macintosh so i can still use my macintosh and use msn messenger for windows within mac via vmware so i can use video chat with msn and still use my pc apps.

NOW, I purchased Left 4 Dead for PC (which i will return tomorrow if you tell me it will not work). Can i install that on the boot camp???(this is why i want to install windows via Boot camp). If yes I don't know if this makes a big difference but i DOUBT it does since i seen live 4 dead on you tube on unibodies:

The system requirments are:
Os-3.0 Ghz P4, Dual Core 2.0 <- i have intel core 2 duo 2.8ghz... i need 3.0?

Everything else i have more than they need. please help!

Thank you

Ps, if not i will return game tomorrow unopened. BTW i plan on buying windows 7 when it comes out (no no no i HATE windows, and have NO USE for their Os EXCEPT windows messenger with video(which they will come out with on the mac soon i hope) and to play GAMES and make use out of this 9600M Nvidia Discrete graphics card on my 15" 4g ram DD3.

And is it ok to partition 35G?? or more???? i will only play 1 game at a time, once i'm done beating it, (months later) i will uninstall and buy another. Also i want to do Fat32 as it worked before fine with XP.

 

[MacDawg]

Not sure I understand everything you are asking (it is late and I am well...)

Yes, you can install Windows 7 RC with Boot Camp
Run the Boot Camp Assistant
However... back up all your data first and print and follow the directions

Yes, once you install Windows through Boot Camp, you will be able to run Windows games natively.
You may need to search for some Windows 7 drivers since the Leopard install disc doesn't have them all from what I understand.

Yes, you will be able to use Fusion or Parallels to virtualize your Boot Camp partition

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[billmister]

Should I do ntfs or fat32 if I still need to use msn messsenger via vmware and don't want yo boot to windows for that

 

[Syonidism]

use ntfs. its much more stable imho on windows. Also you get read-only but itw worth it. fat32 doesnt let you write something bigger than 4gb and i have a lot of HD movies... i know there are many ways to get it done but not worth the hassle imo.

im going to install win 7 also but im thinking of waiting for SL and win 7 to come out of the beta phase on to the retail phase before i do that.

 

[Rodus]

Left 4 Dead should work fine, I boocamp it in XP and haven't had any issues. When you boot into Windows there is no difference from that of using a Dell/HP machine.

 

[gumbyx84]

.................
Ps, if not i will return game tomorrow unopened. BTW i plan on buying windows 7 when it comes out (no no no i HATE windows, and have NO USE for their Os EXCEPT windows messenger with video(which they will come out with on the mac soon i hope) and to play GAMES and make use out of this 9600M Nvidia Discrete graphics card on my 15" 4g ram DD3.

And is it ok to partition 35G?? or more???? i will only play 1 game at a time, once i'm done beating it, (months later) i will uninstall and buy another. Also i want to do Fat32 as it worked before fine with XP.

If you don't like Windows, why don't you try another means to play your games? I would recommend CrossOver Games as a better solution as its cheaper then buying a new OS and it (supposedly; I haven't tested it myself) runs Steam and L4D well. If you want a free solution, you can go with WINE.

If you are dead-set on BootCamp: I agree that you shouldn't run into any problems. I would go with the 32-bit version as I have had less issues with BootCamp drivers running on 32-bit Win7 then 64-bit. Stick with NTFS as FAT32 is outdated and you will run info file support issues (no support for files over 4GB). There is NTFS read support in OS X and it can "upgraded" to read and write support with NTFS-3G and MacFUSE. Lastly, 30-40GB should be ok if you only play a few games at a time. If you want to play it safe and have the extra HD space, shoot for 50-60GB.

One good thing about Steam (after they fixed all the issues they used to have; almost quit Valve games when Steam first came out there were so many problems) is that once you register a game to your account, you can download and re-install it directly from Steam without any problems.

 

[Rodus]

Left 4 Dead and Crossover are not friends. Most of us can get the game installed and running but the menus/HUD are invisible making it pretty much unplayable. Hopefully this will be sorted in a future version of Crossover.
I'd definitely go with Bootcamp at the moment. As for system specs, I'm running L4D on a 2 Ghz core2duo with 3 gigs of RAM and a 128 MB Radeon x1600 (overclocked using ATItools). I can play the game with medium graphics settings perfectly, the great thing about the source engine is that it doesn't need a monster system, your setup should be fine. FAT 32 can cause problems with its lack of support for more then 4 gig files but you could always run an external drive, NTFS formated and install large stuff on that, and share it between XP and OS X.

 

[billmister]

Everyone who replied I thank you greatly. After a little more research I read that a lot of people using vista or windows 7 that while playing games like l4d, the computer heats up to a point where even they keys would be hat. Now I'm no genius but that can't be to good for my laptop. I mean they say the fans go on but something about windows 7 OR vista (I think vista also) the drivers don't set the fans to blow until it's very hot. Have any of you guys ran into this problem? They say xp is ok. If that's the case I'll go back to xbox 360 bs ps3 thought. I do NOT want to bring up that topic here.

I think by the time they have q solid msn messenger for mac, they I'll just buy a game console and have best of both worlds.

 

[awchassy]

In game chat issues with L4D

i am running bootcamp on my 2.66 ghz unibody mbp with 4gb ram have been running L4D a bit. it runs well in my opinion...i have occasional short term freezes but I'm having a different problem....

the in game chat feature doesn't seem to work well...i can't hear anyone that im playing with. i have the receive volume cranked all the way up, but i still can't hear anyone, even if i have the sounds set to really high levels....has anyone else had this problem?