Using eMac as front end for Mac Pro?

[drnebulous]

I have been using (and am doing now) my emac as a front end for my mac pro. My emac is downstairs and I'm using my mac pro upstairs via my emac with screen sharing in system prefs. It is ok, but a little blocky, especially on gaming. How could I make it more useable? It also doesn't fill the screen of my emac running leopard.

 

[gavinstubbs09]

This may or may not relate to the Mac Pro, but people would have lag issues using a newer Mac mini remotely to the point OWC now sells an adapter to fix it tricking the mini into thinking there is a display attached 24/7 http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/CBLMDPHEAD/

Choppy gaming is a given, and for lag-free gameplay you need to have a monitor connected and physically sitting in front of it (using a computer remotely with something such as a game isn't the best, the FPS take a while to send over remotely; ie. delays).

Change the resolution on the Mac Pro to 1280x960 so it'll fit the eMac's display and be sure to always go into full screen mode.

 

[chrfr]

I have been using (and am doing now) my emac as a front end for my mac pro. My emac is downstairs and I'm using my mac pro upstairs via my emac with screen sharing in system prefs. It is ok, but a little blocky, especially on gaming. How could I make it more useable? It also doesn't fill the screen of my emac running leopard.

This never will perform as smoothly as you'd need it to for any sort of fast paced gaming.

 

[Altemose]

I have been using (and am doing now) my emac as a front end for my mac pro. My emac is downstairs and I'm using my mac pro upstairs via my emac with screen sharing in system prefs. It is ok, but a little blocky, especially on gaming. How could I make it more useable? It also doesn't fill the screen of my emac running leopard.

The easiest way would be to walk upstairs and use the Mac Pro directly...

 

[apple apple]

I get what you are doing. And instead of making a saying something negative I'll make a suggestion.

Make sure both computers a connected to wired ethernet on a fast switch.

 

[Altemose]

I get what you are doing. And instead of making a smart remark I'll make a suggestion.



Make sure both computers a connected to wired ethernet on a fast switch.

It is not a smart remark. Unfortunately, OP is trying to get performance that isn't ever going to happen. The best solution would be to use the Pro itself.

 

[apple apple]

You are correct, it may not be smart but it is still not helpful. I have edited my post. I'm sure the OP is fully aware that his lil ol' emac wont perform like his pro, but still would like better performance from what he has.

 

[drnebulous]

ok thanks everyone.

 

[Cory5412]

To add to this, gaming is never something that remote connections do very well. The VNC protocol in use by the eMac isn't very efficient to begin with, and the eMac basically can't even begin to be powerful enough to do the decompression on a more powerful protocol, in the way, say, an nVidia SHEILD tablet can.

The one possible saving grace would have been if the eMac had gigabit Ethernet, but it seems that even the 1.42GHz model only has 10/100. It looks like the earliest small Mac with gigabit is the 1.8GHz 17-inch iMac G5. You might have better luck with that system, but unfortunately, VNC is just a very inefficient protocol, because essentially what it's doing is sending a series of full-screen, full-color, (usually) uncompressed screenshots over the wire, and that takes hecka network throughput.

There's a good reason that, even with thin client hardware becoming as powerful as it is, nobody considers them to be good at tasks such as gaming or CAD and 3d work.