So, I just upgraded my rig to support vt-d and I really look forward some dual gaming with my gf on one machine.
But: c'mon, Ubisoft pays you guys to make Windows Games run in Windows VMs on Linux hosts? Why not just build games that run on Linux and save the licence fees for the VMs, plus maybe not needing *any* VMs? :P That way I would even buy some Ubisoft games during the next Steam sale again ;)
But still, I like what you made out of Xen there :) Keep up the good work
@ubicloud Very nice! I looked more into it and saw how Xen has the unique "VGA Passthrough" tech that actually exposes the VGA device, option rom and all into the VM; far more sophisticated than just tossing another PCIe device into the machine through IOMMU.
I was really hoping that I could hack my way into pushing HID devices to the guest machines through ESXi, but VMKernel "won't allow it." Something about the kernel eating the USB HID device before the arbitrator can even see it :(
If you Ubisoft folks don't mind sharing, I'm currently doing this to replace aging desktops in my gaming room: Four Radeon 5850's plugged into an MSI 890FXA-GD70 board. The results are *amazing.*
I'm using VMware for it though, and a major drawback is that I can't use VMware's USB passthrough implementation (which doesn't use IOMMU, it's a USB packet capture/routing thing) refuses to pass HID devices. How do you do it with Xen?
@craftyguy1 I had the exact same problem. There are what appear to be updated patches (just checked, not sure where I found them), but I'm currently trying to work this against 4.2-unstable as the notes show significant progress in this area, and maybe the patches won't be necessary. We'll see, and I'll post back when I know more :P
x6 1100t, 12-16 gigs ram, two or three hd6950s 2gb, 990fx mainboard for amd-vi 2.0 which is equivalent of intel vt-d. two or three cheap laptops preferably outputting graphics to larger displays.
all the power you need, right on your fingertips. oh, for those asking why amd, intel's vtd is only supported on select workstation boards for multi-gpu solutions and hypervisors hate HT and love real cores.
This is interesting. I'm tired of rebooting so i basically forgot the windows partition. If a game isn't native or doesn't work with wine, i simply ignore it.
@crcmachine This is actually not their work but the work of the Xen developers which implemented Pass-through technology - which means that the virtualized OS has access directly to the GPU, to the video card...
Usually(for example VirtualBox and VMWare) implemented their own 2D and 3D video acceleration which can't be compared in performance with a direct access to the GPU like Xen does...
There should be another GPU for the host Ubuntu...
Glad1kun 2 weeks ago
So, I just upgraded my rig to support vt-d and I really look forward some dual gaming with my gf on one machine.
But: c'mon, Ubisoft pays you guys to make Windows Games run in Windows VMs on Linux hosts? Why not just build games that run on Linux and save the licence fees for the VMs, plus maybe not needing *any* VMs? :P That way I would even buy some Ubisoft games during the next Steam sale again ;)
But still, I like what you made out of Xen there :) Keep up the good work
archimedesmp 1 month ago
@ubicloud Very nice! I looked more into it and saw how Xen has the unique "VGA Passthrough" tech that actually exposes the VGA device, option rom and all into the VM; far more sophisticated than just tossing another PCIe device into the machine through IOMMU.
I was really hoping that I could hack my way into pushing HID devices to the guest machines through ESXi, but VMKernel "won't allow it." Something about the kernel eating the USB HID device before the arbitrator can even see it :(
54v 6 months ago
@SmartestButtOfAll We updated the description of the video so that it now contains information on how we actually did it.
ubicloud 6 months ago
If you Ubisoft folks don't mind sharing, I'm currently doing this to replace aging desktops in my gaming room: Four Radeon 5850's plugged into an MSI 890FXA-GD70 board. The results are *amazing.*
I'm using VMware for it though, and a major drawback is that I can't use VMware's USB passthrough implementation (which doesn't use IOMMU, it's a USB packet capture/routing thing) refuses to pass HID devices. How do you do it with Xen?
Great video, guys :)
54v 6 months ago
@54v We updated the description of the video so that it now contains information on how we actually did it.
ubicloud 6 months ago
Could you guys release a patch to get this working, ive been trying to do this with my dual 470gtx without success :(
nbhusain 6 months ago
@nbhusain We updated the description of the video so that it now contains information on how we actually did it.
ubicloud 6 months ago
@ubicloud What modifications did yall make to Tobias Gieger's patches? If applied against stable Xen 4.1.0, the make will fail on pass-through.c
craftyguy1 5 months ago
@craftyguy1 I had the exact same problem. There are what appear to be updated patches (just checked, not sure where I found them), but I'm currently trying to work this against 4.2-unstable as the notes show significant progress in this area, and maybe the patches won't be necessary. We'll see, and I'll post back when I know more :P
54v 5 months ago
cloud computing/gaming at home...
x6 1100t, 12-16 gigs ram, two or three hd6950s 2gb, 990fx mainboard for amd-vi 2.0 which is equivalent of intel vt-d. two or three cheap laptops preferably outputting graphics to larger displays.
all the power you need, right on your fingertips. oh, for those asking why amd, intel's vtd is only supported on select workstation boards for multi-gpu solutions and hypervisors hate HT and love real cores.
ufster81 6 months ago
A guide for making this work would be a much appreciated contribution. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help with such a guide.
PvtPapaSmurf 7 months ago
@PvtPapaSmurf We updated the description of the video so that it now contains information on how we actually did it.
ubicloud 6 months ago
You still need windows in the vm :S but still good news for linux.
Sdarin 7 months ago
This is interesting. I'm tired of rebooting so i basically forgot the windows partition. If a game isn't native or doesn't work with wine, i simply ignore it.
freeculture 7 months ago
WHAT HAPPENED TO MY YOUTUBEZ???
Nyocurio 7 months ago
I got a boner.
supercoolguyT 7 months ago
If you manage to make games from Windows to run on Linux we will see a lot of "good bye Windows" :)
And it looks like you try to do that now... Or may be I'm wrong.
Linux works like a charm, it just needs games(pretty much, cause the software part in some cases is the best in class) now to attract audience...
aliancemd 7 months ago
If I'm getting this right this could mean "bye bye dual boot" for some gaming folks out there.
me1ne 7 months ago 8
Real GPU performance in a VM. This is really cool stuff.
crcmachine 8 months ago 5
@crcmachine This is actually not their work but the work of the Xen developers which implemented Pass-through technology - which means that the virtualized OS has access directly to the GPU, to the video card...
Usually(for example VirtualBox and VMWare) implemented their own 2D and 3D video acceleration which can't be compared in performance with a direct access to the GPU like Xen does...
aliancemd 7 months ago