Has anyone out there tried to play BTS with Parallels? I have a brand new 20" iMac but I cannot get the game to load on Windows XP. I get the following error message: Failed to allocate video memory.Please try reducing your graphics settings.

Any advice as to what I should do?

It works OK here, apart from a few graphics cosmetic problems that don't stop it working.

1. Make sure that you are using the latest Parallels build (build 5600).

2. Make sure that you enable DirectX in the VM Video settings. There's a checkbox.

For information, I have my VM set to use 64MBytes graphics memory (the max setting), and 1 GByte RAM. Both options are in the Memory tab. I'm running XP SP3.

Has anyone tried VMWare Fusion 2 Beta?

I tried Fusion beta 2 with an old Fusion VM that I hadn't used for a while. I found it a bit slow, though it got rid of the graphics glitches on leaderheads and such.

However, I then decided I ought to try to compare like with like, so I converted my current and up-to-date Parallels VM with XP SP3 and all over to Fusion. When I ran that one, it wouldn't launch Civ4, and I believe that was because the Parallels tools were still entangled in Windows. So right now, I have the choice of reinstating my Fusion installation - which looks like it might be a bit time consuming - or just living with Parallels, which works well enough. Parallels wins my attention currently.

Sort of depressing all the hoops we have to go through to play this wonderful game. Thanks for the info!

Thanks, Alan. That seems to have fixed it. :)

When I was at Best Buy last weekend looking at ps3 for the upcoming civ rev release.. I wandered over to the Mac section and saw Fusion and Paralells next to each other, and I was of course, very curious to learn which one runs BTS better. Alan, thanks for your feedback, and don't feel any pressure to waste more time doing a test, but has anyone else out there experimented or offer ideas about which to get? Currently, I've been using Bootcamp to play Pirates! and run my diabetes Insulin Pump software, but I find Bootcamp a real hassle and am tempted to spend money on parallels/fusion.. of course I should be in no hurry to buy Fusion or Paralells considering I'm going to spend money on an iPhone next month!

Recently I've tested CrossOver Games, Parellels (Build 5600) and VMWare Fusion 2 Beta.

I couldn't get the Steam version of Warlords to load under CrossOver Games. It would get stuck at one of the loading parameters (can't remember which - not Init Audio) and would just do nothing. I left it for over 15 minutes several times before giving up.

Next up I tried VMWare Fusion 2 Beta with their new 3D DirectX 9 support. I had trouble getting the disc based version of BTS to load receiving an DirectX9 error everytime. I tried several tricks I read on the forums here about installing DirectX manually from several sources. Could never get it to run, always displaying the same error when loading the game.

So I moved on to Parallels. After letting Parallels do it's initial install of tools and reboots of the guest OS, I loaded up BTS thinking it would not work. To my surprise it loaded pretty fast and flawlessly! I loaded up a game save I already had which was in 500AD and it seemed to play ok. It wasn't outstanding in terms of speed but it was functional. I could probably play through Parallels if I was too lazy to boot into BootCamp. I did notice the missing heads and facial features of the leaders which is kind of annoying but otherwise everything looked normal. I played in a widescreen windowed mode with medium graphics.

If I were to buy any of the three VM products for on the market today, I'd buy Parallels since it worked right "out of the box".

There's a new Parallels version - Build 5608 - so I thought I'd check it to see if there's any improvement in Civ4 graphics.

Nope! It still hides half the leaderhead images. Not a deal breaker, but annoying, now that Fusion has shown that full support for this level of DirectX is technically possible.

If I could have gotten Fusion to actually work I would have loved to give it a shot. At this point I'm just booting into Boot Camp and staying there most of the time. An OS is an OS. I can get my email from anywhere so it doesn't make much difference to me.

One OS may be OK, but two different ones, on computers that can't even communicate with each other, would be a nightmare for me.

