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General => The Classroom (Controller Tips) => Topic started by: Piotr Pawlikowski on February 02, 2018, 12:14:23 PM

Title: Mac OS - will it work
Post by: Piotr Pawlikowski on February 02, 2018, 12:14:23 PM
I was excited about using the virtual ATC as I'm training to be a PP in the real life and I want to get as much exposure as possible to the simulated ATC communication. I'm using X-Plane 10 on a Mac, but I see that the software required to run ATC (VRC) is for the Windows environment. Is there an OS alternative that would work for the mac? If not, is it possible to run X-Plane in the mac environment, but VRC on the virtual machine (e.g. through Parallel) and have my plane still be directed by the Window-based ATC?
Thanks
Title: Re: Mac OS - will it work
Post by: Rick Rump on February 02, 2018, 12:51:16 PM
The ATC software (VRC) only matters if you wish to control as an air traffic controller. It appears what you are asking about is the pilot client (This is what allows you to interact with other pilots and ATC) which for XP11 is XSquawkbox which natively supports Mac.
http://xsb.xsquawkbox.net/download/

If you wish to control aircraft you would need to use something like Parallels to emulate the windows environment as no ATC clients natively support Mac OS.
Title: Re: Mac OS - will it work
Post by: Richard Sill on February 02, 2018, 01:06:08 PM
We have a controller who is using VRC over Parallels very successfully on a Mac.
Title: Re: Mac OS - will it work
Post by: Camden Bruno on February 02, 2018, 01:07:08 PM
We have a controller who is using VRC over Parallels very successfully on a Mac.
Yes, Parallels or BootCamp will work well. Plenty of tutorials on YouTube on how to get those setup.
Title: Re: Mac OS - will it work
Post by: Brad Littlejohn on February 06, 2018, 01:17:30 AM
We have a controller who is using VRC over Parallels very successfully on a Mac.
Yes, Parallels or BootCamp will work well. Plenty of tutorials on YouTube on how to get those setup.

The big 4 will work for this:

Parallels, as already mentioned,
BootCamp, as already mentioned,
VirtualBox, which works great, and
CrossOver, which works very well.


Of the 4, I would rank them, from first to last: CrossOver, Parallels, VirtualBox, then Bootcamp. Here's why.

CrossOver and Parallels would be the first two choices, as they would allow you to run VRC natively on a Mac, without requiring a VM or a separate Windows installation (XP at the oldest). I would put CrossOver slightly ahead of Parallels, mainly because of cost (Parallels costs more).

After that, I would go with VirtualBox, which is free, but requires you to install Windows, and this would be in a Virtual Machine. Additionally, you could use VmWare, but that has an even bigger license cost on top of the license for Windows.

Finally, you have Bootcamp, but that allows you to run Windows on your Mac, but you would be booting to Windows (basically making your Mac Hardware a PC), and not natively running MacOS. From there, you'd run your machine like it is a regular PC.

I use CrossOver, and it works great. But you can't go wrong with any of those four.

BL.
Title: Re: Mac OS - will it work
Post by: Daniel Hawton on February 06, 2018, 07:44:10 AM
(basically making your Mac Hardware a PC), and not natively running MacOS. From there, you'd run your machine like it is a regular PC.

Just want to point out, it's the same hardware... just with the Apple Tax of 150%+ added to it.  Once they converted from the G# series CPUs to Intel, it was pure 100% PC Hardware.  The only difference now is the case it comes in. ;)
Title: Re: Mac OS - will it work
Post by: Matthew Kosmoski on February 06, 2018, 08:17:57 AM
Of the 4, I would rank them, from first to last: CrossOver, Parallels, VirtualBox, then Bootcamp. Here's why.

CrossOver and Parallels would be the first two choices, as they would allow you to run VRC natively on a Mac, without requiring a VM or a separate Windows installation (XP at the oldest). I would put CrossOver slightly ahead of Parallels, mainly because of cost (Parallels costs more).

Being the guy that's been maintaining the crossover bottle for VRC for some time now... I do not recommend.  There are lots of bugs, such as dropdown menus that are invisible until highlighted each time you click a menu.  Speaking of which, I need to update the bottle.  I haven't done that in a while.

