Do MediaLab and DirectRT work with Macs?

[jarvis24]

Medialab, yes, but it requires you to run it through VirtualPC. DirectRT, no. Some labs run MediaLab on Macs via Microsoft's VirtualPC. This program allows the Mac to pretend that it's a PC--just a bit slower. We don't support it but it can be done and from what we hear, MediaLab runs pretty well on it, looking and feeling much as it does on an actual PC. A G4 or G5 processor with lots of memory would be a good idea. I have run it myself on a G4 powerbook and thought it was pretty cool. In contrast, DirectRT will not run through Virtual PC on a Mac because of its dependence on actual (rather than simulated) PC hardware.

Now that Macs are about to utilize Intel chips though, the world of Macs may be opening up to us in a much bigger way. We'll see.

[jarvis24]

With the new Intel chips, Macs can now run Windows in addition to OSX on the same machine--you just choose which one you want when you start it up. As far as I know they can run Windows as efficiently as any PC. I believe a beta version of the required software is available for installing Windows XP on the newest Macs. I'm guessing that this will be a very nice and convenient way to run both MediaLab and DirectRT on Macs without the klunky VirtualPC interface. We'll see--let us know if you want to try this!!

[AaronNewman]

I have successfully run DirectRT on an Intel-based MacBook Pro 17" by installing Windows XP Home Edition under Apple's Boot Camp Public Beta 1.1. While I don't use Windows for much more than running DirectRT, it seems to run flawlessly on the Mac, and certainly DirectRT runs without a hitch. I tried it out with a few experiments which involve playing 28 fps, 640x480 WMV movies and the movies play smoothly and with excellent timing. Load times are shorter than I've seen on any other computer running DirectRT, in fact.

The only shortcoming I ran into was that I wanted to output codes via TTL to an ERP system, and the MacBook Pro doesn't have a serial or parallel port. Obviously not a shortcoming of DirectRT! USB-to-serial adapters don't work. I will be trying a PCI serial/parallel card when I get an Intel-based Mac tower and will report on whether that works.

[jarvis24]

Thanks for the update Aaron, this is great to know!
-Blair

[twv101]

Howdy - I used Apple's Boot Camp app (the 'beta version' jarvis24 refers to above) to partition the hard drive on a relatively new MacBook (1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo and 1.25 GB SDRAM) and installed XP Pro. At start-up, you just hold the 'option' key down and you are presented with the choice to boot to OSX or XP. Very simple. I've not used DirectRT, but Medialab has run flawlessly on the Windows partition. I concur completely with the comment by jarvis24 above that it's a great way to use the product if you are an Apple person.

[Rene Kopietz]

Hi there,

I am using Windows (via Bootcamp) with both my iMac (core duo) and Macbook Pro (C2D). It is fully functional and both ML und DRT run just fine.

Best,
Rene

[jarvis24]

Just to note--we have had, so far, no reports of any problems running MediaLab and DirectRT on the new Intel based Macs with Boot Camp. Cause perhaps for cautious optimism. Mac users, please let us know if you run into any trouble at all (minor or major) so we can make the info available to others of your kind

[JEC]

A customer recently informed us that their attempt to use DirectRT on an Intel Mac within Parallels (an emulation program) failed. Parallels is great because you can have an active OS X desktop and run Windows in a second... 'window.' If your accounting program or CAD program is only available under Windows, this is a great solution.

However, DirectRT may fail in the Parallels environment. This is primarily because DirectRT requires the OS to give it direct access to the system hardware and Parallels does not offer this in the way that BootCamp does.

Bottom line is that, so far, BootCamp seems the way to go. As stated above, just use BootCamp to reboot into an actual Windows environment on your Mac and you ought to be fine running DirectRT.