All,
Can't see that this has been dealt with directly before (although I am sure that it has come up). All my machines are Macs and I could not stop myself from buying the Beta even if Mac support was going to come three months after the Windows release. I played Elite in the 80s and ED is too exciting to let it pass by. I hope the below is helpful.
Now, as it happens, I already had Parallels on one of my Macs, so running Windows is a low-effort exercise and that means that I could (possibly) get into ED three months early. How could I resist? So I would like to share my experiences.
If you're going to run ED on your Mac, there are a couple of questions that come up immediately - performance and controls. Can ED run via Parallels? Can I use a HOTAS setup? The answer to both is yes, but with reservations.
Machine Spec
I have an old Mac by most standards - it is a 2011-spec 27-inch model with an i5 quad-core processor running at 3.1GHz. I have 16Gb of RAM and a 1TB hard disk (remember those?). My video card is an AMD Radeon 6970M with 1Gb of GDDR5 RAM. (By the standards of the PCs I used to run in the 90s and early 2000s, this is a beast of a machine, but I recognise that times have moved on!).
I run OS X 10.9.5 (Mavericks) and Parallels 9. My VM runs Windows 8.1, fully patched using Windows Update and Norton Internet Security 2014.
Controls
As you will see below, I was able to run ED on a Parallels VM. It was quickly apparent that the keyboard-mouse combo was unplayable. None of the recommended HOTAS manufacturers openly support Macs, but the key is to buy a product that is HID compliant. I didn't want to risk a lot of money, but I did want the HOTAS functionality, so I purchased a Thrustmaster T.Flight HOTAS X from a local store. That cost me £45 retail - if you have the patience you can get better deals online. There are reviews of this product on YouTube, but I would say that it is an excellent product for the money. The materials may not be "luxury", but it is solid, has heavy bases, 12 buttons, and seems precise and accurate. ED has a pre-determined configuration as well (although I have messed with that a bit).
In summary, I can vouch that this device works on Macs (via Parallels and Bootcamp - read on below).
Parallels
I installed Windows 8.1 on a Parallels VM. The VM had 4Gb of RAM and 60Gb of disk space. Under this configuration, my machine is capable of running ED at 1024x720 at 60Hz fullscreen. That is good enough to enjoy the game, even if it doesn't set any records for glamour. However, it is slow to load, and you will get lurches when you enter hyperspace. Under release 1.02, every second hyperspace jump resulted in a frozen screen that required me to quit the game and restart (which basically made the game unplayable and I did complain because this problem never occurred under the beta or gamma releases). I was never able to load the System Map without the VM crashing completely.
The Thrustmaster works under Parallels, but you have to connect it *after* you start the Parallels machine and *before* you start ED.
In summary, assuming that the hyperspace-freezing problem gets fixed, you definitely can run ED acceptably using a Parallels VM even on a relatively old iMac. It is definitely enough to get you through to the Mac release. However, I cannot emphasise enough that the keyboard and mouse combo is useless (the mouse is far, far too sensitive) and you need a HOTAS setup. The Thrustmaster T.Flight HOTAS X works. There are other options and YMMV - I cannot vouch for them.
Bootcamp
When release 1.02 came out, my Parallels system started to exhibit the hyperspace-freezing problem described above. I was driven to try the Bootcamp option to see if having direct access to the video card would solve the issue (I also hoped for a performance boost - which I got, so see below).
There is no question that installing Windows 8.1 via Bootcamp only a few days after using the same licence for Parallels was a massive pain in the . Windows insists that it has already been registered and you have to spend 10 minutes on the phone to Microsoft sorting it out. You then have to wait for 60+ updates to download and install, and then install DirectX properly (I understand that is a common problem). It is, however, totally worth it.
ED assessed my machine and automatically set my detail levels to "medium". However, I am able to set the graphics levels to the full screen resolution of the screen - 2560x1440 - and over a couple hours of play I have not had any problems at all. There is the odd "pause" when entering or in hyperspace, but there is no slowing down when other ships are around, or when near space-stations, stars or planets. For a machine that will be 4 years old next year, I think that's quite impressive!