I have POP3 email accounts, not IMAP, so if I send or receive mail on two different clients I end up with mails in two different places, or I have to duplicate everything. Plus, all my spam management is nicely set up on Apple Mail using SpamSieve, and it integrates well with my contacts etc. And email is only one of my communications channels.

Bootcamp does not float my boat! I'm trying to get Fusion up and running again to see if I can confirm my previous first impressions. If so, I'll let you know how it works.

The Fusion 2.0 VM I converted from a Parallels VM with XP SP3 still fails when I try to run Civ4. I removed as much of the Parallels Tools stuff as I could find, and now it fails with a DirectX 9 error - sounds like the same sort of problem you had. I reinstalled DirectX 9 - no change.

I've recovered my older Fusion 2.0 VM and confirmed that it works with Civ4, with no graphics problems. That one had XP SP2, but it still worked after I ran the SP3 update on it. So I still don't know what the DirectX problem on the other VM is about.

Hmm interesting. I've only run Fusion VM 2.0 with Vista Ultimate so even a different OS has the DirectX issue.

As for running through Bootcamp; IMAP is great for email :) I also use MacDrive so I can read and write to my Mac partitions as well as my Mac FireWire drives from Bootcamp.

Interesting discussion guys. I think I'll keep holding off on fusion or parallels until the quirks get worked out. I'm in no hurry because I'm probably not going to buy PC bts until they have a civ4 with BTS combined to save money. My mac warlords games are still keeping me interested when I get the civ urge to play.

Hey guys,

I have a sneaking suspicion that I already know the answer to this question, but I thought I'd give it a shot anyway:

If I want to buy BTS to run on Parallels, am I going to have to buy Vanilla Civ for Windows (even if I already have Vanilla+Warlords for Mac)?

I just bought Civ IV and Civ IV BTS for PC. I was waiting for the Mac version, then gave up and started waiting for the Civ IV Complete version, but got too impatient. I'm about to sitch to Bootcamp to install, wish me luck...

Hey guys,

I have a sneaking suspicion that I already know the answer to this question, but I thought I'd give it a shot anyway:

If I want to buy BTS to run on Parallels, am I going to have to buy Vanilla Civ for Windows (even if I already have Vanilla+Warlords for Mac)?
Yes, I am afraid so. They are different software products, sold by different companies.

I just bought Civ IV and Civ IV BTS for PC. I was waiting for the Mac version, then gave up and started waiting for the Civ IV Complete version, but got too impatient. I'm about to sitch to Bootcamp to install, wish me luck...

I don't think patience would have worked. Civ4 Complete is just a compilation. Aspyr would still have to create BtS in order to sell Civ4 Complete, and we know that isn't in their plans.

Good luck.

Alan, ya my waiting for the Civ 4 Complete was just that I thought it would be cheaper than buying the 2 separately, I gave up on Aspyr doing a port.

I played for a few hours in Bootcamp... the game seems a bit more stable.. everything seems to move a little smoother, and windows and lists seem to scale just a smidge better. Everything is a little more responsive compared to the Mac version is what I mean. I don't know if these are all BTS fixes or if I played Warlords in bootcamp and compared, I'd experience the same thing? Anyway, in addition to how the game runs, the BTS changes are great!

I truly hate having to go into Bootcamp, but I guess I'll suffer through.

One tiny problem though, how do I adjust the settings for the Function Keys in Windows for my Mac keyboard (have the fancy new one)? Right now, I have to hold the Fn key down and then press F1 to open City Advisor, for example... I know how to change this in OS X, but in Windows? I have no idea.

Ahah! Yes, I have Civ4 Complete for Windows. It was the equivalent of $35 from Play.com here. But I'd forgotten that it seems to be unavailable in the US.

Sorry, I only run it in Parallels, so I've no idea how to configure the Bootcamp system for the Mac keyboard. Maybe someone else?

Lucky, I had to dish out $20 for BTS and $30 for Civ4, so the complete would've saved me $15! It's just particularly irritating after having paid full price to Aspyr for Civ 4 vanilla and then for Warlords.

