Virtual PC and Conquests

[dshea_32665]

This may be an old topic but I was curious, does virtual PC on the Mac work with Civ games, and if so, has anybody tried it with Conquests?

David

 

[MinutiaeMan]

Virtual PC is effectively useless for any graphics-intensive programs, including and especially games. It's just too slow for that, even on the latest systems.

 

[hawai_74]

Originally posted by MinutiaeMan
Virtual PC is effectively useless.

Even a virtual PC with Windows XP on Panther with a G4 or G5 bi-processor?

 

[Trabpukcip]

Forget it... I tried the basic civ3 with my vpc and it is literally unplayable.

 

[Gremlins]

and VPC and G5 do not mix well at the moment ...

 

[AlanH]

Originally posted by hawai_74
Even a virtual PC with Windows XP on Panther with a G4 or G5 bi-processor?

I'm not sure why any of that would be any better.

1. XP just uses more system resources than earlier Windows OS's. I've never seen any indication that it improves effective system speed on a given CPU. Quite the reverse - the minimum system spec is higher for XP than for 98.

2. A dual CPU will only give you any speed improvement if the software takes advantage and spreads its load across the two CPUs. I very much doubt if this is the case with Civ3 running emulated in VPC.

3. A G5 - single or dual - won't run VPC at all, and Microsoft, who now own Connectix, have given no indication that they plan to change that in future.

4. I doubt if VPC is affected much by whether it's running in Jaguar or Panther, as it must be driving the CPU directly, at assembler level, in order to achieve any kind of performance. It will only be using the OS to provide a window to run in and associated menus and such. I doubt it could use Quartz Extreme, for example, to render the Windows screen emulation. That has to be done pixel by pixel.

 

[kf97mopa]

Originally posted by AlanH

I'm not sure why any of that would be any better.

2. A dual CPU will only give you any speed improvement if the software takes advantage and spreads its load across the two CPUs. I very much doubt if this is the case with Civ3 running emulated in VPC.

3. A G5 - single or dual - won't run VPC at all, and Microsoft, who now own Connectix, have given no indication that they plan to change that in future.

If in fullscreen mode, VPC will use one CPU to render the graphics to screen and the other to do the actual emulation. A second CPU really does help.

Rumors have it that VPC will support G5 this winter. They could be wrong, of course, but it seems likely.