VirtualBox Gets Accelerated Direct3D Support

[phoronix]

Phoronix: VirtualBox Gets Accelerated Direct3D Support

Last month VirtualBox 2.1 was released with several interesting changes and among them was support for OpenGL. With this latest open-source virtualization software from Sun Microsystems, it became possible to run some OpenGL programs within a guest virtual machine while allowing the host system's graphics card to accelerate the drawing...

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

[superppl]

Of course the performance is going to be poor, but look at this way: WineD3D can only get better, and it's the only factor in getting your games to run!
Does a game have a problem with the .net framework, or steam, or copy protection or some other stupid thing? Well since it's running natively in windows, that won't be an issue anymore!

You're not going to be able to play Crysis without a beast of a machine, but at least I can play Age of Empires 2.

[monraaf]

Does a game have a problem with the .net framework, or steam, or copy protection or some other stupid thing? Well since it's running natively in windows, that won't be an issue anymore!

Exactly, this is a very interesting development.

[wswartzendruber]

YEAH!!! Now you guys think this will actually release?

*COUGH* Unlike XServer 1.6 *COUGH*

[hmmm]

I'm more interested by the fact that virtualbox decided to pick up wine as their direct3d implementation - hopefully it means wine gets more developers from Sun/Innotek working on d3d.

[superppl]

Well, Parallels is also using WineD3D, but it doesn't look like they contributed anything back. But this could be different since the Virtual Box devs actually work with the open source community.

[Drakilis]

I'm more interested by the fact that virtualbox decided to pick up wine as their direct3d implementation - hopefully it means wine gets more developers from Sun/Innotek working on d3d.

I think it will mean big things for Wined3d if Sun gets involved with that. I believe thats a area where Wine could use more help, but I guess they could use help in anyway they can get.

[hmmm]

Well, Parallels is also using WineD3D, but it doesn't look like they contributed anything back.

http://wiki.winehq.org/Parallels

But this could be different since the Virtual Box devs actually work with the open source community.

I hope this is the case

[Thunderbird]

Parallels returned their code but their code was very hacky, outdated and useless.

When I moved WineD3D over to WGL (that's why it runs on Windows) I didn't use any of their code and started from scratch. WineD3D has been running on Windows for 1.5 years or so (without requiring changes) but not much people were interested in it. When virtualbox received opengl support I contacted them and gave them instructions on how to run WineD3D on virtualbox. I'm glad they picked it up.

[Chewi]

Excellent!! I've been waiting for this for ages and it's now more important for me than ever because my desktop is now also a server and a router, meaning I can't reboot into Windows without cutting everything off.