OS X Far Cry 3 Problem

mediaman0610 said:

Does anyone know of a decent fix? Is there a way to get the game working on my Macbook

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Install Windows using Boot Camp.

I guess it will have a very low FPS even if it runs. Anyway, make sure you have the 3D enabled in the GPU settings of your virtual machine, and that you have allocated a reasonable amount of vram for your virtual gpu.

saturnotaku said:

Install Windows using Boot Camp.

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I'd have to agree. I still laugh whenever I hear about people trying to play newer 3d games on virtualization (unless it does direct passthrough like xen, but that's another story)

mediaman0610 said:

I'll give some background. I'd like to do some gaming but don't have a lot of money for a console or a whole new computer. So I decided to put VMWare Fusion 6 on my late 2012 Macbook Pro.

For the VMWare I decided to use Windows 7 64bit, got it from a buddy.

Today I downloaded Far Cry 3 from UPlay and I did this thinking the game work. At first attempt to launch there were plenty of updates to install. After all of that the game looked like it might launch, but would get stuck on a black screen and just sit there. Knowing that sometimes issues can be resolved by a simple uninstall and re-install I gave that a go. Same issue persists.

Does anyone know of a decent fix? Is there a way to get the game working on my Macbook Pro or am I just SOL?

Thanks guys!

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Late 2012 Macbook Pro, OS Mavericks
VMWare Fusion 6, up-to-date, to run Windows 7 64-bit

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I'm running Far Cry 3 on a 2013 i7 MBA under Bootcamp/win 7. If you play at a lower resolution, you should be fine with your machine. UPlay is a nuisance at first, but you get used to it.

mediaman0610 said:

Why would Boot Camp perform better than VMWare?

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Because VMWare emulates Windows while Boot Camp installs the operating system natively, giving it full access to all hardware resources.

Edit: Check out this benchmark comparison between Boot Camp and Parallels. It's only one game, and Bioshock Infinite is arguably a less intensive game than Far Cry 3. Do the math from there.

I would suggest the OP uses Boot Camp, and then links Fusion 6 to use that install. That way you get the convenience of running both OSes simultaneously, and when you want to play demanding games, you can boot into native Windows.

That said, in the past when I have tried this, I have run into licensing problems with Windows, as it doesn't like running native and virtualised on one licence, even if it is on the same damn hardware. And I'm not buying two copies of Windows just to do that. I don't know if that problem has been fixed yet.

Erasmus said:

That said, in the past when I have tried this, I have run into licensing problems with Windows, as it doesn't like running native and virtualised on one licence, even if it is on the same damn hardware. And I'm not buying two copies of Windows just to do that. I don't know if that problem has been fixed yet.

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Because VMWare and Parallels install a proprietary set of drivers for use in a virtual environment, Windows thinks it has been installed on a second computer. When the activation window pops up, use the phone method to activate. When the bot asks how many computers you're installing Windows on, say one, and you should receive a code to enter.

Far Cry 3 isn't well optimized to start with. Boot Camp would highly recommended for running this game.

I played it on my MBP in Boot Camp and it worked. There is definitely a lack of optimization, I didn't care for the gameplay, and Uplay is awful. Guess it will just be a permanent fixture in my Steam library.

mediaman0610 said:

I see you and I have fairly similar specs. Am I to assume that you have gotten FC3 to run on your system with Bootcamp?

I don't want to put the time into setting up Bootcamp if the game isn't going to work. While clicking around the net it seems there are plenty of people running Windows on Windows PCs that can't get the game to work either.

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It worked fine. Everything was on around Medium settings if I remember right and I was getting around 45fps. I let nVidia set the settings with their GeForce App. It works pretty well. Game still looked good.

Keep Calm and Use Boot Camp

As others have already stated, Boot Camp runs Windows directly on the hardware, while virtualization means the host OS and the virtual software are both consuming resources along with the guest OS, AND the drivers for Windows are for virtual devices and not for the hardware directly. I had a 2011 iMac and ran Far Cry 3 with medium-high settings very well in boot camp. Just trust the community on this one and go with boot camp. The game will play.

