i need smoothness in a macOS VM

[JoHeJo06]

hello,

im running macOS 12 (the last version) in virtualbox as an experiment.  i am experiencing some bad graphical quality, macOS is full of animations, but they are very stuttery (is this even a word?)

i installed some software called VM Tool, which apparently kind of acts like a display driver, making things smoother, but i dont see a lot difference.

i havent installed or configured anything else aside from getting the VM to run at 1080p.

 

what do i need to do to make macOS smoother?

[whispous]

2 minutes ago, JoHeJo06 said:

hello,

im running macOS 12 (the last version) in virtualbox as an experiment.  i am experiencing some bad graphical quality, macOS is full of animations, but they are very stuttery (is this even a word?)

i installed some software called VM Tool, which apparently kind of acts like a display driver, making things smoother, but i dont see a lot difference.

i havent installed or configured anything else aside from getting the VM to run at 1080p.

 

what do i need to do to make macOS smoother?

What resources have you allocated to it? What CPU are you using, and how many cores/how much RAM have you allocated?

[JoHeJo06]

Just now, whispous said:

What resources have you allocated to it? What CPU are you using, and how many cores/how much RAM have you allocated?

4 cores, 4gb of ram, and i made a 100gb virtual drive.

i dont really know the difference between the virtual gpus so i am using the it defaulted on, VboxVGA.

 

 

[Radium_Angel]

3 hours ago, JoHeJo06 said:

4 cores, 4gb of ram, and i made a 100gb virtual drive.

i dont really know the difference between the virtual gpus so i am using the it defaulted on, VboxVGA.

 

 

You are using software acceleration and that's why it's not as smooth. Getting hardware acceleration is NOT (EDIT: wrong werd) for the faint of heart however, so it may not be possible

[JoHeJo06]

3 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

You are using software acceleration and that's why it's not as smooth. Getting hardware acceleration is some for the faint of heart however, so it may not be possible

i wouldnt know why...

i also have an Ubuntu and Mint VM (also a windows 98se) and these run pretty smooth, but macOS is almost unusable, animations are very choppy and the cursor is stuttering a lot.

[Radium_Angel]

2 hours ago, JoHeJo06 said:

i wouldnt know why...

i also have an Ubuntu and Mint VM (also a windows 98se) and these run pretty smooth, but macOS is almost unusable, animations are very choppy and the cursor is stuttering a lot.

MacOS is accelerated via the GPU and free VM software doesn't use hardware acceleration...so it's choppy.

Hardware passthrough can be done via nVidia Quadros, but IIRC there are no nVidia drivers for MacOS so I don't know how that would work.

[Paul Thexton]

Check the accessibility settings in system settings, you should be able to tell macOS to reduce window animations and turn off UI transparency.

 

A good chunk of the macOS desktop is GPU accelerated since at least Catalina, so unless your VM software can present a vGPU that macOS thinks is Metal compatible you’re going to struggle to get a perfectly smooth UI.

[Lightwreather]

On 12/4/2022 at 7:06 PM, Radium_Angel said:

Hardware passthrough can be done via nVidia Quadros, but IIRC there are no nVidia drivers for MacOS so I don't know how that would work.

I distinctly remember there being an LTT video from years ago using an Nvidia card in a macOS VM, I'll try to find a link.

Edit: 

 

[Radium_Angel]

4 hours ago, Lightwreather JfromN said:

I distinctly remember there being an LTT video from years ago using an Nvidia card in a macOS VM, I'll try to find a link.

Edit: 

 

Did you actually watch that video?

In order for this to work, you need BOTH a Linux install, and a real Mac system.

If you have a Mac system, then running MacOS in a VM is kinda pointless.

 

This is one of those experiments where someone went well out of their way to prove it can be done...provided you are willing to go through Hell to make it so. And Heaven help you if you run across unexpected issues, because the video won't.

[Lightwreather]

1 hour ago, Radium_Angel said:

If you have a Mac system, then running MacOS in a VM is kinda pointless.

I mean, if you've bothered seeing it, you'd know that the Mac is solely required for acquiring an ISO, something that has a been worked around by Opencore, should you desire a dmg, rather than sketchy ISOs.

1 hour ago, Radium_Angel said:

This is one of those experiments where someone went well out of their way to prove it can be done...provided you are willing to go through Hell to make it so. And Heaven help you if you run across unexpected issues, because the video won't.

That is absolutely true. but the decision to go through is solely up to the OP.

Beyond that, yes I do know the video is over 3 years old, but the point was to say that it can and has been done and that it can still be done.

[Radium_Angel]

19 minutes ago, Lightwreather JfromN said:

you'd know that the Mac is solely required for acquiring an ISO

Right, but my point is...if you have the real thing, why bother with a virtual thing? Not to mention the required dual video cards and solid command of Linux...Arch no less.

20 minutes ago, Lightwreather JfromN said:

but the point was to say that it can and has been done and that it can still be done.

By a very small subset of the population.

But technically you are correct...which is the best kind of correct...correct?

[Lightwreather]

1 minute ago, Radium_Angel said:

if you have the real thing, why bother with a virtual thing?

That would be true, if it was the only way, which it isn't. 

2 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Not to mention the required dual video cards

I would say that an iGPU would be enough for the host OS but I can't say anything since I don't know what system the OP is running.

 

3 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

solid command of Linux...Arch no less.

I can't argue with that. There are scripts which should do all the hard work (such as this), but they don't support Nvidia-cards past pascal. However they should be fine with AMD cards.

6 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

By a very small subset of the population.

To be fair, its a small subset of an already small subset of people wanting to run macOS VMs with pass-through.

7 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

But technically you are correct...which is the best kind of correct...correct?

I would say, yes.

[MaxBleat]

Quote

defaults write com.apple.Accessibility DifferentiateWithoutColor -int 1
defaults write com.apple.Accessibility ReduceMotionEnabled -int 1
defaults write com.apple.universalaccess reduceMotion -int 1
defaults write com.apple.universalaccess reduceTransparency -int 1
defaults write com.apple.Accessibility ReduceMotionEnabled -int 1

Source: https://github.com/sickcodes/osx-optimizer
Quoted above is the graphical subset of commands to reduce the overhead of virtualized macOS instances.