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Looking Glass: Run a Windows VM on Linux in a window with native performance

looking-glass.io

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Re: Looking Glass: Run a Windows VM on Linux in a window with native performance

#141

Post by gnif »

sm_ts wrote: post #127
Nullabillity wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need this for general productivity software, only stuff where QEMU's emulated GPU is too slow or otherwise insufficient (so games, video editing, etc). The caveats are basically: 1. Setup is a bit annoying LG can feed input into any VM but requires guest support for capture, so you need to do the setup with a direct monitor. 2. The passed-through card must have a monitor connected. IIRC, this is an API issu…

> 2. The passed-through card must have a monitor connected. Regarding this, I don't know about LG, but with a standard QEMU VFIO setup, one use a single monitor connected to the two cards, and switch the input when required.

Yup, this is a good option too, makes it easy to debug/diagnose when things go wrong with the guest VM too.

Just note that not all multi-input monitors are equal though, a small minority appear to the GPU as unplugged when the input selection is changed.

Re: Looking Glass: Run a Windows VM on Linux in a window with native performance

#143

Post by lillecarl »

Nullabillity wrote: post #77
gnif wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. We are working on it 2. Not if it's a vGPU or a Quadro where EDID spoofing is allowed 3. No, we capture everything now, even the windows Login screen and windows updates, etc. 4. Yes 5. Very yes!

> 3. No, we capture everything now, even the windows Login screen and windows updates, etc. B3 and B4 both have pretty huge improvements here, but there are still a few rough corners. For example, when logging out the host shuts down immediately upon request, so you can't see the "program X is blocking shutdown" dialog. But ultimately this is a very minor papercut for a very impressive and useful project.

Create a desktop shortcut to "shutdown -s -t 1" it'll keep shutting down even if an application might try to keep the system running.

Re: Looking Glass: Run a Windows VM on Linux in a window with native performance

#144

Post by Cloudef »

egeozcan wrote: post #112
gnif wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, unfortunately Valorant is one that blocks VM usage... not that it has helped them any.

Anti-cheat measures end up blocking mostly the well-meaning players. I know it's sometimes too costly, but game studios should invest more on server-side security measures and mostly distrust the clients.

The anti-cheat systems end up really just being more menance than use. Tons of money burned on something that cheaters will get around anyways.

Re: Looking Glass: Run a Windows VM on Linux in a window with native performance

#145

Post by lillecarl »

sm_ts wrote: post #125
Rd6n6 wrote: post #40

The question everyone is wondering: is this ready for serious use for gaming and productivity (Eg, photoshop or game development)? Or is it very hard to get a smooth workflow going? If the workflow is not great, is there a clear path to solving that?

(I haven't used LG, so these are general VFIO considerations). I mantain a guide for setting up VFIO ( https://github.com/saveriomiroddi/vga-passthrough ), which I frequently use. My conclusion is: for machines that are compatible with it, VFIO works very well. The technology itself is stable, so working on photoshop/game development etc. (from a technological perspective, there's no distinction between the two tasks…

When gaming, as long as I don't have a lot of software running on the host, pipewire works great with pulse passthough, starts crackling if I run FF on the host, I guess something to do with nice levels

Re: Looking Glass: Run a Windows VM on Linux in a window with native performance

#146

Post by lillecarl »

xaduha wrote: post #33
Xenograph wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly is limiting about it? I use it on a daily basis in order to flip between high performance Linux and high performance Windows instantly with the flick of a hotkey. I use it for gaming, software dev, and just in general it's nice to be able to switch OSs for any reason instantly. What better options are there?

Flipping between OS wasn't how I used VFIO. I had two different OS running on two monitors and both having access to underlying Linux shell. Basically it's not worth setting up VFIO just for gaming, but if you already on top of that mountain, then use whatever. I stopped using VFIO a while back and just bought a laptop that runs Linux without any issues. I don't really have time for games now, but if I wanted to play…

I would argue it's very much worth it just for gaming, now I get to everyday run an os I like and spin the windows vm up whenever I wanna play overwatch. Now that I'm on NixOS it was literally just a couple Nix lines and it's configured forever. (if on NixOS stable it doesn't break all the time, but you also have 6m+ old packages)

Re: Looking Glass: Run a Windows VM on Linux in a window with native performance

#147

Post by bennyp101 »

So, I don't think I'm understanding this correctly, does it have to be a separate machine? Seems to mention VM and VNC so I'm not entirely sure what it is!

Like, currently I dual boot into Windows for games, but I can also get into it from Virtualbox if I need to quickly use something on there.

Would I be able to use this with that? So I can use the internal GPU for my local Linux install, and then use the nvidia for the windows?

Re: Looking Glass: Run a Windows VM on Linux in a window with native performance

#148

Post by lillecarl »

gnif wrote: post #90
Royi wrote: post #88

What would be the best solution (Performance wise) if one is only after running Photoshop + Office? Looking for a solution which is easy to install and configure.

If you want easy, this is not for you. Setting up LG first requires setting up a VFIO Virtual Machine. As for how viable it is, very... we have many members in our community that are using LG for productivity applications. For performance, very close to bare metal. In applications like Photoshop and Office you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

I used to use looking glass (still sponsoring the project) but since my hardware is ancient I tried running the windows VM of a DVI to my monitor instead, and it's been so incredibly smooth along with Barrier ever since, with more horsepower I would probably go back to LG because of the convenience of being a regular window I can manage however I want.

Re: Looking Glass: Run a Windows VM on Linux in a window with native performance

#149

Post by mschuster91 »

zaptheimpaler wrote: post #57

I run a VFIO setup with a single GPU - the linux host is headless, and Windows runs on top with the GPU. Its pretty awesome. Windows runs at native performance - no problem gaming or running other heavy workloads. The linux host acts as a devbox and runs a few other homeserver style services. It's difficult to set up right but it taught me a lot about VMs and hardware. Once you get it setup well enough, its relativel…

Which GPU do you have? I tried using a Mac Pro 5.1 as host, Debian Testing as OS and various Windows varieties as well as Linux (again Debian Testing) as guest - but I always, always run into that nasty PCI reset bug (https://www.nicksherlock.com/2020/11/working-around-the-amd-...) :(

Re: Looking Glass: Run a Windows VM on Linux in a window with native performance

#150

Post by formerly_proven »

gnif wrote: post #111
unholythree wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really, is that why Tarkov drops me when I try to start a match? At least CS:GO told me their anti-cheat hated my setup (Windows 10 in a Xenserver VM) and I was able to get a refund.

CS:GO works fine in a libvirt/KVM VM last I checked. As for Tarkov, see: https://mobile.twitter.com/TheBattlEye/status/12890276721867... Note that the game vendor selects what features they want to apply to their titles that are available. BattlEye allows you to stop people using VMs, if the game vendor opts in to this stupid feature.

Does running CS:GO in a VM impact trust factor? Trust and prime are pretty much the only thing to reduce cheaters encountered in your matches since CS:GO does not have a working anti-cheat.
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