Mac Support

[fulmar2]

I love Topofusion, and with a fair amount of research, I've been unable to find another program that has all the features that one could wish for, is constantly being improved, and is a great value.  Only Topofusion fits this bill.

There are a growing number of Mac Users, and many of us are willing to use Parallels to use great PC software. (actually, the only reason I use parallels is for TopoFusion - the rest of my applications have a suitable Mac equivalent).  The problem is that - even with Parallels 4.0, we cannot run Topofusion Pro very well.  Topofusion Basic works superbly, but all of the new development is focused on the Pro version.  I purchased more RAM, allocated 2GB (of 4GB) to the PC, and topofusion ~works~ but it frequently crashes (upon startup, or while zooming in and out of maps).   I know this is probably a tall order - but it would be really really neat to be able to use Topofusion Pro on the Mac.  Thank you for considering my request; meanwhile, I will continue to be pretty happy using and spreading the word about TopoFusion basic (and Pro to my PC friends).

[ScottMorris]

Thanks for the praise on the program -- glad you like it.

We are hearing increasingly from Mac users, but so far there are no plans for a port or anything.

Fortunately the latest version of VMWare Fusion runs TF Pro 100%.  See here:

http://www.topofusion.com/forum/index.php?topic=3802.0

I think VMWare Fusion runs about the same cost as TF Pro.  $70 or so bucks.

Hope that helps.

[fulmar2]

Scott -

Excellent suggestion.  I spent a few hours this evening downloading VMware Fusion, and converting my Parallels Virtual Machine to a VMware Fusion Machine.  Not only was Parallels unable to run Topofusion in a satisfactory manner, but the latest update had been giving me frequent Kernel Panics (that results in a hard reboot - yuck).  SO, in case there are any other Mac Users out there who want to use TopoFusion, I highly recommend purchasing VMware Fusion.  In my few hours of testing, it seems to be superior to Parallels in other ways too.  I am very happy to be finally using TopoFusion Pro!!  Thanks!

[fulmar2]

Oh, the version of VMware Fusion that is working well:

Version 2.0.2 (146107)

[fulmar2]

After more research and testing for the Mac people, I have come up with an update.

I have now tested the latest builds of Parallels, VMWare Fusion, and BootCamp.

If you have Leopard, and are willing to deal with the inconvenience of a dual-boot system, BootCamp is going to be the best option for Topofusion Pro.  It's free with Leopard, and Topofusion Pro performs flawlessly in BootCamp.

If you have $70 bucks to spend VMWare Fusion is convenient, and works well with Topofusion Pro.  After testing all of the features, I found that the only Topofusion Pro feature that does not work is the User Edited Maps.  For some reason, the maps do not display.  Topofusion Pro does not crash when trying to make User Edited Maps, but the image simply doesn't show up (or it does for a millisecond, but then disappears).  Perhaps Scott could shed some light on how User Edited images are different so I could relay this information to VMWare fusion (in the unlikely event that they'd try and support this).  Versions of VMWare tested: 2.0.2 to 2.0.4.

Parallels is capable of displaying User Edited Maps - and all of the other Topofusion Pro features - but Parallels 4.0.3810 (and earlier) becomes highly unstable when using Topofusion Pro.  This happens often enough to make is an unsuitable virtual machine for Topofusion Pro.  Crashes bring down the guest AND host - meaning hard reboot.

[ScottMorris]

Very cool, thanks for the update on this.  Glad to know VMWare Fusion is still working.

That's strange that user maps don't work.  Did you try adjusting the transparency throughout the range?  It's just displayed as a texture , like any other map tile is.  You say is shows for an instant (does it look like the correct map?) so it's not likely to be an issue with loading the image file.

Hmm.

[fulmar2]

Yes, this is tricky.   Photofusion works well.  I did try adjusting the transparency throughout the range several times - with PNG, JPG, and BMP images.  The map did display (a few times for an instant) but it was so fast - it was kind of like a flicker on the screen - couldn't tell what it was.  I recognize that this is most likely a VMware issue (User Maps work on Boot Camp).  But I was hoping I could figure out if there was anything different about displaying the User Maps which might be a clue to why it might not be working...
Hmm...

[steverod]

As an update:

User maps appear to work in VMware Fusion 3.0 (at least, they didn't in 2.0.6 but do for me in 3.0; this is on OS X 10.6.2).

[fulmar2]

Steverod -

Thanks!!  I upgraded my VMFusion virtual machine yesterday (for $27.99).  Sure enough, on my OSX 10.5.8 machine, Topofusion seems to be working 100%.  This is great.

[berck]

I switched from VMware Fusion 2.0.6 to Parallels 5.0. Topofusion Pro runs better than before. No issues for me. It used to have a bit of a lag (with drawing the maps) under Fusion but worked. The lag doesn't exist anymore.

I too wish they'd do a Mac version. I suggested using Mono for them over a year ago. That atleast would help make the code more portable.

[steverod]

As an update:

User maps appear to work in VMware Fusion 3.0 (at least, they didn't in 2.0.6 but do for me in 3.0; this is on OS X 10.6.2).

Further update: Really Large (like 5MB, 3600x3600) user maps reliably corrupt my Mac's display and eventually crash the physical machine. This is with VMware Fusion 3.0.1, TF 3.95, and OS X 10.6.2.
(I had exported a map from Another Mapping Program as a PDF, saved the PDF to JPG, and then tried to import to TF -- the Other Program won't let me export directly to KMZ, or directly to hires JPG, hence the roundabout method.)

I've reported this to VMware but have heard nothing back. Small-scale maps still seem to work just fine.
Be warned...