If you want to get adventurous then you can setup boot camp for gaming, but also configure VirtualBox to access the boot camp partition/installation if you need to do Office or something else non-intensive in Windows. I ran this on a 2010 MBP for a while. You'll have to do some googling to get the steps on how to set that up, but it's possible. But just store that for later. For now, delete the virtual installation and go with Boot Camp.

As far as getting the game to run in general, I'm not sure there. It's easy to find negative reports on the internet for just about anything, and it's always going to be disproportionately skewed towards the negative, because most people get online to post gripes, not to post "this worked great for me." I've installed Far Cry 3 multiple times now, across 3 different machines (21.5" 2011 iMac, then a 27" 2011 iMac, and now a custom built PC) in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1, and have not ever had any issue with it running and working.

Just make sure you update all your drivers after installing Windows - don't just roll with the default Microsoft drivers for your video card, etc. Go get the NVidia or AMD drivers. I know on my iMac's with the Radeon card that was a bit difficult - had to find a Catalyst version that would install, because it's a mobile chipset and AMD was being stupid about it - but YMMV. It's possible, and it's necessary to achieve maximum performance from your machine.

mediaman0610 said:

So I did what many of you suggested and installed Windows via Bootcamp. So far the game is working great, though as noted the settings aren't optimal.

This time around I decided to try out Windows 8.1, and now there are two new problems. In Windows my screen is very dim, even when its turned all the way up. And my track pad isn't functioning as normal. Any ideas on a fix? Though i will admit that this isn't a problem since whenever I use Windows I do so with an external monitor and mouse/keyboard. Those work just fine and are better for the gaming any way.

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The dim screen I had this problem when I tried Windows 8. Go into the Power Management Options and change the Backlight Dim settings. What ever power plan you are using change the advance settings to get in there.

mediaman0610 said:

In Windows my screen is very dim, even when its turned all the way up.

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That's a Windows 8 problem. Go into device manager and disable the Generic PnP monitor. This is located under the "Monitors" tab. Access device manager by following any of the methods outlined here. Disabling this piece of hardware will fix the brightness issue as well as allow you to change it via your Mac's keyboard.

And my track pad isn't functioning as normal.

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This is a limitation of Apple's Windows drivers. Nothing you can do about it except live with it and/or use an external mouse.

I have tried both and Parallels is much faster for gaming than VMWare. I used to be a VMWare fan after an early Parallels version killed a Mac lol (Apple replaced it free of charge )

I can play Far Cry 3 in Parallels fine using DX medium settings on a 2006 Mac Pro. I can also play Far Cry 3 on DX11 maxed out if I boot into windows but honestly it doesn't bother me its such a good game it still rocks using parallels I remember trying VMWare and it was all glitchy with FC3

I use a secondary 750GB WD Caviar HD for windows and it can boot in bootcamp or be used by parallels or vmware by choosing use bootcamp drive

Quad 2.66, 6870 1GB



Go create an account at parallels and sign up for the beta in the settings and they may send u a test version u can try

Graeme43 said:

I have tried both and Parallels is much faster for gaming than VMWare. I used to be a VMWare fan after an early Parallels version killed a Mac lol (Apple replaced it free of charge )

I can play Far Cry 3 in Parallels fine using DX medium settings on a 2006 Mac Pro. I can also play Far Cry 3 on DX11 maxed out if I boot into windows but honestly it doesn't bother me its such a good game it still rocks using parallels I remember trying VMWare and it was all glitchy with FC3

I use a secondary 750GB WD Caviar HD for windows and it can boot in bootcamp or be used by parallels or vmware by choosing use bootcamp drive

Quad 2.66, 6870 1GB



Go create an account at parallels and sign up for the beta in the settings and they may send u a test version u can try

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You have a quad-core desktop processor with a desktop graphics card. Of course games will have a fighting change at running in a virtual machine versus the OP's dual-core notebook with an ultra-low-voltage CPU and integrated graphics.