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Are there any virtual machine programs out there that will recognize and use the physical machine's graphics card for graphics work?

Context: I'm trying to run a virtual copy of XP so I can play Freelancer online, without all the Vista problems.

I think VMWare supports DX7 graphics, but that's about it.

Yeah, but does it emulate a graphics adapter or use the physical one?

Emulates it (or rather, works as a wrapper). The only VM technology that did direct access to graphics hardware was a special version of VirtualPC for PPC Macs that interfaced directly with the old 3dfx add-in boards.

These days both VMWare and Parallels are working on DirectX functionality in their VMs (mostly on their Mac products) - right now they claim DX9 but without shaders - effectively, as phongn notes, DX7.

I can't even get an avi file to play back properly using VirtualBox. I have no hopes of using my VM for games.

You have to be careful what output method you choose. Overlay does not work from within a VM so if that is your output method it will fall back to software overlay which is sloooow. DX7-based output should work on those new versions that support it, however I don't have any idea how fast it is.

Still, its a bit strange you can't get good playback even with the software output - I can manage non-action .avi's over RDP (which has similar limitations WRT display technology and an additional one of bandwidth).

Braedley wrote:I can't even get an avi file to play back properly using VirtualBox. I have no hopes of using my VM for games.

Well, Virtualbox doesn't have the feature of VMWare Workstation for wrapping the graphics APIs. And workstation costs money.

So, with VMWare Workstation and this "wrapping" of the graphics API... would it allow use of all the features of the card, albeit at a slight hit to performance? In particular, Direct3d?

Hawkwings wrote:So, with VMWare Workstation and this "wrapping" of the graphics API... would it allow use of all the features of the card, albeit at a slight hit to performance? In particular, Direct3d?

More than a slight hit, but yes, DX7 is supported.

Failure. "Freelancer did not detect a 3D capable video card in your system."

Checking the documentation now for anything I missed. Any suggestions?

Also... Good god! VMWare Workstation uses so much more system resources than the other VM tools I've used.

Why aren't you playing Freelancer in Vista - it works fine, I played it earlier this (or rather, at this point, last) year. Possibly you need to set a few of the compatibility options (Win XP, admin mode) - I don't recall any more, but it worked on Vista perfectly - I played through the main campaign.

Hawkwings wrote:Failure. "Freelancer did not detect a 3D capable video card in your system."

Checking the documentation now for anything I missed. Any suggestions?

Freelancer is a DX8 game, isn't it?

Also... Good god! VMWare Workstation uses so much more system resources than the other VM tools I've used.

That's because VMWare Workstation provides a lot more features.

Hawkwings wrote:Failure. "Freelancer did not detect a 3D capable video card in your system."

Checking the documentation now for anything I missed. Any suggestions?

Also... Good god! VMWare Workstation uses so much more system resources than the other VM tools I've used.

It has to be enabled manually in the config file, iirc. Add mks.enable3d = TRUE to your virtual machines config (.vmx, open with wordpad). It probably still won't work, or will work very slow. Also you must have the vmware utilities installed in the guest OS.

Better off running it natively, since your on windows anyway. I played it on vista and it works fine (turn off aero, admin mode, XP SP2 compatibility).