VirtualGL

VirtualGL is a completely free, multiplatform and open source command-line software that can redirect 3D commands from any given OpenGL app to a server-side 3D video card, on any Linux or UNIX-like operating system. It also converts the rendered images into a video file.

Offers quad-buffered stereo support

Key features include workstation-like levels of performance, which is very useful when used with high-speed proxy TurboVNC, as well as support for enabling 3D session collaboration and mobility, which is quite handy when used with VNC or similar proxy.

Additionally, the software includes support for over 50MP/second on a 100 Mbit network, especially when used with the TurboVNC application and quad-buffered stereo support. It allows users to remove 3D data size.

Can be used a VizStack companion

The software can easily be used as a companion for the VizStack web browser to display parallel rendering jobs remotely, as well as with VMware or Oracle VirtualBox virtualization software for displaying OpenGL applications remotely on Microsoft Windows OSes.

Works under Linux, BSD. Mac and Windows

VirtualGL is a cross-platform project which works under GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. It has been successfully tested on computers supporting either of the 32 or 64-bit CPU architectures.

Getting started with VirtualGL

For your convenience, the program is distributed as native installers for numerous distributions of GNU/Linux that use either of the DEB or RPM package management system. A source package is also available for download for Linux kernel-based operating systems that use a different package manager. After installation, you can use the VirtualGL software on your projects. More usage details can be found on the project’s website.

What is new in this release:

• VirtualGL will no longer throw an exception if a 3D application calls certain X11 and GLX functions with a NULL argument. It will instead allow the underlying X11 or GLX library to handle the error. This specifically works around an issue with Fiji.
• Worked around an issue whereby, when ANSYS Workbench 14.5 was run with VirtualGL, subprocesses (such as the geometry editor) launched from within the Workbench environment would not exit properly (and thus would become zombies.) This issue also affected ANSYS HFSS, which would either lock up when exiting or would print an error message: "terminate called after throwing an instance of 'rrerror'".
• Worked around an issue whereby, when using MAGMA5 with VirtualGL, the second and subsequent perspectives opened within the application would not always display correctly.
• Added support for the GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap extension.
• Added support for the GLX_EXT_swap_control and GLX_SGI_swap_control extensions and a new configuration variable (VGL_REFRESHRATE) that can be used to control them. See the User's Guide for more information.
• Added support for depth=32 visuals and FB configs.
• Added a new "window manager" mode that disables certain features in VirtualGL that interfere with 3D window managers such as compiz. This, combined with [6] and [4] above, should allow compiz to run properly with this version of VirtualGL, provided that the 2D X Server has support for the X Composite extension. See the User's Guide for more information.
• Fixed a BadDrawable X11 error that occurred when running the Steam client in VirtualGL.
• Improved the accuracy of TCBench and CPUstat.
• Streamlined VirtualGL's behavior when it is installed from source: -- vglrun now works regardless of where the faker libraries have been installed. The build system hard-codes the value of the VGL_LIBDIR CMake variable into a script that vglrun invokes so it can add this directory to LD_LIBRARY_PATH. If the faker libraries are installed into a system library directory, then packagers can choose to omit the new script, and vglrun will continue to work as it always has. -- Whenever a 64-bit build is installed, glxspheres is now renamed glxspheres64, per the convention of the official packages. This makes it possible to install a 32-bit and a 64-bit version of VirtualGL into the same directory. -- If the install prefix is set to the default (/opt/VirtualGL), then the build system defaults to installing faker libraries from a 32-bit build into /opt/VirtualGL/lib32 and faker libraries from a 64-bit build into /opt/VirtualGL/lib64. -- Similarly, if the install prefix is set to the default (/opt/VirtualGL), then the build system defaults to installing the libGL symlink for Chromium from a 32-bit build into /opt/VirtualGL/fakelib32 and the libGL symlink for Chromium from a 64-bit build into /opt/VirtualGL/fakelib64.
• PBO readback mode is now enabled by default. Further research has shown that professional-grade GPUs always benefit from PBOs being enabled (quite dramatically, in the case of AMD FirePro adapters.) With consumer-grade AMD adapters, PBOs generally do no harm, and with consumer-grade nVidia (GeForce) adapters, the results are mixed. The GeForce drivers will fall back to blocking readbacks if the pixel format requested in glReadPixels() doesn't match the pixel format of the Pbuffer, so PBOs will generally be slower in those cases. Thus, VirtualGL now falls back to synchronous readback mode if it detects that PBOs are not behaving asynchronously.
• Further, VGL_FORCEALPHA is no longer enabled by default when PBOs are enabled. This option was introduced because of the GeForce behavior mentioned above, but the option has no effect whatsoever with the professional-grade GPUs that are recommended for use with VirtualGL. Instead, VGL will now detect situations in which VGL_FORCEALPHA might be beneficial and suggest enabling or disabling it (if VGL_VERBOSE=1.)
• This version of VirtualGL provides a binary package and full support for Cygwin64.

