3d accel broken on winxp sp3 guest

[mikeinsantarosa]

3D accelleration is broken on my XP 32bit SP3 guest.

I have only installed 1 program: ("Return to Monkey Island" which requires directX 3d support) after the VM installation and that was to test the 3d.

My Host is Win7 64bit intel i5 CPU with 8G RAM
I have Virtualbox 4.3.12 with guest additions installed.

When I run dxdiag, the first test fails and my game says 3D is not enabled.

attached is my guest log file.

any help would be appreciated!

thanks
Mike

[socratis]

3D accelleration is broken on my XP 32bit SP3 guest.

Actually, it's not. Your virtual machine is using virtual hardware, including a virtual graphics card which is not as powerful as an actual graphics card. Programs like these tend to access the hardware directly. You can't do that in a virtual machine.

[mpack]

Programs like these tend to access the hardware directly.

Actually they don't. In a protected OS only a kernel mode driver can access hardware directly. Anyway if they really accessed the hardware directly you'd need a different version for every graphics chipset. Windows games will tend to use DirectX, but games will indeed tend to stress the system more than normal.

Basically, don't expect great performance from a virtual graphics card. If your goal is to play games then consider installing Windows natively, perhaps in a dual boot config. I don't believe that gaming is a big priority for VBox's paying customers.

[mpack]

When I run dxdiag, the first test fails and my game says 3D is not enabled.

I would believe DxDiag. For an XP guest you need to install the GAs in safe mode, as discussion in section 4.2.1.1 of the user manual. Did you?

[mikeinsantarosa]

you need to install the GAs in safe mode, as discussion in section 4.2.1.1 of the user manual. Did you?

absolutely

I have Virtualbox 4.3.12 with guest additions installed.

mike

[mpack]

The text of yours you quote says nothing about safe mode.

[mikeinsantarosa]

I did install guest additions (GAs) in safe mode by first going into msconfig and enabling /SAFEBOOT
Then reboted and installed GAs
before rebooting again, I disabled /SAFEBOOT and returned the general tab to Normal boot
After the next boot is when I checked for functionality.

The 3d accelleration box is enabled in dxdiag but the first test fails. The second and third dxdiag test pass.

mike

[socratis]

The 3d accelleration box is enabled in dxdiag but the first test fails. The second and third dxdiag test pass.

That's expected. The first test is for Direct3D version 7, the second for v.8 and the third for v.9. AFAIK, v.7 is not supported in VBox. Again, as mpack pointed out:

Basically, don't expect great performance from a virtual graphics card. If your goal is to play games then consider installing Windows natively, perhaps in a dual boot config. I don't believe that gaming is a big priority for VBox's paying customers.

Edit: You are talking about the "Test Direct3D", under the "Display" tab of "dxdiag", not something else, right?

[mikeinsantarosa]

Edit: You are talking about the "Test Direct3D", under the "Display" tab of "dxdiag", not something else, right?

correct

[mikeinsantarosa]

Ohhh

3 tests, 1 ea for directX version 7, 8 & 9

So the first test that fails means Directx7 doesn't work and directx7 isn't supported on winxp.

The program I'm trying to get to run comes with an install for directx7 and it won't run because its self test fails the directx test. This must mean the program needs to be installed on something prior to XP.

I have a win2k disk, I wonder if a VBox win2k VM will support direct3d 7?

VirtualBox probably doesn't support direct3d lower than 8, huh?

mike

[Perryg]

http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html#guestadd-3d

[mikeinsantarosa]

perryg - I'm not clear what this means

Unlike the current basic Direct3D support, the WDDM video driver installation does not require the "Safe Mode".

Is WDDM in lieu of direct3d? I don't see where I would install the from other than answer No here"

in the Guest Additions installer by answering "No" int the "Would you like to install basic Direct3D support" dialog displayed when the Direct3D feature is selected.

I never get a dialog that states "Would you like to..." when installing GAs.

Mike

[Perryg]

The wddm drivers are for => Vista

When installing the guest additions the first screen that you come to with user input allows you to select 3D drivers. Enable that and the next screen will ask if you want the experimental 3D drivers and for XP you would say yes. 3D in XP must be installed in safe mode.

[mikeinsantarosa]

thanks for clearing that up. - m

[Astrogirl]

Hi in dxdiag XP SP3 direct x 9 latest I am getting this message
Several files (d3d8.dll, d3d9.dll) are old versions, which could cause problems.
You should reinstall DirectX to get the latest version.
I think I have the latest version - all updates done as far as can do XP SP3 guest.
Guest additions in safe mode installed with 3D acceleration ticked.
However says 3D acceleration not enabled in dxdiag and Direct Draw etc , though tests can run and they pass.
Should I ignore these messages then - does it mean 3D should still work?