Vmware workstation opengl windows

This page describes how to build, install and use the
VMware guest GL driver (aka the SVGA or
SVGA3D driver) for Linux using the latest source code. This driver gives
a Linux virtual machine access to the host’s GPU for
hardware-accelerated 3D. VMware Workstation running on Linux or Windows
and VMware Fusion running on MacOS are all supported.

With the August 2015 Workstation 12 / Fusion 8 releases, OpenGL 3.3 is
supported in the guest. This requires:

• The VM is configured for virtual hardware version 12.
• The host OS, GPU and graphics driver supports DX11 (Windows) or
  OpenGL 4.0 (Linux, Mac)
• On Linux, the vmwgfx kernel module must be version 2.9.0 or later.
• A recent version of Mesa with the updated svga gallium driver.

Otherwise, OpenGL 2.1 is supported.

OpenGL 3.3 support can be disabled by setting the environment variable
SVGA_VGPU10=0. You will then have OpenGL 2.1 support. This may be
useful to work around application bugs (such as incorrect use of the
OpenGL 3.x core profile).

Most modern Linux distros include the SVGA3D driver so end users
shouldn’t be concerned with this information. But if your distro lacks
the driver or you want to update to the latest code these instructions
explain what to do.

For more information about the X components see these wiki pages at
x.org:

• Driver Overview
• xf86-video-vmware
  Details

Components

The components involved in this include:

• Linux kernel module: vmwgfx
• X server 2D driver: xf86-video-vmware
• User-space libdrm library
• Mesa/gallium OpenGL driver: “svga”

All of these components reside in the guest Linux virtual machine. On
the host, all you’re doing is running VMware
Workstation or
Fusion.

Prerequisites

• Kernel version at least 2.6.25

• Xserver version at least 1.7

• Ubuntu: For ubuntu you need to install a number of build
  dependencies.

  sudo apt-get install git-core
  sudo apt-get install automake libtool libpthread-stubs0-dev
  sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-dev x11proto-xinerama-dev libx11-xcb-dev
  sudo apt-get install libxcb-glx0-dev libxrender-dev
  sudo apt-get build-dep libgl1-mesa-dri libxcb-glx0-dev
  

• Fedora: For Fedora you also need to install a number of build
  dependencies.

  sudo yum install mesa-libGL-devel xorg-x11-server-devel xorg-x11-util-macros
  sudo yum install libXrender-devel.i686
  sudo yum install automake gcc libtool expat-devel kernel-devel git-core
  sudo yum install makedepend flex bison
  

Depending on your Linux distro, other packages may be needed. The
configure scripts should tell you what’s missing.

Getting the Latest Source Code

Begin by saving your current directory location:

• Mesa/Gallium master branch. This code is used to build libGL, and the
  direct rendering svga driver for libGL, vmwgfx_dri.so, and the X
  acceleration library libxatracker.so.x.x.x.

  git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/mesa/mesa
  

• VMware Linux guest kernel module. Note that this repo contains the
  complete DRM and TTM code. The vmware-specific driver is really only
  the files prefixed with vmwgfx.

  git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/mesa/vmwgfx
  

• libdrm, a user-space library that interfaces with drm. Most distros
  ship with this but it’s safest to install a newer version. To get the
  latest code from git:

  git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/mesa/drm
  

• xf86-video-vmware. The chainloading driver, vmware_drv.so, the
  legacy driver vmwlegacy_drv.so, and the vmwgfx driver
  vmwgfx_drv.so.

  git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/xorg/driver/xf86-video-vmware
  

Building the Code

• Determine where the GL-related libraries reside on your system and
  set the LIBDIR environment variable accordingly.

  For 32-bit Ubuntu systems:

  export LIBDIR=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu
  

  For 64-bit Ubuntu systems:

  export LIBDIR=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu
  

  For 32-bit Fedora systems:

  For 64-bit Fedora systems:

• Build libdrm:

  cd $TOP/drm
  ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --libdir=${LIBDIR}
  make
  sudo make install
  

• Build Mesa and the vmwgfx_dri.so driver, the vmwgfx_drv.so xorg
  driver, the X acceleration library libxatracker. The vmwgfx_dri.so
  is used by the OpenGL libraries during direct rendering, and by the
  Xorg server during accelerated indirect GL rendering. The
  libxatracker library is used exclusively by the X server to do
  render, copy and video acceleration:

  The following configure options doesn’t build the EGL system.

  cd $TOP/mesa
  ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --libdir=${LIBDIR} --with-gallium-drivers=svga --with-dri-drivers=swrast --enable-xa --disable-dri3 --enable-glx-tls
  make
  sudo make install
  

  Note that you may have to install other packages that Mesa depends
  upon if they’re not installed in your system. You should be told
  what’s missing.

