Steam Games via VMware Fusion 3 and Windows XP

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Level 1

10 points

Steam Games via VMware Fusion 3 and Windows XP

I'm not sure if anyone on here is really going to be able to help me, but I figured I'd try. I have a pretty nice Macbook Pro (not a unibody model), and I want to run Steam (gaming software, http://store.steampowered.com/ ) on Windows XP via Fusion. Specifically, I'm trying to play Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic ( http://store.steampowered.com/app/32370/ ). Everything is installed, and I can start the game and create a character, but the game crashes while loading the first level every single time at the exact same spot. As you can see on the game's site, it only needs 1Ghz processing, 256 MB RAM, 32 MB graphics card, and Directx 9b or better. My virtual machine is configured with a 2.2 Ghz processor, 1 GB RAM, and Fusion 3 says it supports up to Directx 9c. I'm pretty sure this computer has a 128 MB graphics card too. I'm absolutely baffled. I knew playing Steam games might be iffy, which is why I specifically bought a cheap game with super low requirements. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Oh. Fusion is the only program I have running while doing this also. I check my activity monitor regularly too, and I'm barely using any of my Macbook's potential power.

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.6.2), 2.2 Core 2 Duo - 4 GB RAM

Posted on Jan 30, 2010 9:01 AM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Jan 30, 2010 10:00 AM in response to Rick Wall

It runs in Windows, then install Windows natively, then you can do other things in Windows under OS X and Fusion can use the native install, and when you want to play games in Windows with full hardware access, dual boot into Windows.

3D has gotten better in VMs lately, but never going to be as smooth and nice as running it directly in Windows. Try that. And at least then, you can do both, but you have to install Windows natively first and only afterwards can you import or attach to Fusion.

And what do they say on Fusion Community BBS?

Not much about Steam here -
http://discussions.apple.com/search.jspa?objID=c98&search=Go&q=steam

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Answer 2

Rick Wall Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 30, 2010 2:03 PM in response to The hatter

Well, when I originally installed Windows I didn't go the bootcamp route because I was worried about viruses. I felt it was safer if I used VMWare and disabled shared folders because I figured if I did get a virus or something it wouldn't have anyway of realizing there was anything outside of the VMWare virtual partition.

I'd still really like to avoid going to the bootcamp route though because I don't want to have reboot for games.

I didn't think about looking around much on the VMware site. I was trying to post on the Steam forums, but you have to re-register, and then I have to wait to get approved or something before I can post.

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