Because Windows is running natively via Bootcamp, everything else just works. The Thrustmaster is designed as a Windows device, so there are no problems there. Everything else works perfectly well. I am delighted with the performance and there has been no recurrence of the hyperspace-freezing problem. Windows accesses the graphics card directly (rather than via the VM under Parallels), so there is at least one level less for problems to occur. There is no question that ED performs better under Bootcamp than under Parallels (as it should, of course). If you can live with a Bootcamp setup, my view is that this is the best way to go about playing ED.
Conclusions
If you're a Mac user, you don't have to wait for the Mac release of ED - you can get started now. However, it does take a bit more effort than if you're a PC user. But if you're really someone that ED appeals to, then lots of effort is probably your thing, no? And why give PC users a 3-month headstart in the galaxy?
The newer Macs will probably breeze through dealing with ED via Bootcamp and may even be able to put up a really good show under Parallels, but my 2011 Mac performs superbly under Bootcamp, so users of older machines should not be put off provided that you meet ED's minimum specs (quad core etc).
You MUST get a HOTAS setup if you want to enjoy ED. Even with this setup, flying is not easy - colleagues who have demanded a go on the training missions have been surprised at how hard it is to control the ship on my HOTAS system - but the keyboard-mouse setup is utterly unusable (I know that DB said it works, but he's wrong - sorry). In my view, if you're going to spend a lot of time in ED, then there is no reason to make it unnecessarily difficult. My setup costs £45 - if I divide that by the time I have spent in the game already then the hourly price is probably less than £2 per hour now - and I have barely started playing!
Finally - ED is utterly ace, even if it is having some teething problems. For those of us who played the original, I think ED is how it looked and played in our imaginations. 30 years on, we have lived to see imagination become a reality and I would like to thank the whole team for making it happen. (Now get the native Mac version sorted!).
H
Can't see that this has been dealt with directly before (although I am sure that it has come up). All my machines are Macs and I could not stop myself from buying the Beta even if Mac support was going to come three months after the Windows release. I played Elite in the 80s and ED is too exciting to let it pass by. I hope the below is helpful.
Now, as it happens, I already had Parallels on one of my Macs, so running Windows is a low-effort exercise and that means that I could (possibly) get into ED three months early. How could I resist? So I would like to share my experiences.
If you're going to run ED on your Mac, there are a couple of questions that come up immediately - performance and controls. Can ED run via Parallels? Can I use a HOTAS setup? The answer to both is yes, but with reservations.
Machine Spec
I have an old Mac by most standards - it is a 2011-spec 27-inch model with an i5 quad-core processor running at 3.1GHz. I have 16Gb of RAM and a 1TB hard disk (remember those?). My video card is an AMD Radeon 6970M with 1Gb of GDDR5 RAM. (By the standards of the PCs I used to run in the 90s and early 2000s, this is a beast of a machine, but I recognise that times have moved on!).
I run OS X 10.9.5 (Mavericks) and Parallels 9. My VM runs Windows 8.1, fully patched using Windows Update and Norton Internet Security 2014.
Controls
As you will see below, I was able to run ED on a Parallels VM. It was quickly apparent that the keyboard-mouse combo was unplayable. None of the recommended HOTAS manufacturers openly support Macs, but the key is to buy a product that is HID compliant. I didn't want to risk a lot of money, but I did want the HOTAS functionality, so I purchased a Thrustmaster T.Flight HOTAS X from a local store. That cost me £45 retail - if you have the patience you can get better deals online. There are reviews of this product on YouTube, but I would say that it is an excellent product for the money. The materials may not be "luxury", but it is solid, has heavy bases, 12 buttons, and seems precise and accurate. ED has a pre-determined configuration as well (although I have messed with that a bit).
In summary, I can vouch that this device works on Macs (via Parallels and Bootcamp - read on below).
