Playing games on vmware. The best way to do it?

[typentica]

Hello,

I am a little bit new in the whole VMware scene. But really my goal was to have an ESX 4.1 server with virtual machines on it with the purpose for remotely gaming. I heard that de vmware view solution was the best thing to speed up the remote performance. But when I was ready to try to install games on de virtual machine I noticed that my dream was chattered by the poor performance and unsupported issues vmware gave me. Because of there own vmware videocard.

So my question is: what is the best way for me to try to hold on my dream and comming close towards gaming with vmware?

And does some one know if there comes a product from vmware that really is made for gaming in the future?

I hope that someone can give me info how to proceed my dream: To use good remotely performance with gaming without using your own hardware.

Thanks in advance,

Vincent

[admin]

VMware ESX is not really designed for gaming purposes. If you wanted to play games inside of VMware virtual machines, the best VMware virtualization platforms for that job would be VMware Fusion which runs on the Mac OS and VMware Workstation for Windows. They would have better 3D support then that of VMware ESX.

[typentica]

But what is this then all about? They are playing counterstrike on vmware esx: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDvxvIg-iIs

With kind regards,

Vincent

[idle-jam]

those video are showing that the game servers are hosted as virtual machine where as the games are being played at the laptops there ..

[schepp]

The best way to do it is not to do it.

As you said the VMware virtual Hardware is not designed for 3D Gaming. If you want to do remote gaming to avoid hardware costs you might take a look at the "onlive" service ( www.onlive.com ), which is currently tested in the US. The games are running in their datacenter and only the graphics and sound output is streamed to your PC / onlive-box for TV.

Regards

[typentica]

So my goal is impossible to achieve in this age of time? To bad i hope that it wil come soon. I really like the idea of playing games on a remote computer without using resources.

Thank you all.

I will be experimenting with workstation and vmware view then.

With kind regards,

Vincent

[seansquared]

Can I ask why you'd want to do this in the first place? Spending tens of thousands of dollars on hardware in order to play games "without using resources" doesn't add up. You're still using resources, specifically you'd be saturating your local network with whatever remote protocol traffic you'd be using to connect back to the ESX farm. What's the end goal?

[h00man]

1 - The idea was to run everything on the servers, not the workstations. So many people want to do just that.

2 - OnLive and Gaikai seem to be able to stream gaming over the Internet. Seems like it can be done over a LAN.

3 - After adopting VDI, people have powerful servers, and weak workstations, which cannot run much of anything locally.  If they need to run any app, 3D or otherwise, it has to run this way.

[Brian Humfleet]

The biggest reason to VM is for security.  For example, Helldivers 2 installs malware (nProtect) on the motherboard of whatever machine you install it on.  Because some devs feel like infecting our systems with malware is an 'appropriate' form of anti-cheat, running on a VM is, in my mind, a requirement for playing these games and keeping your firmware free of malware.

[ninjabrum]

Kinda relevant, but was it worth it reviving a 14 year old post for this comment? Think…. It doesn't add value and OP is probably dead.

[sonpalmer2]

There are a few factors to consider when trying to play games on VMware:

Hardware resources: Make sure that your host machine has enough hardware resources (e.g., CPU, GPU, RAM) to support the game and the virtual machine. If the host machine is underpowered, the game may run poorly or not at all.

Operating system and graphics support: Make sure that the virtual machine's operating system and graphics drivers support the game. Some games may not run on certain operating systems or may require specific graphics drivers.

Networking: If you are playing a multiplayer game, you will need to ensure that the virtual machine has access to the Internet and that any necessary ports are open.

Performance: You may need to fine-tune the virtual machine's hardware settings and allocate additional resources (e.g., CPU, RAM, graphics memory) to get the best performance.

In general, it is best to use a physical machine to play games, as virtual machines can be resource-intensive and may not provide the best performance. However, if you do choose to play games on a virtual machine, it is important to carefully consider the factors listed above to ensure the best experience.