Version 16.0.1

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by fpmalard, Sep 14, 2020.

  1. fpmalard

    fpmalard Member

    Messages:
    37
    Anyone can confirm if the DirectX/OpenGL issues were fixed by this update?
    The release notes did mention only a fix in RDP graphical issue but I didn't see any mention to other 3D software graphical issue.

    Thank you.
     
  2. fpmalard

    fpmalard Member

    Messages:
    37
    Just tested 16.0.1 and the same problem still happens.
    I have found though a post suggesting a "video.gl3=0" boot flag which solves the issue.

    Go to VM settings, Hardware > Boot Order > Advanced Settings > Boot flags
    Type in: video.gl3=0

    I believe this flags turns off OpenGL 3 which seems to be the main culprit of all these strange crashes.
    Maybe Parallels staff could provide us more details about.
    What I'm not sure is the real performance improvements compared to Parallels 15 once you add this flag.
    Further, is this issue something Parallels is still pursuing or is it something we will need to live with?

    Thank you.
     
  3. fpmalard

    fpmalard Member

    Messages:
    37
    Just tested with "video.gl3=2" boot flag.
    Still works ok.
    Anyone from Parallels team can better explain about this boot flag and the meaning of each value we can set?
    It seems it is related to OpenGL 3 subversions: 3.0, 3.1, etc... is it?

    Thank you.
     
  4. ChrisM16

    ChrisM16 Junior Member

    Messages:
    18
    With the 'video.gl3=0' flag, the glitching textures in Q3A and others have stopped glitching, so this is progress...
     
  5. fpmalard

    fpmalard Member

    Messages:
    37
    Did you try with video.gl3=2?
     
  6. ChrisM16

    ChrisM16 Junior Member

    Messages:
    18
    Did just now, with much the same results. Agreed, it's a very scanty test but it behaves better with these flags than not.
     
    fpmalard likes this.
  7. fpmalard

    fpmalard Member

    Messages:
    37
    Wikipedia says about OpenGL 3 versions:

    3.0 August 11, 2008 GLSL 1.3, Texture Arrays, Conditional rendering, Frame Buffer Object (FBO)[26]
    3.1 March 24, 2009 GLSL 1.4, Instancing, Texture Buffer Object, Uniform Buffer Object, Primitive restart[27]
    3.2 August 3, 2009 GLSL 1.5, Geometry Shader, Multi-sampled textures[28]
    3.3 March 11, 2010 GLSL 3.30, Backports as much function as possible from the OpenGL 4.0 specification

    It seems 3.3 version is some kind of precursor of OpenGL 4.

    Back in July-2020, Parallels team posted this about Parallels 15 saying it only supports OpenGL 3.2:
    https://kb.parallels.com/115487

    So, I believe by setting video.gl3=2 in Parallels 16 you are forcing it to run with OpenGL 3.2 which was the default in Parallels 15.
    In theory, anything that runs ok in 15 would be running ok in 16 with this boot flag (hopefully).

    This is at lease my conclusion after exploring this.
     
    ChrisM16 likes this.

Share This Page