How to use/optimize Virtual Box and Bootcamp for Mac Users

Hello my fellow Mac brothers and sisters. I decided to make this thread since I've been through hell and back trying to get Virtualbox/bootcamp to work smoothly on my 2015 retina base model 13-inch macbook pro. Everything mentioned is the product of my own trial and error as well as numerous different snippets I have taken from people's troubleshooting posts on the web. I've seen lots of people struggling with similar issues (however NOBODY is posting any guides to help smh) so hopefully Mr.Ziren can make your lives a little easier.

Personally, I found Virtualbox to be a lot of trouble to run. Kind of like if you had twins, Virtuabox is the one twin that you dislike more. Essentially, you're running two operating systems at the same time, and it's no kidding that your macbook is going to heat up significantly. Bootcamp runs as smooth as my frame perfect invincible ledge dashes so that is what I would recommend.

Note: I suggest that you only use virtualbox/bootcamp for royals. Meaning that's all you have downloaded on it.

Let's start off with Virtualbox. I tried to use a legit Windows 7 iso+key however Royals wouldn't run on it. My alternative which I found worked fine was windows 10. The best thing about windows 10 is that Microsoft lets you download the iso (at no cost) and it does not require a product key so just skip that option when prompted. The iso can be found here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10ISO. For my model I downloaded Windows 10 64-bit home, not the pro version.

Setting up your virtual machine should be fairly simple. You can find numerous guides online which show you step by step what to do. This guide is more focused on optimizing your settings so your Macbook doesn't burn a hole through your desk.

Note: I apologize for the potato photos, however I hate using the clipping function on my Mac, so bear with me.

Now that you have a windows 10 Virtual Machine set up, let's go about optimizing it. I found that with all the default options, it was consuming around 200% of my cpu (two cores) while running, and around 150%-170% when idle. After these fixes it ran at about 100% cpu while in use and 80-90% idle. This is still fairly intensive especially taking into account this is with only one channel functioning and I was essentially henehoing the whole time (which is why I strongly recommend Bootcamp). The first thing you'll want to do is go to your virtual machine settings which can be found when you first open up your VirtualBox app. Under SYSTEM settings, set your base memory to at least 2gigs and enable I/O APIC.

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Next, you want to go to processor and enable PAE/NX.

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Next, go to acceleration and enable Hyper-V, but DO NOT enable nest paging. That will consume a lot of your CPU and it simply isn't needed.

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Lastly, go to DISPLAY settings and set your video memory to 256mb, and make sure you ENABLE 2D and 3D acceleration.

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Now that you have all of the virtualbox settings optimized, you're going to want to Install Guest Additions. This essentially optimizes/speeds up your Virtual Machine. A step by step process can be found here: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E36500_01/E36502/html/qs-guest-additions.html

Last but not least, in your w10 virtual machine go to your power options and enable (High performance). This will speed things up significantly and not make your mac run as hot (DO NOT enable this in windows bootcamp).

You will have to change compatibility settings to Windows 7. Note that Multiple error messages (Coinitialization and Unspecified) will pop up. You will need to keep attempting to open up the client (may take up to 30 tries on a bad day) but it will eventually work. On Bootcamp, it usually opens within the first or second tries.

SOMETHING TO NOTE:
While you have your virtual box open DO NOT have any usbs plugged into your macbook at any time. It doesn't matter if there's nothing plugged in to the other side of the USB, I've tested it out 3 times and all 3 times my macbook has crashed due to a kernel panic and when I checked the logs it was Virtual Box which was the culprit. Make sure you take out ALL usbs before starting your virtual machine.


Now, on to Bootcamp *Our lord and saviour tbh*. The good thing about bootcamp is that it runs windows natively, which means it's a lot less intensive and runs a lot more smoothly than running both apple OS and a Windows VM at the same time.

The bad thing about bootcamp is that you can't access any of your files you have saved on your apple OS. The good thing about bootcamp is that if you're in University (like me) you won't be able to play Royals until you're done all your papers .

Installing windows 10 should be a breeze, you can download the iso from their website: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10ISO. For my model I downloaded Windows 10 64-bit home, not the pro version.

What I first found with bootcamp was that my macbook was running EXTREMELY hot. So hot that I couldn't use it on my lap because it was burning my legs and my fans sounded like jet engines. You want to go to power options and change your power plan from Balanced, to energy saver. This made my mac stop burning up all the time, and it feels as if I'm running my Mac OS, does not heat up at all. Unlike Virtualbox, if you set your power plan to high performance your mac will become a block of lava. I kid you not, it became so hot I swear I could have cooked an omelette on its underside. ENERGY SAVER IS KEY.

