SH3 - Mac - Parallels

[usaric]

Hi guys,

needless to say that back in 2005, I used to play SH3 for hours and not noticing the time passing by. I had a PC and managed to play it the first version for almost 6 months. It is by far my favorite PC game (never played SH4 nor SH5 (heard bad things and never gave a try) Well, a lot of things happened since then: my PC broke, I graduated in law school, studied a lot, got a job, got married, bought a mac...

Well, recently i realised I could run windows applications on a mac. Instantly my thoughts went back 8 years ago: i have to try SH3 again.

Did a lot of research, downloaded SH3 with GWE3.0 on it and first tried using Crossover. The game started and I managed to play a little, but game often crashed (mainly on ports and near convoys) and had some serious graphic issues (i.e red, green sky during bad weather, etc.).

Then I tried using bootcamp, but my 2011 macbook pro would not accept my copy of Windows XP.

Then I downloaded Parallels Desktop 9 and installed Windows XP on my mac. And YES!, the game runs nice, i can exit ports, get near convoys and the colored sky is gone.

But - always a but -, I noticed some new, yet minor, graphic issues that weren´t there using Crossover. The smoke that comes out of factories and ships and the foam that forms behind the sub when it is moving, are kind of filled up with really annoying squared particles, as if the game was from the 80´s .

Not sure if thats because the game is modded, or there´s some video configuration i´m missing, or something else.

Please, any ideas on how to solve this? I´m really excited that i´m finally back with my late night patrols

I´d appreciate any help, and please forgive my english since that´s not my native language.

Thanks.

[Sephiroth]

My recomendation is to ditch Parallels and use VirtualBox to run either XP Pro or XP Pro x64. You will be fine after that. Just remember to install the virtualized drivers.

Why VBox? Hardware 3D and 2D acceleration, for starters. I work in the IT industry and my entire company runs on Linux. It saves us thousands every year and when we need to test Windows software or setups we use VBox due to how powerful and flexible it is. We can even test out hardware which comes with only Windows software, such as our phone system, due to USB-passthrough (makes it like the USB device is plugged into Windows, not the host OS). It is a GREAT piece of software and is out for all major OSes.

After all, when Apple was about to die in the late 90's/early 00's, they essentially took Unix, cut out all of the security, and laid their UI on top. Unix and Linux are very similar (almost identical, except you pay for Unix) and with that in mind I imagine your issues will go away if you use a decent piece of virtualization software.

[usaric]

Thanks man! I was going to try out Vmware fusion and Virtualbox after my Parallels free trial. By the way, I did install XP Pro with parallels.

Tried everything within my powers: changed resolution, video settings, the cfg file, etc.. none worked for me.

Not sure about the drivers you mentioned though. Just put the XP inst disc and followed the steps basically... can you be more specific? I'd appreciate.

[Paulebaer1979]

Originally Posted by usaric

Then I tried using bootcamp, but my 2011 macbook pro would not accept my copy of Windows XP.

Bootcamp needs a XP with minimum S(ervice)P(ack)2 - versions without SP2 are not useable. That´s silly because most people have Xp with SP1 and are not able to activate them (because bootcamp) and without activation they can´t install SP2 and SP3. Because XP has EOL now it´s very cheap to buy now - cheaper than any professional VM-software.

I don´t know your machine at all but i would prefer bootcamp with windows XP SP2 for installation and then update to SP3. Virtual box is a nice tool - but with standard-driver for emulated hardware it is slower than XP with apple driver on bootcamp. If you want to play SH3 with a supermod you need the power from bootcamp. Apple/bootcamp give´s you the right driver for all your hardware - VM`s are using standard driver for the emulated standard hardware.

My machine is able to run 4 VM´s (VM wareplayer) with WIN7 and SH3 LSH 5.1 inside - but with lowest graphik in window mode and slow. But the basic is WIN7 with window driver for all hardware.

[Sephiroth]

Once you install XP into VirtualBox, there is an option to install guest additions. I believe the hotkey is HOST+H or HOST+D. Not sure off the top of my head. You must boot into safe mode to install the 3D drivers.

Also, the 3D driver, when installed correctly is light years faster than BootCamp due to allowing hardware access. I have played UT3 in VirtualBox on XP SP3 with no issues, and it is much more intense graphically than SH3.

[usaric]

My XP version has SP2 already. But my bootcamp assistant only allows the installation of windows 7 or newer versions. I saw a guy posting a video tricking his machine by putting a windows 7 disc and then replacing it by the xp one.

Well, I'll try the virtualbox with your tips and post the results as soon as possible.

By the way, i know it's kind of off topic, but i was on my first patrol with a type IIA sub and put the boat to depth test. It says it has a 100m maximum depth, but I went much deeper, managing to dive at about 160m with it off the coast of norway. Are the subs depths messed up even with GWE 3.0 or i'm missing something??

[usaric]

Nah, it says 100m operational and 150m maximum. Let's say that a 10m variation is acceptable.

[usaric]

Nope! Installed latest Virtualbox, then installed guest additions. The game runs but on bridge, external e periscope views it gets really slow - unplayable. I enabled both 2d and 3d accelarations, but it did not have any effect. The maximum video memory it allowed me to set was 256mb.

So far, the best vm software to play SH3 on a mac is parallels, but it keeps that squared shape particles on smokes and foam

Any thoughts?

My Macbook Pro 2011 has 8gb RAM, 512mb video memory Intel HD graphics 3000 and core i5 processor