| 1 | <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
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| 2 | <!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
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| 3 | <topic xml:lang="en-us" id="guestadd-3d">
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| 4 | <title>Hardware 3D Acceleration (OpenGL and Direct3D 8/9)</title>
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| 5 |
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| 6 | <body>
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| 7 | <p>
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| 8 | The Oracle VM VirtualBox Guest Additions contain experimental hardware
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| 9 | 3D support for Windows, Linux, and Oracle Solaris guests.
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| 10 | </p>
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| 11 | <p>
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| 12 | With this feature, if an application inside your virtual machine
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| 13 | uses 3D features through the OpenGL or Direct3D 8/9 programming
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| 14 | interfaces, instead of emulating them in software, which would
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| 15 | be slow, Oracle VM VirtualBox will attempt to use your host's 3D
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| 16 | hardware. This works for all supported host platforms, provided
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| 17 | that your host operating system can make use of your accelerated
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| 18 | 3D hardware in the first place.
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| 19 | </p>
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| 20 | <p>
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| 21 | The 3D acceleration feature currently has the following
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| 22 | preconditions:
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| 23 | </p>
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| 24 | <ul>
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| 25 | <li>
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| 26 | <p>
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| 27 | It is only available for certain Windows, Linux, and Oracle
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| 28 | Solaris guests. In particular:
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| 29 | </p>
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| 30 | <ul>
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| 31 | <li>
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| 32 | <p>
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| 33 | 3D acceleration with Windows guests requires Windows
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| 34 | 2000 or later. Apart from on Windows 2000 guests, both
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| 35 | OpenGL and Direct3D 8/9 are supported on an experimental
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| 36 | basis.
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| 37 | </p>
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| 38 | </li>
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| 39 | <li>
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| 40 | <p>
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| 41 | OpenGL on Linux requires kernel 2.6.27 or later, as well
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| 42 | as X.org server version 1.5 or later. Ubuntu 10.10 and
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| 43 | Fedora 14 have been tested and confirmed as working.
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| 44 | </p>
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| 45 | </li>
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| 46 | <li>
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| 47 | <p>
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| 48 | OpenGL on Oracle Solaris guests requires X.org server
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| 49 | version 1.5 or later.
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| 50 | </p>
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| 51 | </li>
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| 52 | </ul>
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| 53 | </li>
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| 54 | <li>
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| 55 | <p>
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| 56 | The Guest Additions must be installed.
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| 57 | </p>
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| 58 | <note>
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| 59 | <p>
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| 60 | For the basic Direct3D acceleration to work in a Windows
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| 61 | Guest, Oracle VM VirtualBox needs to replace Windows system
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| 62 | files in the virtual machine. As a result, the Guest
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| 63 | Additions installation program offers Direct3D
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| 64 | acceleration as an option that must be explicitly enabled.
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| 65 | Also, you must install the Guest Additions in Safe Mode.
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| 66 | This does <i>not</i> apply to the WDDM
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| 67 | Direct3D video driver available for Windows Vista and
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| 68 | later. See <xref href="KnownIssues.dita">Known Limitations</xref> for details.
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| 69 | </p>
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| 70 | </note>
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| 71 | </li>
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| 72 | <li>
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| 73 | <p>
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| 74 | Because 3D support is still experimental at this time, it is
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| 75 | disabled by default and must be <i>manually
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| 76 | enabled</i> in the VM settings. See
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| 77 | <xref href="settings-display.dita#settings-display"/>.
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| 78 | </p>
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| 79 | <note>
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| 80 | <p>
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| 81 | Untrusted guest systems should not be allowed to use the
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| 82 | 3D acceleration features of Oracle VM VirtualBox, just as
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| 83 | untrusted host software should not be allowed to use 3D
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| 84 | acceleration. Drivers for 3D hardware are generally too
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| 85 | complex to be made properly secure and any software which
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| 86 | is allowed to access them may be able to compromise the
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| 87 | operating system running them. In addition, enabling 3D
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| 88 | acceleration gives the guest direct access to a large body
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| 89 | of additional program code in the Oracle VM VirtualBox host
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| 90 | process which it might conceivably be able to use to crash
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| 91 | the virtual machine.
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| 92 | </p>
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| 93 | </note>
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| 94 | </li>
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| 95 | </ul>
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| 96 | <p>
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| 97 | To enable Aero theme support, the Oracle VM VirtualBox WDDM video
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| 98 | driver must be installed, which is available with the Guest
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| 99 | Additions installation. The WDDM driver is not installed by
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| 100 | default for Vista and Windows 7 guests and must be
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| 101 | <i>manually selected</i> in the Guest Additions
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| 102 | installer by clicking <b outputclass="bold">No</b> in the
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| 103 | <b outputclass="bold">Would You Like to Install Basic Direct3D
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| 104 | Support</b> dialog displayed when the Direct3D feature is
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| 105 | selected.
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| 106 | </p>
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| 107 | <p>
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| 108 | The Aero theme is not enabled by default on Windows. See your
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| 109 | Windows platform documentation for details of how to enable the
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| 110 | Aero theme.
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| 111 | </p>
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| 112 | <p>
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| 113 | Technically, Oracle VM VirtualBox implements 3D acceleration by
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| 114 | installing an additional hardware 3D driver inside the guest
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| 115 | when the Guest Additions are installed. This driver acts as a
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| 116 | hardware 3D driver and reports to the guest operating system
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| 117 | that the virtual hardware is capable of 3D hardware
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| 118 | acceleration. When an application in the guest then requests
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| 119 | hardware acceleration through the OpenGL or Direct3D programming
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| 120 | interfaces, these are sent to the host through a special
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| 121 | communication tunnel implemented by Oracle VM VirtualBox. The
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| 122 | <i>host</i> then performs the requested 3D
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| 123 | operation using the host's programming interfaces.
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| 124 | </p>
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| 125 | </body>
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| 126 |
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| 127 | </topic>
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