VMWare Fusion (Mac): 3D, yes…but not for Vista
March 2nd, 2007
I was excited to hear that Beta 2 (Build 41385) of Fusion, VMWare’s virtualization product for Intel Macs, had 3D support. I dutifully downloaded the 118MB DMG and went through the Vista installation process.
Que the wah-wha-wha-whaaaaa music. Turns out that the 3D accelerator in the VMWare Tools supports only XP SP2 running DirectX 8.1. No DirectX 10. No Aero. Same crappy performance. See the screenshot below:
So close, yet so far.
The other aggravating thing I found is that there did not seem to be any sort of right-click emulation. Granted, I didn’t spend all day looking for this, but I looked in all the usual places (VMWare Tools settings, VMWare’s release docs, etc.) with no luck. This is something that should just work. CTRL+Shift+Click on the Mac and in Parallels is the same as right-clicking. Why isn’t this working in VMWare’s offering? Who knows.
Anyway, bottom line: Fusion Beta 2 leaves a lot to offer with regard to Vista emulation <imho>. Stick with Parallels, folks.
And to the fine developers at Parallels: consider this an opportunity to get your act together and get your 3D drivers working asap. It’s an arms race, and this is a critical–if not the only–deciding factor with regard to which virtualization product people will choose.
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