I installed my .net stuff recently on a Mac, i.e. preinstalled a version of Windows 7 before using Bootcamp. Does anyone have an explanation, why the Windows Phone 7 Simulator is so slow, compared to a Simulator installed on a 'regular' Windows system when deploying a target onto it?
Performance overhead might be caused because of the non-nativity of the hardware platform you are running it on. The emulator itself has a set of requirements - if these aren't met then you should expect serious drops in performance and stability (in case it starts).
When you're comparing the performance "Regular Windows", do you mean on another machine (PC)? If so, it could be down to hardware differences - (Graphics card, processor speed, less RAM, slower hard disk).
It could also be down to drivers - I don't know much about the Mac hardware, but it's possible Windows drivers aren't as good for hardware that's more commonly used by Macs.
Related
So I have a question about what system I should use to do some C# development. In my course this year at least half of my courses require me to be using Windows specific programs i.e visio, MSSQL, C# etc. I know there are alternatives but I would like to stick to these. I'm wondering about two choices and wanted to know what people could suggest - I am more concerned with performance issues. I have a Macbook Pro and I could run windows 7 on it under virtualbox where I could give it 4gb of ram. Remember I would need windows open a lot with potentially multiple programs running. I also have a desktop gaming rig from a year ago which is much more grunty and am contemplating just using that instead where I could run windows natively. I would prefer to use the mac, but really what I wanted to know is if anyone else uses windows under vb with 4gb of ram dedicated to it with no performance issues?
It depends on what type development do you want to do ? If you will develop desktop,web,console application 4gb ram will work fine for you but if you develop mobile projects or games it will be a problem future times. I have co-worker friend who using MacBook Air and developing C# programs he is using two OS one of them is orginal MacBook OS other one W8 if you have 2 section HDD you can create another OS on your notebook. I think best solution for this stuiation is setup Windows 8 to your computer.
I am developing a .NET application, and have the luxury of doing this on a fairly powerful desktop PC. I want to ensure it runs okay on PCs with much lower spec, but I don't have spare machines kicking around and can't really afford to buy them. Is there any way to simulate a lower-spec PC on my current PC, to get a feel for how the software might run?
Any help or advice would be very much appreciated.
*My PC is Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit with 8-core Intel i7 and 16GB RAM.
You could install VMWare and install any OS you want, with any hardware specs you want, provided that they don't exceed your current working hardware of course.
Keep in mind that VMWare is just a virtualization layer. It emulates an OS but you are still running your code on the same i7.
http://www.asp.net/mobile/device-simulators Here is an example of several Visual Studio plug-ins that emulate devices. You can also install Windows 8 and run hyper-v. It's great for this kind of thing.
There seems to be an odd issue with Hyper-V on AMD machines and the Microphone In. As developer I installed Hyper-V for the usage of the Windows Phone 8 SDK. A side effect is that the Microphone In since then is not working anymore - lots of static noise.
You can of course turn off Hyper-V as Windows feature or go to the BIOS to deactivate conditions which are necessary to use Hyper-V. After that the Mic In is working again.
Most solutions in the Internet suggest turning of the BIOS features but that doesn't really works, because then you cannot use the Hyper-V.
Is there any solution to this problem? I do need both at the same time.
I had a similar problem with audio playback couple years ago (Windows Server 2008). The problem was that my system did not support Second Level Address Translation (SLAT). Therefore the Hyper-V layer needs to work harder and discard the CPU page tables when swapping running OS. That causes jitter in anything that requires real-time processing.
I believe that Windows 8 requires SLAT to enable Hyper-V (see this). You probably have a different problem then. Perhaps there is a better driver available for your audio hardware?
Windows Phone 7 Emulator runs in slow mode... even tho my system supports VT
I just updated my Sony Vaio FW21E's bios update, now VT is enabled, but emulator still runs in same old slow mode.
How can I run the emulator in VT mode.
Please advise.
Make sure your system meets the requirements laid out here.
Setup and System Requirements for Windows Phone Emulator
In particular, verify your gpu is being recognised by the emualtor by checking the frame rate counters are visible.
This will not happen if your display driver is not WDDM1.1 compliant and minimum Directx 10.
I also recommend trying a Win7 install on a spare hard disk if you're running Vista. This consistently produces positive results when problems of this nature are reported on hardware compliant systems.
I had this issue on my Mac running bootcamp. I read in some forum what appeared to be the weirdest solution ever.
If I had Netflix open, streaming a movie, my emulator would work perfectly. When I did not, it would just be the slowest thing.
I read somewhere that could be related to drivers and hardware acceleration. So Windows Phone was not 'hardcore' enough to trigger turning on the acceleration on the video card but when you had the streaming ON it was using it, making it fast.
You might try that out... I know it sounds dumb but it worked for me.
The HD3450 should be ok as its a DirectX 10 card I beleive
As said above the card needs to be WDDM1.1
you can check this by running 'dxdiag' in the run or search box in vista. go to 'Display 1' (or just Dispaly) tab, and on the right there will be DDI Version - should be 10, and Driver Model - should be WDDM 1.1.
If its not compliant with WDDM1.1/DX10, it will work ok but you wont get things like aminmations on page transitions etc.
Pretty much as the title says, using bootcamp.
WDDM1.1 compliance and GPU recognition confirmed by the WP7 emulator running with EnableFrameRateCounters showing.
I'm considering a Macbook air as a compromise to resolve a need to access iphone dev tools and upgrade my Win7 mobile capability to something reasonably performant with one device.
My current laptop barely runs Win7 and borders on unusable for WP7 tooling hence the interest to try and solve two problems with one device - if realistic.
I assume if the device can run WP7 tools satisfactorily, it would be capable of anything else I might want to do when booted under Win7.
The new MacBook Airs do not have very powerful processors. The 11" maxes at 1.66 Ghz, while the 13" maxes at 2.13 Ghz. However, they do have the same GPU as the current 13" MacBook Pro. Also, since they use solid state drives, data access is significantly faster. Overall, it will not be the fastest computer you've used, but it should be enough to work.
I've bought one, but since it's going to the wife, I won't be able to test it in depth.
Instead, the MacbookPro 13" from '09 works fine (monoTouch+iOS dev and bootcamp to vstudio+wp7 dev). I upgraded to 4 gigs memory and that helped, also the disk is slower than I'd like. It responds like a mid-grade desktop, imo.
The problem I see is that the processor on the air's is ULV with a really slow clock, also the sdd in the base version is only 64g which is going to be cramped, I think.
Consider this: many Mac gamers install Windows with bootcamp just to have better gameplay experience.
That's because Windows have native access to the GPU through bootcamp.
http://www.mth.kcl.ac.uk/~shaww/web_page/grid/macgpu.htm (2009 article)
http://www.gpgpu.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3766&highlight=bootcamp (2007 article)
So the answer is yes.