Radarbox 3d on a mac - Help please!

[Colin Parker]

Hi, I've tried searching the forums and not quite found the answer to my specific problem...anyone able to help?

Last week I bought a Radarbox 3D which I run on my iMac. Using Bootcamp, it runs fine but then obviously I can't use my iMac for anything else since I hate using Windows for anything.

I also have VMWare Fusion installed and when I try the Radarbox on that, it works fine for about 3 minutes then stops picking up anything. The "Hardware Connected" still shows green but it picks up zero flights. It still manages to pick up all the hundreds of flights from the network though. Running it in VMWare it seems very very slow and jerky, especially the Google Earth rendering. When I check my CPU usage in the Mac OS, VMWare alone uses between 100 - 120% of CPU capacity. It there just so much data for it to handle that it gives up after a few minutes? On the box itself, the green light stays on but the blue USB light and Antenna light turn off. If I close the AirNav program and restart it, the flights do not come back but if I close down VMWare and restart it, once again I can pick up flights for about 3 minutes before it all stops again. I have already stopped sharing data to the network and also tried to stop retrieving data from the network to lessen the load but its the same.

I don't think it is an issue with the Radarbox itself since today I ran it in Bootcamp for about 8 hours with no problems including both sharing and retrieving data from the network.

My iMac is about 3 years old and specs below:

Model Name:   iMac
  Model Identifier:   iMac7,1
  Processor Name:   Intel Core 2 Duo
  Processor Speed:   2.4 GHz
  Number Of Processors:   1
  Total Number Of Cores:   2
  L2 Cache:   4 MB
  Memory:   3 GB
  Bus Speed:   800 MHz
  Boot ROM Version:   IM71.007A.B03
  SMC Version (system):   1.21f4


Surely a 3 year old computer is capable of running the AirNav program in VMWare?

Any help appreciated...maybe I have the settings wrong somewhere?

Thanks!

[AirNav Support]

Hi Colin,

Firstly please remember that when using a virtual pc software, its sharing your resources with two operating systems, so in your case Windows and MAC OS and you are running RadarBox 3D. This will place pressure on your system regardless.

RadarBox 3D has a few settings in the 3D Settings windows which allow you to choose whether to display all aircraft using the 3D models or certain types (hardware rather than network) Have a play around with these settings.

Even a fairly new pc with busy traffic with all the 3D settings turned up it will take a large amount of resources.

[Colin Parker]

Thanks. I already have the settings on minimum. I didn't realise buying one of these was going to result in my having to buy a dedicated stand-alone PC to run it on! Might have affected my buying decision!!

Ok so what spec PC should I buy to be able to run it properly with all features enabled? Obviously I only want a cheap one!

Having said that, I note that other users have successfully run it on VMWare or Parallels. Anyone able to tell me how they are doing that, or do you have very high-spec Macs?

[AirNav Support]

If its already on the minimum can you tell us how much traffic you usually have on screen?

Also check your settings for a virtual software, as in some you can specify how much processor and memory is given. It might be set on something low at the moment.

[Colin Parker]

Regardless of minimum or maximum I seem to get around 60 planes. I live in a block of flats facing north so basically I only get stuff north of where I am. This number is the same whether I run it in my virtual software or in windows itself. The problem is that the virtual software works 100% fine then stops detecting planes completely after about 3 minutes.

Looking at whether I can increase the RAM on my computer and whether it would actually help.

...Incidentally however, if I do need to go to my final option, which is to buy a dedicated PC just to run Radarbox, what spec computer should I be looking to buy to enable me to run the RadarBox at it absolute maximum settings?

[AirNav Support]

Hi Colin,

Maybe someone who runs a similar setup can comment, but we recall that users found a specific virtual software to be the best one for RadarBox, it might have been parallels.

If you want the the max settings (which includes having all network flights - 1000 of them with models) then any PC in the last year or so with a good graphics card will be fine to handle it (not the budget CPU or budget graphics card)

[metalmaster]

hi colin,

i run an imac (with the lovely big 27" screen), 2.8 quad core with 8 gig of ram,i have used vmware fusion3 from day 1, while running the radarbox and dont have any troubles at all,

i can leave it running all day without probs and pickup between 60-200 planes depending on the time of day,i dont run the network at all.
 

[Colin Parker]

Thanks guys.

I am trying to find out how much RAM my computer can take since that is the only thing I can change. I have 3GB now and I know 6GB will work. Trying to find out whether two 4GB sticks of RAM will work. I can try Parallels but given that VMWare completely gives up on the minimum settings, I don't think Parallels is going to allow me to run it to its full potential.