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I am trying to enable hardware accelerated 3D graphics in a Win 8.1 VM in VMware Workstation 10.0.3 on Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS (Trusty Tahr) to play the game Smite smoothly. I have checked that the HW acceleration works in Ubuntu:

$ /usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p
OpenGL vendor string:   Intel Open Source Technology Center
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Haswell Mobile 
OpenGL version string:  3.0 Mesa 10.2.2

Not software rendered:    yes
Not blacklisted:          yes
GLX fbconfig:             yes
GLX texture from pixmap:  yes
GL npot or rect textures: yes
GL vertex program:        yes
GL fragment program:      yes
GL vertex buffer object:  yes
GL framebuffer object:    yes
GL version is 1.4+:       yes

Unity 3D supported:       yes

In VMware Workstation, on the VM under "Virtual Machine Settings" -> "Display" -> "Accelerate 3D Graphics" is checked.

Screenshot

But while booting the VM, it says "No 3D support is available from the host".

Screenshot

How comes VMware does not detect HW 3D acceleration? How can I fix this?

Thanks!

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You will need to enable 3D support in VMware: vmware.com/support/ws55/doc/ws_vidsound_d3d_enabling_vm.html – MadMike Oct 16 '14 at 16:56
    
@madmike, I think I did this correctly -- see the first screenshot. But thanks for the in-depth link! – Siemen Oct 17 '14 at 8:19
up vote 56 down vote accepted

Edit the file ~/.vmware/preferences and look for a line that starts with mks.gl.allowBlacklistedDrivers, if it is not present - you can add it into the file.

This should be changed to mks.gl.allowBlacklistedDrivers = "TRUE" (note the double quotes around TRUE)

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Thanks, @charles-green - that seems to work. The game is down ATM, but the VM boots up without complaining about missing 3D support. – Siemen Oct 17 '14 at 8:20
    
Works here, too. Thx! – binaryanomaly Feb 12 '15 at 19:12
4  
Just wanted to note that this also works in Workstation 11. By default, the mks.gl.allowBlacklistedDrivers parameter is not present in the preferences file, but adding it does work. Thanks. – user394700 Apr 3 '15 at 22:15
2  
Work in VMware Workstation 12. – Guicara Nov 30 '15 at 22:30
2  
Same is needed for the free vmware-player – Treviño Apr 19 '16 at 18:24
up vote 0 down vote

For me, I had to add mks.gl.allowBlacklistedDrivers = "TRUE"to my virtual machine (.vmx) file

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why did you have to do so? – Pierre.Vriens Dec 1 '17 at 19:49
up vote 9 down vote

Add mks.gl.allowBlacklistedDrivers = "TRUE" in the .vmx file.

It has worked for Linux Mint Cinnamon as host with kernel 3.16 and Debian 8.2 Cinnamon as guest.

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+1 for likely relevant answer. While this forum post in 2013 seems to agree, this Ask Ubuntu post indicates it is not always the case. This depends on video driver support too. – clearkimura Dec 4 '15 at 4:09
    
I didn't have a Preferences file so I modified the VMX on Workstation 12. Worked like a charm. – Drewdin May 5 '16 at 2:00
    
Note for those migrating XP guests from VirtualBox to VMWare Workstation 12 Player Linux 64-bit following a Sysprep process - adding this option to my .vmx file fixed an issue where the mouse pointer was stuck in a single place on the screen and couldn't move. After adding this line the mouse was working again. – Pabru Jun 4 '16 at 0:22

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