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Centris650 · Oct 29, 2002, 10:08 AM

Has anyone tried to play a MMORPG with Virtual PC on their Mac? Does it work and if so what are some basic system requirements? The reason I ask this is that I REALLY want to play either City of Heroes (www.cityofheroes.com) or Star Wars Galaxies. I know CoH has stated that the game will PC only for the near future and SWG will come out with console variations (Xbox and PS2) BUT NOT MAC!

While not a big gamer anymore (I think I still have Eric Solitaire loaded and have Marathon I&II close at hand) I want to play these games!

Any help would be great!

Osirisis · Oct 29, 2002, 10:50 AM

Originally posted by Centris650:
Has anyone tried to play a MMORPG with Virtual PC on their Mac? Does it work and if so what are some basic system requirements? The reason I ask this is that I REALLY want to play either City of Heroes (www.cityofheroes.com) or Star Wars Galaxies. I know CoH has stated that the game will PC only for the near future and SWG will come out with console variations (Xbox and PS2) BUT NOT MAC!

While not a big gamer anymore (I think I still have Eric Solitaire loaded and have Marathon I&II close at hand) I want to play these games!

Any help would be great!

Something to keep in mind concerning these MMORPGs is that they require 3D video card acceleration. While games such as Command and Conquer may run fine in an emulated environment, MMORPGs will not run due to the lack of a 3D video card that they can detect / work with. Feel free to try it if you please, but the only video card that was ever supported by Virtual PC was the 3dfx cards. They eliminated this in later versions. Apparently it requires much more work than a standard video card driver to get that level of emulation running. The future of Star Wars Galaxies on the Mac rests solely in the hands of the popularity / success of Everquest when it is released next year for the Mac. I for one know that I'll be on that bandwagon

In the mean time, you might be best served by a low end PC with a decent 3d video card if this is a must for you.

Vash · Oct 29, 2002, 05:31 PM

Virtual PC can barely even run Windows, never mind even the simplest arcade and non-3D game. I think that VPC is a horribly slow, and laggy emulation that needs severe optimization. Some arcade games do not even run properly on it. By the way I run it on a Dual 1ghz with 1.5GB RAM. It still sux.

Centris650 · Oct 29, 2002, 06:21 PM

Originally posted by Osirisis:

Something to keep in mind concerning these MMORPGs is that they require 3D video card acceleration. While games such as Command and Conquer may run fine in an emulated environment, MMORPGs will not run due to the lack of a 3D video card that they can detect / work with. Feel free to try it if you please, but the only video card that was ever supported by Virtual PC was the 3dfx cards. They eliminated this in later versions. Apparently it requires much more work than a standard video card driver to get that level of emulation running. The future of Star Wars Galaxies on the Mac rests solely in the hands of the popularity / success of Everquest when it is released next year for the Mac. I for one know that I'll be on that bandwagon In the mean time, you might be best served by a low end PC with a decent 3d video card if this is a must for you.

This is what I was affraid of. Some years ago I had Softwindows and it was fair. The programs I ran were not heavy duty programs but really simple. As for the low end PC with the 3D video card, well I'd rather use that money to upgrade my mac!

I will either play Lineage or EQ though not entirely sure just yet but I can guarentee I'll play SWG on the PS2!

Thanks!

mac freak · Oct 29, 2002, 06:22 PM

I tried playing Asheron's Call on my old iMac 350 once, way back... unforunately, I was never able to actually get into anything, as I always lagged out before I could move.

I do recall however that the framerate, which I could determine by the people walking around me as I failed to load, was not as horrid as one might guess...

New MMORPG's, however, will not run. No way.

If you want a Mac/PC MMORPG, hold out for shadowbane ( www.shadowbane.com ). The graphics need some work, but if you read about the rest of the game it's really quite intriguing.