virtualbox.org

I have found VirtualBox to be an impressive project. I've kept track of it since version 1 and found it progressively more useful as time has elapsed.

One area, however, has been a clear weakness. That would be the ability of VirtualBox to support current Windows (XP) programs that require DirectX features. I am not a gamer. My primary use beyond email and browsing for a computer, and a large part of how I derive a living, is CAD. Of the three significant CAD programs I use, two are not usable in a VirtualBox environment because of its inability to execute required DirectX calls. The ability to provide DirectX 9.0c with shader level 3.0 support is not a luxury. It has become an absolute requirement. For too long, VirtualBox developers pretended that it did not matter. Even now that the need for DirectX capability has been acknowledged, progress is inadequate. The longer that achieving full XP level DirectX capability in Virtualbox is not made a primary priority, the further VirtualBox will get behind in the race for users ($$$). (VISTA and DirectX 10 are irrelevant and Windows 7 is next years problem.)

I am a VMWare licensee for the very reason that VMWare CAN run most of my applications that require DirectX compatibility at the XP level. It looks like VMWare is where my virtualization investment will have to continue to be made.

I won't abandon VirtualBox entirely, but until this glaring inadequacy is corrected there is no chance that I'll invest any money in it. As things currently stand, WINE does much of what VirtualBox can do, and what WINE can do, it does better. I really don't see a significantly viable future for VirtualBox, on any host, as long as its Windows graphics capabilities are so limited.

Thomas Garson
Aural Technology, Ashland, Or.

Hi, wow... I was just looking at trying to find ANY VM that does Altium on Linux (64 bit host, preferably).

I've got VMWare, which supposedly has shader model 3, but Altium doesn't work with it. (Rendering is extremely slow, and all polygons are yellow)

Have you found any VM software that works with Altium?


Darron Black
Griffin I'Net, Inc.

I am able to use Altium Summer 2009 in Windows XP, installed on either VirtualBox or VMWare on my Suse 11.1 platform.

The limitation on VirtualBox, as I described earlier, is the lack of shader 3 support, not to mention viable DirectX 9.0c, which prevents Altiums 3D view from functioning. Other thna that, Altium Sumer 2009 DOES work in VirtualBox.

Altium Summer 2009 and Alibre 12.1, a 3D parametric CAD suite that required Directx 9.0c in order to do anything useful, both work in VMWare 6.5 and 7.

Certainly there is a performance hit from working through virtual processors. This is especially noticeable with complex 3D CAD work. I can only go so far before I have to move a project to a true Windows box where the hardware performance is not so restricted. I have found that even single processor applications running on Windows XP in VirtualBOx and VMWare do benefit from enabling at least two processors for the virtual environment because Windows seems to use one processor for "housekeeping" while the application is monopolizing the other. A minimum of 2GB of RAM for the virtual system is also pretty much a must if you want to approach best performance. I have 10GB on my Suse station with 4 GB dedicated to a VirtualBox WinXP session. I am planning to set up a 4GB RAM drive in Linux and give VirtualBox direct access to that for a swapper for 32 bit XP. I am going to try 64bit XP sometime soon for Alibre, which is supposed to be able to run in XP64 even though its a 32 bit program. The primary advantage of XP64 is its ability to address more than 4GB of RAM.

What keeps me coming back to VirtualBox is it actually seems to be just bit faster than VMWare. Unfortunately it is less complete, thus the inability to support DirecctX in a meaningful fashion, requiring me to invest in VMWare.

Tom Garson
Aural Technology

Well, VirtualBox project develops some better Direct3D code, but not sure if the new code is good enough for your application (never tried it).

As of the latest VirtualBox, 3.2.8 R64453, installed 8/13/10, nothing has changed. DirectX 9.0c alone works. Shader 3.0 is not supported. DirectX7 and DirectX8 are, apparently, being totally ignored by the VirtualBox development team. DirectX support appears to be cumulative, as in applications that use 9 may also use features from 7 and 8 which are NOT directly supported in 9. It seems like many applications use features that span several versions of DirectX. Those that do, do not run in a VirtualBox environment.

Tom Garson
Aural Technology

Yes, unfortunately DirectX support in VirtualBox is incomplete.

OpenGL is supported much better, lacking only few NVIDIA specific extensions.

I would also like to use the Altium viewer under VirtualBox. The viewer works for most things, but 3D viewing of PCBs will not engage due to lack of Shader 3.0 support.