Parallels is a VM environment.  I ran everything in a Parallels VM last year for Fort Houston Live in order to lighten my load (brought a macbook air and a monitor) with great success.
Title: Re: Mac OS - will it work
Post by: Brad Littlejohn on February 06, 2018, 01:21:01 PM
(basically making your Mac Hardware a PC), and not natively running MacOS. From there, you'd run your machine like it is a regular PC.

Just want to point out, it's the same hardware... just with the Apple Tax of 150%+ added to it.  Once they converted from the G# series CPUs to Intel, it was pure 100% PC Hardware.  The only difference now is the case it comes in. ;)

No argument there. That's why my first modern Mac was a Hackintosh. ;)

BL.
Title: Re: Mac OS - will it work
Post by: Dhruv Kalra on February 06, 2018, 03:59:22 PM
Pretty sure Parallels (and VMWare, which is what I use personally) is also a VM solution, which requires a Windows Installation.
Title: Re: Mac OS - will it work
Post by: Brad Littlejohn on February 06, 2018, 06:03:54 PM
Pretty sure Parallels (and VMWare, which is what I use personally) is also a VM solution, which requires a Windows Installation.

You're right. It is. So basically CrossOver is the quickest way to have it run.. I may give WINE a try as well, as it appears to have improved from the last time I saw it.

BL.
Title: Re: Mac OS - will it work
Post by: Ernesto Martinez on February 22, 2018, 11:06:51 PM
I use crossover but keep in mind that it may not work on Mac OS High Sierra (at least it didn't for me) I had to go back to Regular Sierra.
Title: Re: Mac OS - will it work
Post by: Brad Littlejohn on February 26, 2018, 02:14:09 AM
I use crossover but keep in mind that it may not work on Mac OS High Sierra (at least it didn't for me) I had to go back to Regular Sierra.

Oh yeah. However, I gave up on High Sierra when it would crash on me every 16 hours on the spot. I was thinking of waiting until they got everything worked out on that, but I think I'll skip High Sierra altogether until the next OS comes out (I still think they should name one of the releases ZZYZX; not just because it's the last word in the English language, but also because it's a fix in ZLA!) and stay with Sierra, which is rock solid for me on my MBA. Thank $DEITY for Time Machine backups. ;)

BL.
Title: Re: Mac OS - will it work
Post by: Brin Brody on March 05, 2018, 08:43:24 AM
Though I've never actually controlled with it, I do have a wine installation of VRC on my mac laptop.  It runs as the normal program does.
Title: Re: Mac OS - will it work
Post by: Matthew Kosmoski on March 05, 2018, 11:58:25 AM
Though I've never actually controlled with it, I do have a wine installation of VRC on my mac laptop.  It runs as the normal program does.

Do you have any trouble?  I was using crossover and having menu trouble.
Title: Re: Mac OS - will it work
Post by: Brin Brody on March 22, 2018, 09:18:27 AM
Though I've never actually controlled with it, I do have a wine installation of VRC on my mac laptop.  It runs as the normal program does.

Do you have any trouble?  I was using crossover and having menu trouble.

Actually put this into practice for an event the other day...  Occasional menu glitches, but hovering over the buttons typically made them appear.  Otherwise, no issues.
Title: Re: Mac OS - will it work
Post by: Douglas Peterson on July 31, 2018, 03:56:18 PM
I’m quite happy with VMWare Fusion for vATIS, vSTARS, VRC, and TWRTrainer. Currently using 27” iMac with two 27 inch 4K on the side. A trackball works a lot better than a mouse or trackpad. USB headset works fine.
Title: Re: Mac OS - will it work
Post by: Brad Littlejohn on August 08, 2018, 01:59:05 PM
I’m quite happy with VMWare Fusion for vATIS, vSTARS, VRC, and TWRTrainer. Currently using 27” iMac with two 27 inch 4K on the side. A trackball works a lot better than a mouse or trackpad. USB headset works fine.

Been a while since I looked at this thread.

The only thing that may be a drawback with using a VM is that it requires having the OS available for you to install. If you have that, then you don't have a problem. Otherwise, using a VM is out of the question. This also goes for BootCamp as well.

So natively, Wine and Crossover may be the only ways to go; if you have a Windows OS available, you're set regardless of if you run windows natively, or from within a VM.

BL.