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GabrielM
Contributor
Contributor

Unity flickering

Are there any plans to improve the Unity mode until the final release? I notice a lot of flickering when moving, resizing Windows, and when a window opens. Its annoying.

I also sent a bug report regarding applications not showing in the dock in Unity mode.

Finally, multi-monitor support would be really really nice to have!

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Pat_Lee
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Are there any plans to improve the Unity mode until

the final release? I notice a lot of flickering when

moving, resizing Windows, and when a window opens.

Its annoying.

What type of Mac are you using? On my MacBook Pro, there is some minor flickering with resizing and moving Windows, though this is a limitation of how Unity brings in individual Windows windows as Mac apps.

I also sent a bug report regarding applications not

showing in the dock in Unity mode.

Did you update to the latest VMware Tools in the Release Candidate and restart both the VM and then VMware Fusion? Applications should then show up in the dock in Unity mode.

Finally, multi-monitor support would be really really

nice to have!

Now that VMware Fusion is feature complete with the release candidate, Multi-monitor is a great feature request for the next release of VMware Fusion.

Best,

Pat Lee

Senior Product Manager - Mac Products

VMware

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GabrielM
Contributor
Contributor

I reinstalled the tools and rebooted. It did not help. Some applications are appearing, but others not (Visual Studio 2005 is not working).

On my MacBook Pro, there's a lot of flickering...

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GabrielM
Contributor
Contributor

The problem with flickering is when I maximize or resize a window - I see the windows desktop for a fraction of a second...

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hootjr
Contributor
Contributor

Gabriel,

Same results. I'm actually disappointed that the final was released with a Unity that is this buggy! I was certain that with VMware's excellent debugging and tweaking on the ESX side, that there was going to be an RC2 and RC3 minimally.

My problems with Unity are as follows (keep in mind that I am comparing my experience to Parallels 3.0):

1) dragging windows around is slow.

2) I have the unity.showTaskbar = "true" set in tools.conf. If I move my windows toolbar anywhere but the bottom of the screen or right side, the redrawing of the windows in unity doesn't work properly. I imagine that the algorithm needs to be tweaked.

3) not that I care much, but in unity the drop shadows behind the windows doesn't match up with the way native OSX windows behave. Active windows typically have a larger drop shadow than non-active ones. Currently, all windows in unity have a large drop shadow, when they should be smaller when they're not active.

4) sometimes the redrawing doesn't work properly. And again... very slow.

I have a MacBook with 2G ram. My VM has 600MB, which works great in parallels. So for now I'm attempting to manage with Fusion in hopes that more updates will be in the works soon.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

2) I have the unity.showTaskbar = "true" set in

tools.conf.

As you say, the algorithm needs to be tweaked, and is why this is an unsupported feature.

3) not that I care much, but in unity the drop

shadows behind the windows doesn't match up with the

way native OSX windows behave.

This is because of the way OS X handles drop shadows for windows.

I don't know if all the known redraw issues were fixed for GA, but it would not surprise me if some got though. No idea about your slowness issue. You have the latest tools installed, right?

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hootjr
Contributor
Contributor

yes. I originally allowed Fusion to automatically update my tools after it had booted for the first time in the 1.0 release.

I have found a few more things in Unity that don't work right:

1) I use dual monitors. my external lmonitor is my primary monitor for my mac with the doc on my Dell2407WFP. I prefer to work on this monitor when I'm at my desk. I frequently need to disconnect the monitor and go into another room with my laptop for a conference call or something of that nature. With parallels, while in coherence, I would just disconnect the external mini-dvi connector and walk into the conference room. Parallels would resize the windows vm so that it would match my laptops resolution. All of this was done while in coherence. WIth Fusion, it does not work. Instead, I have to change to single window mode, then pull the dvi cable, then put it back to unity.

2) sometimes when going between my mac apps back to windows, I can't get the windows apps to respond. I have to set the view to single window mode and then change it back to unity again. Then my apps will respond again.

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wolfneuralnet
Contributor
Contributor

I have similar problems when disconnecting from an external monitor, or connecting to one if Fusion is already running.

Either way, the VM turns either full white or full black, and there is no way to get it back other than rebooting the VM. This is a disaster when you have forgotten to save something, obviously.

I also can't imagine this is expected behavior - do you get these same problems?

Thanks

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