CC3+ unusable in Virtual Machine on my late-2015 iMac

jeriahsharin · December 2017

Hi everyone! Hoping for some help here. I'm trying to run my CC programs via Virtual Machine on my iMac, and as the title says, it is unusable. Any given map can take 5 minutes or more just to load, to say nothing of how long it takes to apply any changes I might make or reload a screen. I'm running Windows 10 in VM, then CC3+, and have nothing else running on my iMac at the same time. This computer is so powerful compared to the specs for CC3, I am baffled why this is happening.

JimP · December 2017

How large is the map ? If its over 1,000 x 800, have you tried a smaller map size, say, 500 x 400 ?

CC3/CC3Plus are 32-bit programs. They will use 2 gigs of ram, but if you have a 64-bit computer it will use more, but less than 4 gigs. Video card isn't used.

I don't have a Mac, but you might search the forums and see if another Mac user has made a post similar to yours.

jeriahsharin · December 2017

Thanks for the reply. Map size: 100 x 100. And I have searched and haven't found anyone with this problem - I have found a post here and there from people saying it runs great on the Macs with parallels or virtual machine. "Great" is a pretty strong word, so I assume there is something they are doing that I am not, or that is specifically wrong with my situation.

My iMac has 8G of Ram. I use it for video editing with no problems, which is hugely Ram intensive.

This is so problematic, I am considering spending $200 on a Lenovoa Ideapad just for a cheap PC JUST for CC3+ etc, but I'm unsure that the limitations of a bare minimum laptop like that will run it smoothly. 2gigs of Ram is the best the cheap ones come with, for instance.

pool7 · December 2017

What VM software are you using? Have you tried another one?
Did you install the corresponding VM Additions in the Windows VM?
What are the specs of your Mac?
What are the specs of the VM?
Are you running any disk encryption software? Antivirus? Other intensive CPU/Disk usage software that may be running in the background (either in Mac or Windows)?

jeriahsharin · December 2017

VMware Fusion 8 - and no, I haven't tried any other virtual machines because I've already spent $90 on this one. If I'm going to spend more money, I feel like I should maybe, just buy a cheap PC dedicated for CC and its programs. However, no, I did not download any additions that I know of - I just did VMWare Fusion 8, installed Windows 10, installed my various CC programs, and went. What are additions? Are they updates or something else? I did a quick google search but came up empty on that.

iMac specs:
3.2 Ghz Intel i5
8 Gigs Ram 1867 Mhz DDR3
AMD Radeon R9 M390 2 gigs

VMWare Fusion Windows 10 x64

No, I am not running any disc encryption software or antivirus. I even tried turning off my automatic backups. Nothing is running in the background that I am aware of.

JimP · December 2017

Some laptops, and desktops, sold these days are not actual Windows computers. They are more web machines that require an online connection and don't run Windows programs.

jeriahsharin · December 2017

Thanks Jim! If I go that route I’ll be careful. I would definitely prefer to get this running on my Mac, hopefully without spending more money.

Dogtag · December 2017

Do you have a licensed copy of Windows, or is Windows baked into your VM software?

EDIT: Never mind, I didn't see it listed at the end of your specs. I see it's a Win 64 emulator.

pool7 · December 2017

From a Mac specs perspectives, you should be good.
What I meant by additions, is the "drivers" that you must install in the Windwos VM, that come with the VM software.
For VMWare, they're called VMWare Tools.
For Virtualbox, they're called Guest Additions

You should check your VMWare Fusion manual on how to install the VMWare Tools.
Also, I'd suggest you give your VM at least 2GB (preferrably 3 or 4).

If it's still unusable, you can try VirtualBox, which is free:
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Dogtag · December 2017

I was going to suggest VirtualBox myself (my VM of choice)! But you need to install an OS on each VM, so if you don't have a licensed copy of Windows, it won't help.

JimP · December 2017

The computers to avoid are called Chromebooks. They are only Web access and don't actually have Windows on them.

jslayton · December 2017

When running a VM for CC3+, make sure that your VM has at least 4GB allocated to the instance that you're using. The last time I installed an instance of VMWare (which has been a while) the default was something like 1GB of memory for that instance. Trying to run CC3+ and Windows 10 on the same 1GB of RAM will mean that the VM is spending all of its time swapping to the hard disk, which would slow things down dramatically.

Monsen · December 2017

I don't use a Mac, but I have tons of CC3+ installations running in various virtual machines on VMWare, and they are all very nice and fast.

As Joe said above, you should allocate a minimum of 4Gb of memory to the VM, and I also recommend that you create it with a pre-allocated instead of dynamically expanding disk, as the latter is very much slower for disk performance. I also highly recommend placing the virtual disk on an SSD

caveCrawler · December 2017

Another option is Bootcamp (dual boot Windows 10) on your mac. I have CC3+ running in Wine on the Mac side but the performance is nowhere near as good as it is when I boot into Windows 10. You can get Windows cheaper than buying a whole other computer obviously and it's more convenient to just reboot than find your other computer.

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CC3+ unusable in Virtual Machine on my late-2015 iMac

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