Running WDS games on Mac OS (or Linux)

[chee006]

I am not sure if this helps but I wrote an article about wargaming on a Mac.

So far JTS games have no problem running on Parallel or CrossOver

https://avidwargamer.com/wargaming-on-a-mac-in-2022/

[zovs]

My host machine is an iMac, with 40GB of RAM and 1 TB SDD and 6 cores, I use VmWare and installed a Windows 10 VM, I gave it 24 GB of RAM, 500 GB HDD and 3 cores and have little to no issues with war games. I have 70+ WDS games installed and they all run perfectly.

[AndHub]

Hello, New to the forum but not to wargaming, I have been playing wargames since the '70 (SPI, Avalon Hill, GDW, OSG, etc,) and computer wargames from the start.

RE: Parallels and Windows. Activating Windows. I'm running a mid-2015 MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM (I did replace the SSD with a 512GB one when the old 250 just disappeared). I went through all the ways to run Windows games on it. Most were tolerable at best (I liked Crossover, I forgot about that one). I settled on Parallels (Win 10) and I can run any WDS game on it. And I can play a surprising amount of Steam games as well. I have multiple desktops and one is dedicated to it, so switching back and forth is easy (alas with my older Mac I need to watch out and not have too many "big" programs running or things slow down, But you can quit Parallels and work in PS then when done launch Parallels and it's all how you left it, game running as well (the desktop icons tend to get untidy if you are sharing it with your Mac). They take up a lot of space (some games are really big), so I have the Win OS's on an external SSD.

The thing is - unless you want to customize the desktop or do other cosmetic changes (as far as I can tell and it even does updates). You don't have to activate it. I now have an ISO of Windows 11 and it looks like the same thing. It puts a very unobtrusive watermark in the lower left reminding you to activate it. It's transparent and hasn't caused any issues. If memory serves you just don't put anything in the activation box (or there may be a activate later option). I probably will activate it some time, but for now.

I was able to download an iso of Win 10 from Microsoft and was able to get an ISO of Win 11. I have both installed (Parallels just needs access to the ISO and does the rest. Don't try to get a copy from a Torrent site or some other dodgy way, Microsoft has a convoluted way to download OS ISOs. Make sure you select download as an ISO. The current Parallels comes with Win 11 (and you can run Linux as well). And they have a trial you can test!

Now with that out of the way.

WDS Games are the Best! They bring me back to my younger days and to the day I first played a John Tiller masterpiece. WDS would make him proud!

Thank you, AndHub

[Steve_R.]

Recently I experienced a very minor display quirk with Bottles when running a WDS Civil War game under Linux. For a full discussion, see the thread: Hex Info Screen Truncated. Bottles has its own screen dpi setting which "overrides" the Linux screen dpi settings when playing a game. Bottles dpi screen settings location: "bottles -> settings -> advanced display settings -> screen scaling". In my case, the Bottles dpi settings need to be set below 98dpi to fully display the screen.

[hmcs rosthern]

When using cross-over, has anyone figured out howto resolve the issue when "on map results' is selected the fire arrows and combat losses don't display?

[zovs]

Just a note, my main machine is an iMac, it has 40 GB of RAM, 6 CPUs, and 1 TB of SSD. I use VMWare, and I gave my windows VM 24 GB of RAM, 3 CPUs and 500 GB HDD. I have literally no issues in running any of the WDS games (I'd say no more than 1.5% issues with short cut keys sometimes).