Whatever the numbers, I've been an Apple Macintosh (Mac) user since 1984. I used them for designing and speccing my homes as a builder, I used them as a writing and photo tool as a print journalist, and I have used them as a television producer, and of course now internet video producer.
Now I'm trying to use a Mac for online racing. Yikes! What was I thinking?
It all really seemed easy enough. The new Macs have something they call Bootcamp that allows you to run Windows. Bootcamp requires that you decide to start up your computer using either the Mac OS or the Windows operating systems. There are also programs that allow you to actually run both the Mac OS and Windows simultaneously. And that my friends was my downfall!
Because I really didn't want (or have the ability) to use my big 'mothership' dual quad-core Mac Pro that I use for editing, as a gaming computer, I opted (left with no other choice actually) to use my laptop (a MacBook Pro dual-core) that I use for writing and emailing, and those typical daily computer chores, I found it easier to choose a program that allowed me to run both operating systems at the same time.
Don't!
Because I was new to Windows as well as new to online racing (rFactor in this case) I was both overwhelmed, over-ignorant as to what I needed to do and what should be going on. So I first had some issues with the wimple tasks of installing files and setting up things like plugins and drivers and such. But I also had issues with knowing how rFactor should be working. And that included additional items like the workings of the wheels and pedals.
Skipping the computer problems, what I struggled with on the racing end was exasperating to say the least. Driving was very artificial feeling, with wheel and pedal outputs just not close to being as good as they were/are on the console sims.
It took far too long for me to get to the point where I tried it on the Bootcamp running only Windows. Bingo! Suddenly things were different. Although I was left with having to basically start over, things worked so good I was more than enthused and excited to do it.
So, the moral of this story is this; If you choose to race using a Mac (and there are some good points about speed and graphics that can make this a good decision) be sure to run the Bootcamp as a stand-alone setup and not try to run the Mac OS and Windows simultaneously.
I eventually just bought a new iMac to run the online racing programs and am now living 'happily ever after'! Well that is until I decide to run three monitors and then we'll see ;-)
Cheers-
To God, Good Wine, & Great Racing!
DE
Cheers-
To God, Good Wine, & Great Racing!
DE
Sorry man, but you wasted your money. You won't ever get decent sim racing out of a mac. :( rFactor yeah, that's like a hundred years old and any computer will run it, but forget about running rFactor 2, iRacing or PCars.
ReplyDeleteWell, not sure that's right as I did a lot of research and found many times a Mac running Windows was faster than a PC. I guess we'll see as now that I've got it figured out I can move on ;-)
ReplyDeleteRunning a game (of any kind that uses 3d rendering) inside a guest operating system is never a good idea. Whether the host is a PC or Mac does not matter. Sorry you had to learn this the hard way. Virtual Machines are fine for basic tasks, but unless the program is optimized to run natively in a VM, best to avoid it :)
ReplyDeleteNow you tell me ;-)
ReplyDeleteI would say it depends on the sim you run.
ReplyDeleteFirst about me and my Macs:
I'm a software developer for Mac and iOS … so I event don't have a choice, but I also don't want to.
Since last year my main machine was a MacPro with Quad 2.66 from 2006 and I installed and ATI 5770 with 1 GB into that.
It was and still is (currently I gave it to my girlfriends parents as their computer) a great machine.
So now my main Mac is a maxed out 27" iMac 16GB RAM and 2 GB VRAM.
When it comes to simracing I mainly do iRacing, which is although the lower case i as the first letter windows software... so I do that in bootcamp and it is the main reason why I have bootcamp. Sometimes I look at latest builds of pCars and rf2 but more or less I'm iRacing only.
But sometimes I also run games with VMWare for OS X: Games that work are GTR2 (haven't tried Power&Glory yet.. but with 3.0 I'll do for sure, Grand Prix Legends including Targa Florio).
Grand Prix Legens looks and feels exactly like running native.
GTR2 has some minor drawbacks in graphics, but the rest is the same natively under windows and the FPS are more than "quite good".
My controller setup is currently a G25 plus Fanatec CSR Elite pedals ... The G25 can also be used with racing games for OS X (Dirt 2, Race Driver 3, …) the pedals unfortunately not really as the loadcell does not work with the games.. maybe there will be a driver soon.
Again, the Mac is a great machine also for simracing.. little bit more work before you can start, but thats ok.
My biggest "problem" is the lack of a sim rig.. which has noting todo with the mac but with fact that there are no (affordable) rigs that can also be used as a desk for work.
So I have to use my office chair, where I swaped the wheels with feets (blocking the wheels was not that effective) and I always have to spend a few minutes to install the wheel in the right place, move the iMac closer to me for a better view and place my chair (which never feels right.. especially as it can not be fixed like all office chairs).
So, let me ask you a couple questions;
ReplyDeleteHow do you think an iMac 27 running three monitors would compare to a comparable (or even $1000 more) PC based system from somebody like Digital Storm?
I have bee running an iMac 21.5 using the single monitor and Bootcamp and while it has performed flawlessly, it does run quite warm after an hour or so of racing.....
It's now a dedicated system for mostly iRacing, but like you, some other stuff on occasion....
I'm getting ready for the ultimate system, running three 21 to 27 monitors and would be very interested in your take.
Either here or email me....
Thanks
I'm currently running the Mac version of iracing on my iMac, but keep hearing bootcamp runs it better etc. Going to try using a friends fanatec to see if it can work. If not I may consider boot camp
ReplyDelete