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Play It On A Mac: Spintires
In this weekly series I'll show you how to get your favorite Windows-exclusive PC games running on OS X. For more information on the programs used, check out the Play It On A Mac explainer. For suggestions and/or questions about any game, feel free to contact me on Twitter. Spintires is an off-road adventure game with ridiculously realistic physics and terrain deformation. You can actually see the mud and road debris wrap around the tires of your various Soviet-era trucks as you make your way through forests, streams, and the very rare paved roadway. The game was successfully Kickstarted a number of months ago and just recently debuted on Steam to rave reviews. Despite being gorgeous to look at, the game is actually built to run on a wide range of systems, which makes it a great candidate for the sometimes underpowered Macs many of us use for gaming. Let's put it to the test! CrossOver As Spintires is a brand new game, there is no official entry for it on the official CrossOver compatibility list. As there are no custom settings available for the game in CrossOver, I used the default settings for an "unsupported" game but was met with no success. Looks like we'll have to try something else. Parallels As expected, a Parallels install of the game was smooth with no issues or lockups. Upon starting the game, I found the FPS to be extremely low, thanks in large part to the game's decision to give me relatively high pre-set graphics settings as a starting point. With all the bells and whistles enabled I was getting roughly 15 frames per second during gameplay. For a game like this, that mark isn't going to work. I disabled motion blur, toned down the anti-aliasing, and put particle effects and textures on low. With these settings I was able to get an easy 30 frames per second, which makes the game 100% playable and still a treat to look at. After messing around with some of the Parallels settings, I found the following to be optimal for my particular Mac: Parallels 9 settings: CPUs: 6 (out of 8) Memory: 10GB (out of 16GB) Video memory: 1GB Performance: Faster Virtual Machine Power: Better Performance Depending on your own hardware these settings may or may not be your best bet, but it's a great place to start. Boot Camp There were no surprises with the Boot Camp install, and the game tossed me to the title screen instantly. Unlike a few of the other games I've tested, Boot Camp offers a noticeable boost in performance for Spintires. I was able to easily get a solid 30 frames per second with medium settings, as opposed to low, which was the only way to run the game at an acceptable rate in Parallels. This means you'll get the added bonus of some more fancy particle effects, greater draw distance for foliage like grass and trees, and an overall more enjoyable experience. Verdict You have a couple of options with Spintires, and while we'll have to wait and see if a decent CrossOver option emerges down the road, playing the game in either Parallels or Boot Camp is totally doable. Boot Camp will give you a boost this time around, which is great if you already have your computer set up for it, but if you're a Parallels devotee, there's still a lot of fun to be had.
Play It On A Mac: Transistor
In this weekly series I'll show you how to get your favorite Windows-exclusive PC games running on OS X. For more information on the programs used, check out the Play It On A Mac explainer. For suggestions and/or questions about any game, feel free to contact me on Twitter. If you're a fan of the gorgeous indie RPG Bastion, there's a really good chance you've been looking forward to the next game from developer Supergiant Games. It's called Transistor, and it just came out for Windows and PlayStation 4 earlier this week. I've played the game on both PS4 and on my Windows gaming PC, but now it's time to get it running on my beloved Mac mini. Let's do this! CrossOver The game is brand new, and as such it has not appeared on the official CrossOver compatibility list yet. I attempted to install it using the default settings in CrossOver, but was met with simply a black screen. There may well be a way to get it running with more customized settings, but as of yet a custom bottle has not been released. Parallels Transistor isn't a particularly graphically intensive game. It's very pretty, but it consists of mostly 2D art with 3D models on top. Because of this, I wasn't anticipating having any issue running the game in Parallels. I mean, if I could get Dark Souls to boot up, Transistor should be no problem, right? Wrong. Very, very wrong. It installed through Steam as planned, using the highest Parallels virtual machine settings I had available, but upon first start-up, it seemingly froze. I was left with a full black screen for several minutes, and eventually hit ESC to back out. I was met with an error telling me Transistor had stopped working... yeah, no kidding. I restarted the virtual machine, but that didn't change anything. I ran the game directly from the executable file, tweaked some Steam launch settings, and tried some other light troubleshooting before venturing online in search of a solution. I found many, many Steam threads complaining about Transistor failing to run even on high-end gaming PCs. Nobody complained of it not running through Parallels -- probably because I'm the first to try it -- but the fact that the game was having issues on the machines on which it was meant to run wasn't a good sign. Some users were able to get the game running through compatibility mode, so I tried launching it with settings for XP SP2, XP SP3, and Vista, to no avail. Things weren't looking too good. Boot Camp My last hope was Boot Camp. I installed it once again, and clicked "Play" with very little hope. To my surprise it started immediately, and played decently right from the start. At 1080p resolution, I get about 25 frames per second. That's not bad for a game like this, as it doesn't often require twitch reflexes, but it's not ideal. Bumping the resolution down to 1280 by 800 -- which still looks fantastic, given the game's 2D nature -- and I can reach 50fps with little issue. This is the prime way to play it on the Mac mini test computer I use, and the game is just as epic as it is on its native platforms. Verdict For the first time we found a game that didn't agree with Parallels whatsoever. I have no idea why it wouldn't work, and you may have better luck with different Mac hardware, but if you don't want to mess around with troubleshooting, install it via Boot Camp for a smooth experience from start to finish. Pick up Transistor on Steam for US$19.99.
