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rye9

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 20, 2005
1,347
77
New York (not NYC)
I have the base 13" MBP right now (the new one, of course)... and when I bought it the guy who helped me at the Apple Store told me to use Boot Camp. What are your recommendations?

I'd probably be using Windows just for Dev C++, a program I'll be using at school... and maybe the original Call of Duty (so old that the system requirements are probably meaningless)
 
XCode will do everything that Bloodshed Dev C++ does and more.

And I don't know about Call of Duty. :p

Boot Camp is a MUST for any game made in the last five years, but if coding is all you'll be doing otherwise, just virtualize for the game (or Cider wrap it if you're ambitious) and code with XCode.
 
Well I've never programmed so this may be a stupid question but... I know we have to make programs and submit them to the professor... I can do this with Xcode and it'd be identical as if I used Dev C++?

Also, Call of Duty's expansion pack was released in Fall 2004, and the original game itself probably just a few months earlier... so it's tough... just about 5 years. :rolleyes:
 
If your professor is expecting Windows executables and you need to use Windows APIs, stick with Windows, otherwise it will be an exercise in futility.

As for the virtualization vs native, Dev C++ won't be an issue; that should run perfectly since it's not really taxing anything. For Call of Duty, the recommended specs for the original game are:
Code:
600 MHz CPU
128MB RAM
1.4GB HD space
32 MB

and, IIRC, it uses the id Tech 3 engine so it SHOULD run fine in a virtualized environment. Since you will need to get a copy of Windows anyway I'd suggest installing VirtualBox and give it a shot. Unlike VMWare Fusion and Parallels it supports OpenGL and not Direct X but the engine should have an OpenGL renderer so it may work. At least this way you can get a rough idea how well it will run in a worse case scenario if it isn't happy :)
 
If your professor is expecting Windows executables and you need to use Windows APIs, stick with Windows, otherwise it will be an exercise in futility.

As for the virtualization vs native, Dev C++ won't be an issue; that should run perfectly since it's not really taxing anything. For Call of Duty, the recommended specs for the original game are:
Code:
600 MHz CPU
128MB RAM
1.4GB HD space
32 MB

and, IIRC, it uses the id Tech 3 engine so it SHOULD run fine in a virtualized environment. Since you will need to get a copy of Windows anyway I'd suggest installing VirtualBox and give it a shot. Unlike VMWare Fusion and Parallels it support OpenGL and not Direct X but the engine should have an OpenGL renderer so it may work. At least this way you can get a rough idea how well it will run in a worse case scenario if it isn't happy :)

There is a Beta for VirtualBox 3.0 out that claims to have experimental support for DirectX 8 and 9.
 
yes, virtualbox is completely free and it will suit most of your needs.

the only problem that I had with virtualbox is that I couldn't share files in between my mac system and windows.....however VMware fusion and parrells are slightly more user-friendly probably because they are paid apps. Since you're the programming type I think you'll have fun messing around with different virtualization programs, have fun.

Note that running another OS on top of MacOS will really eat your battery life. That's the other problem with virtualization.
 
yes, virtualbox is completely free and it will suit most of your needs.

the only problem that I had with virtualbox is that I couldn't share files in between my mac system and windows.....however VMware fusion and parrells are slightly more user-friendly probably because they are paid apps. Since you're the programming type I think you'll have fun messing around with different virtualization programs, have fun.

Note that running another OS on top of MacOS will really eat your battery life. That's the other problem with virtualization.

Naa, battery life with normal use of your virtualised system (VirtualBox) is really quite good (I don't game - so maybe this is worse).

You can access files on the Mac via Shared Folders. You need to set up a folder (your Home-Folder) to be accessible from the guest OS. Last item on the configuration screen.
In Windows change the Link for MyDocuments to the Shared Folder and you are set up. Everytime Explorer starts you will see the documents on your Mac - easy!

I much prefer VirtualBox over Parallels (have no experience with VMWare). Boot time of the Guest is shorter. You can run Linux and other guest OSes. Guest and Host OS are cleanly separated. Parallels associates many files automatically with Windows - one accidental click and Windows starts up...

My feeling is, that it is also much more stable than Parallels.
 
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