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Verushka
Contributor
Contributor

playing the sims 3 or video card question

I still don't have vmware because I have tried this with other virtual machines and it wasn't possible, so I would like to be sure if it's possible to do this before purchasing.

My aim is to issolate my The Sims 3 game within a virtual machine to tinker with custom content without having my OS crashing. The problem is EA games, the creators of the game, have coded the game so it doesn't accept other video cards except ATI or NVIDIA, so when I install the game in a virtual machine with enabled 3d graphics acceleration I still get a message stating the graphics card is not compatible.

I do have all necessary requirements to play the game in what would be the host machine. My graphics card is ATI radeon hd 2400 and I have more than enough hard disk space. In fact, I can play the game without a problem, yet when I install the game inside a virtual machine I get a message saying my graphics card is not compatible even after enabling 3d graphics. I think it's because the virtual machine shows a video card with the name and the controllers of the virtual machine. For example when I tried with Virtual Box and went to the properties tab of my video card it showed as a VGA video cards and the controllers said were made by Oracle.

So my question is, if I use VMware, will my ATI Video card show inside the guest machine so I can finally play the game? Or am I drowning in a glass of water and other people are able to play this game with VMware without a problem? And it would not bother me in the slightest if the game lags inside the VM. I would be happy to just have it running.

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sparrowangelste
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

vmware workstation isnt designed with graphics in mind.

The game, if it runs, will run so laggy that you wouldnt bother playing.

So unless there is an update that I am not aware of, dont run it virtually..

--------------------- Sparrowangelstechnology : Vmware lover http://sparrowangelstechnology.blogspot.com
wolfmann
Contributor
Contributor

Unfortunately you do not have all the necessary requirements to play the game within your VM. The virtual machine display graphics card is not a pass through for the ATI. It is it's own software wrapper, including the graphic shaders.

A virtual machine guest is not a technologically appropriate gaming platform, though I personally have played some games without any issue within a VM. Ironically The Old Republic plays well within VMWare Fusion, but not so well in Workstation, and I have some pretty hefty hardware as far as an iMac goes.

If you are having issues, and you cannot resolve it from the game manufacturer/distributor, then I don't think you'll find any sort of resolution in these forums. Sorry man, I feel your pain.

Verushka
Contributor
Contributor

Oh well, thanks anyway. I understand. If I ever find a way around how the VM is built then I think I would like to post about it here though.

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Zomman
Contributor
Contributor

Well I wanted to try this as I always have to update my video card and the game would probably run better in a Windows 7 VM than hardware because I can run Farming Simulator 19 at 60 fps in a virtual machine with 3D acceleration. As you said about the incompatible graphics card worries me, I have an RTX card and I can add it into the config file, but even in a virtual machine no where does it state I have a RTX card and in direct compatibility tool it says I have VMware's adapter for graphics. If I do get the game to run, it still has long loading screens and the game is by everything, not well optimized and will lag.

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