getting direct 3D to work

[matteosistisette]

Hi,

I have a windows 7 guest on ubuntu 10.04 host, with an Nvidia graphics card.

I'm trying to run Unity 3D Editor which requires DirectX 9.0c

At first I simply tried to run it and it said it was unable to initialise 3D graphics and to make sure DirectX 9.0c was installed.

So I downloaded and installed DirectX but nothing changed.

So I reinstalled the guest additions and checked the checkbox "enable DirectX support". I had to reboot.

Then I tried to run Unity3D but it still says it can't initialise direct3D.

So I thought I may have to install DirectX again and so I did, but it said that an equal or later version is already installed and there's no need to install.

3D accelerations are already enabled in the graphics properties of the virtual machine.

Is there something more I have to do in order to get Direct3D to work??
I cannot find any settings in the Control Panel related to Direct3D (I'm looking for something that I may have to "enable" such as "3D acceleration" but I don't find anything in the Control Panel).....

Any help is appreciated

thanks
m.

[matteosistisette]

I found out the "direct x diagnostic tool" (dxdiag), and actually when I run it, under "Display" it says: Direct3D acceleration: not available.

So if I installed the Guest Additions with "Direct 3D support" enabled, what do I have to do to make it "available"?

[stefan.becker]

Guest Additions were installed in safe mode like written in the manual?

[matteosistisette]

Ok, I had to install the guest additions in Safe Mode in order to have Direct3D support to work.

This seems to be perfectly known, so I wonder WHY don't you put a warning in the Guest Addition installer? If it is not possible to detect whether it is running in safe mode, then you could simply put a warning next to the "enable direct3d support" checkbox saying "NOTE: you need to boot in safe mode for this to work".

Do you think that a user who sees a checkbox that reads "Enable Direct 3D support" will think "Before I enable it, let's have a look at the documentation just in case there is something special I have to do in order to make it work, such as perhaps booting in safe mode"???

[stefan.becker]

Dont cry. Its your problem. You have not read the manual.

[matteosistisette]

Do you read the whole manual of every program you unstall before you install it?

If you install a program and you have not enough disk space, don't you expect the installer to warn you and refuse to install? Or would you say it's fine if it installs, tells you the installation was succesful and leaves you with a program that won't work? Would you say it was your fault because you didn't read the manual where it says how much disk space is required?

[scottgus1]

Matt, take a deep breath and chill out for a sec.

Most little programs don't need instructions. In fact most programs don't even let one see the instructions until after the program is installed.

But...

Virtualbox is a very useful, rather complicated, and possibly dangerous program that if not used properly could result in data loss or worse. Yes you DO have to read the manual with this one! Are all the install wizard pages worded so a two-year-old could understand them? No. But no one's perfect. Making suggestions about how to re-word the instructions will propbably be considered carefully if you talk nice like your mother taught you to.

Making a peaceful, calm suggestion to include a more detailed warning about installing Guest Additions in Safe Mode to get Direct3d to work right will probably get a lot farther than your rant.

[matteosistisette]

Yes you DO have to read the manual with this one!

Yes of course but that's not the point. You wouldn't like an installer with a checkbox that says "option 5" where the manual explains what "option 5" stands for, would you?

If an option makes sense or will work only under a given condition that is detectable, then the installer should check whether the condition is satisfied; if it doesn't check (and it can), it's a defect in the installer, no matter how stupid the user is. If the condition is not detectable (i.e. in this case, if the installer can't know whether Windows is running in safe mode, but I don't think this is the case) and there is an install option that only can work under a very uncommon condition, the user should be warned that he has to check. It is arguably very very uncommon to install things in safe mode, so it is definitely worth warning about. Even if you have read the manual, it is worth remembering you about.

Making a peaceful, calm suggestion to include a more detailed warning about installing Guest Additions in Safe Mode to get Direct3d to work right will probably get a lot farther than your rant.

Well frankly I hope that how "far" a suggestion gets depends on the importance of the issue itself rather than how calmly or nicely the suggestion is made.

[gunther123]

Hey Matt! Thanks for the suggestion. I just upgraded to virtualbox 4.0.4 and while installing the guest additions, I checked the box for 3D support and a message popped up informing me that I had to boot Windows in safe mode. I did NOT read the manual before attempting this but looked into it when warned about the problem. Nice addition to the installation I would say. Congrats to the Guest Additions installation team!

[matteosistisette]

Hey Matt! Thanks for the suggestion. I just upgraded to virtualbox 4.0.4 and while installing the guest additions, I checked the box for 3D support and a message popped up informing me that I had to boot Windows in safe mode. I did NOT read the manual before attempting this but looked into it when warned about the problem. Nice addition to the installation I would say. Congrats to the Guest Additions installation team!

GREAT!! By the way, I still have to upgrate to version 4 but it had already been released when I ran into the issue and posted the message, so it was not thanks to me, they had already fixed that I should have checked out the new version before posting.