GPU Emulation?-Virtual Machines and older games

[Arjmaj]

Hi, so... the tittle seems legit...

If you don't want to read all, scroll down to the RESUME at the end.

I have my new PC (Ryzen 5 2400G) running and playing all day (when im not working). The problem is that recently i found my copy of "Shogun Total War: Warlord Edition"... i've tried everything, all solutions i've found online, and seems to go nowere. The problem is that my hardware and the SO (W10) don't wan't to run it. The game was released in 2000, so, retro-compatibility is a nono.

I come with an idea, set a VM, get my older Wxp and install the game in it, another "fiasco". The game runs at 3fps, not playable at all. Diggin in the configurations I ended up in the hardware administrator on the XP in the VM... to my surprise is running in software mode, i go to the unknown devices and is there, the graphics card, but windows reject to recognize it. No drivers to install and no way to solve it.

The main problem is that after 4 days+ reading and surfing the net, it seems that "GPU EMULATION" doesn't exist, or i really suck in english (not my language so im working hard tipyng here).

If is someone out there that knows more of this than me, ¿is it possible to "emulate older gpu's" in a newer gpu?, that includes triking the OS to thinking that i have another gpu apart from the integrated one (like GTX450 or ATI equivalent), and emulated in my integrated GPU or even in the CPU, so i can install the drivers in the VM-Wxp to run the game.

 

Resume: Is some way to emulate an older GPU on my newer GPU or CPU (doesn't matter in wich one) so i can play older games in my virtual machine with WindowsXP? All other options (like compatibility mode, even editing files of the game) are a nono, no one works. (The game: "Shogun Total War: Warlord Edition")

[Brennan Price]

Ok here might explain the issue... I presume you're running windows 10 yes? In that case, let me explain how a lot of retro games won't work. The game is on disc (I also presume), which uses DRM. DRM was dropped from the support from Windows 10 as it helps prevent a lot of priated games and further bugs from being implemented via disc etc, this is why you cannot use it properly.

 

However, at the same time, you're also not going to run it well within a VM. VM's need a secondary graphics card in order for graphics drivers etc to be parsed through to the VM (see a lot of Linux VM usage for Windows 10) and so the VM uses the CPU mainly and it tries its best to emulate the GPU but can only really use OpenGL or similar to process the graphics of the game hence the bad FPS/reuslts. 

 

You will be best off installing a copy of Windows 7 or Vista (or older) in another HDD partition to get it working properly. There is the alternative to use the game through an online source and play from that also. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

3 hours ago, Arjmaj said:

Resume: Is some way to emulate an older GPU on my newer GPU or CPU (doesn't matter in wich one) so i can play older games in my virtual machine with WindowsXP? All other options (like compatibility mode, even editing files of the game) are a nono, no one works. (The game: "Shogun Total War: Warlord Edition")

No, this is something the VM manager has to do if the OS doesn't support GPU virtualization/passthrough. Consumer versions of Windows don't support this feature.

 

However, VirtualBox does emulate a GeForce 6800 when the guest is Windows XP and with the Guest Additions installed. Though this was with the host having a GTX 1080, so I don't know if there's a minimum requirement or not. If you need something more powerful than that, then you'll have to run the OS natively. Or use Linux with a VM that supports GPU virtualization/passthrough features.

[ltc_]

Folks, you not knowing about solutions does not mean they do not exist.

What are the games you are trying to play?

Tell me and I can point you to the tools you'll need.

 

As an example: The Typing Of The Dead is a cult classic released in September of 2001 that folks think can't be run on today's machines with Windows 10. They assume when discovering the game does not run out of the box that they'll need a VM (WRONG, most Windows games, going back as far as Windows 3.11 do not need a VM to run). In reality all one need to run this game is a tool called DXwnd, same for many others of similar Vintage (Pre Direct3D 8 games). There's also DOSBOX for Win 3.11 games and older, there is also DgVoodoo 2 for Glide games and so on and so forth.

 

So, just say which games you'd like play and I'll be happy to help.

[Majinhoju]

I find Vmware Workstation Player actually handled GPU tasks fairly well.  

Here's a test i did.

Host: I5 with a gtx 780 running Windows 10.  

VM: Windows 7

Game test: Resident Evil 5 benchmark.  It ran at full settings over 100fps.

It wasn't passthrough either, my VM saw the GPU as some s3 card or something (can't remember exactly).  It should hopefully work the same if you're running XP on your VM.  

 

I also recently tested Diablo 1 on my XP vm but didn't test any 3d accelerated titles though.

[Arjmaj]

9 hours ago, ltc_ said:

Folks, you not knowing about solutions does not mean they do not exist.

What are the games you are trying to play?

Tell me and I can point you to the tools you'll need.

 

As an example: The Typing Of The Dead is a cult classic released in September of 2001 that folks think can't be run on today's machines with Windows 10. They assume when discovering the game does not run out of the box that they'll need a VM (WRONG, most Windows games, going back as far as Windows 3.11 do not need a VM to run). In reality all one need to run this game is a tool called DXwnd, same for many others of similar Vintage (Pre Direct3D 8 games). There's also DOSBOX for Win 3.11 games and older, there is also DgVoodoo 2 for Glide games and so on and so forth.

 

So, just say which games you'd like play and I'll be happy to help.

THAT IS... YOU ARE GOD! jajajaj... thanks man, with DXwnd i was able to run the game with some tweaking, not full screen (the game still crashes in full screen), but i was able to play it... o lord of pc's, thanks for bringing a messenger...

 

At this time, i think is a problem with the desktop and how windows handle it. I will try to solve it with no use of the DXwnd.

Moreover, i think is a problem with aero or some crap like that in the effects that windows put in the desktop.

For now, im enjoyng the game.