Sun VirtualBox

[OvRiDe]

Ok.. that makes more sense. From what it sounded like at first was you were running XP on top of XP.

Doesn't Win7 have a XP compatibility mode that uses Virtualization to create an XP environment? You might check into that as well.

[PuB_Evo]

Direct3D is now enabled. The issue is on when i run the game client it wasnt a problem, the problem comes up only after i pick my charater and loads in-world. The client just crashes each time i do that.
Updating the downloaded DirectX or the graphic card's driver disk would both remove the Direct3D option.

Any ideas what do i do next? Need advise.

[Kayin]

I've had a lot of trouble with gaming in VirtualBox-so much that I simply use it for testing if it will work in Linux without rebooting. The hooks for 3d are so low, oftentimes it can't really get to them-either it emulates using the CPU or it just kinda bodges the job.

I love VirtualBox, but it is what it is, and free virtualization software is still free virtualization software.

[PuB_Evo]

Any other suggestions of software i can do the same?

[Drum Thumper]

Why not dual boot your system?

[x88x]

Make sure that you're running the latest version of VirtualBox, the DirectX support only became officially supported as of 3.0. Also, what version of DirectX are you running in the VM? Only DX9 and earlier are supported.

You do not need to install the drivers for your host GPU on the guest VM. All hardware is managed by VirtualBox, so as long as you have the 'guest add-ons', or whatever they're called, installed, you don't have anything more to worry about drivers-wise.

When you say the client crashes, are you referring to the game client or the VirtualBox client?

The hooks for 3d are so low, oftentimes it can't really get to them-either it emulates using the CPU or it just kinda bodges the job.

This is really the biggest problem; since there is no standard system-level graphics interface across all hardware, they're always emulated by CPU in virtualization software, so you're never gonna get great performance. Even if you have a great CPU, you'll still have the problem of translating the instructions to CPU instructions, running them on a radically different back end than the program is expecting, and then converting everything back.

I gotta ask, why are you wanting to run the game in a VM? If it was giving you trouble in 7, I would think it would be better to get it working correctly there instead of trying to run it in a VM.

I love VirtualBox, but it is what it is, and free virtualization software is still free virtualization software.

I could be wrong, but to my knowledge there is no virtualization software that actually gives the guest access to the host's GPU. IMO, VirtualBox is actually superior to its competitors in most ways (especially since 3.1, hurray for multi-branched snapshots!).

@OvRiDe: 7 Home Premium doesn't have XP mode, that's only in Pro and Ultimate (and possibly Enterprise...not sure about that, tbh). Also, from what I've heard, XP mode pretty much sucks anyways. It's just an XP guest in MS Virtual PC, which...pretty much sucks.... there's a reason why MS isn't a major player in desktop virtualization.

[Kayin]

You may be right, I'm no virtualization expert yet.

Stay tuned though...

At any rate, this looks like a job for a dual-boot (though if it's to play an old game, look at Steam-new old stuff gets added all the time and the bonus is that it works with anything!)

[simon275]

Yes I wouldn't virtualizing anything that needs 3g acceleration support on a single pc. Run the OS off the hardware so it can access the GPU directly and not through a hyper visor.

[x88x]

Yes I wouldn't virtualizing anything that needs 3g acceleration support on a single pc. Run the OS off the hardware so it can access the GPU directly and not through a hyper visor.

Actually in this case it's even more than that, since VirtualBox runs on top of the host OS, there's 2 layers of abstraction between the hardware and guest OS instead of 1 layer in the case of a hypervisor.

[PuB_Evo]

Why not dual boot your system?

Ummm, sorry still learning and have no idea what you mean...

Make sure that you're running the latest version of VirtualBox, the DirectX support only became officially supported as of 3.0. Also, what version of DirectX are you running in the VM? Only DX9 and earlier are supported.

Yes im on the latest version of VB. I cannot install a DX if not its gonna disable the 3D Acceleration.