[Macola]

Hoping for someone to be the guinea pig before I become one

[Macola]

OK, went ahead...no issues with the installation although it required a restart for some reason. Make sure to back up your VMs, though, as they will need to be converted to the Parallels 3 format. Unfortunately, I don't have any OpenGL Windows games...if anyone would like to donate one, I can try it out Here's a list of what's new (in Russian English, of course):

Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac includes the following new features and feature improvements:
• Coherence 2.0 - Run your Windows and Mac OS X applications in single integrated environment
o Inversed Shared Folders - Mount your Windows file system and access its files and folders directly from Mac OS X
o Security levels - Select security level using security slider in virtual machie configuration. Choose desired balance between virtual machine isolation and guest Windows and Mac OS X integration according your needs.
o SmartSelect - Open your documents in Mac OS X or Windows using any available Mac OS X or Windows application
􀂃 Auto registration - On first start of any Windows application this application is made default for opening document types which have no default Mac OS X application
􀂃 Windows binary integration - Run Windows binaries from directly Mac OS X
􀂃 Editable documents associations - Right click on running Windows application in Dock and edit list of associated documents types. Associate
each document type with running Windows application or with original Mac OS X application
􀂃 Open With Integration - Right-click your document in Mac OS X or Windows and choose any available Mac OS X or Windows application from the Open With list
􀂃 Double-click Integration - Double-click your document in Mac OS X or Windows to open it in the default Mac OS X or Windows application. For example:
􀂃 Double-click a document in Mac Finder to open it in Windows Word or Excel
􀂃 Double-click a picture or PDF in Windows Explorer to open it with Mac Preview
􀂃 Double click any EXE program in Mac Finder to start it in Windows
􀂃 Double-click a DMG file in Windows Explorer to mount it in Mac OS X
􀂃 Shared Default Browser/FTP/Mail - Click a web/ftp link in Windows to open it with Mac OS Safari; click a mailto link in Mac OS X to open it with Windows Outlook
􀂃 Reset Windows Applications - Browse to Applications menu and click "Reset Windows applications" button to remove all applications stubs and clean all file associations with Windows
o Flexible Dock Integration - Choose integration level for Windows applications in the Dock from Never, Always and Only in Coherence
o Windows Start menu Integration - Click the Parallels icon in the Dock to show the Windows Start menu
• Accelerated 3D graphics - Enjoy 3D applications and 3D games running at almost native speed
o OpenGL support - Run OpenGL applications and OpenGL games at native speed in the Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista guest operating systems
o Limited DirectX 8.1 support - Run DirectX applications and DirectX games at native speed in the Windows XP/2003/Vista guest operating systems.
• Snapshots - Save the running virtual machine state and revert back to it at any time
o Multiple Snapshots - Create multiple snapshots
o Visual Snapshots Manager - Manage and navigate your snapshots tree using comprehensive visual tool
• Undo disks - Make you virtual machine read-only and clear all changes at the end of session
• Splitted disks - Split virtual disks into 2G chunks (it allows to store virtual disk on FAT32 filesystem)
• Shared printers - Print directly from Windows to any Mac OS X installed printer
• Vista Boot Camp support - Run Windows Vista installed on Boot Camp partition within virtual machine
• Windows 2008 (beta) experimental support - Run Windows 2008 Server beta within virtual machine
• Improved Hypervisor - Enjoy better security, stability and isolation between virtual machines and Mac OS X
• Improved Memory Manager - Allocate only required virtual memory on hard disk and save up to 1,5G disk space per virtual machine
• Parallels Tools for guest Linux - Enjoy better integration between guest Linux and Mac OS X
o Mouse Synchronization - Seemlessly move mouse pointer between Linux and Mac OS X
o Change Screen Resolution - Resize guest Linux resolution according to virtual machine window size
• New Toolbar Icons - Switch between three pre-defined toolbar icon sets or add your own icon set to Parallels Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/Iconsets/
• Improved Parallels Transporter - Use firewire cable for easy migration
o Vista Support - Migrate your Vista PC or third-party Vista VM into Parallels virtual machine
o Entire VM Migration - Migrate entire VMware or Microsoft virtual machine into Parallels virtual machine
o Firewire Support - Migrate PC into Parallels virtual machine via firewire cable
• Parallels Explorer - Browse your virtual machines images directly from Mac OS X when Parallels Desktop is not running, copy, move and delete files and folders on virtual disks
• Parallels Virtual Appliances - Download pre-built virtual machines from Parallels Virtual Appliances Library
• Other changes
o Paused virtual machine could be continued by mouse click on its window
o Resource allocation policy between virtual machine and Mac OS X can be chosen in new virtual machine assitant
o Legacy Image Tool removed from installation package

[shinji]

Were there any issues with installing parallels tools that you had?

