Hi. There was experimental 3D graphics support for Windows XP in older releases of Virtualbox (before 6.1).
The VM additions had to be installed in Windows XP safe mode to allow this.
The setup program of the VM additions would copy over modified system files based on WINE (WineD3D etc).

Edit: 3D support for XP is hard to get working these days using VMs.
The virtual graphics card (VboxVGA) that allowed this was considered being too unsafe and was removed.
The mechanism that allowed graphics commands to wander outside from inside the VM could be used for malware etc.

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=106674

Edit: Also see Are there any 3D-accelerated drivers for VBoxSVGA and VMSVGA video adapters?
SoftGPU might be an alternative if the host CPU is strong.

Edit: Windows XP 3D support in VMware did exist about ten years ago, I think.
You can check old VMware Tools from 2014 or before, maybe.

The latest version of VMware Workstatiin still supports 3d acceleration for Windows 2000 and above. For 9x in virtualbox or VMware use softgpu.

DosFreak wrote on 2024-10-25, 10:18:

The latest version of VMware Workstatiin still supports 3d acceleration for Windows 2000 and above. For 9x in virtualbox or VMware use softgpu.

I second that. There is no better alternative - although for even older games of 9X era I'd recommend 86Box.

People actually use virtual machines for games? It always seemed more like a proof of concept rather than something actually usable.

There is no need to use hypervisors or emulators for Prince of Persia 3D and Need for Speed Porshe Unleashed. They work in modern Windows with dgVoodoo and some community fixes.

feda wrote on 2024-10-25, 11:59:

There is no need to use hypervisors or emulators for Prince of Persia 3D and Need for Speed Porshe Unleashed. They work in modern Windows with dgVoodoo and some community fixes.

Yes, I know, but all my other CDs are buried deep inside shelfs, so it was easier to pick these games for testing.

DosFreak wrote on 2024-10-25, 10:18:

The latest version of VMware Workstatiin still supports 3d acceleration for Windows 2000 and above. For 9x in virtualbox or VMware use softgpu.

Which version? I have Vmware Workstation 17, I think this is the latest? So if it supports 3d acceleration, then why these games don't work?

kamiledi15 wrote on 2024-10-25, 12:21:

DosFreak wrote on 2024-10-25, 10:18:

The latest version of VMware Workstatiin still supports 3d acceleration for Windows 2000 and above. For 9x in virtualbox or VMware use softgpu.

Which version? I have Vmware Workstation 17, I think this is the latest? So if it supports 3d acceleration, then why these games don't work?

You need to install guest additions (it should have prompted you when you installed XP). It's an ISO file you mount in the VM and install.

https://packages.vmware.com/tools/releases/latest/windows/

Also your CPU needs to support virtualization tech (Intel VT or AMD V or whatever they are called now).

I installed VM Tools immediately, so I have them. I suppose thatm VM Tools and guest additions is the same?
About virtualization tech, I don't know whether my CPU supports it - I have AMD Ryzen 7 7700.

kamiledi15 wrote on 2024-10-25, 12:21:

Yes, I know, but all my other CDs are buried deep inside shelfs, so it was easier to pick these games for testing.

Huh? Just mount your ISOs.

VMware's 3D support is spotty when it comes to pre-DX9 stuff, which these games are.

feda wrote on 2024-10-25, 13:31:

kamiledi15 wrote on 2024-10-25, 12:21:

Yes, I know, but all my other CDs are buried deep inside shelfs, so it was easier to pick these games for testing.

Huh? Just mount your ISOs.

Why should I? If these two games don't work, the others probably also won't work. I want all games to work there, not only few of them.

kamiledi15 wrote on 2024-10-25, 13:34:

feda wrote on 2024-10-25, 13:31:

kamiledi15 wrote on 2024-10-25, 12:21:

Yes, I know, but all my other CDs are buried deep inside shelfs, so it was easier to pick these games for testing.

Huh? Just mount your ISOs.

Why should I? If these two games don't work,

But I just explained to you that these two games work very well in modern Windows...

Why should I? If these two games don't work,
[/quote]
But I just explained to you that these two games work very well in modern Windows...
[/quote]

I know, but shouldn't they also work in Vmware? What is the point of searching other games if these two don't work? As I said, I would like all games to work in one place, not just some of them. If two 3D games don't work, then probably other 3D games also won't work.

Many games do work. Some don't. If you expect perfect 100% compatibility, you won't find it.

Keep in mind that VM software is generally made for corporate/business/industrial customers at the highest priority (for more system critical usage cases). Any games working at all on them is a side-effect and can be regressed at any moment without warning.

leileilol wrote on 2024-10-25, 14:23:

Keep in mind that VM software is generally made for corporate/business/industrial customers at the highest priority (for more system critical usage cases). Any games working at all on them is a side-effect and can be regressed at any moment without warning.

I second that. It's just a bit strange that 3D support for XP has no weight anymore.
I would think that older versions of AutoCAD would have a need for both XP and 3D.
Especially if things like LPT or USB dongles ares being involved for licensing purposes.
But maybe meanwhile CAD designers have moved on, as well, not sure.🤷‍♂️

kamiledi15 wrote on 2024-10-25, 13:08:

I installed VM Tools immediately, so I have them. I suppose thatm VM Tools and guest additions is the same?
About virtualization tech, I don't know whether my CPU supports it - I have AMD Ryzen 7 7700.

Your CPU supports it but it's probably disabled in your BIOS (I had to enable on mine to get 3D acceleration in VMWare Workstation/Windows XP).

https://www.goodtechmaster.com/how-to-enable- … zen-processors/

These games/emulators all run smoothly in full screen but I have them set to windowed so you can see it's running in XP with VMWare.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koQo19tpvZs

Norton Commander wrote on 2024-10-25, 16:13:

kamiledi15 wrote on 2024-10-25, 13:08:

I installed VM Tools immediately, so I have them. I suppose thatm VM Tools and guest additions is the same?
About virtualization tech, I don't know whether my CPU supports it - I have AMD Ryzen 7 7700.

Your CPU supports it but it's probably disabled in your BIOS (I had to enable on mine to get 3D acceleration in VMWare Workstation/Windows XP).

https://www.goodtechmaster.com/how-to-enable- … zen-processors/

Interesting. I had assumed that required old VMware tools to work, which still supported Windows XP (XP went EOL 2014).

Anyhow, it's nice to see it works!

Last time I've used VMware Player regularily it still had AMD-V and Intel VT as an optional feature.
Which I've used, of course. I had built all my PCs to be VM friendly since late 2000s. 🙂

Norton Commander wrote on 2024-10-25, 16:13:

Your CPU supports it but it's probably disabled in your BIOS (I had to enable on mine to get 3D acceleration in VMWare Workstation/Windows XP).

I checked in my task manager and it says "virtualization - on". I also opened my Bios and it says "SVM - Auto". So I don't know what can be wrong. I can try one of the games which you are playing - which one would you recommend for testing? I can see that you are playing Half Life - I have this game on CD. It works on Win10, but you are playing it on Vmware in WinXP, so probably it will be good to try?
And I have Vmware Workstation 17 and you have version 14 - should I downgrade it to 14?

There's a project SoftGPU that should allow better graphics support on virtual machines.

However in all other cases, I would just play NFS PU or POP3D on my native Windows 11. They work well with the Nvidia 10 series GPUs at least (considering the newer ones don't change dramatically in older API support). The QuickTime videos may be a little difficult to get to work if you have too many codecs/video stuffs installed but it's not impossible.