Request for Advice: How Do I Make Games More Compatible with Windows Guests

[RobertX]

Some of the games I installed were met with error messages and crashes when trying to install on a Windows XP or a Windows 7 guest machine.

In general, how would I make those kinds of VMs compatible with some retro DirectX games?

EDIT: Here are my specs:

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System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-84-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 Desktop: MATE 1.24.0
           wm: marco dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Compaq 6005 Pro SFF PC v: N/A
           serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 4 serial: <filter>
           Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 3047h serial: <filter> BIOS: Hewlett-Packard
           v: 786G6 v01.15 date: 08/02/2011
CPU:       Topology: Triple Core model: AMD Phenom II X3 B75 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: K10 rev: 3
           L2 cache: 1536 KiB
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4a svm bogomips: 17954
           Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 800/3000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 800 2: 3000 3: 1800
Graphics:  Device-1: AMD RS880 [Radeon HD 4200] vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: radeon v: kernel
           bus ID: 01:05.0 chip ID: 1002:9710
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: ati,radeon unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa
           compositor: marco resolution: 1680x1050~60Hz
           OpenGL: renderer: AMD RS880 (DRM 2.50.0 / 5.4.0-84-generic LLVM 12.0.0)
           v: 3.3 Mesa 21.0.3 compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes
Audio:     Device-1: AMD SBx00 Azalia vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
           bus ID: 00:14.2 chip ID: 1002:4383
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-84-generic
Network:   Device-1: Broadcom and subsidiaries NetXtreme BCM5761 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe
           vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: tg3 v: 3.137 port: 1100 bus ID: 3f:00.0
           chip ID: 14e4:1681
           IF: enp63s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 232.89 GiB used: 76.45 GiB (32.8%)
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST250DM000-1BD141 size: 232.89 GiB
           speed: 3.0 Gb/s serial: <filter>
Partition: ID-1: / size: 227.74 GiB used: 76.45 GiB (33.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
USB:       Hub: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002
           Device-1: 1-6:3 info: Philips & Lite-ON Digital Solutions Mass Storage Device
           type: Mass Storage driver: usb-storage rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1c6b:a223
           Hub: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002
           Hub: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 3 rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0001
           Hub: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 3 rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0001
           Device-2: 4-2:2 info: SiGma Micro Keyboard TRACER Gamma Ivory type: Keyboard,HID
           driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1c4f:0002
           Hub: 5-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 3 rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0001
           Hub: 6-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 3 rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0001
           Device-3: 6-1:2 info: Xenta 2.4G Wireless Optical Mouse type: Mouse,Keyboard
           driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1d57:130f
           Hub: 7-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0001
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 46.0 C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list
           1: deb https: //dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cubic-wizard-release-focal.list
           1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/cubic-wizard/release/ubuntu focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/freecad-maintainers-freecad-stable-focal.list
           1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/freecad-maintainers/freecad-stable/ubuntu focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gambas-team-gambas3-focal.list
           1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/gambas-team/gambas3/ubuntu focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/libreoffice-ppa-focal.list
           1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/libreoffice/ppa/ubuntu focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
           1: deb https: //muug.ca/mirror/linuxmint/packages uma main upstream import backport
           2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
           3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
           5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
           6: deb http: //archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntuhandbook1-gimp-focal.list
           1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntuhandbook1/gimp/ubuntu focal main
Info:      Processes: 194 Uptime: 36m Memory: 3.35 GiB used: 1.83 GiB (54.7%) Init: systemd v: 245
           runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 8/9 Client: Unknown python3.8 client
           inxi: 3.0.38

[Quinton McLeod]

Depends on which VM you're using. I recommend Qemu as it has GPU Passthrough. Keep in mind, you'll need TWO (2) graphics cards for passthrough to work properly.

VMware also supports passthrough, but it's expensive, and I doubt anyone with VMware is using it to play games (though it's possible!).

Other such VMs such as VirtualBox doesn't support GPU passthrough, although it __used__ to back in the day. The developers felt it wasn't really worth their time and decided to remove the functionality a long time ago.

[MikeNovember]

Hi,

If your system has one GPU only, as most of systems, it will not support GPU pass-through.

You can get the best Directx / Direct 3D emulation in a virtual machine using VMware Workstation Player for Linux. It is not OpenSource, but free for individual use.

- Download it, from https://www.vmware.com/products/worksta ... ation.html.
- Install it:

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sudo apt install gcc build-essential -y
cd ~/Downloads
export LC_ALL=C
sudo ./VMware-Player*

- Then install Windows in VMware Workstation Player
- Launch your Windows guest and install VMware tools in Windows guest.

Regards,

MN