[MacosNerd]

How's the performance and the stability.
I wonder if its installing any kernel extension in OSX (there by possibly slowing or effecting osx) to make the integration so seamless.

I have an upgrade scheduled over the weekend at my job so I'm going to hold off. No way I can take a chance and effect my stability or availability to connect to my company. I'm curious though of seeing how it compares usage wise to parallels 2.5

[shinji]

Well I upgraded, and when I went to run my VM, it said it had to convert it to the new format, I said ok, and then it kernel panicked. When I restarted, it was able to convert it just fine and worked. Does seem to boot XP more quickly than the older version.

Then when I got into XP, I was told a new PCI Bridge had been installed or something, and of course I had no driver for that so I wasn't sure what to do, just closed it. Parallels Tools didn't prompt me to upgrade to the newer version until the second time I went into the VM, and it turned on shared folders by default which I then turned off after I stopped the VM.

There are some cosmetic differences as well...still playing with it

[Scifience]

I purchased an upgrade license for it earlier today, but still haven't gotten my serial # yet. Did others have to wait, or is there something wrong with my order?

[shinji]

Mine was on the confirmation page and emailed a few mins later.

[rickey939]

I think I'll hold off for awhile.

[icruise]

I tried running Doom 3 and Oblivion, simply because those were the games that I already had installed on my Bootcamp partition (which I tried running in Parallels). Oblivion crashed when I tried to run it. Is it not compatible? Doom 3 runs, although not great. I tried tweaking the settings, and it got sort of playable, but still in the single-digit FPS for much of the time. I'm not sure if there's anything else I can do to improve matters.

[legacyb4]

Yeah, hard to pull the trigger to upgrade until I read more about possible stability issues. 2.5 is running like a rock for me now and I certainly don't want to sacrifice that.

[Super Mario]

Originally Posted by icruise 

I tried running Doom 3 and Oblivion, simply because those were the games that I already had installed on my Bootcamp partition (which I tried running in Parallels). Oblivion crashed when I tried to run it. Is it not compatible? Doom 3 runs, although not great. I tried tweaking the settings, and it got sort of playable, but still in the single-digit FPS for much of the time. I'm not sure if there's anything else I can do to improve matters.

o Limited DirectX 8.1 support - Run DirectX applications and DirectX games at native speed in the Windows XP/2003/Vista guest operating systems.

Limited, and nothing above Direct X 8.1.

[icruise]

So what games would run well in Parallels?

[workerbee]

Originally Posted by icruise 

So what games would run well in Parallels?

Apparently, Parallels will publish a list of games that are tested and run well. Reports on the Parallels Forum have been... um... varied: Parallels 3.0 and game compatibility... - Parallels Support Forum

[Ado]

Parallels 3 only lets u have a 64meg ceiling for GFX, so i dont know how theyre running these games and proud of it??? Am i missing somthing?

[MacosNerd]

I've been on the parallels forum and there is a lot of complaining going. Perhaps because that is a support forum but it does not look good. Here's what I've seen so far.
Coherence - does not play well with expose
activating direct-x causes problems
games or other applications that use active-x do not work. I could have missed something so far I've not really seen any one mention a particular game that worked
seems to have messed up file associations on osx.

I'm not sure (because it is a support forum) that these threads are the exception rather then the rule. I'm holding off because I have to work this weekend and I cannot take a chance on losing my environment or stability but now I may wait to the next build

[jokell82]

I did buy the upgrade, but I'm holding off from installing until I hear more bug reports. I use my MacBook at work and I need Parallels up and running 100%.

[chabig]

I installed it last night and played around some. I saw no apparent different in speed or stability on my MacBook from what 2.5 offered. Perhaps it's a bit faster, I'm not sure. I try to maintain as much separation between my Mac and Windows environments as possible, so I haven't played much with the new integration features, but I do like the idea of snapshots and undo disks (can't use both at the same time) like Virtual PC had.

By the way, I haven't had any kernel panics. Make sure you shut down your virtual computers before upgrading.

Chris

[legacyb4]

Also don't forget to run some housecleaning and compact your drive images so that you can back up the drive images so that you can roll back to 2.5 if necessary.

How well does the snapshot thing work? Same as VMware on the PC side?

