A Leauki's Writings
List of games/demos I tried and results (I will update this article, I hope)
Published on October 9, 2007 By Leauki In PC Gaming
Hardware configuration:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16 GHz (only one core used in the VM)
2 GB RAM (512 MB in VM)

Software configuration:

Apple Mac OS X 10.4.10
Parallels Desktop 3.0 Build 5160
Microsoft Windows XP 5.1.2600 "Version 2002" Service Pack 2
DirectX support in Parallels enabled

This is obviously not a Stardock supported or recommended configuration, but I decided to try it anyway. Object Desktop works fine on Windows Vista on the same computer. The Windows XP VM is my gaming VM.


Defender of the Crown

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista, 800 MHz, 128 MB, 32 MB 3D, DirectX 9.0c

WORKS! (Tried demo.)


Galactic Civilisations I

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, 600 MHz, 128 MB, DirectX 8.1

WORKS! (Tried demo.)


Patrician III: Rise of the Hanse

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, 233 MHz, 32 MB, DirectX 8.1

NO IDEA! (No demo available. My guess it is would work.)


Port Royale II

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, 700 MHz, 128 MB, DirectX 8

DOES NOT WORK! (Starts, displays error I forgot to copy, quits.)


Tortuga

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, 450 MHz, 64 MB, DirectX 8.1

WORKS! (Had to switch screen to 800*600 for it to start without problems. Tried demo.)


The Political Machine

Windows 9x/ME/2000/XP, 600 MHz, 64 MB, DirectX 9.0b

DOES NOT WORK! (Tried demo. See error below.)

---------------------------
Visual Studio Just-In-Time Debugger
---------------------------
An unhandled win32 exception occurred in PolMachine.exe [1040]. Just-In-Time debugging this exception failed with the following error: No installed debugger has Just-In-Time debugging enabled. In Visual Studio, Just-In-Time debugging can be enabled from Tools/Options/Debugging/Just-In-Time.

Check the documentation index for 'Just-in-time debugging, errors' for more information.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------


Xeno Assault II

Windows 98/ME/XP, 400 MHz, 64 MB, DirectX 7

DOES NOT WORK! (Tried demo. Says cannot initialise graphics.)



Comments
on Oct 09, 2007
What graphics care you have? I've got a macbook with the gma 950 and when I run parallels with dx on it crawls! If I turn of dx is runs fine so I just run parallels w/out dx and then if I need it I boot up into windows with boot camp. I think its awesome I can run the same windows on parallels/boot camp.

I'm wondering how well multiplicity would run with coherenece, something I should try out if I get the chance, cause that could be awesome!
on Oct 09, 2007
Chipset Model: ATY,RadeonX1600
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
VRAM (Total): 128 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x71c5
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-xxxxxx-139
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.139
on Oct 09, 2007
I think MacBooks (non-Pro) use shared memory for graphics. That might be the reason.

Parallels with DirectX works perfectly fast on my iMac. Haven't tried it on my MacBook and probably won't. I also don't use Boot Camp. If it doesn't work under Parallels, it doesn't work. I am not going to reboot to play games like in the OS/2 days.

Multiplicity with Coherence will probably display the normal Windows desktop that would be there if it wasn't for Coherence.
on Oct 09, 2007
I think MacBooks (non-Pro) use shared memory for graphics. That might be the reason.


More likely because Intel's video chipsets (excepting the very latest) run T&L in software on the CPU, rather than on the chipset.It's better than 'pure' emulation since it's done at a lower level, but it's still emulation and as such is going to be slow. Even worse when using it in a VM.
on Oct 09, 2007

It's better than 'pure' emulation since it's done at a lower level, but it's still emulation and as such is going to be slow. Even worse when using it in a VM.


Is Windows usually slow on Intel's video chipsets? I doubt it. Why would it be worse in a VM (especially since we are talking direct hardware access here)? No, I think it is simply the DirectX support implementation of Parallels that requires a real graphics card and not just shared memory.

on Oct 09, 2007
It's got nothing to do with Wwindows itself, and everything to do with DirectX. Without dedicated graphics hardware (Hardware T&L, particularly), anything needing T&L (most Direct3D games) is going to be much slower than it would with a 'real' graphic card or chipset. As such, Intel integrated graphics are pretty poor even under 'real' Windows. And running with a virtualization layer may not make a huge impact, but it certainly won't help performance.