RM 2 seems to work at least a little :: MacBookPro 13" mid2014, 16GB mem, OSX 10.12.4 , Parallels 12.1.3 . . ..


I read Matts forum post: Some Information about Reefmaster, post #8011

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Other than the host partition in HyperV (which doesn't really count, although it is technically a VM), and perhaps HyperV/RemoteFX running on a Windows server (not a likely configuration for RM users), then no. Parallels have talked about support for DX11 for some years now, and hopefully will deliver at some stage, but at the moment the only solution for Mac users would be BootCamp.

We did think long and hard about the DirectX requirement, and perhaps the ideal solution would have been some sort of "fall back" within RM to older tech. However, this "solution" would have been a lot more work, and, since so many of the improvements in v2 actually rely on direct GPU access, the "fallback" would have looked a lot like RM1 (i.e. none of the sidescan, sonar viewer or track display improvements). So the logical conclusion here is that, if you can't run RM2, you should stick with RM1.
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Then I grumbled to Parallels in a survey they sent me about their poor support for industry standard graphics OpenGL and DirectX. and mentioned DelftShip (needs OpenGL 3.0), and ReefMaster (needs DirectX 11)

BUT . . .. . . .
Then I installed the RM2 trial and it seemed to work.
I am such a newbie dabler and I don't have time to get up to speed on RM basics to experiment to tell if RM 2 is going to break under Parallels.


My Story Details:
I purchased RM 1.x not long after DrDepth went under but have never really made the transition to RM. My last project was done in Dr. Depth and sometime late this year 2017 I have another project to do and a new, better, easier GUI RM2 sounds great. What a shock to find I may need to buy a new Windows Laptop to do my work with RM2.
I am really not a RM user, just an owner that dabbled a little bit a year+ ago using my Dr.Depth data files. Now I just installed and ran RM_2 and clicked on a couple of data sets that were recognized from my few little experiments long ago and they seemed to open and they showed the color striped survey track. I don;t remember how to proceed to the chart interpolation and am swamped with other projects and cant spend much time on RM right now.

George,
The DX requirements post you quoted is a little out of date, so I will clarify:

Some of the big improvements in RM2 *do* require hardware support for Directx10.1 or greater, and won't work in Parallels (as far as I know). This includes the new display modes in Sidescan Mosaics, and sonar viewer features like sharpening and noise reduction.

We made the decision that we couldn't really release an update that would exclude everyone without the required hardware support (and most Mac users), so now RM2 "falls back" to the older implementation for certain things (e.g. the bits I mentioned above). For everything else, it should work OK and, in particular, all of the new map project and map layers features will be available. Some other stuff will look a bit nicer with GPU support but not have any material effect on the output. The only thing that is really missing without GPU support is the ability to automatically blend sidescan mosaics and apply sharpening and noise reduction.

Having said all that, we don't test under Parallels (although we do test under windows virtual machines with no GPU support). I would be keen to hear how things go. If you do get any issues, I would suggest unchecking the hardware acceleration option in global settings and restarting RM. You *should* have got a warning window on startup telling you that GPU acceleration was unavailable.

Hooray !! While I have yet to absorb/understand all the details and implications, it sounds like RM2 will function and support my late 2017 survey and charting without purchasing new and unwanted MS-Windows hardware. Thanks for the update and as time allows me to work with RM2 I will post news about how things are going within the Parallels virtual environment.

You could always use Boot Camp, which I think does support hardware support (it is not a VM). Not as neat a solution as Parallels, perhaps, but you can still run on the same hardware.

If it seemed easy to migrate WindowsOS from Parallels VM to Boot Camp I was going to do that, I did not see how to do it and baulked at buying a new WinOS license.
Also, BootCamp takes disk space I am short of. The Virtual Machines are so handy in that they can be shifted on/offline at a whim.
Thanks again for your reply. I will try to use the remaining time on the current 14 day trial to good effect and provide at least a little 'Parallels' reporting. I seems to recall that the user group had one or two power users on Parallels so they will likely soon be joining the fray and sharing experiences.

Tried Rm2 under VirtualBox, VM Win10 64-bit. All works, with acceptable for VM speed. But only after manual disabling of hw acceleration. Of course, slower than under Bootcamp.

Matt wrote: It means that heading correction is not available under Mac OS inside VM? Am I correct?