What is new in version 2.4.1 / 2.5 Beta 1:

• VirtualGL will no longer throw an exception if a 3D application calls certain X11 and GLX functions with a NULL argument. It will instead allow the underlying X11 or GLX library to handle the error. This specifically works around an issue with Fiji.
• Worked around an issue whereby, when ANSYS Workbench 14.5 was run with VirtualGL, subprocesses (such as the geometry editor) launched from within the Workbench environment would not exit properly (and thus would become zombies.) This issue also affected ANSYS HFSS, which would either lock up when exiting or would print an error message: "terminate called after throwing an instance of 'rrerror'".
• Worked around an issue whereby, when using MAGMA5 with VirtualGL, the second and subsequent perspectives opened within the application would not always display correctly.
• Added support for the GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap extension.
• Added support for the GLX_EXT_swap_control and GLX_SGI_swap_control extensions and a new configuration variable (VGL_REFRESHRATE) that can be used to control them. See the User's Guide for more information.
• Added support for depth=32 visuals and FB configs.
• Added a new "window manager" mode that disables certain features in VirtualGL that interfere with 3D window managers such as compiz. This, combined with [6] and [4] above, should allow compiz to run properly with this version of VirtualGL, provided that the 2D X Server has support for the X Composite extension. See the User's Guide for more information.
• Fixed a BadDrawable X11 error that occurred when running the Steam client in VirtualGL.
• Improved the accuracy of TCBench and CPUstat.
• Streamlined VirtualGL's behavior when it is installed from source: -- vglrun now works regardless of where the faker libraries have been installed. The build system hard-codes the value of the VGL_LIBDIR CMake variable into a script that vglrun invokes so it can add this directory to LD_LIBRARY_PATH. If the faker libraries are installed into a system library directory, then packagers can choose to omit the new script, and vglrun will continue to work as it always has. -- Whenever a 64-bit build is installed, glxspheres is now renamed glxspheres64, per the convention of the official packages. This makes it possible to install a 32-bit and a 64-bit version of VirtualGL into the same directory. -- If the install prefix is set to the default (/opt/VirtualGL), then the build system defaults to installing faker libraries from a 32-bit build into /opt/VirtualGL/lib32 and faker libraries from a 64-bit build into /opt/VirtualGL/lib64. -- Similarly, if the install prefix is set to the default (/opt/VirtualGL), then the build system defaults to installing the libGL symlink for Chromium from a 32-bit build into /opt/VirtualGL/fakelib32 and the libGL symlink for Chromium from a 64-bit build into /opt/VirtualGL/fakelib64.
• PBO readback mode is now enabled by default. Further research has shown that professional-grade GPUs always benefit from PBOs being enabled (quite dramatically, in the case of AMD FirePro adapters.) With consumer-grade AMD adapters, PBOs generally do no harm, and with consumer-grade nVidia (GeForce) adapters, the results are mixed. The GeForce drivers will fall back to blocking readbacks if the pixel format requested in glReadPixels() doesn't match the pixel format of the Pbuffer, so PBOs will generally be slower in those cases. Thus, VirtualGL now falls back to synchronous readback mode if it detects that PBOs are not behaving asynchronously.
• Further, VGL_FORCEALPHA is no longer enabled by default when PBOs are enabled. This option was introduced because of the GeForce behavior mentioned above, but the option has no effect whatsoever with the professional-grade GPUs that are recommended for use with VirtualGL. Instead, VGL will now detect situations in which VGL_FORCEALPHA might be beneficial and suggest enabling or disabling it (if VGL_VERBOSE=1.)
• This version of VirtualGL provides a binary package and full support for Cygwin64.

