Playing DW2 on Apple's Bootcamp?

[19c]

Does anyone play DW2 on an iMac using Bootcamp? I ask because I have an iMac; I play a number of Matrix games easily using Parallels Desktop, but DW2 doesn't run well there. It requires more than Parallels can provide for games.

DWU is playable on both Bootcamp and Parallels virtual desktop, with no serious issues. But I really want to play DW2.

It would cost a bit to purchase Windows for Bootcamp, but a lot less than buying a PC for just one or two titles.

So, any advice or tech help will be welcome.

[cblattmann]

Did you get DW2 to run on Parallels at all with updates 1.0.1.8 and higher?

[19c]

Yes. At first, it was very difficult to get it to run. Then it would run, but there were side issues.

The main issue was the jerking picture. Since I posted, I've become aware that it's apparently a video card problem? I had a bit of it with DWU, but I could live with it; a bit like watching an old radar screen. But this is very disturbing. The iMac is 3.4 Ghz quad Intel i5; the display retina 5k, 27 inch, built 2017. The graphics that comes with it is Radeon Pro 570, 4 GB.

I have a bad feeling that's the main issue.

If you know of a workaround, I'd appreciate all the advice I can get.

[19c]

I uninstalled and reinstalled, hoping it would take less time to load the game. Now, however, it won't start. It won't load the game at all.

[RClive]

I have an iMac and use Boot Camp to run Windows 10 on it. This setup runs all my games very well.

I do run DW2 on this setup, and the game runs very well. There is, however, one significant issue. Beginning with the 1.0.1.8 patch, the game suddenly started running only in the top left of my monitor. It still runs fine, it's just smaller than it should be, and some of the text is so small it's difficult to read.

I did a series of posts about this, with some screen shots, with the title of "Resolution Madness", take a look if you like.

I'm considering doing a standalone install - I also purchased the DVD version - and then leaving it at the original version, with no patches, at least until this gets sorted out. Hopefully that will switch the game back to full screen, and very little of the material in the patches actually applied to gameplay, it was mostly about fixing crashes and such.

[cblattmann]

I have an M1Max and run Parallel. It ran fine up to 1.0.1.6. All my games run OK, with a bit tweaking. So far little to no performance issue. But when update 1.0.18 came out it no longer finds my graphic adapter. This is the only games that does this after 1.0.1.8. I know this can be fixed.

So when you say it wont load your game, is it because it does not find the graphic adapter. I still have the update version 1.0.1.6, the last version that would start my game, if you want to try it out.

[19c]

Thank you for the offer, but I am not computer savvy. I can wait for the developers/techs to catch up to this issue, if it is one of not finding my graphic adapter thingamajig. My point is, I can't find it either; I don't know where to look.

This is why I traded my PC for Macs fifteen years ago. I don't libel Windows and the whole PC universe. It's just that I don't live there, but it's a great place to visit.

I enjoy playing the games - especially those in which Matrix games has played a role...not sure what that role is, perhaps just on a discussion level. And in the long run, things do get fixed. I looked forward to DW2 because DWU was so labor-intensive as far as getting the empire to do sensible things. Sometimes, a fleet would just sail off to attack something way out of range that wasn't really an enemy, or sail to a point in space. I figured out that I'd wrong-clicked on the map by accident and somehow sent it there. Or some fleet commander just got the notion to start a war, like Japan in Manchuria in the 30s.

I still look forward to DW2, but I would like to start learning by doing with it. I have uninstalled it and tried several times; I get the startup window and then click PLAY, and the little picture of starships appears, then disappears. No game.

True, this did not happen before it auto updated to 1.02.xx but I don't know what problems 1.06.xx had, that 1.02.xx fixed. I mean, that's trading one set of inadequacies for another.

Again, thank you for the offer. If I knew a bit more about how things work, I'd be tempted.

[19c]

Dear RClive,

Thanks for the idea. I will read Resolution Madness and see what I can do. I know I have a problem with Parallels in general, that it insists on reverting to a screen resolution of 4096 x 2304. Every time I open it, I have to change it manually to a friendlier resolution, usually 2560 x 1440. The higher resolution makes the text on the game - DWU - so small that it's hard to read.

I don't fully understand this. I don't understand why starting Parallels desktop means it almost always opens in 4096 x 2304. I must be a matter of the Retina display.

I suppose I could try opening DW2 at different "display settings," different screen resolutions, and see if that works.

Anyway, I'll read your posts.

[19c]

So I've spent some hours on it and I find that DW2 cannot find my display adapter. That is why it doesn't open.

I actually found it: Parallels display adapter (WDDM). I mean it exists, it's there.

Now the only problem I have is how to teach DW2 to find it. I have no idea.

I tried submitting a ticket, but I was hung up when asked to submit a link to my dxdiag and log files. I searched the web, I scratched my head, and I right clicked everything in sight, but I could not find anyone who could tell me how to link a .text file to a space on the Matrix Games support form that you're sposed to use.

I'm sure it's simple enough. You can get anywhere you want on a PC; you just have to ask directions of some passing stranger. Who may or may not know. I've wasted enough of the day on this.