VirtualBox 3.0 Introduces Direct3D and OpenGL Support

[Rob Williams]

From our front-page news:

I've made my love for virtualization well-known in our news section a few times in the past few months, and the reason is obvious, but simple: it's useful. I've been running Windows XP inside of my desktop Linux for months now, and haven't had much of an issue. It sure makes Photoshop, iTunes and other Windows-only applications a lot more accessible, I can say that much.

When the time came for me to choose a virtualization app, it came down to just a few, but I ended up choosing VMware Workstation in the end primarily due to its light support of 3D graphics. For the most part, that functionality works well, and I'm even able to play my favorite MMO for a while without issue (real Windows does offer better performance, however). It looks like those who want or need 3D support are soon in for a treat though, with VirtualBox 3.

This absolutely free piece of virtualization software is widely-used and widely-enjoyed. Not only because it's free, but because it's robust, looks nice and works well. There are a few caveats to the program though, but it appears like version 3.0 is kicking all of the important ones to the curb, such as the addition of Direct3D 8 and 9 to Windows' guests, and also OpenGL support for Windows, Linux and Solaris. It's also noted that a Guest SMP is supported with up to 32 virtual CPUs, but I'm not quite sure whether that means you can have 32 different guests running at a time, or if you can dedicate more than one core to a particular guest. I'll find out soon, I hope.

Additions like these certainly warrant a major version revision, but that's not all that's been changed. You can check out the full changelist in at the URL below, and probably could expect to see more bug fixes and the like prior to the official release. And if you've never used VirtualBox before and have any interest at all of running an OS inside of your OS, give it a try.

VirtualBox is a free virtualization application for WIndows, OS X, or Linux. Like VirtualPC, or VMWare, VirtualBox lets you run an operating system within an operating system. Say, for example, you want to test out Ubuntu Linux without installing it or even logging out of Windows. Just download the Ubuntu installation disc image, fire up VirtualBox, and load the disc image.

Source: VirtualBox 3.0 Beta, Via: Download Squad​

 

[Merlin]

Man, That sounds like a great idea for running Linux, I'll give it a go
I know it's beta. if it works, then fine

 

[Rob Williams]

I gave the beta a go, and I have to admit... I'm not too excited.

I tried it in Linux, and installed Windows 7. The OS worked pretty well, but still no Direct3D support. I also found another limitation... the graphics is limited to 128MB, and if I tried to use anything more than 64MB, the OS simply wouldn't boot. But, there is the benefit of being able to dedicate as many cores to the OS as you are able (I put four to the OS and it worked fine).

But... I had horrible luck in Windows. I tried to install both Vista and 7 under Windows Vista 64-bit, and no go. Neither of them would boot up, even while using default settings. I'd either get a BSOD, or the OS simply would halt during boot. I installed Ubuntu 9.04 and it installed fine, so I'm not sure what the deal is there.

This IS just a beta, though, so I'm hoping to see some worthwhile improvements in the final.

 

[Kougar]

No core limits? Now I'm tempted... I tried to install Supreme Commander FA yesterday, but for some odd reason the game refuses to launch. It starts, shows in Task Manager, but then just sits there. Tried everything under the sun to fix it including repeated installation attempts, patched/unpatched, even ripping and launching from a mounted image but nothing worked. The only thing I could find was a brief mention of VMWare somehow affecting it, so I might remove VMWare and see if that fixes it. Problem is I don't thinki I can save my current VM image, VM Server is extremely limited in allowed options (I can understand why it was free).

 

[Rob Williams]

VMware causing an issue with a game? That sounds ridiculous, but nothing surprises me anymore. Your VMware image should be stored somewhere on your machine... just move it out of the way so the uninstall won't touch it. As far as I know, an uninstall won't touch those anyway. It'd be like uninstalling Photoshop and having it take with it every image you've ever edited with it.

If you do try VirtualBox, let me know how you make out. I'm curious to see if your experience will mimic mine.

 

[Kougar]

Well, regardless of if you run VMWare or not, it loads a bunch of running programs with Windows that run all the time, I was able to notice at least three. It was a shot in the dark, and just what I'd found someone else pointing fingers at... in my situation VMWare wasn't actually the cause as I finally got SupCom to run. I'm going to do more testing before I say anything more about it though.

Does VirtualBox allow you to clone VM images, or set CPU affinity?

 

[Rob Williams]

Does VirtualBox allow you to clone VM images, or set CPU affinity?

I'm not sure to be honest, but I can test it out later if I get the time. The performance I've seen so far with the 3.0 beta isn't at all impressive, so I'm really beginning to believe it's not worth a go at this point in time. It was slow on this machine, and no OS would boot on the Windows machine, so I don't think I'd put too much time and effort into it right now.

As for cloning images, I don't believe it offers that option in the application, but all you need to do is just copy the .vdi associated with it, rename it, and create a new VM using that .vdi file as the base.

 

[slugbug]

Does it run 64 bit operating systems?

 

[Rob Williams]

Does it run 64 bit operating systems?

Yessir!