CMSF on MacOS

[Blackmuzzle]

Of course I had to try it

I installed CMSF on a black Intel Macbook (no Pro) using Parallels. Why Parallels? Well, I have had good experiences running windows games on that machine, like the NaturalSelection mod, Tribes 1 and Paintball2.

Licensing works too, no problem. However, the game throws an error message on startup, saying that it can't initialize the display and that it needs a minimum of 1024x786x32bit. I tried setting the display to 1024x768x32, still the same message. My bet is that there's something in the OpenGL init that fails, and I'm not sure it really has to fail (or rather, I'm sure there's a way around that error)

I know for a fact that OpenGL works fine and very playable on that machine, even under Parallels.

Of course I'm aware that bugs on Windows are priority right now (as well they should) that's why I'm asking you (the players) whether you got it running on a Mac, and whether you used Parallels, Bootcamp, or some VM.

[benpark]

I am running CMSF on a MB Pro and Bootcamp/WinXP.

I would be surprised to see it work on the regular Macbook (and Parallels), as they have integrated video, not a dedicated video card. This is a very graphically intensive game. I'm not sure the games you have listed above come within a fraction of the oomph you will need for CMSF.

Good luck, though.

[Blackmuzzle]

Surprisingly, the shared memory graphics of the Macbook works excellent in OpenGL, even for a good amount of polygons. Of course shaders are out of the question here. I did notice that CMSF has an awful lot of polys rendered, and that will be a problem.

In fact, I believe that terrain LOD could be raised substantially while unit LOD could be lowered even on the "balanced" setting. Another observation I've made is that buildings are much more expensive to render on my windows game machine (7950GT, I believe) than even a complex Stryker mesh, which is very odd.

[grunt_GI]

Howdy,

I have also played it on a Macbook with Bootcamp and XP Home...the infantry look like stick figures, but the vehicles are okay and the game plays without crashing (I played the first training scenario in RT without crashing)

Not nearly as nice as my IMAC, but playable in a pinch...don't know how it would handle large scenarios.

P.S. Having 1Gb of RAM does help....

[mr.bean]

ive been trying to use vista on my macbook in bootcamp. everything works except for the video part. i can even play the game by sound but i cant see anything.

[R33GZ]

running CMSF natively would be awesome... I couldnt think of anything better than staying the hell away from 32bit windoze

As it is though, it runs VERY well on my 2GHZ C2D iMac undoer XP SP2

Would a game such as CMSF take advantage of a 64bit OS?

[lucero1148]

Hi Benpark

How well does cmsf run on your MBP? Which model do you have and how much ram are you playing with? Any issues installing?

all best

Patrick

[Fetchez la Vache]

No probs on my Mac Pro under XP SP2 Bootcamp. But frankly I've got ludicrous specs so I'm not surprised. Wife won't allow Windows on her MacBook Pro.

No go with Parallels 3 though. Breaks apart after loading a map (see some stuff but it's basically borked).

I hate rebooting to play CMSF. I would stump up the cash again for an OSX version.

[benpark]

I'm running CMSF on the 15" MB Pro, Intel Core2Duo, with the ATI x1600 256mb video card with 2 gigs of RAM. I can run at nearly the highest settings on the largest battles with no speed hit. The newer vid cards introdiuced in June should be even better.

[lucero1148]

That's about the same as what I've got for my MBP except I've got more ram so that's always a good thing. Did you have to change the settings on your game to run on 1 core as that's what it seems the other threads say about running on multi core pc's?

thanks and all best

Patrick

[Fetchez la Vache]

I personally did not have to change any settings concerning the number of cores.

[Pzman]

Originally posted by Blackmuzzle:

Surprisingly, the shared memory graphics of the Macbook works excellent in OpenGL, even for a good amount of polygons. Of course shaders are out of the question here. I did notice that CMSF has an awful lot of polys rendered, and that will be a problem.

You actually have a bigger problem. CMSF is a DirectX 9 game, Parallels only supports DirectX 8 games. It wont work in VM either, same problem, and that would be why the game wont run.

I play in bootcamp, runs great on my MBP.

[ August 09, 2007, 11:40 AM: Message edited by: Pzman ]

[Publius Cornelius Patton]

Hmmm....

I've got a dual-core Intel iMac, 21.6 GHz processing speed, and have tried to run the demo on the Windows side of my computer with Windows XP... it wasn't pretty.

So, what kind of settings should I set everything to so that there's no "flashing" (such as when troops are mounted in a Stryker, for example), the mouse doesn't flash over the battlefield whenever I want to zoom a little, etc.

I dunno, I just know that when I tried to play the training scenario, it ... I might have to wait for the Mac version (but maybe not.)

Any advice?

[gibsonm]

PCP,

I think you are suffering from the ATI issue (the flashing images).

Which is being worked on.

I'm currently running the next Beta and all is well on my rig (specs below). I'm also continuing to make noises on the Beta forum about a native (i.e. non Windows version) for OS X.

Will keep you posted.

[gibsonm]

PCP,

Here is some more that MAY help you with the flickering:

"The trees and infantry disappear and reappear every few seconds"

Oh, I had that too! Steve directed me to a new driver. Let's see if I can find his email:

" A problem though. Most of the vehicles and terrain are flickering. Frame rate seems to be jumping all over the place. Are there perhaps any particular ATI Graphic Settings I should be aware of? Does this sound familiar?

This sounds like you need to update Windows and your drivers. Here's what you need to download and install:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C2AB5A48-8240-4934-BBD8-34FB8A0FCE3B&displaylang=en

This should fix the flicker problem. You should also updated to Catalyst 7.1 when you get the chance. You will NOT be able to update to Catalyst 7.2 because ATI has its head up its arse. The link for 7.1 is:

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/mobile/7-1-mobile_xp_dd_ccc_enu_40212.exe

I think you also need to download MS .NET framework:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=10CC340B-F857-4A14-83F5-25634C3BF043&displaylang=en

Try that!"

[grunt_GI]

Hi, is anyone playing CMSF on the new MBP with the NVIDIA 8600 video card? If so have you had any of the problems associated with the NVIDIA cards?

I have a glimmer of hope of getting a MBP and I was wondering if anyone recommended the newer ones with the NVIDIA vice the ATI video cards?

And if it is working well, what version of Bootcamp are you using and have you installed all the recommended patches (i.e. dual core, etc)

Thanks

[H.W. Guderian]

Originally posted by gibsonm:

I'm also continuing to make noises on the Beta forum about a native (i.e. non Windows version) for OS X.

Will keep you posted.

Major,

Thank you for continuing the calls for Native OS X CMX2 over in the "Beta-zone".

Any ideas if we will ever see ADF included in a module?

Could we ever get both? ADF and OSX?

Guderian out.