Running 3D Programs in Parallels while not logged in.

I have a Mac Pro 4,1 that I would like to operate 3D programs while the machine's account the Parallels user has is logged out.

For example, I turn on the machine and get the Mac login screen. I ssh into the Mac Pro from another machine as the Parallels user. ("ssh parallels@mac-pro.local"). I then start up my 3D guest Windows 7. ("prlctl start 3dguest") I VNC into the guest machine, and try to run my 3D program, and it doesn't load. It just sits at 100% CPU according to Windows. So I shut it down (Start -> Shut Down from VNC).

Here's the weird part, I can just simply physically login into the machine. Start up the VM from ssh remotely ("prlctl start 3dguest") and the 3D app runs fine.

If I physically logout of the machine, but keep the remote Parallels VM open, (Remember, I never actually opened the "Parallels Desktop" application, just logged in.) then the 3D straight-up crashes. (The instruction at 0xXXXXXXXXX referenced memory at 0x0000000. The memory could not be read.) Also the Console shows this:

[pre]Wed Sep 22 20:16:03 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: (ipc/send) invalid destination port: CGSColorProfileCreateWithColorProfileID: Cannot resolve color profile id(2)
Wed Sep 22 20:16:03 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: (ipc/send) invalid destination port: CGSColorProfileCreateWithColorProfileID: Cannot resolve color profile id(3)
Wed Sep 22 20:16:03 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: (ipc/send) invalid destination port: CGSColorProfileCreateWithColorProfileID: Cannot resolve color profile id(2)
Wed Sep 22 20:16:03 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: (ipc/send) invalid destination port: CGSColorProfileCreateWithColorProfileID: Cannot resolve color profile id(3)
Wed Sep 22 20:16:03 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: (ipc/send) invalid destination port: CGSColorProfileCreateWithColorProfileID: Cannot resolve color profile id(2)
Wed Sep 22 20:16:03 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: (ipc/send) invalid destination port: CGSColorProfileCreateWithColorProfileID: Cannot resolve color profile id(3)
Wed Sep 22 20:16:03 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: unknown error code: invalid display
Wed Sep 22 20:16:03 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: unknown error code: invalid context
Wed Sep 22 20:16:03 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: (ipc/send) invalid destination port: CGSColorProfileCreateWithColorProfileID: Cannot resolve color profile id(2)
Wed Sep 22 20:16:03 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: (ipc/send) invalid destination port: CGSColorProfileCreateWithColorProfileID: Cannot resolve color profile id(3)
Wed Sep 22 20:16:03 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: (ipc/send) invalid destination port: CGSColorProfileCreateWithColorProfileID: Cannot resolve color profile id(2)
Wed Sep 22 20:16:03 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: (ipc/send) invalid destination port: CGSColorProfileCreateWithColorProfileID: Cannot resolve color profile id(3)
Wed Sep 22 20:16:03 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: (ipc/send) invalid destination port: CGSColorProfileCreateWithColorProfileID: Cannot resolve color profile id(2)
Wed Sep 22 20:16:03 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: (ipc/send) invalid destination port: CGSColorProfileCreateWithColorProfileID: Cannot resolve color profile id(3)
Wed Sep 22 20:16:03 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: unknown error code: invalid display
Wed Sep 22 20:16:03 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: unknown error code: invalid context
Wed Sep 22 20:16:04 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: (ipc/send) invalid destination port: CGSColorProfileCreateWithColorProfileID: Cannot resolve color profile id(2)
Wed Sep 22 20:16:04 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: (ipc/send) invalid destination port: CGSColorProfileCreateWithColorProfileID: Cannot resolve color profile id(3)
Wed Sep 22 20:16:04 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: (ipc/send) invalid destination port: CGSColorProfileCreateWithColorProfileID: Cannot resolve color profile id(2)
Wed Sep 22 20:16:04 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: (ipc/send) invalid destination port: CGSColorProfileCreateWithColorProfileID: Cannot resolve color profile id(3)
Wed Sep 22 20:16:04 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: (ipc/send) invalid destination port: CGSColorProfileCreateWithColorProfileID: Cannot resolve color profile id(2)
Wed Sep 22 20:16:04 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: (ipc/send) invalid destination port: CGSColorProfileCreateWithColorProfileID: Cannot resolve color profile id(3)
Wed Sep 22 20:16:04 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: unknown error code: invalid display
Wed Sep 22 20:16:04 Mac-Pro.local prl_vm_app[23772] <Error>: unknown error code: invalid context[/pre]

And looks to be Cider errors.

Basically I'd like the Mac Pro to be useful for other people to be logged in and working on things while I can remotely boot up a test environment to do 3D work.

 

What happens if you disable 3D acceleration?

 

OS X applications can use OpenGL only when running in interactive session, i.e. user is logged in locally. Parallels relies on OpenGL to implement 3D acceleration in VM, so unfortunately what you want to do is currently impossible: VM run from one user can not use 3D when other user is logged in. To avoid crashes you should disable 3D for VMs that are used in such scenarios.