Certain 3D applications fail to run in the VM if windows VM has Vulkan runtime libraries installed along with a third-party graphics driver
search cancel

Certain 3D applications fail to run in the VM if windows VM has Vulkan runtime libraries installed along with a third-party graphics driver

book

Article ID: 324919

calendar_today

Updated On:

Products

VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
In Windows 7 or later operating systems installed on physical machine, Vulkan runtime libraries may be installed along with the third-party driver of physical graphics card to offer higher performance and more balanced CPU/GPU usage for 3D games and applications.
 
In physical world, when 3D applications use Vulkan, the runtime libraries can re-route the calls to the appropriate third-party graphics driver, however in virtual machine, due to Vulkan runtime libraries not compatible with the driver implemented by VMware for the virtual SVGA graphics device, the 3D applications fail to run in virtual machine.


Environment

VMware Fusion 11.x
VMware Fusion 10.x
VMware Fusion Pro 10.x
VMware Fusion Pro 11.x

Cause

This issue might be encountered when converting a Windows operating system from physical world to virtual machine world, for example:
  1. Run Boot Camp partition as a virtual machine
  2. Import Boot Camp partition to a virtual machine
  3. Migrate a PC to a virtual machine

Resolution

Currently, there is no resolution.
 


Workaround:
To work around this issue, prevent Vulkan runtime libraries from loading in the Windows virtual machine by renaming Vulkan dll files:
  1. In the Windows virtual machine, open C:\Windows\System32 folder.
  2. Locate vulkan*.dll files.
  3. Rename the files
For a Windows Boot Camp partition, when it runs as a virtual machine in Fusion, the Vulkan runtime libraries files must be renamed. When it runs natively, the names of the libraries files must be restored.


Powered by Wolken Software