VirtualBox 2D acceleration

[Sean C. Farley]

On Wed, 29 Sep 2010, Brandon Gooch wrote:

> On Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 8:21 PM, Sean C. Farley <scf at freebsd.org> wrote:
>> Here is a patch that adds 2D acceleration.  I am not sure if the 
>> VirtualBox_LIBS.freebsd line is needed or not, but it does not cause 
>> any apparent regressions.  I tested this with the Nvidia driver, and 
>> it shows improvement within the VM.  I do not know how other drivers 
>> will work.  EXA may be required over XAA.
>>
>> If the patch does not make it through the mailing list filter, it can 
>> also be found here: 
>> http://people.freebsd.org/~scf/virtualbox-2daccel.patch
>>
>> Sean
>
> I assume that many of us here in the FreeBSD user community would love 
> to have improvements regarding speed of an already GREAT 
> virtualization platform in VirtualBox; Would it be possible to 
> quantify this improvement?

I did not perform any test to truly quantify it.  However, applications 
(games :)) that use DirectDraw within the VM are noticeably faster.  For 
example, the mouse pointer lags a lot less in higher resolutions such as 
1280x1024.  Unfortunately, there is still some sluggish behavior 
exhibited.

Overall, I prefer running with it enabled as opposed to without it.

> Also, I assume that patch can be applied to the current port, and 
> rebuilt as usual to gain these improvements, correct?

It should.  The patch patches the port's Makefile and adds a new patch 
file for use during the building of the port.

Just remember to check "Enable 2D Video Acceleration" in the 
configuration of the VM in question.

> Thank you for submitting this!

You are welcome.

Sean
-- 
scf at FreeBSD.org