Play It On A Mac: Dark Souls - Prepare To Die Edition
In this weekly series I'll show you how to get your favorite Windows-exclusive PC games running on OS X. For more information on the programs used, check out the Play It On A Mac explainer. For suggestions and/or questions about any game, feel free to contact me on Twitter. Even though the game is the harsh, evil, despicable spawn of Satan himself, I love Dark Souls. The game, and it's newly-released sequel, are big hits on home consoles, but the Windows-exclusive version of Dark Souls, called Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition is a giant pain in demon ass even for those with Windows gaming PCs, so how are we going to get it running on a Mac? Let's see... CrossOver I kind of had a feeling that Dark Souls was going to be a problem with CrossOver, and I was right. Despite the game holding a seemingly incorrect Silver ranking on the official CrossOver compatibility list, you won't be able to get the game running on your Mac using this method. The problem here isn't so much with the game itself or CrossOver, but with the game's requirement of Games For Windows LIVE connectivity. Games For Windows LIVE has huge issues connecting to the internet through CrossOver and the game outright crashes before you even get started. On to the next option! Parallels After a trying install and several Games For Windows LIVE sign-ins and sign-outs, the game boots up and runs. On my decidedly modest test machine, the game is what I would consider to be unplayable, which is a huge bummer. No matter what settings I tweaked in Parallels, the game tops out at around 15 frames per second, which just isn't workable for a game that requires quick reflexes to avoid untimely deaths. This isn't necessarily the fault of Parallels, however, as Dark Souls on PC is notorious for being one of the most poorly optimized games in recent memory. If you have a more powerful Mac on your hands, Parallels may very well work for your Dark Souls excursion, but it didn't work out that way for me. At this point I considered it a bit of a personal challenge to get this game running on my lowly Mac mini, so we moved on to our last and final option. Boot Camp As in Parallels, the obnoxious install and update process eventually gave way to actual gameplay. As in Parallels, the game was running below my playability standards, but unlike in Parallels, I would occasionally see a glimpse of the coveted 30fps mark that I was searching for. You see, the way Dark Souls was coded forces the game to commit to a certain framerate depending on the resources available. If your PC has ample power to display what is needed, you are locked in at 30fps by default. If not, the game attempts to halve that speed and locks you at 15fps. During my Boot Camp play time I was constantly jumping back and forth between 15fps and 30fps, which made combat and exploration difficult. There is a tool used by Dark Souls PC diehards that is made to allow super powerful rigs the chance to run the game at 60fps with maxed out graphics and texture swaps. It's called DSfix (Dark Souls fix), and while there was zero chance I was going to be running the game at 60fps, I was able to use it to help me out a bit in my Boot Camp Dark Souls adventure. Here's how: First, download DSfix 22 and unzip it. Now, find the folder containing your Dark Souls executable file and copy the contents of your DSfix folder into it. Once this is done, open the DSfix configuration settings file using a text editing program. Here you'll be able to tweak the individual settings for DSfix. Find the Unlock Framerate option and change it from a "0" to a "1" and change the Frame Rate Limiter from "60" to "30." Make sure both antialiasing and motion blur are disabled. Now save and exit. Upon restarting Dark Souls, I found that rather than pushing me all the way down to 15fps when the game sensed it couldn't maintain a steady 30fps, the framerate only dipped down to 25fps occasionally before jumping back up to 30fps, which was the new limit I had set. The dip from 30fps to 25fps isn't nearly as noticeable as a plummet all the way to 15fps, and I found the game to be absolutely playable with these new settings in effect. Keep in mind, this is fast-paced action RPG in 1080p, and I'm running it on a Mac mini with Intel integrated graphics. That's a hell of an achievement if I do say so myself. Verdict After an unusually intense install and testing process, I found a way to make it work, and I'm extremely happy with the results. Some diehard PC gamers (which I consider myself to be, as well) might roll their eyes at the middle-of-the-road framerate mark, but for those dedicated to the Mac, and who have never had a chance to play this fantastic game, it's a perfectly adequate way to experience it.
