Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix PC game in bootcamp not working?

Joined
Jul 16, 2007
Messages
67
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Philadelphia PA
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook 2.16gHz 1GB ram white, 60GB iPod Photo
Hello everyone! I have a question, I just got a brand new Macbook 2.16gHz 1GB ram and I installed windows XP through boot camp. I bought the new harry potter game (which has been promised on the mac but hasn't arrived yet) and installed it, but it won't run. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do? The computer seems to have more than the minimum requirements for the game. Has anyone had the same problem or have you gotten it to work?

Thanks so much!
 

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
What are the video card requirements? DirectX 9? The standard MacBook doesn't have a discrete video card and simply won't work with games that have hefty graphics requirements.
 
OP
virtuoso06
Joined
Jul 16, 2007
Messages
67
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Philadelphia PA
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook 2.16gHz 1GB ram white, 60GB iPod Photo
Yes, I believe the disk had directx 9 on it and it installed it with the game, I seem to remember something about that.
 

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but I don't believe the Intel integrated graphics have full support for DX9.
 
OP
virtuoso06
Joined
Jul 16, 2007
Messages
67
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Philadelphia PA
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook 2.16gHz 1GB ram white, 60GB iPod Photo
Is there any way around this? Would it be any different in parallels?
 

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
Is there any way around this? Would it be any different in parallels?

Unfortunately, no. Your computer's graphics card lacks certain capabilities that the game needs to run. It would actually be worse in Parallels since Parallels has very limited 3D graphics support.

To give you an automotive analogy (which I tend to be fond of). You can't pull a boat with a Geo Metro, because it simply doesn't have a powerful enough engine.
 
Joined
Apr 4, 2007
Messages
2,641
Reaction score
134
Points
63
Location
Durtburg, WV
Your Mac's Specs
Sooper Fast!
Unfortunately, no. Your computer's graphics card lacks certain capabilities that the game needs to run. It would actually be worse in Parallels since Parallels has very limited 3D graphics support.

To give you an automotive analogy (which I tend to be fond of). You can't pull a boat with a Geo Metro, because it simply doesn't have a powerful enough engine.

Really? I thought the newest version of Paralells had full DX9 support...
 

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
Really? I thought the newest version of Paralells had full DX9 support...

No, I believe it's limited to DX8 and OpenGL. Here's one of the articles I was able to dig up. I knew Aero in Vista wasn't supported in 3.0, and I figured that to mean that DX9 isn't supported in 3.0, but everything I've read seems to indicate that full DX9 support is not available yet.
 
Joined
Jul 6, 2007
Messages
681
Reaction score
13
Points
18
Location
UK
Your Mac's Specs
MBP : 2.4GHz : 2GB RAM : 256MB VRAM : 160GB HDD
Apple actually took a huge step back in the games department when they went to Intel.

Before that they actually had a page on the website of the iBooks and Mac Mini saying how great they where because they had dedicated graphics cards, and that meant you could run games; where as "lesser" products would use this "integrated graphics" stuff that was largely useless. Thanks Apple! I'll be sure to avoid that stuff. Then there was the big selling point of the G5s being 64 bit and that was the future.... until they decided to stick a 32 bit Intel processor in there to make progress (I'm glad I didn't jump at the first lot of Intel Macs).

I'm not saying it was a bad move... I just don't think Apple should have "rushed" into it the way they did. They'd given themselves 2 years to get everything sorted out, and ended up doing everything in about 12 months... I think certain things could have been thought out better.
 

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
Apple actually took a huge step back in the games department when they went to Intel.

Before that they actually had a page on the website of the iBooks and Mac Mini saying how great they where because they had dedicated graphics cards, and that meant you could run games; where as "lesser" products would use this "integrated graphics" stuff that was largely useless. Thanks Apple! I'll be sure to avoid that stuff. Then there was the big selling point of the G5s being 64 bit and that was the future.... until they decided to stick a 32 bit Intel processor in there to make progress (I'm glad I didn't jump at the first lot of Intel Macs).

I'm not saying it was a bad move... I just don't think Apple should have "rushed" into it the way they did. They'd given themselves 2 years to get everything sorted out, and ended up doing everything in about 12 months... I think certain things could have been thought out better.

Absolutely, the addition of Intel integrated graphics solutions was a HUGE step backward. The whole industry (except for bottom rung OEMs) is moving away from integrated graphics - even in ultraportables. With as much of a premium as MacBooks command, I find it unbelievable that they haven't moved over to even a mid-range discrete video card.

Also, I've said it before, I know, but the Core Duo chips ARE 64-bit capable. The instruction set is disabled, but for all we know, someone may find a way to unlock it down the line. Probably not much help to those of us that are running them in Macs, but Linux users may be able to use them to their full potential someday.
 
Joined
Apr 20, 2006
Messages
2,255
Reaction score
47
Points
48
Your Mac's Specs
Al iMac 20" 2.4Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
Sorry, but if you buy a laptop with integrated graphics and want to play games then you've nobody but yourself to blame really.

At present, the only Apple machine suitable for PC gaming is the MacBook Pro. The 20" and 24" iMacs and the MacPro will give average to reasonable performance in games.

The MacBook and Mac Mini are NOT suitable for any modern games.

Which is why the new iMac needs to have decent graphics inside next week.
 
OP
virtuoso06
Joined
Jul 16, 2007
Messages
67
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Philadelphia PA
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook 2.16gHz 1GB ram white, 60GB iPod Photo
Sorry, but if you buy a laptop with integrated graphics and want to play games then you've nobody but yourself to blame really.

At present, the only Apple machine suitable for PC gaming is the MacBook Pro. The 20" and 24" iMacs and the MacPro will give average to reasonable performance in games.

The MacBook and Mac Mini are NOT suitable for any modern games.

Which is why the new iMac needs to have decent graphics inside next week.


I didn't buy my macbook just to play pc games. I've been using macs for atleast 10 years now and have been very happy with them. I just thought I would try out boot camp and parallels to see how well they actually perform. I guess I was hoping for more.

Oh well.
 

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
I didn't buy my macbook just to play pc games. I've been using macs for atleast 10 years now and have been very happy with them. I just thought I would try out boot camp and parallels to see how well they actually perform. I guess I was hoping for more.

Oh well.

Understood. Fortunately, the vast majority of Windows software should run beautifully in either Boot Camp or Parallels (I prefer Parallels so that I can run it side-by-side with OS X). It's just the intensive, 3D games that are going to be hit-or-miss. Being that the Harry Potter game is pretty new, it's been designed to run on higher-end hardware.

You'd have the same experience on a low-end PC notebook that has integrated graphics, which is precisely why I'm frustrated with the MacBook that is priced way outside of that segment.
 
Joined
Aug 9, 2007
Messages
26
Reaction score
0
Points
1
The Intel 950 GMA is DirectX 9 compliant, so running Windows through Boot Camp will give DX9 support. The biggest problem is MacBook's limit the shared video memory to 64Mb. Most new PC games require at least 128 Mb Video Ram.

What happens when you try to run the game?
 
OP
virtuoso06
Joined
Jul 16, 2007
Messages
67
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Philadelphia PA
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook 2.16gHz 1GB ram white, 60GB iPod Photo
The Intel 950 GMA is DirectX 9 compliant, so running Windows through Boot Camp will give DX9 support. The biggest problem is MacBook's limit the shared video memory to 64Mb. Most new PC games require at least 128 Mb Video Ram.

What happens when you try to run the game?

It just doesn't start up. It installs correctly but just refuses to start up. Ah well.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top