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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

#161

Post by kohlerm »

zaptheimpaler wrote: post #103
darkwater wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why don't you go the other way round, Windows native ane WSL2? Beside wanting to hack and learn things, obviouvsly.

Tried WSL, was buggy and had some issues with filesystem performance i think. I prefer having a 100% real linux & windows OSes that just work over slightly buggy workarounds. Plus i also host a lot of homeserver services (media server, SMB server, postgres db etc) on the linux host and its cleaner having those run on the host. If i want to do something very demanding on the host for example I can shutdown the VM.

WSL2 is using a real Linux kernel with almost no limitations. But it doesn't pass through the GPU. Therefore graphical applications are relatively slow.

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

#162

Post by luzeal »

protoman3000 wrote: post #142

Does anybody here have a tip how I can run virtualized OSX like this using the internal GPU of a notebook?

It depends on your internal GPU. If it's an Intel GPU, you could use vfio-mdev, which allows you to split your physical GPU into smaller counterparts. It will only work with the macOS version that are compatible with Intel GPUs (probably most of them).

Have a look here for a guide on Archlinux : https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Intel_GVT-g. And here for a script to deploy macOS on KVM : https://github.com/kholia/OSX-KVM.

Side-note : vfio-mdev can now be unlocked on consumer-grades Nvidia cards too : https://github.com/DualCoder/vgpu_unlock. Sadly, it is not possible for AMD-cards.

By the way, I am working on Phyllome OS (https://phyllo.me/), which is an attempt to make it easier to do such things. But please don't tell anyone :)

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

#163

Post by bennyp101 »

shock wrote: post #160
bennyp101 wrote: post #147

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…

Yes, it would work for your setup perfectly. Linux on the iGPU and windows on the nvidia.

Oh ok awesome! Looks like I need to do some proper research on this then - can it really be, the best of both worlds?!

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

#164

Post by afranchuk »

FWIW, I got native windows performance on a Linux host just using virtualbox and (the key part) a virtual disk file that I manually edited to point directly to a windows partition on disk. This made it obvious that file IO was the bottleneck...

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

#165

Post by shock »

bennyp101 wrote: post #163
shock wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it would work for your setup perfectly. Linux on the iGPU and windows on the nvidia.

Oh ok awesome! Looks like I need to do some proper research on this then - can it really be, the best of both worlds?!

I certainly think so.

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

#166

Post by lillecarl »

gnif wrote: post #67
cdata wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which games do you play that require anti-cheat schemes? The last time I checked, many such games explicitly do not support running in VMs and you risk being banned by obfuscating that you are running the game in a guest OS.

Most games work just fine, just a few odd ones that decided to block VMs don't such as Tarkov. Known to work without issue are titles such as * PUBG * Battlefield 1/3/4/5 * Titanfall 1&2 * Arma 3 * 7 Days to Die * Ark * Fortnite * Apex * Halo: The Master Chief Collection * Star Wars Squadrons And many many more.

Add Overwatch and Trackmania 2020 to this list too, they both work flawlessly.

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

#167

Post by dmos62 »

fragileone wrote: post #156
dmos62 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My windows boot is generally low maintenance, but a Windows update did introduce a stutter in all games once, so had to do a clean install (no restore point). Was annoying to troubleshoot. Windows is a mess. If only anti cheats worked on Linux.

In the Steam Deck announcement this week Valve mentioned they were going to work with vendors to get anti-cheat finally working, so fingers crossed.

I guess it's inevitable. It makes no sense for Windows to be the PC gaming platform; it's only inertia.

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

#168

Post by Aeolun »

zaptheimpaler wrote: post #114
ghostly_s wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The host is headless? So you're streaming the display via VNC or something to another system, or do you mean the host has a head but it's just being passed thru directly to the guest?

The host PC has 1 graphics card, the host OS is running headless, and the windows OS is using the graphics card.

Does it boot the windows UI by default then? Or you just boot into a plain shell?

Kind of defeats the point if your UI becomes windows again in my opinion.

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

#169

Post by z3t4 »

hutrdvnj wrote: post #124
zaptheimpaler wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tried WSL, was buggy and had some issues with filesystem performance i think. I prefer having a 100% real linux & windows OSes that just work over slightly buggy workarounds. Plus i also host a lot of homeserver services (media server, SMB server, postgres db etc) on the linux host and its cleaner having those run on the host. If i want to do something very demanding on the host for example I can shutdown the VM.

Wouldn't it be easier to have 2 devices, one specifically designed for gaming and one running 24/7 for home server services. A cheap used Thinkpad could be used as linux device so it doesn't have to be expensive. Plus if you value your own time and effort you have to put in for your current setup, then it might actually be cheaper.

You basically just need an extra gfx card (or even headless host). And why would you not want a fast Linux OS? Many SSD's and lots of RAM to make the IDE fast. Powerful CPU for compiling. Good GFX for better latency/hz.

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

#170

Post by KronisLV »

atanasi wrote: post #158
egeozcan wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wrote this another comment, but instead of getting too much into an arms race, studios should invest more on server-side anti-cheat mechanisms. You could correlate community feedback and some machine learning, while also picking easy-to-catch impossible actions.

Server-side solutions don't catch all cheats. They can block actions that are impossible according to the game rules but they cannot prevent clients from disclosing too much information to the player about other players, or automating actions that are technically possible, like using aimbots.

You can definitely handle some of those situations server side (the key word being "some") with enough engineering effort.

In regards to player positions: check which player locations are occluded and wouldn't be visible through the geometry, then only send the valid ones for each player. Of course, doing this on high tick servers could prove to be computationally intensive.

In regards to aimbots: the clients already send you information about where they're looking so that it can be displayed to other players. Attach some mouse movement metrics and from that you'll sometimes be able to infer the most naive aimbots instantly.

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