The online racing simulator
LFS on Mac!
2
(47 posts, started )
Quote from GP4Flo :That sounds good. Do Force Feedback and online play work as well? What are the specs of your Mac? Do you know of a free software which does the same thing?

His signature says he is using a 2.5 GHz, 4 GB, 8600GT 512 MB model. This would be the old model, not the unibody one which was released a couple of months ago.
Quote from G. Dierckx :Hey Guys,

Was looking for the lfs on mac threads but didn't found them.. anyway there might be a solution now

Since a few days / weeks Parallels dekstop 4 is released. I tried to run lfs on it and it runs at 30fps so it's playable!

Added a screenshot

Greetz!

Here is a little brain storm I had....

You might try installing Ubuntu Linux on your Mac since it appears that it is a Intel based MacBook and Nvidia Graphics hardware is well supported in Linux. After that try out Cedega for Linux systems. It will run most PC games and LFS has been tried before. The cedega support team might not officially support it, but it appears it will operate under Linux and Cedega. --> http://www.cedega.com/gamesdb/games/view.mhtml?game_id=3179

Cedega is an API instead of Virtualzation or Emulation software. LFS being based on the Directx 8 API should be very compatible. Being an API there will be less overhead compared to other methods. Linux can be jicky at times, but you will find developers on the Linux platform do some off the wall things that some people need and other company's just don't see the point in doing.

There is a free demo of Cedega and I have friends that have used it for directx 8 and 9 based games. Some of them even said games ran better in the less bloated linux environment. Everything about linux is lite and quick. It really would be a great base for main stream PC gaming if there were more linux users out there.

The only down side I can think of is you have purchase a subscription to Cedega to continue using it (25 dollars for six month or 45 for a whole year). Although you wouldn't limited to just LFS. You can play just about anything on Cedega and Linux.

Hope this helps you out. At the price of free to find out should be worth your time.

Jay
Meh, I'll take rebooting into Windows. The FPS being 4 times higher on the same machine is worth the 30 seconds of rebooting.
Quote from dawesdust_12 :Meh, I'll take rebooting into Windows. The FPS being 4 times higher on the same machine is worth the 30 seconds of rebooting.

Wait.. You can load Windows onto a Mac and just reboot into it instead? I haven't worked with a Mac since my IIvx of the early 90's. I would like to know.
Yeah. You can.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/bootcamp.html

It's so easy to install, actually easier than installing Windows on a normal machine, due to not needing to look for drivers... AT ALL! Apple also periodically releases auto-updates to the drivers. Really quite nice.
Quote from dawesdust_12 :Meh, I'll take rebooting into Windows. The FPS being 4 times higher on the same machine is worth the 30 seconds of rebooting.

Which makes me wonder why people don't just save a bundle of money and by non-Apple hardware.

Surely people don't fall for the shiny white facade and silly marketing?
Easy. I prefer so many Mac programs to windows programs, it's not even funny how horrible windows is for usability after you become accustomed to OSX. Windows feels like trying to use a condom with barbs on the inside, compared to OSX being an ultra-thin condom. The feelings are totally full-circle opposite.
Quote : It's running an emulator which is running Windows which is running LFS.

Emulators are old technology, modern virtual machines are significantly faster. Additionally the support for 3D is a relatively new feature which previously meant that a reboot to bootcamp was needed. Getting reasonable 3D support that allows LFS to run represents a significant step forward for machine virtualisation.

It would be interesting to see what fps LFS delivers without AA/AF in this environment, as in bootcamp it achieves around 100fps. If it's close to that then the next step is to see applications running under virtualisation with a micro-windows install, allowing them to run seemlessly in the target OS, there are technologies out there trying to do this already but they've a way to go yet.
Quote from dawesdust_12 :Easy. I prefer so many Mac programs to windows programs, it's not even funny how horrible windows is for usability after you become accustomed to OSX. Windows feels like trying to use a condom with barbs on the inside, compared to OSX being an ultra-thin condom. The feelings are totally full-circle opposite.

Each to their own I guess in terms of buying shiny expensive hardware, and I'm not going to try to change your opinion. Anyone who uses a condom analogy is probably not going to listen anyway.
Anyway, I'll make the point that these days software is either available on both operating systems (Adobe stuff, i-tunes etc) or there's a perfectly good alternative. Don't forget Linux either, if Windows is too tricky.

Believe me I'm not going to champion Microsoft's cause either. I just think that Apple are in some ways worse in terms of what they're trying to do to the market. Microsoft tried to make everyone need their OS but if Apple have their way, not only would everyone need to buys their OS, they would need buy their exclusive hardware to run it. A far from ideal situation IMO which is why they will never see the inside of my wallet.

Bye!
Quote from dawesdust_12 :Easy. I prefer so many Mac programs to windows programs, it's not even funny how horrible windows is for usability after you become accustomed to OSX. Windows feels like trying to use a condom with barbs on the inside, compared to OSX being an ultra-thin condom. The feelings are totally full-circle opposite.

I use both Mac and Windows. And I am the opposite of you, the usability for Mac's suck in Finder as compared to Explorer. One can't even do a cut and paste files. And the marquee is not as easy in the detail view. The Mac requires more cliking to get the same job done for a lot of things in Finder.

For applications that come in both platforms, the usability of these programs were no difference to me. Either platforms were fine with me.

