Favor : Visual Studio 2012 clarity on rMBP

[covertsurfer]

Can anyone with a rMBP please install Visual Studio on a Virtual Machine via Parallels/VMWare/VirtualBox and show me what it looks like via screenshots?

I was going to run the rMBP at the 1920x1200 setting but not sure what VS would like in a VM (Coherence mode) on that setting.

Just wondering whether it will look blurry or if using Windows 8 with a resolution of 2880x1800 in Windows and scaling of 150% it would scale up ok. Not sure if VS has high quality artwork in it.

Thanks

 

[covertsurfer]

Anyone?

 

[Pentad]

I'm running Parallels, a beta of the next version of VMWare, and the current version of VMWare. I also run VS 2008, VS 2010, a beta of VS 2012 and Eclipse.

Both Parallels and VMWare have issued updates for the MBPRs. However, I do not have a MBPR so I can't tell you about the clarity.

I know you can change the fonts, color, and size in VS so that should help with the text size. As for clarity, I'm not sure...


Good Luck!
-P

 

[carlospuk]

Can anyone with a rMBP please install Visual Studio on a Virtual Machine via Parallels/VMWare/VirtualBox and show me what it looks like via screenshots?
Thanks

I'm getting my RMBP tomorrow and plan to install VS2012.

I'll try to remember to grab some screenshots and post back here.

Carlos

 

[covertsurfer]

Cool thanks

 

[covertsurfer]

Any luck installing VS?

 

[AAP8]

I have it on my rMBP, it is not great, but it is not horrible either, if you use one of the native resolution settings it is better than the scaled versions

 

[covertsurfer]

You mean its ok at 1440 but not so great at 1920?

I assume you're talking about coherence mode?

What's it like in Windowed Mode with the whole OS in full screen mode?

 

[~robbert]

I'm using Parallels with Windows Server 2008R2 and VS2010. It looks better at 1920 x 1200 then on the "best for retina" mode. Its not very crisp, but usable for more then 8 hours a day ;-)

I guess it has less size to scale up at 1920. I took some screenshots but like all the retina screenshots they tell you exactly nothing.

http://heap.nl/1920.png
http://heap.nl/retina.png

<edit>
windowed or fullscreen doesn't change anything with Parallels.
</edit>

 

[tfannon]

i use VS2010 and parallels in coherence mode

It looks best in 1920x1200 mode to me.

You can also use the Res switcher program to go to 2880x1800 and then turn up the font size on VStudio. You can then get even more visible code than 1920x1200 but still is readable.

However, running 2880x1800 native is pretty damn small for the rest of the OS X stuff.

The 1920x1200 is no worse to me than a normal monitor. However, when you compare it to XCode which has been updated for Retina, XCode is much clearer.

 

[covertsurfer]

Looking at those screenshots it looks a bit fuzzy. Will have to see if I can find an Apple Store with Parallels on it and install VS

tfannon - could you show a 2880 shot of VS?

 

[~robbert]

The screenshots are at the resolution before scaling down. So it's actually a lot less fussy. The screen looks better on the mac then on my old 17" laptop @ 1920x1080. This is of course my personal opinion and it is a good thing to give it a try at an Apple store.

 

[tfannon]

here is visual studio in boot camp @ 2880 x 1800 w/125% font

http://screencast.com/t/iTQLpzk5k

here is visual studio under parallels @1920 x 1200 w/100% font

http://screencast.com/t/5snd1mocVkD4

 

[covertsurfer]

Thanks!

Both look great!

Just hope I can find an Apple Store that has parallels/visual studio on it At least if I can find parallels on it I can install VS

 

[~robbert]

You can get a trial key at parallels.com before you go to the apple store. Then download en register parallels at the store and import your vmware virtual machine into parallels. Conversion of the image takes a while. After conversion the machine will be rebooted a couple of times to install the parallels tools.

 

[tfannon]

i wonder if the apple store employees are really going to let you spend an hour installing software on the display models. maybe. they are pretty accomodating but at the apple store near me, it usually has a ton of people. i think it would ruffle some feathers if one were to monopolize a machine that long.

a better approach might be to bring a virtual disk with you on a usb 3.0 drive. at least then you are really only installing parallels.

if you are wondering whether or not you can work in visual studio on it, i would say the answer in unequivocally yes. The main question you have to answer is whether you can do so under Parallels or boot camp. The display quality is not a problem.

However, no matter what people say, the Virtualization causes a pretty major hit when it comes to I/O and performance. I work on a pretty massive enterprise app. Under parallels, the time to execute a unit test is about 2x as long as under bootcamp. And considering that is what a lot of programmers are doing during their day, you have to weigh whether it would be better to have a little bit better response time under boot camp.

The great thing about Parallels is that it can use the Bootcamp partition so you have the freedom to choose either depending on the situation.

Good luck in your quest.

 

[covertsurfer]

tfannon - thanks for the insight.

Has anyone installed the VMFusion Technology Preview? I've heard from users that it supports the full 2880 res, so with a font size set to 150% Visual Studio offers a lot of room to code.