I have a need to run windows based Ogre dev on my iMac.
I develop commercial products for an embedded marketplace using Ogre as the core graphics engine. I develop on windows (as I have a windows based laptop and don't want to put Linux on it due to some windows only apps) and deploy on Linux. However, I acquired an iMac 6 months ago and would now never look back. At some point I will migrate the system dev to the Mac, but for the time being it's easier for me to sync between laptop and a windows base.
I use Gentoo linux as it's easier to configure (being a Linux man since about 1993 and very much prefer working from command line) and built from the ground up.
My ideal situation is to run Windows, Linux and MAC OS X on one machine - the iMac - hence virtualisation.
I have used vmware previously on a windows base to run Linux - but I did find it quite "stuffy" and not really written for the low level guy.
I have been using virtualbox to emulate Windows and Linux on the Mac - but I find there are performance and logistical issues with it - it's not quite up to scratch yet. For example I need good low level access to USB devices and virtualbox does not give me this reliably.
SO, I looked to commercial offerings - the two being Parallels Desktop and Vmware Fusion.
I downloaded both on a trial. I installed Windows XP pro on one virtual machine and migrated my Gentoo dev hard disk over to a linux virtual machine (using partimage). Both identical virtual machines on each program.
I'll stick to the Ogre stuff for this post. Suffice to say I found Parallels marginally quicker on compiling/accessing disks and general use. I also found it better at managing USB devices - a cute graphic appears with a USB plug when you plug in a device and allows you to select Mac or one of the virtual machines running to plug it into - very very nice. Also I had full low level access to the disk on both windows and linux on both vmware and parallels.
I cloned the 1.7.2 off bitbucket and built using Visual Studio 2005 (yes I still haven't moved on from that) and ran the samples.
My Mac is a 27" iMac with 4 GB RAM, 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, ATI Radeon HD 4670 (256 MB)
I ran all samples at 1280x1024 full screen - that's full screen Ogre - but running virtualisation in a single window.
Both virtualisation programs have a mode which allows windows to live "within" the MAC OSX. Vmware is called Unity, Parallels is called Coherence. I found both excellent, but Parallels has the edge on integration - it provides a Dock folder with all the windows apps so you can run them as though they're MAC apps. Vmware struggled to run Ogre in OpenGL in Unity mode (some colours wrong etc..) - Parallels ran both OpenGL and Direct X in Coherence, but the frame rates are hit by integrating the window into the MAC desktop - so preferred solution on both is single window, but running Ogre full screen within that window.
Running the samples, all I did was run them up and provide an average reading of the fps - which was pretty stable on all samples. It gives you an idea anyway.