Now, you may notice you are having display issues as in your screen sometimes dims or increases in brightness randomly. This is because your light sensor does not work natively with the windows operating system. What you want to do is go to advanced power settings (should be under your plan), go down to display, and switch "Enable adaptive brightness off". Everything else should run perfectly fine, Royals was as smooth as my crispy ledgedashes.

In your mac OS, if you want your computer to boot up to your apple OS on default, then go to system preferences, startup disk, and choose the Macintosh HD option. If you want to use bootcamp by default choose bootcamp. Switching between OS is simple, simply restart your computer and hold down the option key until you hear the startup chime and then choose whichever OS you want.

Hopefully this guide helped a bit. I know nobody likes windows 10 but I haven't found a single problem with it while running Royals (you will however have to change compatibility settings to Windows 7 in both Virtual Box and Bootcamp) but after that you'll have those crispy invincible ledgedash Royals running fine in no time. If you have any questions, just comment down below I'll try to answer them if I have time. You can find me in game (ign is Ziren), probably henehoing- practicing my chair tech.

Happy mapling

-Ziren

 

OMG I'm gonna try this tomorrow and let you know if it finally solves everything for me.

This guide looks simple and awesome. Thank you so much <3

 

Keep me updated! I'm actually pretty busy tomorrow, I have an ethics paper due in the morning and a melee tournament to go to in the night but I'll try my best to help you out asap if you run into any problems. I'm usually free any time from 12-4am EST so you can expect an answer by then.

 

Windows xp is less resources on your pc/mac

 

Can you do one with the windows xp pack + Virtualbox? I don't think Windows 10 is free anymore but I remember successfully playing the game often with the free windows xp service pack on parallels on my MBP which is late 2011. Thanks

 

Ziren contributing to the community.

 

No matter what I do I cannot get it to work. I download the file and I see it on my desktop (photo of file attached) And then what do I do? When I go into bootcamp to try and instal it I get "
Boot Camp only supports 64-bit Windows 10 or later installation on this platform. Please use an ISO file for 64-bit Windows 10 or later installation". Do I need to purchase bootcamp or any windows software? I am so lost. Someone help me please.

(Below are the file and what is in the file as well as what happens on bootcamp when I try to click instal)

 

Help me

 

Yeah you need windows 10.

 

Nice guide! Move to guide section?

 

sorry to ask, does 64bit means taking 64GB of memory on your mac into window ? ?

 

64 bit is a reference to the processor. In layman's terms, 64-bit means that it can handle more data at once than its 32-bit counterpart. There will be an option for how much space you want to allocate for bootcamp, I believe the minimum is 25 gigs.

 

Think he's talking about memory, space-wise I think the default should work, if all he's gonna do is just play Royals on it.

 

He's referencing when you download the iso, there's options for 64bit and 32bit versions of Windows 10.

Memory-wise, when you actually set up bootcamp, the default partition setting is around 40 gigs. You shouldn't need more than 20 though, so you can adjust it lower than the default settings.

 

I had tried and it said I need at least 50gb of free memory only able to download the window 10.

 

If that's the case, just set it to whatever the minimum requirement is because you're just going to be using the partition to play Royals.

 

hello i know you're not looking for opinions or anything, but i thought i'd just share since i'm also a fellow mac user that runs royals on his macbook pro as well.

i'm also using a 13" macbook i bought in feb 2015, i'm not a tech person so idek what model this is but it was the latest one as of feb '15 and it has retina display

i downloaded parallels idk which version but i didn't pay for it and i youtubed for some method to keep it free, and i installed windows XP as the virtual machine (?) not sure if i'm using this term correctly.

point here is that all i have installed on the windows XP is royals, and running ONE client never seems to "demand" much from my computer - but i gauge this demand based on how hard my fan is spinning and how noisy it is. occasionally TWO clients get the fan spinning a little faster, but also sometimes the fan is moderate and my computer does not feel too hot. THREE clients is definitely demanding on my computer, but i seldom go on THREE clients so its fine.

maybe you would like to try out parallels?

edit: parallels + royals together take up about less than 10gb on my computer - idk if this is a good or a bad thing but i've heard from my friends that bootcamp can take up to 100gb so to me i thought that this was another plus point in using parallels to run this game

 

Moved and stickied.

 

Is OP still alive I have a quick question...

I usually use my Mac while it's plugged in to the charger. But I can't find a way to turn on Power Saver when the computer is plugged in.. is there a way to fix this... ?

 

Hi i have the same problem is it not possible to turn on energy saver while i'm charging? my mac is getting insanely hot i burn my hand touching my keyboard this is insane, The Fans Are louder then my Air conditioning