xp guest: directx game not behaving

[tim240]

hello,

i'm new to this forum so i appreciate any pointers. i have:

host machine: macbook pro
host o/s: snow leopard 10.6.4
vbox: 3.2.10 (from virtualbox.org)
guest o/s: 32 bit xp
guest video mem: 128 mb
guest main mem: 1024 mb
problem app: freeware mahjong game, directx reliant

i installed vbox guest additions in windows safe mode and tested directx on the xp guest with 'dxdiag'. the directx 8 & 9 3d tests worked.

when i try to run my game, all i see is the playing board window filling the screen, but the window seems 'dead'. the board window controls do not work (minimise, close). any windows i open in the guest at this point are hidden behind the playing board if they overlap that area of the screen. this game has a login window. when i power down the guest i see the board window disappear and the login window briefly appears. this is _not_ in fullscreen mode.

i tried reading through the forum. some people talked about updating video drivers so i tried updating the video driver on the guest to match the host hardware (host is nvidia geforce9400m/9600m), but the installer complained it couldn't detect the right hardware so i don't think i am supposed to do that.

does anyone have any advice? is this just the state of the technology that not all directx9 apps can work in vbox?

many thanks,
tim

[stefan.becker]

It works for some games, but mostly not.

For gaming is Windows native via Dual Boot the best solution.

[tim240]

ok, thanks. for what it's worth, i migrated this vm to vmware 3.1 and the game seems to work so far (at least further than in vbox).

oh, well.


tim

[stefan.becker]

Maybe this game works in vmware. Many others does not.

Its a basic problem from all virtualizers. You cant access vga native, so you dont have full 3d capabilties.