3dsmax on vmware fusion question

oh come on, trying to run 3ds max in a vm is daft to start with. Besides it needs at the very least dx9 or opengl to run properly.

seals said:

any advice on getting this sorted?

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Advice? Do not run it under Parallels or Fusion… use BootCamp. A pain to switch, yes… but it works perfectly.

Also bear in mind that Vista makes greater demands on your already stretched system so you may have better luck with running XP.

already stated vmware or parallels are not advised.

You can use a bootcamp partition with parallels (I assume fusion too) but you still will have the same issues with 3ds max due to them being in a vm.

Do a bit of research on virtual machines and you'll find that there is a limit to what they can run, they have issues with programs that require any of the features of the graphics cards that are windows specific (ie dx9) and opengl on a vm is not upto 3ds max.

seals said:

will 3ds max work with paralelles?

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Not if you value your sanity.
Trust me on this.
BootCamp is the only way to go if you are actually doing anything productive.

April Fools?


No one seriously could think running 3D Studio MAX under VMWare could be a good idea or for that matter work....

rubbish

nonsense.. i've been using max 2008 on XP in parallels for months now and it works just fine, of course not as great as when running on bootcamp, you have to use openGL and it is not incredibly fast, but for the convenience of having max up at the same time as aftereffects, PS etc it is very much worth it.

Thank You guys for the info !

I've recently purchased a new Mac Pro (4.1, Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 2.26 GHz, 12 GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 4870 512 MB ).

I'm running the latest version of VM Fusion > latest version of OS X > using Vista Ultimate 64bit > 3ds Max 2010 64bit > latest drivers for the ATI card are in.

Bootcamp still runs 3ds Max 2010 64bit best for me.

---------------
Nvidia has released the 'Quadro for Mac' ( Quadro FX 4800 , 1.5 Gigs ), -has anyone tried this card on the Mac with Fusion or Parallels? Does that actually get the DirectX / Hardware Shading / SM3 working with Fusion or Parallels for Max 2010? Any tips, links, etc. on this would be appreciated.

Is there any method for not having to use the "VMware SVGA card," -uninstalling that & getting the latest ATI driver's DirectX support working in Max with Fusion/Parallels (dreaming of some day seeing all that nice, shiny new SM3 in-viewport shading action with Max 2010 ).

3Ds Max runs and preforms some what well with basic models in VM ware under openGL mode. Of course i am sure it would preform better with a more powerful card than my GMA 950.

babyjenniferLB said:

3Ds Max runs and preforms some what well with basic models in VM ware under openGL mode. Of course i am sure it would preform better with a more powerful card than my GMA 950.

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Thank you BabyjenniferLB , I appreciate it.

Although I'm guessing it could create a number of issues (and is probably not advised), have you ever tried uninstalling the VM drivers for the 'VMware SVGA card,' to see if it is possible to install the ATI (or Nvidia) drivers directly for VM ware? Or do you have any links with info on that? Thanks again .

joshpurple said:

Thank you BabyjenniferLB , I appreciate it.

Although I'm guessing it could create a number of issues (and is probably not advised), have you ever tried uninstalling the VM drivers for the 'VMware SVGA card,' to see if it is possible to install the ATI (or Nvidia) drivers directly for VM ware? Or do you have any links with info on that? Thanks again .

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That is not possible, windows has no direct access to your hardware so installing ATi or Nvidia drivers will do nothing as they are trying to find something that is not there.

VMware SVGA card is the virtual GPU and if you remove it you remove window's access to a GPU. Think of VMware SVGA card as a physical graphics card that is its own brand and has its own pixel and vertex shaders and its own memory buffer.

babyjenniferLB said:

That is not possible, windows has no direct access to your hardware so installing ATi or Nvidia drivers will do nothing as they are trying to find something that is not there.

VMware SVGA card is the virtual GPU and if you remove it you remove window's access to a GPU. Think of VMware SVGA card as a physical graphics card that is its own brand and has its own pixel and vertex shaders and its own memory buffer.

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Thank you again BabyjenniferLB ! I sincerely appreciate that info, -your reply has been a huge help!

the latest quadro gpu's (above the fx3800 iirc) have introduced a virtualisation layer (like the cpu's did) so that the vm can access more of the gpu's performance. If this filters down to mac's is another matter as first they have to be made available for mac Having said that I haven't actually heard of any support for it as of yet on windows either.