[workerbee]

Just found the list of apps that run in Parallels 3.0 (according to the Parallel folks, that is):
• Autodesk AutoCAD 2008 (mouse synchronization should be off to achieve better
experience)
• AeroFly Pro Deluxe
• AVID SoftImage XSI 5.11
• RhinoCeros 4
• SketchUp Pro 6
• SolidWorks 2007

• Alien Arena 2007 (OpenGL)
• Baldur's Gate 2 (Direct3D)
• Call of Duty (OpenGL)
• Counter Strike 1.6 (OpenGL/Direct3D)
• Descent 3 (OpenGL)
• Doom 3 (OpenGL)
• Duke Nukem Manhattan Project (OpenGL)
• Dungeon Siege 2 (Direct3D)
• Far Cry (OpenGL)
• GORE - Ultimate Soldier (OpenGL)
• Half Life (OpenGL/Direct3D)
• Hitman Codename 47 (OpenGL)
• Hitman Silent Assasin (OpenGL)
• Hitman Contracts (OpenGL)
• Max Payne (Direct3D)
• Max Payne 2 (Direct3D)
• Neverball (OpenGL)
• Prey (OpenGL)
• Quake 1 GL (OpenGL)
• Quake 2 (OpenGL)
• Quake 3 Arena (OpenGL)
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein (OpenGL)
• Scorched 3D (OpenGL)
• Serious Sam The First Encounter (OpenGL)
• Serious Sam The Second Encounter (OpenGL)
• SiN (OpenGL)
• Tribes (OpenGL)
• Unreal Tournament 2004 (OpenGL)
• Warcraft 3 (OpenGL)
• Worms 3D (OpenGL)

[Macola]

After using it some more, no immediate issues, except that the SmartSelect feature is more annoying than anything else. It does mess up file associations in OS X: now when I double-click a Word doc in OS X, it immediately launches Parallels and tries to open it in Word for Windows (even though I use Word 2004 on OS X). I haven't found a way to disable SmartSelect as yet, but there probably is one.

No issues installing Parallels Tools. It did take a while, though, and the progress bar did not report any change in activity, but that's always happened as far as I remember with earlier versions.

[icruise]

That's very strange about the file associations. I have no such problems on my machine. I also use Office 2004.

[MacosNerd]

Do you have office for the PC? I think the problems arise for those who have Microsoft office for windows installed.

[icruise]

I do, but it is a Japanese version of Office 2000. Don't know if that makes a difference.

[alligator]

I heard you can use your Windows installation in Boot Camp without having to reinstall Windows. Is this true?

[icruise]

Yes it is. (Just to be clear, this means that you can use your existing Bootcamp installation from within Parallels.)

[alligator]

That's the best news I've heard all week! I'll probably buy it now just for that feature!

[icruise]

You could do that with version 2 as well, in case you didn't know.

[mkerr64]

maybe it just me
but personally i find it really bad

[icruise]

Find what bad? And how? A little more detail might be helpful.

[-Q-]

Originally Posted by mkerr64 

maybe it just me
but personally i find it really bad

I'm sorry you're having troubles, but that's not particularly helpful to the rest of us. How is it 'bad'? I've been holding off myself to see if it's suitable for installing on my wife's new macbook (*has* to use outlook and Entourage just doesn't cut it). She won't be gaming, so not a big concern in this instance with the Direct X issues, but I'm curious how well it works with the 'Smart Select' feature?

[cgc]

Out of curiosity I did some testing in GeekBench and CineBench. Seems as though there's a compatibility issue with Parallels 4142 and BootCamp 1.3. When this gets fixed I'll update Parallels Cinebench results and reupload the data. I was going to use FutureMark's 3D testing but it wouldn't load in Fusion. Here are the results.



Settings:

MacPro 2.66GHz 3GB Memory nVidia 7300GT
Macintosh = Mac OS X 10.4.9 (3GB memory, 4 cores)
Bootcamp = v1.3 (2GB memory, 4 cores)
Fusion = Beta 4 (1GB memory, 2 cores)
Parallels = build 4142 (v3.0) (1GB memory, 1 core)]

The above settings for CPU are the maximum. Parallels doesn't make use of additional cores, Fusion uses up to two cores, and Bootcamp and OSX both use all cores.

BTW, Parallels 3188 runs GeekBench faster than 4142 and scored a 2548. Until Parallels 3.0 (4142) can boot using Bootcamp, I can't do the CineBench testing. Parallels 3188 cannot run Cinebench and crashes for some odd reason.

[mduell]

Those Cinebench scores don't look right... from all the other benchmarks I've seen, the same system scores higher in Windows than OS X. Are you using the latest graphics drivers? That would explain the first, but not the rest.

[Super Mario]

Indeed those Cinebench scores aren't right. That app is more mature on Windows.

What's everyone's experience of Fusion's Unity mode? Does Fusion support Aero Glass?

[cgc]

I've run the Cinebench test in Mac OS X and Windows XP SP2 and they have ALWAYS been slightly faster in OS X then Windows. I think the Fusion scores are really weird, however.

Yes, I have the most recent graphics drivers.

[rickey939]

Awesome, I just received my free Parallel's 3.0 Upgrade via e-mail.