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CWise
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Workstation 12.5.5 and Aero/WEI

I upgraded from Workstation 10.7 to 12.5.5 with Windows 7. Now, Aero cannot work, video seems sluggish, and the Windows Experience Index (WEI) fails with "Could not measure video playback performance." My display adapter is saying "VMware SVGA 3D" with no errors. In troubleshooting Aero, I'm told that my video card is not WDDM compliant. Workstation 10.7 had none of these issues. Thoughts?

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wila
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Hi,

it tells me I need a "computer or video card for a WDDM-compatible driver" although I believe VMware SVGA 3D says that it IS compliant with that.

Yep, the VMware SVGA 3D driver should be good. I have it here on a Windows 7 guest and Aero works just fine.

You probably don't need the extra lines then in your vmx as your graphics adapter should be plenty fast and those edits are more intended for supporting the lower end of the video card market whereas your card is more in the top end.

As bluefirestorm mentions, one requirement is to have set the VM to current virtual hardware, but to be fair, aero support has been a capability in VMware virtual hardware since eons (I think official support for that came in VH7?), DX9 support became experimental in 2007 and then in 2010 full support with shaders. So it should really just work as aero does not require more.

I'm wondering if it has something to do with the drivers from Nvidia at your host. That there's a glitch preventing the virtual driver SVGA driver in the guest to work properly.

Attaching a vmware.log file might help.

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva

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wila
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Hi,

In that case, just use the DirectX rendering engine from earlier Workstation.

Before Workstation Pro 12, the VMware grapics engine used D3D render.

Modify your vmx file by adding the following lines:

mks.enableD3DRenderer = TRUE 
mks.enableDX11Renderer = FALSE

Do this with your VM shutdown - not suspended - and with VMware Workstation not running.

Most likely your Aero performance and WEI is back to where it was earlier on.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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CWise
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Thank you for the quick reply! With the VM shut down and workstation off, I added your two lines as:

mks.enableD3DRenderer = TRUE

mks.enableDX11Renderer = FALSE

...and then like this to be compatible with other lines in the vmx:

mks.enableD3DRenderer = "TRUE"

mks.enableDX11Renderer = "FALSE"

...but unfortunately AERO still won't work. Not as important, but WEI still won't complete either. When I follow Window's troubleshooting "with transparency and other Aero effects" showing at the bottom of Window's Personalization window in the VM, it tells me I need a "computer or video card for a WDDM-compatible driver" although I believe VMware SVGA 3D says that it IS compliant with that.

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CWise
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I ran dxdiag. It might help to say that my host is Quadro 4000 with a DDI version of 11, driver model is WDDM 1.1. And, on my host, Aero/WEI work fine.

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bluefirestorm
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Have you upgraded the VM hardware compatibility to version 12? Hardware version 12 will have support for DX10 within the Windows VM if you enable Accelerated 3D graphics on the Display settings of the VM.

Have you also updated the VMware Tools as well? The latest SVGA 3D driver should show version 8.15.1.50. Slightly earlier version would show 8.15.1.33 which would also support DX10 in the VM.

wila
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Hi,

it tells me I need a "computer or video card for a WDDM-compatible driver" although I believe VMware SVGA 3D says that it IS compliant with that.

Yep, the VMware SVGA 3D driver should be good. I have it here on a Windows 7 guest and Aero works just fine.

You probably don't need the extra lines then in your vmx as your graphics adapter should be plenty fast and those edits are more intended for supporting the lower end of the video card market whereas your card is more in the top end.

As bluefirestorm mentions, one requirement is to have set the VM to current virtual hardware, but to be fair, aero support has been a capability in VMware virtual hardware since eons (I think official support for that came in VH7?), DX9 support became experimental in 2007 and then in 2010 full support with shaders. So it should really just work as aero does not require more.

I'm wondering if it has something to do with the drivers from Nvidia at your host. That there's a glitch preventing the virtual driver SVGA driver in the guest to work properly.

Attaching a vmware.log file might help.

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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CWise
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Success!

I'm not sure exactly what works since I did a number of things that probably needed to be done anyway:

  • I DID already have VMware tools updated
  • I updated my NVIDIA Quadro 4000 to the latest drivers on the host (I had a driver from 2012)
  • I changed my hardware compatibility to Workstation 12.x from 9.x
  • I removed the lines from my VMX file added for older HW

And, my VM works/looks great. Thank you VERY much for the help and suggestions.

- Curtis