Virtualbox please allow more video memory

[loukingjr]

I could be remembering it incorrectly but I seem to remember it was possible to do that in previous versions up to 256MB when the GUI limit was 128MB.

[Perryg]

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VBoxManage modifyvm <VN Name> --vram <vramsize in MB>

Up to 256MB

[loukingjr]

The Beta version of VB actually switches available VRAM to 256MB for Windows 7 guests and up if you enable 3D. Not sure about Vista.

[loukingjr]

danke Perry. My mind is not completely gone.

[twipley]

Indeed, but the core issue remains. The 256 MB setting is well known for anyone who has read this thread.

[Perryg]

You can edit the source code and increase the size to anything that you want. I change settings all the time to fit my needs. But I can bet ( if I were a betting man ) that for Oracle to increase the size overall is going to take more than talk about playing games needing more vRAM.

[loukingjr]

Indeed, but the core issue remains. The 256 MB setting is well known for anyone who has read this thread.

[twipley]

Indeed, but the core issue remains. The 256 MB setting is well known for anyone who has read this thread.

These kinds of comments are distracting to my thinking processes. Seriously.

Plus, such emoticons may be frustrating in their ambiguity.

You can edit the source code and increase the size to anything that you want. I change settings all the time to fit my needs.

Oh yeah? Well, that's interesting. To see that it works! Fine.

But I can bet ( if I were a betting man ) that for Oracle to increase the size overall is going to take more than talk about playing games needing more vRAM.

Well. There's a guy on this thread who wanted to increase that in order to install a medical-imagery program!

and I wouldn't bet that you're not a betting man.

[loukingjr]

Indeed, but the core issue remains. The 256 MB setting is well known for anyone who has read this thread.

These kinds of comments are distracting to my thinking processes. Seriously.

I feel your pain.

Personally I find it irritating when users harp on the same subject over and over. Such as VRAM, Scaling, Windows 10, etc.

But that's just me.

[Perryg]

Well. There's a guy on this thread who wanted to increase that in order to install a medical-imagery program!

Maybe but I feel even with the additional memory this is going to be problematic at best. Using RAM ( not to be confused with vRAM ) for video is second rate at best, not even considering the massive overhead of all the code that it takes to make it happen. Remember you are not using a real GPU when in a virtual environment.

[twipley]

Yes. That's why I agree that it should not be selectable from the GUI itself. It's an advanced feature, with its associated caveats, as is advanced time changing (as described in the manual). Serious caveats which the user should be aware of.

It is not clear though, but I assumed that hey guy only needed that to bypass the check by the installation-module of the medical-imagery software. After that, he would be free to revert back to 128 or something, and if the application really is 3D, VRAM is not an issue anymore because the graphics card then can take over.

EDIT: unless that really is a case of bad programming by external developers. I am not aware if there are any standards here. Is it recognized as a bad programming practice to check VRAM by comparing to what the system reports and not by tapping straight in the graphics card itself, to see host-available VRAM as at run time?

[Perryg]

VRAM is not an issue anymore because the graphics card then can take over.

The graphics card never takes over in a virtual machine. That's the point that everyone seems to be evading. All video data is being translated and passed back and forth via code and translation. The only way that you can actually use a GPU in a guest is by PCI-passthrough, and that is very difficult to do. I achieved this one a long time ago and you must have a second graphics card to do this since you can not use the same device that the host is using. Even then it was a pain to make the test work and only if you have a Linux host, IOMMU (VT-d) supported CPU and kernel that can and has the flag enabled, so the use case is very restrictive.

[loukingjr]

The graphics card never takes over in a virtual machine. That's the point that everyone seems to be evading.

Not me.

[twipley]

The graphics card never takes over in a virtual machine. That's the point that everyone seems to be evading.

Oh. This is indeed something which has eluded me.

In fact, this, which I took straight from the manual, then confuses me:

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The VirtualBox Guest Additions contain experimental hardware 3D support for Windows, Linux and Solaris guests. With this feature, if an application inside your virtual machine uses 3D features through the OpenGL or Direct3D 8/9 programming interfaces, instead of emulating them in software (which would be slow), VirtualBox will attempt to use your host's 3D hardware.

I took it that under 3D-acceleration cases, the VM could access the graphics-card VRAM, which would then take over... How is this otherwise? There is dissonance to be resolved. Could you tell me what I am getting wrong?

[twipley]

The graphics card never takes over in a virtual machine. That's the point that everyone seems to be evading.

Not me.

You didn't, because you're too focused on evading pertinence.