Play It On A Mac: Outlast
In this weekly series I'll show you how to get your favorite Windows-exclusive PC games running on OS X. For more information on the programs used, check out the Play It On A Mac explainer. For suggestions and/or questions about any game, feel free to contact me on Twitter. Outlast is one of the scariest games I've ever played. It's a complete horror show from start to finish, and you rarely get a chance to stop and relax. Unfortunately for Mac gamers, Outlast hasn't made it to OS X in the time since its September 2013 debut on Steam, and with the newly-released "Whistleblower" add-on once again giving gamers a good scare, it's time for you to give it a go on your Mac. Here's how. CrossOver Outlast has a status of "Untested" on the official CrossOver compatibility list, so I gave it a spin myself. I managed to get it installed successfully under a generic bottle, but the game still refused to start up successfully. I'm guessing this is one of those games that will need some special attention and custom tweaks to be done in order to get it running in CrossOver, and unfortunately I'm not well-versed enough to make that happen. Parallels As usual, the install went fine with Parallels. After starting up the game using some modest Parallels settings it was clear that this game would require a little bit more "oomph" to produce a playable result. I changed things a bit and got it running well at about 15 to 20fps on "Very Low" settings. Definitely not ideal, but it is playable. Parallels 9 settings: CPUs: 6 (out of 8) Memory: 12GB (out of 16GB) Video memory: 1GB Performance: Faster Virtual Machine Power: Better Performance Boot Camp Wow, what a difference! The Boot Camp install of Outlast plays so much better than in a virtual machine, it's quite remarkable. Some games don't benefit that much from the switch between the virtual machine and a proper Boot Camp install, but this one definitely does. I was able to get 25 to 30fps on medium/high settings with little trouble. I'd advise turn off motion blur in the game's settings menu, and also enabling vertical sync, as the game has some pretty horrible screen tearing issues without it. Aside from that, it plays great in Boot Camp. Verdict If you're going to play this one on your Mac -- and you definitely should, because it's a fantastic game -- Boot Camp is definitely the best bet. Depending on your machine specs, you might find a Parallels version to be fine, but Outlast greatly benefits from the Boot Camp option.
Play It On A Mac: Final Fantasy VII
In this weekly series I'll show you how to get your favorite Windows-exclusive PC games running on OS X using a variety of options. For more information on the programs used, check out the Play It On A Mac explainer. For suggestions and/or questions about any game, feel free to contact me on Twitter at @MikeWehner. Unlike every Final Fantasy game that came before it, fan-favorite Final Fantasy VII has never made its way to an Apple platform. You can play Final Fantasy I through VI on iOS, but that's where Square's retro RPG love ends for Apple diehards. This cannot stand! Thanks to the Windows-exclusive Steam re-release of FFVII last year, complete with 1080p support, Mac users finally have a chance to play the game via several avenues. Let's get to it! CrossOver Unlike last week's Goat Simulator, CrossOver 13 users will find FFVII is supported, albeit unofficially. It currently holds an unofficial "Gold" rating, and plays faithfully. Testing revealed the game's framerate -- which, it's important to note, is locked to 30fps during exploring and 15fps during combat -- is solid in 1080p with no visible drawbacks. This one gets a big CrossOver thumbs up! Parallels A predictably quick download, quick installation, and quick boot-up provides a perfectly playable Final Fantasy VII experience via Parallels. The game is not particularly demanding in terms of graphics, thanks in large part to its locked frame rate and admittedly chunky character designs -- remember, this is a game born in 1997. Thanks to the start-stop-start nature of the gameplay, it's a great game to leave running in the background for whenever you have a few minutes to kill. The minimum settings our test machine required to run the game at its pre-determined frame rate with no issues are as follows. Parallels 9 settings: CPUs: 4 (out of 8) Memory: 4GB (out of 16GB) Video memory: 512kb Performance: Faster Mac Power: Better Performance This should allow you to run your (wink wink) "work" programs on your Mac along with Parallels and FFVII without issue. If you find any frame rate issues pop up, boost your available video memory a bit and they should smooth out. Additionally, turn of Linear Filtering in the FFVII settings menu. Boot Camp As you might imagine, a game that runs perfectly in both CrossOver and Parallels runs equally perfectly on Boot Camp. Zero issues on the graphics front and aside from the default keyboard controls, which are horrible and should be immediately changed as soon as you start the game, everyone's favorite Final Fantasy runs silky smooth. Well, at least as smoothly as a locked 15fps frame rate can look. Verdict Regardless of which method you choose, bit it CrossOver, Parallels, or Boot Camp, you'll find Final Fantasy VII to be just as you remember it on the original PlayStation, only this time in crisp HD resolution. Game on!