LeviG said:

the latest quadro gpu's (above the fx3800 iirc) have introduced a virtualisation layer (like the cpu's did) so that the vm can access more of the gpu's performance. If this filters down to mac's is another matter as first they have to be made available for mac Having said that I haven't actually heard of any support for it as of yet on windows either.

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The VM "layer" is actually more of a dual card thing. There was a demo set up of 2 quadros on a workstation running vmware. The vm had its own quadro and display so both operating systems had there own gpu but shared CPU, and ram.

Nice to hear about the virtualization layer with the Quadro, the dual card / dual monitor set-up sounds interesting.

Would it be accurate to guess that even if a Quadro (Quadro FX 4800) for Mac was being used, while running vm, 3ds Max would still need to run in Open GL (until, the possible chance, that the SVGA card is updated) ?

Does the latest version of Parallels offer any better performance for running 3ds Max? Sorry about all of my newbie questions .

joshpurple said:

Nice to hear about the virtualization layer with the Quadro, the dual card / dual monitor set-up sounds interesting.

Would it be accurate to guess that even if a Quadro (Quadro FX 4800) for Mac was being used, while running vm, 3ds Max would still need to run in Open GL (until, the possible chance, that the SVGA card is updated) ?

Does the latest version of Parallels offer any better performance for running 3ds Max? Sorry about all of my newbie questions .

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Yes it still needs to run in OpenGL as it is native to mac os so there is less "work" for the vm. Other reasons for using OpenGL is that it is much more stable for 3D max with much less reported errors than DirectX mode.

Essentially and in my own experience as well DirectX mode is faster but you do not want to rely on it as there is a higher chance of your file becoming corrupt and rendering issues, also OpenGL outputs higher quality and the planes are much smoother.

The use of DirectX mode is not advised despite it being the current default, one can only assume this is to appease Microsoft as the OpenGL mode is much smoother and more reliable. The FireGL and Quadro cards are also heavily more optimized for OpenGL performance.

Excellent point(s) BabyjenniferLB ( I remember SIGGRAPH 96, the SGI CosmoGL challenge against Microsoft). I'm guilty of wanting to see the SM3 and hardware shader real time options in-viewport, -but always glad to render out OpenEXR file sequences w/ OpenGL. Your answers are very appreciated !

Hmmm...

Why use a PC 3D program on the Mac? Why not just use a Mac 3D application such as Amapi Pro or Carrara?

I use Carrara Pro and it is so easy to use...and the renderings are great.


3DS Max will run slowwww on a Mac..

guppyman said:

Hmmm...

Why use a PC 3D program on the Mac? Why not just use a Mac 3D application such as Amapi Pro or Carrara?

I use Carrara Pro and it is so easy to use...and the renderings are great.


3DS Max will run slowwww on a Mac..

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Good question and point(s) Guppyman . I used Carrara a bit ago, and I liked it. Then (when I was getting my Associate of Applied Science in 2000 ~ 2003 ), due to a number of factors (cost of classes, distance to school, computers available at the school, the school program, work, etc. ) I ended-up first learning 3ds Max, and then learning Maya (the school program set it up for 1st year = Max. 2nd and 3rd year = Maya <with some game stuff in 3ds Max > ) . Currently, I'm very happy to use Maya on the Mac. But, it will always depend on the clients & what they want to work with. I'm also wanting to learn more of XSI (which, I don't think there is a Mac version of ...yet ). I haven't checked out Amapi Pro, -Thank you for the tip/link!

For over eight years now I've been on Windows (but my first computers were Apple's and Macs, from 14 years old to ~ 24 ), always missing the Mac, but always 'needing' to do work on Windows (jobs, clients, programs, etc.). Hard to describe some of the pain I've been through on Windows. Finally, I decided to make the move to a Mac & trust that Bootcamp and VM (or Parallels) would do the trick. ...And now I feel so FAR behind in the Mac world, -but I've been luv'n my new Mac Pro (I've had NO hardware issues, -really no problems at all. It's amazing, I had formed so many habits to deal with the daily Windows issues -an older Windows XP Pro 32 bit system, Quadro FX 3000 card, Pent4 CPU 3.2 GHz , w/ 3.5 GB RAM. I should have jumped back to Macs so much sooner ). Anyway, with all that Window 'baggage,' -I've still got habits and learning from a lot of Window apps. Sorry with all of my babbling there .