I’m sure reallusion is getting sick of my CA5 on mac posts and maybe a few users too, so apologies in advance.

My main question is, in regards to running CA5 on a mac.

I understand that reallusion explained that making a mac version isn’t convenient business wise which is understandable. Running several operating systems is expensive.

Personally I’m still a CA4 user, simple fact is I won’t be upgrading until I’m sure I can find a work around. I’d be happy to if circumstances were different.

My big question is, why is emulation blocked on CA5? If I own a copy of CA5, why can I not emulate it, if I know it’s possible? Why are we being told to get Parallels Desktop to run CA5?

Reallusion intentionally blocked the ability to port CA5 for personal use. Many of us mac users have used a system called Wine, and there’s now abilities to use Wine 64bit, and even crossover (native) manages to run 64 bit windows programs from a mac desktop. But reallusion specifically blocked the ability to install CA5 on these systems.

The only option we got offered was to get parallels desktop. Which runs perfectly, but you have to buy a copy of parallels, a copy of windows AND CA5. Is this a deal reallusion made with parallels?
Could we have some transparency for paying and willing to pay customers? Or we have to completely change and buy a pc.

I’ve been in touch with a few mac porting teams that do this professionally. They create wine shells, which allow you to install a windows program (that you’ve purchased) into the shell, and then the wine shell runs it as if it is native to the mac. A compact self contained windows app.

Reallusion, could you please explain the technical side and reason for blocking emulation?
If it’s to do with the app not working as it should, then surely we understand that it’s at our own risks.

If I buy a car and want to install oval wheel, that’s up to me, and I understand it might not run as you’ve intended.

The nice thing about software is if things go wrong , you can uninstall and reinstall to an intended system. Trial and error for personal use, but we have the ability to port, but we’ve been taken the opportunity away from us with a prompt saying “emulation isn’t allowed”.

Please reallusion , explain this. Is this an exclusivity partnership or lack of resources? If it’s resources, then we, the paying customers are willing and able to firstly pay full price for software, and make it run on preferred system.

Why is emulation blocked?

I strongly believe MAC is just not ready for many design software. I am having serious issues as many designing 2D and 3D software do not work on MAC.
Even though MAC is virus free and I would love to use it but I cannot because of this kind of very reasons.

My next rig will also be Windows




CTA5, Iclone 7, 3D Exchange Pro, Character Creator 3, Popcornfx plugin, Zbrush, Blender, Vue 2014, Adobe cc suite, Spriter
Homebuild Workstation (Pretty old now but still working great) Win 10, Intel i7 950, 24 GB RAM DDR3, Gigabyte x58a-ud7 motherboard, AMD R9 390 sapphire 8GB VRAM.
Official Website  Reallusion Store  

I don't think RL is interested in blocking anything intentionally. Why would they? But if it requires on the part of RL to make it work, I can understand that they are hesitant.

EDIT: Peter explains below why it is blocked; emulation would be a support nightmare.

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While you may understand the risks, there will be many that won't and we know from experience this will lead to complaints and constant requests for Support. Sadly there are too many technical issues with emulation to make this an available option. It's not a case that emulation works flawlessly but we have decided to just block it. That would be nonsensical.

Although I understand this is frustrating, for now Parallels Desktop and Bootcamp (Intel users) are the only two options for Mac users that can give acceptable performance.


                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

Reallusion has said repeatedly that you need an intel mac with a full>>>BOOTCAMP<<< install of windows , to run any Reallusion software on mac hardware.

Emulators are not supported.

if you buy a newer M1-M2 mac you leave bootcamp& windows and Reallusion software in the past.

RAG DOLL COLLISION ANIMATIONS FOR ICLONE 8 & 7
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Ghost Origins

My latest Feature length film created with Iclone.

My IMDB listing
Anabran Abdhul Quarnain - IMDb

Apple is very good in making itself incompatible...

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Which is something people need to seriously consider if they plan on having alot of options for 3D/CG ,yet are determined to be mac OS exclusive.

I have an “old “ 2017 Imac with Maxon C4D R21 ,Daz studio, Blender and some cool 2d graphic design programs.

But for my serious 3D/CG work I have a Dell PC tower with windows 10.

RAG DOLL COLLISION ANIMATIONS FOR ICLONE 8 & 7
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ghost Origins

My latest Feature length film created with Iclone.

My IMDB listing
Anabran Abdhul Quarnain - IMDb

I live in a 100% Apple ecosystem and it's hard to imagine using anything else but it wasn't hard to add a Windows PC to the office just to run the RL apps. Windows continually throws up stuff that makes me wonder how anyone uses it for any productive work but the apps themselves work fine - often better on Windows hardware because of better graphics support -  so, to me anyway, it's not the big deal most Mac users seem determined to make it.


Jeff Kirkland | Director • Cinematographer • Storyteller
Hobart • Tasmania • www.one18films.com
SYSTEM: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 | 32gb RAM | RTX 3060 12gb | 1tb SSD System | 6tb HDD Storage

I avoid "baby" Windows (the Home edition) and Windows 11, and I have rarely issues. I also usually build my own systems, which provides me with the necessary hardware quality control.

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Yeah, I’m using Windows 10 pro or whatever they call it. It’s the small things that give me headaches. Things like not being to just hit the space bar to preview a file, having to close a file in order to delete it, app windows not being fully modal, etc. I’ve lost count of how many apps I‘ve had to install just to get windows doing the same things macOS can do out of the box. 

Jeff Kirkland | Director • Cinematographer • Storyteller
Hobart • Tasmania • www.one18films.com
SYSTEM: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 | 32gb RAM | RTX 3060 12gb | 1tb SSD System | 6tb HDD Storage