Play It On A Mac: Goat Simulator
In this weekly series I'll show you how to get your favorite Windows-exclusive PC games running on OS X. For more information on the programs used, check out the Play It On A Mac explainer. For suggestions and/or questions about any game, feel free to contact me on Twitter. If you aren't excited for Goat Simulator, there's something wrong with you. The physics-experiment-turned-viral-hit was recently released on Steam to much acclaim and many laughs. It was a game that, as its developer admits, was never even meant to be a game, but that doesn't mean it's not a blast to play. A Mac version is in the works, but there's no release date and you're probably tired of waiting, so here are your options for getting the barnyard animal simulator up and running on your trusty Mac. CrossOver Unfortunately, Goat Simulator is not officially or unofficially support on CrossOver. It has a status of "Known To Not Work" on the CrossOver compatibility list, with no ETA on a fix. It looks like we'll have to go an alternate route. Parallels After a quick Steam download and the usual first-time installation hiccups and almost-freezes, the game boots up just fine in Parallels 9. Despite being very simple in its approach, the game is pretty graphically demanding on the higher settings, so turn off things like dynamic shadows, light shafts, and motion blur, and turn the anti-aliasing off as well (it doesn't make a big difference anyway). At full 1080p resolution I was able to get between 25 and 40 frames per second constantly, even as I destroyed cars and sent pedestrians running for the hills. If you're willing to cut down your resolution a bit, this gets better, but it's certainly playable at 30fps given the sandbox style gameplay. When it comes to Parallels settings, I found that devoting between 50% and 60% of my available resources to the virtual machine produced the best results. Lower than that and the game suffers, but nothing over 60% provided a noticeable return. Parallels 9 settings: CPUs: 4 (out of 8) Memory: 8GB (out of 16GB) Video memory: 1GB Performance: Faster Virtual Machine Power: Better Performance Depending on your machine specs, this will differ, but this is a great starting point. Boot Camp Believe it or not, there's virtually zero benefit when booting directly into Windows this time around. I got the same 25fps to 40fps either way, and although the game seemed to load faster in between menus, the actual in-game performance was virtually identical. You might prefer Boot Camp if you'd rather not mess with micromanaging your virtual machine settings in Parallels, but there's no real benefit. Verdict Get amped, barnyard brawlers, because Goat Simulator is 100% A-OK in both Parallels and Boot Camp! Even on my decidedly underpowered Mac, the game is a ton of fun, and you should have no problem getting the game up and running on anything with similar (or better) specs. I noticed virtually zero difference between Parallels and Boot Camp this time around, so either one should suit you well.
Introducing Play It On A Mac
I'm a gamer who doesn't like compromises. I have a gaming PC that runs Windows, but I also have a few Macs around my house as well, and the fact that most PC games found on Steam are Windows-exclusive is a huge bummer. Play it on a Mac is a new weekly series that will offer puzzled Mac gamers the answers they're looking for. There are three main avenues to investigate when trying to get a Windows program running on OS X: Boot Camp, Parallels, and Crossover. Each method has its own nuances that can affect the performance of individual apps, and games are no different. Because of this, knowing whether or not a Windows-compatible game is even worth the trouble to install on your Mac is nearly impossible. So I'll test them all, and here's how. The Machine To offer the most realistic experience for the widest range of Mac users, the test system is modest in terms of power: Processor: 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 Memory: 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000 (1GB) OS: OS X 10.9.2 & Windows 7 Professional Benchmarking: FRAPS If I can get a game running with playable performance on this machine, there's a good chance it'll run on most Macs built within the last couple of years, and many more capable older machines as well. CrossOver CrossOver is the most lightweight solution for running Windows programs on OS X, allowing you to the applications in a more standalone manner than the alternatives. However, compatibility is a huge issue here, and whether an application (or game, in this case) is supported is a tossup. I'll give you the latest CrossOver details on each game I test. You can download a free trial of CrossOver 13 and purchase the full program from the official website. Parallels Parallels installs a virtual machine on your Mac, effectively conjuring a Windows PC inside your Mac using what I can only assume is a combination of black magic and human sacrifices. Compatibility usually isn't an issue here, but the amount of resources you dedicate to your virtual machine can have a big impact on how a game responds. I'll help you hit the right balance. You can download a free trial of Parallels 9 and purchase the full program from the official website. Boot Camp Boot Camp turns your Mac into a Windows computer using officially supported software. Boot Camp offers the most faithful Windows experience, but you need to boot straight into Windows and leave OS X temporarily behind. This can be a pain for multitaskers, and there's also the possibility that games perform no better here than in CrossOver or Parallels. I'll clear this up for each game I cover. You can find out more about Boot Camp and view tutorials on Apple's Boot Camp page. Verdict Each article will wrap up with a verdict and the overall outcome, so you can decide whether any of the available options is worth your time and money. If you have any suggestions for games to cover, questions about the process, or other input, feel free to nudge me directly on Twitter.
