Critical Computer Question---related to D&D Digital

[iwarrior-poet]

Soooo, for the last three months I have been wrangling about my next computer purchase----and I have been seriously thinking about switching to a Mac Powerbook. My old Dell is slowly dying and has slowed to a crawl. Two editorials in this months PC Magazine are very critical of Windows Vista---and Praise Mac's OS.

So my question is----do folks think that the Digital Insider will be able to run on a Mac with virtualization software?

I understand that this is very conjectural---but any good info would help because I am likely to purchase my next computer before D&D Insider becomes available.

 

[Mercule]

I haven't used an Intel Mac, so I really can even guess.

My advice, though, if this is really a critical consideration, hold off on the purchase as long as you can. More information will certainly be available in, say, January. Plus, January often sees the after-Christmas/new-model sales (at least on PCs).

Oh, and Vista doesn't suck.

 

[hexgrid]

My guess is that it will run on an intel Mac through (virtualized) Windows just fine.

 

[Irda Ranger]

So my question is----do folks think that the Digital Insider will be able to run on a Mac with virtualization software?

I suspect it would, yes. With something like Parallels 3.0 and a Windows install, you can run any Windows program you like. The new version of Parallels supports DirectX (older versions did not), and people have been playing Windows-only games on their Macs. I saw that DDI uses a DirectX based engine, so at this time I cannot think of any reason it would not.

In full disclosure, please note that you will need to buy (1) the Mac, (2) Parallels itself, and (3) a Windows XP license. Whether that's worth it financially to run DDI (and whatever other Windows-only programs you need), if of course up to you.

 

[Timeboxer]

So my question is----do folks think that the Digital Insider will be able to run on a Mac with virtualization software?

50-50 chance. No virtualization software currently supports DirectX 9 -- they do support DirectX 8.1, but the DDI client is DX9. By banking on this, you are essentially betting that Parallels and/or VMWare Fusion will support DX9 by next year. I would not be surprised if this is the case, but there are no guarantees.

My personal plan is to dual-boot Vista if the time comes, but.

Incidentally, I would really like to push Wizards for a Mac solution -- in all seriousness, they could (relatively) easily wrap the entire client in Transgaming's Cider and dynamically translate the Windows API calls into OpenGL and so forth. But that depends on how much they're willing to support the Mac userbase.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

There are minimal parts of the DDI that will require Direct X. The D&D Game Table and the Character creator thing. (I forget the name). The entire rest of it does not use Direct X, and even though much of it will be in an installed client, that client will easily be able to be run in Parallels or VMWare Fusion.

 

[iwarrior-poet]

Well, I definitely want to use the Character Creator (main draw for me----loved the implementation on the old Baldur's Gate game series), so we will see. I will hold out on my purchase as long as possible.

 

[netnomad]

You can also use Bootcamp and dual boot if you want to.

Here is a handy dandy link:

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

-NetNomad

 

[netnomad]

Double post. Oops.

 

[Enforcer]

With dual boot you'll certainly be able to run D&D Insider. With virtualization it's less certain, but it seems likely that all virtualization options for the Mac will support it by the time the 4e PHB rolls out.