• xf86-video-vmware: Now, once libxatracker is installed, we proceed
  with building and replacing the current Xorg driver. First check if
  your system is 32- or 64-bit.

  cd $TOP/xf86-video-vmware
  ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --libdir=${LIBDIR}
  make
  sudo make install
  

• vmwgfx kernel module. First make sure that any old version of this
  kernel module is removed from the system by issuing

  sudo rm /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx.ko*
  

  Build and install:

  cd $TOP/vmwgfx
  make
  sudo make install
  sudo depmod -a
  

  If you’re using a Ubuntu OS:

  If you’re using a Fedora OS:

  Add ‘vmwgfx’ to the /etc/modules file:

  echo vmwgfx | sudo tee -a /etc/modules
  

  Note: some distros put DRM kernel drivers in different directories.
  For example, sometimes vmwgfx.ko might be found in
  /lib/modules/{version}/extra/vmwgfx.ko or in
  /lib/modules/{version}/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx/vmwgfx.ko.

  After installing vmwgfx.ko you might want to run the following
  command to check that the new kernel module is in the expected place:

  find /lib/modules -name vmwgfx.ko -exec ls -l '{}' \;
  

  If you see the kernel module listed in more than one place, you may
  need to move things around.

  Finally, if you update your kernel you’ll probably have to rebuild
  and reinstall the vmwgfx.ko module again.

Now try to load the kernel module by issuing

Then type

to watch the debug output. It should contain a number of lines prefixed
with “[vmwgfx]”.
Then restart the Xserver (or reboot). The lines starting with
“vmwlegacy” or “VMWARE” in the file /var/log/Xorg.0.log should now have
been replaced with lines starting with “vmwgfx”, indicating that the new
Xorg driver is in use.

Running OpenGL Programs

In a shell, run ‘glxinfo’ and look for the following to verify that the
driver is working:

OpenGL vendor string: VMware, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on SVGA3D; build: RELEASE;
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 8.0

If you don’t see this, try setting this environment variable:

export LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose

then rerun glxinfo and examine the output for error messages.

If OpenGL 3.3 is not working (you only get OpenGL 2.1):

Make sure the VM uses hardware version 12.
Make sure the vmwgfx kernel module is version 2.9.0 or later.
Check the vmware.log file for errors.
Run ‘dmesg | grep vmwgfx’ and look for “DX: yes”.

Since VMware Workstation 16 Pro, a new graphics engine has been implemented to provide :

• support for DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.1 for applications and games installed in virtual machines.
• 3D support if you have an Intel graphics card (GPU) and a Linux host PC and support for DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 3.3.

Warning : since version 16.2.0 of VMware Workstation Pro, 3D acceleration of virtual machines only works if the host supports DirectX 11.1.
Otherwise, the «No 3D support is available from the host» message will appear when starting each virtual machine where the «Accelerate 3D graphics» option is checked and the «3D acceleration will be disabled for VMs as DirectX 11.1 is not supported by the host» message will appear before upgrading from VMware Workstation 16.1.2 to 16.2.0.
In this case, revert to the previous version «16.1.2» of VMware Workstation Pro to continue using 3D acceleration for your virtual machines.

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Thanks to this big news, it’s now possible to virtualize some games, such as : NFS Undercover.
NFS Undercover is one of the games that we own that allow you to easily test the fluidity of the game, since it’s a racing game.

When you create a virtual machine in VMware Workstation 16, you can assign 8 GB of video (graphics) memory to your virtual machine.

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In this tutorial, we used a host PC with Windows 10 v2004 and a virtual machine with the same version of Windows 10.
As stated by VMware Workstation, it’s recommended to allocate 8 GB of video memory (graphics memory).
However, to assign 8GB of video memory, VMware Workstation tells you to assign at least 16 GB of RAM.

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In the «Memory» section, we have therefore assigned 16 GB of RAM to our virtual machine.
Knowing that our physical PC has 32 GB of RAM.

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Since we have the original version of this game (on DVD), we have configured our VM’s virtual CD/DVD drive to use our physical CD/DVD drive.

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Start the virtual machine.

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In the virtual machine, if you run the DirectX Diagnostic Tool (dxdiag.exe) provided with all versions of Windows, you will see that Windows 10 supports DirectX 12. Which is higher than what is supported by VMware Workstation.
Games using a version of DirectX lower or equal to version 11 will therefore work without problems.

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Insert the desired game DVD and install it.

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Our game is installed.

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We launch the game and as expected it works.

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Right now, we’re seeing cutscenes.
So, we’re not actually in the game yet.

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In NFS Undercover, what you see here is a cutscene.

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Now, we are really playing.
Which was not possible with previous versions of VMware Workstation.

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To get the most out of your virtualized video game, click on the «Full Screen» icon of VMware Workstation.

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Then, automatically hide the top bar by clicking on the pin at the top left.

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Then, adjust the display options of your game to take advantage of the maximum resolution supported by your screen and improve the graphics as desired.

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In our case, we have set all the settings of our game (released in 2008) to maximum and the game runs smoothly and the driving of the car is very smooth, despite the game being installed in a virtual machine.

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Note that Windows 7 supports DirectX 11 by default, as you can check through «dxdiag.exe».

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And the game also works great with Windows 7 installed in the virtual machine.

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For Windows 8 and 8.1 in virtual, you also have support for DirectX 11.

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And game virtualization also works without problem.

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Thanks to this new feature, you can now play games installed in a virtual machine.
But, remember that this will not work with all games. And even less with the latest games just released.