Hi,
We evaluated and ultimately bought VM Ware View in order to replace VM Ware ACE, while at the same time making use of our ESX farm (we have 14 servers running ESX 3.5). The primary motivation for moving away from ACE was the need to train Windows Vista courses (our organization helps teachers understand technology, among other services). Set up and such went great and our first round of classes were generally well received, however, there is no 3D Acceleration or Direct3D provided by ESX/Vm Ware tools in the svga II driver.
This fact prevents our Application trainers from utilizing a great number of features of Vista, as well as add on applications that require it.
I'm not looking for an "yeah that's not supported" answer here. We need solutions. If there aren't any available then VM Ware simply must make this fact public knowledge to potential customers BEFORE they sell their product. While it's true we did not test these features during our evaluation, I saw or read nothing that would even hint at a lack of full video support, in the forums, knowledgebase or documentation.
After the work that's already been done, creating multiple View snapshots, grouped, customized and distributed, for me to have to switch back to ACE (presuming using ACE and the inherent hardware of the machine would support 3D) or move to a Microsoft or other Virtual product, would be pure torture of the sort that might put off VM Ware as a soultion for quite some time within our organization.
PLEASE, someone, tell me there is a solution for this. I've read about and attempted many different changes, including implementing the vm ware workstation suggested changes (mks.enable3d = "TRUE" / svga.vramSize = 67108864 /
mks.noGL = "FALSE"); though I had to add the svga parameter as an advanced configuration paremeter in the VM hardware profile of the base vm I was using for the snapshot. I've installed the latest DirectX, I've followed all of Microsoft's suggestions and I've read some threads here where "that's not supported" was the answer.
Some folks mentioned third party solutions. While distasteful to consider I would need to add something to our expensive VM Ware investment, if there is an easy way to get 3D to work under Vista on a VM running on our ESX farm, I'll at least consider it.
I don't mean to couple my frustration within this plea for help, however, I hope that someone out there will understand my perspective, as well as what I might need to tell our Trainers, their managers and our combined supervisors when the answer is "that's not supported".
Thanks for whatever help you can offer.
Chris
