VirtualBox Gets OpenGL Acceleration Support

[phoronix]

Phoronix: VirtualBox Gets OpenGL Acceleration Support

Sun Microsystems has announced the release this morning of VirtualBox 2.1 with several enticing additions. VirtualBox 2.1 introduces support for hardware virtualization (through Intel VT and AMD's AMD-V) on Mac OS X host systems, support for 64-bit guest operating systems on 32-bit host systems, support for Intel Nehalem (Core i7) virtualization enhancements, full VMDK/VHD support, a new NAT engine, and new Host Interface Networking implementations on Linux and Windows...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=NjkzOA

[marakaid]

Now only a good Direct3d to OpenGL converter is needed, like Wine has, and you can play UT3 Windows under your VirtualBox running in Linux host.

[powered_by_tux]

Great job done by Sun!

I have just tested it with Warcraft 3 TFT (OGL mode) on Windows XP 32-Bit running in VirtualBox 2.1 on Ubuntu 8.10. It has some minor graphical glitches but it works amazingly well.

[BlackStar]

Yes! I've been waiting for this moment for more than two years. I can finally put my windows partition to rest (I used it only to test my opengl programs).

Way to go, VirtualBox! You rock!

[joffe]

OpenGL acceleration.. How? Can they expose graphics hardware to a virtual machine? Really?

[Vadi]

Would be nice to see if this even works. I tried vmware, and it failed horribly for when I needed it. Such a pita to setup and I was getting 5fps.

[Eragon]

I can't believe it!

If directx support comes as well, than gamers won't need to set up a dual-boot anymore! Just a windows xp VM would be enough! :)

[Tares]

holy macaroni ;o only one step further (DX9) and goodbye windows for good ;-)

[korpenkraxar]

What a fantastic X-mas gift!

I just got a little scholarship at the uni and need a new multicore box for bioinformatics work. Perhaps I should go with Sun as a way to say thanx for their open source efforst over the last couple of years...

[Zhick]

I've got mixed feelings about this...
Ok, so you can play Windows-games without rebooting into a seperate windows-partition... but that's about it.
You still need a Windows-install and thus a Windows-licence (if you want to stay on the legal side). And I fear game-developers might be even less intrigued to do linux-ports, since hey, they can play it on a vm just as well.

[bulletxt]

one word: WOW!

and for Zhick:
the only way developers make ports for an OS is that that OS is seriously in the market business. Linux, as of today isn't and this is a fact you must accept. What we all hope is obviously that this one day changes, but Microsoft has more power than your brain could ever imagine.

substitute the word "power" with anything else you prefer, from "corruption", "FUD", and more.

[Thunderbird]

Their opengl layer is not that fast yet and it doesn't offer a lot of more opengl features like glsl and fbo. They are thinking about using wine's direct3d layer in the beginning. I would recommend Wine over VirtualBox then.

[wswartzendruber]

I wonder if they'll write a WDM-capable graphics driver for Windows Vista. That way we'll get Aero support. Then again, it probably wouldn't be too fast.

[EmbraceUnity]

I can't imagine how they got 64 bit clients to work on 32 bit hosts. Can anyone explain how this is possible?

Exciting times

[Kano]

That only works with help of VT/Pacifica, that means not with cheap Intel CPUs like series 1/2/4. Or the Q8 series. E8 has VT.

[uwgandalf]

Anyone luck with actually playing a game?
I can't seem to get "Unreal tournament GOTY" working in opengl
Besides that, virtualbox screws up mouse positioning in game-like windows big-time

[BlackStar]

Anyone luck with actually playing a game?
I can't seem to get "Unreal tournament GOTY" working in opengl
Besides that, virtualbox screws up mouse positioning in game-like windows big-time

Not tried yet, but there indeed are problems with mouse positioning in games.

In case anyone wonders, the 3d driver reports: "Chromium, Humper, 1.5 Chromium 1.9" and supports up to GL1.5 (tested on a 4850 with Catalyst 8.12). The guest driver also includes some interesting Chromium-specific OpenGL extensions:

boundingbox
cursorposition
headspuname
performanceinfo
printstring
readbackbarriersize
saveframe
serveridsharing
servermatrix
stateparameter
synchronization
tileinfo
tilesortinfo
windowsize

Moreover, the driver dumps a lot of debug information to the console (try running your guest application from the commandline). Some of it is quite interesting, as it reveals how the driver works and why it is windows-only for the time being (notice the state tracking):

OpenGL Debug: Resolution changed(1400,1025), forcing window Pos/Size update
OpenGL Debug: Dispatched WindowSize (5)
OpenGL Debug: Dispatched WindowPosition (5)

Speed is great, even with compiz, and it will only become better as the driver matures. I now hope GL2.1 support will appear soon.

[laurencevde]

You can already make X11-openGL-apps in a client work with almost all hosts. Just make it use your host's X11-server(install one if needed) :)

[RealNC]

People, don't get too happy about it. This is too slow to run anything recent. If you're hoping to play UT3 that way, forget it. Old stuff (Warcraft 3, Counter-Strike/Half-Life) is fast enough. New stuff won't be playable unless a wonder happens.

[BlackStar]

As the manual said, this feature is considered experimental in this release. As you can see, it runs in some kind of debugging mode, which seems to cost quite a bit of performance.

It's not usable for high-end gaming at this time, but that might change in the future. Time will tell, I guess.

[joffe]

I just think it's amazing that it's accelerated at all rather than some sort of emulator running on the CPU. A giant step forward!

[DeepDayze]

Definitely good stuff and I sure hope there will be the day I can dump my native XP install for good and run Windows entirely in a VM. That would reduce the worry and hassles of reinstalling in the case of when the XP VM catches a virus or malware. Just reload a virgin copy of your install and presto! Clean Windows again.

Nice work Sun :)

Hope Sun keeps up the momentum on 3d support inside VBOX

[duncan_nz]

I managed to install it on Ubuntu 8.10, I could get HL1 working just fine, using the -opengl command line, performance was pretty good!

I cannot however get wow working using the same switch, I suspect that there is some unsupported opengl extension, which means that it tries to fallback to d3d rendering which won't work.

It looks very promising for Opengl gaming hover, once they add some more support for it :>

[DeepDayze]

I managed to install it on Ubuntu 8.10, I could get HL1 working just fine, using the -opengl command line, performance was pretty good!

I cannot however get wow working using the same switch, I suspect that there is some unsupported opengl extension, which means that it tries to fallback to d3d rendering which won't work.

It looks very promising for Opengl gaming hover, once they add some more support for it :>

The OpenGL support is not yet complete, apparently..filing a bug report should help the devs improve the OGL support. D3d should be following as well

[duncan_nz]

The OpenGL support is not yet complete, apparently..filing a bug report should help the devs improve the OGL support. D3d should be following as well

Yes I posted a forum thread, some else has already filed a bug report and it has been seen already etc

[kebabbert]

This is great! Good work SUN, and hope lots of people buys VB licenses so SUN earn money on this!

[wswartzendruber]

What OpenGL API are they aiming for? 2.0?