VoidDroid Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 Sorry, I didn't see a tech support forum so I didn't know where I could accurately post this but here goes. Does anyone out there know someone or they themselves run SWTOR on a mac? My buddy just purchased the game expecting it to run using VM Fusion (windows emulator) like every other made for pc game that he has but to no prevail. He says that it loads the game but once hes in the open world all he can see are his action bars and health bars and that's it. Does anyone know a way to make this game run well on a Macbook Pro? If so please contact me back. Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JedixJarf Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 He needs to get bootcamp up and running. The game wont run very well (if at all) in a vm, so he needs to partition his drive and physically install windows on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VicSkimmr Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 (edited) Yes, but he should be using bootcamp to run it. He should also be concerned with heat as they have very poor ventilation (unless it has changed in the past couple of years). I've had mine overheat to the point where it shuts itself down while playing games. Edited December 21, 2011 by VicSkimmr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VoidDroid Posted December 21, 2011 Author Share Posted December 21, 2011 Have you personally done this? If he's going to do this he's going to have to go buy a copy of windows so I just want to make sure it's something that has worked for others first before I recommend this to him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solidslush Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 (edited) I run the on a MAC in boot-camp. It's a newer model and I can run it pretty everything maxed out in game and get higher than 60 FPS (I use vertical sync though as there is no reason to run > 60 frames) Getting another iMac for the wife this week for her to play on aswell. As for the Mac Pro, and of the newer models should be fine. The 13" may not play as well as the 15 or 17 as the hardware is a less "beefy". As for overheating, keep the lid open MAC laptops do vent out the bottom up out the top/back near the display hinge. EDIT: If he insists on using Fusion or Parallels he will get and under-par experience as virtual machine will not fully use all the hardware. Both virtual clients boasts DirectX10 Capabilities, but the bottom line is it still running both OS's Edited December 21, 2011 by Solidslush Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JedixJarf Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 Have you personally done this? If he's going to do this he's going to have to go buy a copy of windows so I just want to make sure it's something that has worked for others first before I recommend this to him. He would have had to have bought a copy of windows to run it in a virtual machine And yeah it works fine, I game on my macbook pro when im on the road in windows, works just fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VoidDroid Posted December 21, 2011 Author Share Posted December 21, 2011 Is he going to have to purchase a windows cd? Or do you have a good source for instructions on how to do this for free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homedjm Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 (edited) Yes. I run Windows 7 from BootCamp on my MacBook Pro. I also have a very high end MacBook Pro. What are his system requirements? edit: Yes he will need to buy a Windows OS. Edited December 21, 2011 by homedjm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iinsom Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 my friend runs it bootcamped off his macbook pro and is a very high end model, he does have framerate issues a lot though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvoPunk Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 From experience - I just purchased the base model, late-2011, 13" MBP and was able to get SWTOR running and in game using Parallels. But it is no way playable. The graphics are choppy, response time is delayed by 2-3 seconds. Maybe it would be better if I used BootCamp, I dunno. Also, SWTOR warned me before installing that my specs didn't reach the required minimum but allowed me to proceed otherwise. So it really depends on your computer. BootCamp may or may not work just because your specs might not as up to date as they need to be, especially if you were trying in a VM like me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electus Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 BootCamp is free (comes on all Macs), however, you need a Windows operating system which is not free and there is no way to get it free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan-Five Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 The system requirements, especially video, are too heavy for a VM Windows on a Mac. I do run Windows 7 SP1 x64 on a recent Macbook Pro. However, I am running "Natively" with bootcamp, not a VM. It works great. Your friend will need to setup bootcamp, like some have suggested, not a VM. Once done, he should be pretty happy. Happy swtor-ing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JedixJarf Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 BootCamp is free (comes on all Macs), however, you need a Windows operating system which is not free and there is no way to get it free. There is no *legal* way to get it for free that is. But if he is running a windows vm already that means he should already have a windows install disc/iso. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caern Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 From experience - I just purchased the base model, late-2011, 13" MBP and was able to get SWTOR running and in game using Parallels. But it is no way playable. The graphics are choppy, response time is delayed by 2-3 seconds. Maybe it would be better if I used BootCamp, I dunno. Wouldn't help much. 13" late 2011 MacBook Pro only has Intel graphics, which just don't cut it for games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beatmiser Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 There is a good little free program called SMC Fan Control that will allow you to set your fan speed before you boot into Windows. This will give you a higher rev (Windows doesn't know how to adjust the fanspeed for some reason) and help keep your laptop cool. Strongly recommended if you plan to do any kind of gaming. I want to say this though. I played AoC on an iMac and because the graphics card was attatched to the logic board the constant gameplay pretty much killed the graphics card AND the logic board after about 5 months. I would -STRONGLY- advise your friend to get a PC for gaming over a Mac. I am saying this as an Apple Certified tech and IT Manager for a Mac Print Company - so I have absolutely no Windows bias. If it weren't for SWTOR and ME/2 I would not bother to own a PC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AWESTRN Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 My buddy has a new macbook. he partitioned his hard drive and has bootcamp running and after he installed the game and tried to open it it said incompatable system? suggestions? THANKS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beatmiser Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 (edited) My buddy has a new macbook. he partitioned his hard drive and has bootcamp running and after he installed the game and tried to open it it said incompatable system? suggestions? THANKS What version of Windows is he running? Did he install with the 32bit or the 64? Boot Camp goes berserk if you try to install 32bit EDIT: This may not be a bootcamp issue: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=7615 Edited December 21, 2011 by Beatmiser Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JedixJarf Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 What version of Windows is he running? Did he install with the 32bit or the 64? Boot Camp goes berserk if you try to install 32bit EDIT: This may not be a bootcamp issue: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=7615 Bootcamp works just fine with 32 and 64 bit installs. In fact some of the older intel macs wont even boot to 64 bit windows disks because of the 32 bit EFI restrictions on macs from early 08 and before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beatmiser Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 Bootcamp works just fine with 32 and 64 bit installs. In fact some of the older intel macs wont even boot to 64 bit windows disks because of the 32 bit EFI restrictions on macs from early 08 and before. I've had major issues with it from my one of my Lion users who installed with the 32 bit disk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geodo_Domis Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 I see some of you are running on a macbook pro with success.... I however am not. Frame rate is extremely choppy and game is basically unplayable despite my specs: Macbook Pro 15" on bootcamp running Windows 7 64 bit edition2.6 GhZ intel core 2 duo4 gb ramnvidia geforce 9400M (256 mb) And what I understood were the system requirements from http://www.swtor.com/info/faq#171060 : What are the system requirements for the game? Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+ or better Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz or better Operating System: Windows XP or later RAM: Windows XP: 1.5GB RAM Windows Vista and Windows 7: 2GB RAM Note: PCs using a built-in graphical chipset are recommended to have 2GB of RAM. Star Wars: The Old Republic requires a video card that has a minimum of 256MB of on-board RAM as well as support for Shader 3.0 or better. Examples include: ATI X1800 or better nVidia 7800 or better Intel 4100 Integrated Graphics or better should I be experiencing these issues? I thought I met or exceeded the minimum system requirements before I made the decision to drop ~$100 on the game and play time... suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JedixJarf Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 Do you have everything turned to low and have you turned your res down? That card will def not play this game very well. Specially with that 256 mb/vram... An mmo needs to load tons of objects to the vram and only 256 mb available is going to hurt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgolch Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 my friend runs it bootcamped off his macbook pro and is a very high end model, he does have framerate issues a lot though I've played the game quite a bit on a 15" Mac Book Pro, bootcamped. I have dual core 2.6, 8 gigs RAM, and the graphics card i think almost has 1 gig of RAM. While the game does certainly run, it doesn't have the greatest performance (at the lowest game settings). It runs much, much better on my brand new, top of the line iMac. Any suggestions you guys have as to how to improve my performance on my laptop would be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tangleknot Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 I'm running it on a mac book pro ~3 years old. Win xp tweaked for best performance, it runs okay, not great on low graphic setting. I do need to raise it off the table to allow air movement or it will over heat and shut down. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geodo_Domis Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 Do you have everything turned to low and have you turned your res down? That card will def not play this game very well. Specially with that 256 mb/vram... An mmo needs to load tons of objects to the vram and only 256 mb available is going to hurt. everything is at the lowest setting possible. the only reason why I dished out the $ was because I read the system requirements and figured since I met or exceeded them I could set all the graphics / floating text etc to low / off etc and I'd be fine to play. I knew I probably wouldn't be able to appreciate the full graphics capability of this game until I upgraded.... but I didn't expect that the game would be unplayable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beatmiser Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 I've played the game quite a bit on a 15" Mac Book Pro, bootcamped. I have dual core 2.6, 8 gigs RAM, and the graphics card i think almost has 1 gig of RAM. While the game does certainly run, it doesn't have the greatest performance (at the lowest game settings). It runs much, much better on my brand new, top of the line iMac. Any suggestions you guys have as to how to improve my performance on my laptop would be greatly appreciated. Is your MBP one of the ones with two graphics cards? Make sure you are utilizing the higher of the two from within Wiindows- that's one thing. Another suggestion is to set the priority of the game once you launch. Do a ctrl-alt-del go to the processes tab, right click on the SWOTOR Process and choose 'set priority' to high. That will give you a little boost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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