DDmak
#37 - Woz
The stinking pile of DRM pretending to be a OS (Vista) pushed me into the arms of Ubuntu a couple of months back. Vista feels awful when I go back to it but I keep a partition with it installed just for games.

No matter if you use a Mac or Linux its best to boot into Windows for games as you get the best performance that way.
Quote from hda :have u tried crossover? I'll ask my bro to have go in his mac

It works pretty well (smooth ) for me on my Mac Pro but I only have a 7300GT check the attached image


Quote from ddmak :One can't even do a cut and paste files.
DDmak

Same thing as moving a file
Attached images
Picture 2.jpg
Quote from GP4Flo :Do Force Feedback and online play work as well?

Online play works, force feedback should work in theory with a USB wheel but I dont have one (mine is gameport) so I have not personally tested it - although I see no technical reason why forcefeedback wouldnt work.
Quote from Graeme43 :It works pretty well (smooth ) for me on my Mac Pro but I only have a 7300GT check the attached image




Same thing as moving a file

How many fps do you have?

But tho I like working on my mac but when it comes to gaming... windows still has the upper hand I guess cause for example when you play a Mac game (like flatout 2) you can't for example alt + tab to see who disturbed you on msn.. You have to close the game to do anything else.. unless it's ran in a window.

So well now I'm saving money to buy a new desktop pc to play my games and then I can save the mac for everything else..
Quote :But tho I like working on my mac but when it comes to gaming... windows still has the upper hand I guess cause for example when you play a Mac game (like flatout 2) you can't for example alt + tab to see who disturbed you on msn.. You have to close the game to do anything else.. unless it's ran in a window.

You could always command-tab, which does the same thing as alt-tab in Windows.
I run LFS on my Mac Runs fine.. not great graphic performance and around 30 FPS but playable

Cheers!
Higher FPS - ATI based Macs
Hay all Mac users - if you get hold of an application for OS X called SMC Fan Control you can ramp up the fans and because it directly changes settings via EFI it locks them until you return them to normal.

Perfect for Bootcamp'ing into XP or Vista as no one has made any tools yet that understand EFI based hardware overclocking. Before going into windows, remember to run SMC, create a profile for gaming, ramp fan speeds, save it and reboot to windows.

Once in XP or Vista make sure you avoid Apple's own drivers, they work but compared to the tuned ones from DNA or Omega team there slow. Either that or get Mobility Modder, download ATI Radeon desktop 2600 drivers and then extract them. Stop the install, use the Mobility modder software to change the supported card list, then run the modded installer and rather than kick you out for not having a desktop card it'll install with a warning! Use AMD GPU clock Tool 0.47 to increase clock rates on the card. I can achieve 720/960 default is 500/550 I think so performance really shoots up.

1920-1200
Max details
Max AF

Gains a solid FPS always above 65. Helps to put a cap on the FPS so you get a nice flow rather than if a sudden event occurs to drop the FPS by 20 or so it is noticeable. With a cap it won't happen as the clocks maintain a high enough FPS, crucial in a driving game I feel.

Shame it can run native but as XP and LFS play nice its reliable enough for a bit of fun. Having a nice big screen and a Momo makes this game incredibly realistic
Burtnic, the SMC Fan works on all Intel Macs, I do it on my Macbook Pro when I play FPS games. Sure it sounds like a jet but gives me piece of mind that it won't ****ing nuke something. Just for everyones information, I've never actually heard my MBP's fan get that loud without me using SMC Fan Control.
Quote from dawesdust_12 : Just for everyones information, I've never actually heard my MBP's fan get that loud without me using SMC Fan Control.

Try video encoding on it, that'll ramp em up to around 5K rpm. FTR I use SMC Fan Control too, for various tasks.
Quote from Burtnic :Hay all Mac users - if you get hold of an application for OS X called SMC Fan Control you can ramp up the fans and because it directly changes settings via EFI it locks them until you return them to normal.

Perfect for Bootcamp'ing into XP or Vista as no one has made any tools yet that understand EFI based hardware overclocking. Before going into windows, remember to run SMC, create a profile for gaming, ramp fan speeds, save it and reboot to windows.

Once in XP or Vista make sure you avoid Apple's own drivers, they work but compared to the tuned ones from DNA or Omega team there slow. Either that or get Mobility Modder, download ATI Radeon desktop 2600 drivers and then extract them. Stop the install, use the Mobility modder software to change the supported card list, then run the modded installer and rather than kick you out for not having a desktop card it'll install with a warning! Use AMD GPU clock Tool 0.47 to increase clock rates on the card. I can achieve 720/960 default is 500/550 I think so performance really shoots up.

1920-1200
Max details
Max AF

Gains a solid FPS always above 65. Helps to put a cap on the FPS so you get a nice flow rather than if a sudden event occurs to drop the FPS by 20 or so it is noticeable. With a cap it won't happen as the clocks maintain a high enough FPS, crucial in a driving game I feel.

Shame it can run native but as XP and LFS play nice its reliable enough for a bit of fun. Having a nice big screen and a Momo makes this game incredibly realistic

hey, that sounds interesting! I'd definitely try upgrading the graphic drivers ( hit the 'card not supported' wall), but I am not so sure messing with the fans... what does this, it overclocks the CPU?
2

LFS on Mac!
(47 posts, started )
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG