[- - e r i k - -]

Now with Parallels 3 supporting 3D accelleration, it seems almost too good to be true that we no longer have to reboot to play games. Well. Is it? Post your experiences here.

So far I've tried Worms World Party, which of course is not a 3D game, and it still doesn't work (under XP SP2). But that's an old game, I'll acquire some 3D games soon to test with

[Super Mario]

Sad to say gaming support is scratchy at best and you can forget any Direct X 9 or 10 games.

[- - e r i k - -]

So they are lying when they are saying:

3D Graphics

Parallels Desktop for Mac 3.0 supports DirectX 9 and OpenGL 1.5! No need to dedicate a separate Windows machine to running favorite 3D games and key graphics applications. Parallels brings the world of Windows 3D straight to your Mac!

Games
Alien Arena 2007
Baldur’s Gate 2
Bus Driver
Call of Duty
Counter Strike 1.6
Descent 3
Doom 3
Dungeon Siege 2
Far Cry
GORE – Ultimate Soldier
Half Life 1
Half Life 2
Hitman Codename 47
Hitman Silent Assassin
Hitman Contracts
IL-2 Shturmovik
King Pin
Max Payne
Max Payne 2
Neverball
Prey
Quake 1 GL
Quake 2
Quake 3
Quake 4
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Scorched 3D
Serious Sam
Serious Sam – the Second Encounter
SiN
Tribes
Unreal Tournament 2003
Warcraft 3
Worms 3D

…?

Hmmmmm....no C&C3 or Oblivion on that list :/

[Super Mario]

Weird. Yesterday it said limited support for Direct X 8.1 and today it says Direct X 9

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

[Adam Betts]

In my short testing Parallels is seriously not ready for gaming. Lot of old titles refused to run at all.

I can't figure how they got Half-Life 2 to work in demo video. I certainly couldn't get them to work on freshly-installed Windows Vista and also XP with all necessary drivers installed.

[Thinine]

I've heard there's a virtual machine setting you need to set to enable DirectX 9. Check the preferences of whatever. I'm not certain, I can't use the software.

[mkerr64]

when i run this parallel 3.0 on my Mac Pro 30 inch monitor is seems to look quite squarey, almost as if its low res.
how do i change the configuration on the program, cause it asks me to stop the actually OS in which i click the red square causing it to close the entire app??

and also when i insert a CD into my MP vista doesn't seem to recognize the disk and isnt shown on "My Computer" ???

lastly, the internet connection doesnt seem to be working either even though if i go to Tiger it works perfectly

[Bahnzii]

Ok, so I grabbed the new version the day it was released with the hope of being able to game on Windows but not reboot to Boot Camp...
Short answer is no
It's true that you can enable DirectX support, its a simple checkbox under the video setting in the VM properties.

I tried a ton of games since I told Parallels to use my BootCamp install.
I was only able to get Half Life 2 and Prey to work but they took a big hit in performance when I walked into more open areas (read as more geometry and I have the ATI 1900xt btw...) - enough of a hit that they were unplayable.
I tried some other games including; Oblivion, Titan Quest, Supreme Commander, Tomb Raider Anniversary and Ghost Recon to name a few... and none of them were able to run. Most of them crashed out or hung the VM before they got to the splash screens...

Don't get me wrong, I think what they are doing with Parallels is awesome and on the right track.
I showed them my support by purchasing the 3.0 version, though admittedly I won't be doing any gaming in it - I will use BootCamp for my gaming needs
If you are a hardcore gamer, stick to Bootcamp or a separate machine. If you are a casual gamer, download the trial version and give it a go, you just might find that it supports your 3d/gaming needs just fine

[lordrevan11]

I absolutely love parallels. Though when it comes to gaming, parallels isn't that good. My question is, is there a way to use the windows program i already have installed on my parallels version and just move it to bootcamp or do I need to reinstall it all over again?