Full 3D on a VPC

Question

Ok, this might be a really specific question but,

I'm running Ubuntu and I need to do some programming work in Windows. I installed VirtualBox on Ubuntu and loaded an XP image. When I run the graphics code in visual studio, it pops up with 'No Direct3D harware detected', even though I checked the 'Enable 3D acceleration' on the virtual machine setup.

I've heard that I may need Shader Model 2.0 acceleration for this code to work(it's XNA from microsoft), so is that what's holding me back? If so, is it possible to get SM 2.0+ acceleration on VirtualBox? and if not, what should I be using?

Answer 1

It depends on how your hardware is virtualized. I used VMWare Fusion and I do get 3D acceleration under windows 7, E.G. I run Half-life 2 and Civ 4 sometimes. Neither of these use Shader Model 2.0 so it could be that, or VirtualBox itself. It's also important to check that you installed the correct windows drivers for this virtualized hardware.

Answer 2

This is definitely in it's infancy, and you'd have to test in windows anyway, just in case something different happens.

If you really want to do some windows based game development, I'd highly recommend using windows, just dual boot.

Answer 3

From Slashdot :

Apparently, Virtualbox 3.0 released today (2009-07-01) brings with it 'OpenGL 2.0 for Windows, Linux and Solaris guests; and experimental support for Direct3D 8/9 applications on Windows guests.'