So anyone else know how to adjust the function keys for Mac keyboard in Windows???

To change the behavior of the function keys run the BootCamp control panel. There is a tab for keyboard where you can toggle the behavior of the function key.

I'm at work, so can't look at the moment, but when I get home I"ll take a look... it sounds like you're referring to a Control Panel in Windows XP? I remember it's a pain to find all the control panels, but knowing there is a boot camp one in there, then at least I know what to look for. Thanks!

just fyi, i got it to work, thanks! I didn't find the Bootcamp control panel in the normal windows control panels, but there was an icon for it in the lower right corner next to the clock and where other little icons pop up like "new updates to download" and stuff.

That area in Windows is called the System Tray. It is a similar concept to the icons/menus that appear in the top right corner of the Mac screen. It is unusual for an icon in the System Tray not to be related to software in Control Panel or Program Files

"System Tray" I'll try to remember that :crazyeye: And just because I didn't find the bootcamp control panel with the other control panels doesn't mean it's not there - it could be buried in one that I didn't open, but I didn't see it. Like there's Printeres, Keyboard/Mouse, etc.

I'm running a MBP 2.4 ghz dual-core with 8600M GT nvidia graphics card. I recently got parallels up and running and I wanted to try and play BtS through steam. When I start it up it seems to go through all the initializing but then the resolution of the screen changes (its in a window) and then it says "The application has quit unexpectedly". Not a real helpful error message.

Now here's the strange thing. I knew lots of people have gotten BtS to work so I started up the Civ4 Vanilla and it started up flawlessly! So now I don't know what to do. I have DirectX enabled in parallels, I bumped the video memory up to 64 mb in parallels, and I downloaded the most recent update of DX9.0c.

Any suggestions? It just seems so strange that Civ4 vanilla works through steam but not BtS...

Did you buy Beyond the Sword on its own, or with Civ4 vanilla? BtS needs vanilla as a pre-requisite.

Did you buy Beyond the Sword on its own, or with Civ4 vanilla? BtS needs vanilla as a pre-requisite.

I bought them both together. BtS also works through bootcamp just not through parallels.

I have been successful in getting it to run under Parallels on my MBP. However, gameplay is much too slow, especially after a few dozen turns. I typically play on a standard size map with a total of 7 civs. Even in BootCamp Civ IV is too slow and crashes on large maps. Here are my settings and specs.

MacBook Pro 17"
Dual Core 2.33 GHz; 3 GB RAM

Parallels:
Win XP Pro SP3
Memory defaults to 512 MB but is dynamically allocated
All other options standard

There's something wrong if it doesn't play well in Bootcamp on your system!

Your MacBook Pro is one of the fastest laptops on the planet for running Windows, as measured by magazines like PCPro. So if you can't run Civ4 in Bootcamp, then there's not much hope for Windows users on non-Mac laptops.

Alan -

Part of it is that I haven't run vanilla Civ IV in any form in quite a while - I usually play with mods. My current favorite mod is Total Realism. Unfortunately, TR is a big hog and slows things down. However, I have always found that an earth map with 20+ civilizations is too slow for me to deal with - I would rather play on a smaller map and have things move along at a decent clip. Also, with larger mpas you have a greater chance of Memory Allocation Failures (MAFs) that are very difficult to get rid of. Although BtS does a decent job of getting rid of them, they plague Vanilla and Warlords.

The added resources of many mods accelerates the occurrences of MAFs. I have followed the suggestions of modifying the Civ executable to access more than 2 GB of RAM and made the suggested changes to Windows. However, these do not sure it. It is my understanding that going to a full 64-bit operating system would cure these errors, but I haven't been willing to see if all my programs will work under 64-bit XP.

I do notice better performance on my daughter's iMac, so I am sure some of this is performance of my MBP. I know it is one of the fastest notebooks around, but it still falls short when handling large maps. Perhaps the latest versions that can access a full 4 GB of RAM would perform better, especially if I implemented the MAF fixes.