Can Prepar3D run on a Virtual Machine?

[jake_lm 0]

Hello all,

I am completely new to posting on these forums, as I have just recently started getting into sims--specifically Prepar3D.  I will be looking to do Naval Sims, so on a side note if anybody has any useful tips on anything feel free to let me know! 

I am currently using a Linux machine.  This is a problem knowing Prepar3D only runs on Windows.  I am wondering if anybody has any experience using Prepar3D on a Virtual Machine, specifically VMWare.  I would be trying to run Prepar3D on my Linux machine through VMWare.  This also raises another question, which is about whether or not VMWare will use the dedicated graphics card for the machine or not.  I have done some research, and I am finding many yes it will work/ no it won't work, so maybe somebody can here has some experience with it. 

If VMWare does not work, or you know of something other then VMWare that could work for hosting Prepar3D on a Linux machine, I encourage you to let me know, as I am not limited to VMWare.

The goal is to not have to switch from my Linux machine, as I would have to basically build a new machine specifically for this (probably what most people do anyways, but I am just looking to get my toes wet and see what's up before I do that).

 

Thank you to anybody that reads this,

Jake

[Cai Zicheng 171]

How about a dual system, which is much more efficient?

[jake_lm 0]

2 minutes ago, Cai Zicheng said:

How about a dual system, which is much more efficient?

That would be a better option then building a new machine.  So it will probably be my backup plan in that regard, but I'd still like to know if the VM would work.

[flybius 3]

I would say that since Prepar3d 3.x requires DX11, and I am not aware of any VM Host software that supports DX11, the answer would be no.

That being said, I have had a reasonable experience running FSX on Parallels VM for Mac on a Retina screen... Parallels supports DX10 and you can run FSX at the native retina resolution (which acts as a poor man's Anti Aliasing!) 

Not sure if there is a way to run Parallels on Linux though...

[jake_lm 0]

45 minutes ago, flybius said:

I would say that since Prepar3d 3.x requires DX11, and I am not aware of any VM Host software that supports DX11, the answer would be no.

That being said, I have had a reasonable experience running FSX on Parallels VM for Mac on a Retina screen... Parallels supports DX10 and you can run FSX at the native retina resolution (which acts as a poor man's Anti Aliasing!) 

Not sure if there is a way to run Parallels on Linux though...

I have found that nothing above DX6 runs in a VM, unless you have absurdly good hardware.  So I am going to assume basically that it can't be done with Prepar3D, especially if you ever consider getting any addons at all.

[flybius 3]

I have been experimenting with trying to get flight sims running in a virtual environment for years and I have only been successful with FSX-SE, and only running Parallels hypervisor on a Mac. The VMWare equivalent (Fusion) produces a sharp image but the frame rates are unusable on equivalent hardware. I have never been able to get FSX-SE working with any Wine environment either...

I think if you are willing to go the FSX route you may be able to run in on a linux VM

 

[jake_lm 0]

14 minutes ago, flybius said:

I have been experimenting with trying to get flight sims running in a virtual environment for years and I have only been successful with FSX-SE, and only running Parallels hypervisor on a Mac. The VMWare equivalent (Fusion) produces a sharp image but the frame rates are unusable on equivalent hardware. I have never been able to get FSX-SE working with any Wine environment either...

I think if you are willing to go the FSX route you may be able to run in on a linux VM

 

I will be using Prepar3D for sure, so I think I'm going to start heading towards the Dual Boot option.  Thanks for the input.

[flybius 3]

You're welcome!  Good luck!

[captain_adf 16]

I tried and failed to run P3D using Virtualbox.  I can't remember the exact error but it was something 3d related and no amount of tweaking the options (hardware acceleration, etc) would work.  However I was successful with FSX:SE, on a windows 7 VM image (check out this MS developer program link).  I'm not using it to sim, just to work on some scenery projects using ADE and running FSX to see how they look.  The performance is halfway decent  (Macbook Pro 2013) but I must concur that you'll be much better off setting up a dual boot environment.

[angeli662 43]

The problem with VMWare would be drivers, I have tried running FSX on VMWare 10 on windows 7 ultimate and it worked but had many issues with my USB devices.

[albar965 1,040]

Got FSX SE running in Windows 10 in VirtualBox on a Linux host (Ubuntu - my development platform).

I think the trick was to install the 3D acceleration in the guest OS and disable it in the VirtualBox UI.

Of course this is only good for testing and not for flying. I wouldn't expect any miracles from a VM. Prepare for low FPS and stutters.

Alex

Edited May 13, 2017 by albar965
Sent too early while editing.