El Capitan - Split Screen

[WishesOnMainSt]

When can we expect to see split screen support in Fusion?

[shaunboyce]

Oddly, this used to work (in version 7 pro of vmware fusion no less).

I was very very much liking being able to run an ubuntu VM along side native Mac apps, and then following a software update for fusion, vmware just started refusing to work in split screen mode...

I found this quite frustrating particularly because version 8 / 8 pro of fusion soon came out which appears to promise the return of el-capitan support, presumably providing support for things like split screen, which used to work anyway in version 7 prior to the recent 'updates'... not cool vmware.

[Mikero]

We explicitly disabled this mode in v8 unfortunately.

There are several reasons, but the way it basically works is that Apple makes the new 'split' windows render as discrete desktops, so the actual resolution of the window is changing and not just it's position on screen within a given display/desktop. This poses several complications with the topology when dealing with multiple monitors. Effectively, what ends up happening is there could be a 'hole' in the topology because it's adding new 'displays'. It's not a big deal on single-displays but on multiple monitors it's a problem because Apple has no way to 'query' the current expected display topology and render to that.  We make assumptions about the topology in order to render correctly, and it's even more important with Unity mode. With these assumptions changing underneath us and no way to query the expected state, we can get into areas where the code is too prone to unexpected events, so we elected to mask the feature until Apple gives us a way around the architecture limitations.

We made the call to mask the feature very late in the dev cycle, and I had hoped that we would have been able to resolve that by now. For us, stability is more important than embracing new and potentially disruptive host features. (the bugs we hit were pretty awful, but they didn't start emerging until late in the Developer Preview cycle of El Cap...)

I know it's not cool, but at least you know the reasoning behind our decision.  I'm hopeful we'll get it working as users expect.

[chetman]

Lovely. I finally got around to updating to 8 just now, and was shocked to discover that you broke a feature I require. Nice going! Fusion 8 without support for splitscreen is useless to me.

I'll have to revert to 7, recover my VM from backup, and initiate a refund -- all of which is a giant hassle. It'd be nice if you were more public about these things.

[Mikero]

I sincerely apologize. I wanted this feature in, but I was overruled on technical grounds.

I'm curious about your requirement for this feature.

What's your use case?

We don't actually hear anyone in our support expressing this as an issue other than 'it would have been nice to have'.

[chetman]

I use orgmode in Emacs for most of my notetaking. It's useful to have Windows and Emacs splitting the screen neatly for a number of reasons, and since the introduction of EC I've been using that often.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered you folks have deliberately removed a feature I rely on because it doesn't work on SOME configurations, despite the fact that it works FINE in other cases (apparently, single-screen situations).

As I said, I'm pursuing a refund already, but apparently I'll have to wait several days to get my v7 serial number back, and until then I'm stuck on 8.

The long & short of it is that VMWare has cost me several hours of hassle and work over this, which is some serious BS.

(Oh, and v8 appears to be a giant performance hog vs. v7 -- with it running, there's a lag for mouse and keyboard input systemwide that isn't present when it's not running, and wasn't a problem in 7.)

[vmxmr]

(Oh, and v8 appears to be a giant performance hog vs. v7 -- with it running, there's a lag for mouse and keyboard input systemwide that isn't present when it's not running, and wasn't a problem in 7.)

We are straying a bit off topic here, but I have noticed the same keyboard issues. If I have a VM running, doing essential nothing but Windows background tasks, on rare occasions the Mac keyboard misbehaves. The Mac side applications buffer keys and then suddenly display the string, they miss keystrokes, they misinterpret keystrokes into "special characters" as if the option key were pressed, and more. The Mac applications where I see it include Mail, Safari (such as typing in this reply window), BBEdit, and more.

I have not said much about it because I have not been able to characterize it into a repeatable instance, but it is definitely there, and I am reasonably sure it is related to VMware Fusion.

I am confirming for chetman, but will start a new thread on this topic here:

Does VMware Fusion Interfere with Mac Keyboard Typing? (Intermittent Bug?)

If you have something to add, related to keyboard issues like mine, please go to the link above so that we all see your comments.

[chetman]

It's absolutely a problem, and it's a problem only with Fusion 8. It started for me when I "upgraded" to Fusion 8, and it stops when I suspend the VM. It also affects mouse input.

I'm pretty certain it'll go away for good when VMWare gets off their collective butt enough to give me back my Fusion 7 serial number so I can switch back.

[ExEmployee]

I'm experiencing the same thing.  Really wonky performance issues.