Parallels
I installed Windows 8.1 on a Parallels VM. The VM had 4Gb of RAM and 60Gb of disk space. Under this configuration, my machine is capable of running ED at 1024x720 at 60Hz fullscreen. That is good enough to enjoy the game, even if it doesn't set any records for glamour. However, it is slow to load, and you will get lurches when you enter hyperspace. Under release 1.02, every second hyperspace jump resulted in a frozen screen that required me to quit the game and restart (which basically made the game unplayable and I did complain because this problem never occurred under the beta or gamma releases). I was never able to load the System Map without the VM crashing completely.
The Thrustmaster works under Parallels, but you have to connect it *after* you start the Parallels machine and *before* you start ED.
In summary, assuming that the hyperspace-freezing problem gets fixed, you definitely can run ED acceptably using a Parallels VM even on a relatively old iMac. It is definitely enough to get you through to the Mac release. However, I cannot emphasise enough that the keyboard and mouse combo is useless (the mouse is far, far too sensitive) and you need a HOTAS setup. The Thrustmaster T.Flight HOTAS X works. There are other options and YMMV - I cannot vouch for them.
Bootcamp
When release 1.02 came out, my Parallels system started to exhibit the hyperspace-freezing problem described above. I was driven to try the Bootcamp option to see if having direct access to the video card would solve the issue (I also hoped for a performance boost - which I got, so see below).
There is no question that installing Windows 8.1 via Bootcamp only a few days after using the same licence for Parallels was a massive pain in the . Windows insists that it has already been registered and you have to spend 10 minutes on the phone to Microsoft sorting it out. You then have to wait for 60+ updates to download and install, and then install DirectX properly (I understand that is a common problem). It is, however, totally worth it.
ED assessed my machine and automatically set my detail levels to "medium". However, I am able to set the graphics levels to the full screen resolution of the screen - 2560x1440 - and over a couple hours of play I have not had any problems at all. There is the odd "pause" when entering or in hyperspace, but there is no slowing down when other ships are around, or when near space-stations, stars or planets. For a machine that will be 4 years old next year, I think that's quite impressive!
Because Windows is running natively via Bootcamp, everything else just works. The Thrustmaster is designed as a Windows device, so there are no problems there. Everything else works perfectly well. I am delighted with the performance and there has been no recurrence of the hyperspace-freezing problem. Windows accesses the graphics card directly (rather than via the VM under Parallels), so there is at least one level less for problems to occur. There is no question that ED performs better under Bootcamp than under Parallels (as it should, of course). If you can live with a Bootcamp setup, my view is that this is the best way to go about playing ED.
Conclusions
If you're a Mac user, you don't have to wait for the Mac release of ED - you can get started now. However, it does take a bit more effort than if you're a PC user. But if you're really someone that ED appeals to, then lots of effort is probably your thing, no? And why give PC users a 3-month headstart in the galaxy?
The newer Macs will probably breeze through dealing with ED via Bootcamp and may even be able to put up a really good show under Parallels, but my 2011 Mac performs superbly under Bootcamp, so users of older machines should not be put off provided that you meet ED's minimum specs (quad core etc).
You MUST get a HOTAS setup if you want to enjoy ED. Even with this setup, flying is not easy - colleagues who have demanded a go on the training missions have been surprised at how hard it is to control the ship on my HOTAS system - but the keyboard-mouse setup is utterly unusable (I know that DB said it works, but he's wrong - sorry). In my view, if you're going to spend a lot of time in ED, then there is no reason to make it unnecessarily difficult. My setup costs £45 - if I divide that by the time I have spent in the game already then the hourly price is probably less than £2 per hour now - and I have barely started playing!
Finally - ED is utterly ace, even if it is having some teething problems. For those of us who played the original, I think ED is how it looked and played in our imaginations. 30 years on, we have lived to see imagination become a reality and I would like to thank the whole team for making it happen. (Now get the native Mac version sorted!).
H
