problem with 3D acceleration in guest machine (Windows 8.1 Host)

[greekman90]

hello there i'm using the latest version of Workstation (16.2.1)  in my Windows 8.1 Host (full updated)

as you can see from the photos the 3d accelerator is turned off even if my OS is still supported --hardware supports DirectX 11.1 

can anyone help? thanks.

[CarltonR]

Have you reviewed other submissions to this forum . . . may I suggest you start with Solved: No 3D accelerction from the host

[greekman90]

sorry but that didn't help

[bluefirestorm]

The referenced thread won't help because the mks.gl.allowUnsupportedDrivers = "TRUE" only applies for Linux hosts with AMD graphics cards. What you have is Windows 8.1 host with Nvidia GTX 1060.

Does the 3D acceleration get disabled when the VMs are powered up? If it does, you could try switching to using OpenGL.

Power down the VM(s), not suspend.
Add the following lines to the vmx file

mks.enableDX11Renderer = "FALSE"
mks.enableGLRenderer = "TRUE"

This will make Workstation Pro use OpenGL 4.x instead of DX11. You can see the difference in the mksSandbox.log that GLRenderer is used instead of DX11Renderer.

[Bakugo]

I'm having the same problem. Switching to OpenGL doesn't help, it seems like mksSandbox simply crashes very early on.

Relevant vmware.log:

2021-12-30T23:07:00.943Z In(05) mks MKS-RenderMain: Starting ISBRenderer (DX11Renderer)
2021-12-30T23:07:00.944Z In(05) mks ISBRendererComm: ISBRendererComm DataChannel size=4294967296
2021-12-30T23:07:00.947Z In(05) mks ISBRendererComm: mksSandbox command-line: C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Player\x64\mksSandbox.exe --pipeInfo \\.\pipe\vmware\mksSandbox\mksSandbox-52 46 2c 21 49 28 36 4a-41 75 65 21 60 c7 6a 69
2021-12-30T23:07:00.947Z In(05) mks ISBRendererComm: Failed to create process as user (error=87)
2021-12-30T23:07:00.947Z In(05) mks ISBRendererComm: Failed to spawn the sandbox process: (87) The parameter is incorrect
2021-12-30T23:07:00.947Z In(05) mks ISBRendererComm: Failed to spawn the sandbox process
2021-12-30T23:07:00.947Z In(05) mks ISBRendererComm: Unable to spawn mksSandbox
2021-12-30T23:07:00.958Z In(05) mks ISBRenderOps: ISBRenderer failed to start.

mksSandbox.log only contains a few lines:

2021-12-30T23:07:00.947Z In(05) mks Log for VMware Player pid=1920 version=16.2.0 build=build-18760230 option=Release
2021-12-30T23:07:00.947Z In(05) mks The host is 64-bit.
2021-12-30T23:07:00.947Z In(05) mks Host codepage=windows-1252 encoding=windows-1252
2021-12-30T23:07:00.947Z In(05) mks Host is Windows 8.1 Pro, 64-bit (Build 9600)
2021-12-30T23:07:00.947Z In(05) mks Host offset from UTC is +00:00.

[abbodi1406]

The only fix that worked for me is to disable the GPU sandbox (a.k.a. mksSandbox since it's the one crashing)

but it only can be done on GLOBAL SETTINGS for all VMs

edit or create:

C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Workstation\settings.ini

and add these lines:

mks.requireISBRenderer = "FALSE"
mks.enableISBRenderer = "FALSE"

tested with Workstation Pro 16.2.1

[greekman90]

thanks a lot !! it worked!

also it works on windows 7 ESU !!!!