What is new in version 2.4.1:

• VirtualGL will no longer throw an exception if a 3D application calls certain X11 and GLX functions with a NULL argument. It will instead allow the underlying X11 or GLX library to handle the error. This specifically works around an issue with Fiji.
• Worked around an issue whereby, when ANSYS Workbench 14.5 was run with VirtualGL, subprocesses (such as the geometry editor) launched from within the Workbench environment would not exit properly (and thus would become zombies.) This issue also affected ANSYS HFSS, which would either lock up when exiting or would print an error message: "terminate called after throwing an instance of 'rrerror'".
• Worked around an issue whereby, when using MAGMA5 with VirtualGL, the second and subsequent perspectives opened within the application would not always display correctly.
• Added support for the GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap extension.
• Added support for the GLX_EXT_swap_control and GLX_SGI_swap_control extensions and a new configuration variable (VGL_REFRESHRATE) that can be used to control them. See the User's Guide for more information.
• Added support for depth=32 visuals and FB configs.
• Added a new "window manager" mode that disables certain features in VirtualGL that interfere with 3D window managers such as compiz. This, combined with [6] and [4] above, should allow compiz to run properly with this version of VirtualGL, provided that the 2D X Server has support for the X Composite extension. See the User's Guide for more information.
• Fixed a BadDrawable X11 error that occurred when running the Steam client in VirtualGL.
• Improved the accuracy of TCBench and CPUstat.
• Streamlined VirtualGL's behavior when it is installed from source: -- vglrun now works regardless of where the faker libraries have been installed. The build system hard-codes the value of the VGL_LIBDIR CMake variable into a script that vglrun invokes so it can add this directory to LD_LIBRARY_PATH. If the faker libraries are installed into a system library directory, then packagers can choose to omit the new script, and vglrun will continue to work as it always has. -- Whenever a 64-bit build is installed, glxspheres is now renamed glxspheres64, per the convention of the official packages. This makes it possible to install a 32-bit and a 64-bit version of VirtualGL into the same directory. -- If the install prefix is set to the default (/opt/VirtualGL), then the build system defaults to installing faker libraries from a 32-bit build into /opt/VirtualGL/lib32 and faker libraries from a 64-bit build into /opt/VirtualGL/lib64. -- Similarly, if the install prefix is set to the default (/opt/VirtualGL), then the build system defaults to installing the libGL symlink for Chromium from a 32-bit build into /opt/VirtualGL/fakelib32 and the libGL symlink for Chromium from a 64-bit build into /opt/VirtualGL/fakelib64.
• PBO readback mode is now enabled by default. Further research has shown that professional-grade GPUs always benefit from PBOs being enabled (quite dramatically, in the case of AMD FirePro adapters.) With consumer-grade AMD adapters, PBOs generally do no harm, and with consumer-grade nVidia (GeForce) adapters, the results are mixed. The GeForce drivers will fall back to blocking readbacks if the pixel format requested in glReadPixels() doesn't match the pixel format of the Pbuffer, so PBOs will generally be slower in those cases. Thus, VirtualGL now falls back to synchronous readback mode if it detects that PBOs are not behaving asynchronously.
• Further, VGL_FORCEALPHA is no longer enabled by default when PBOs are enabled. This option was introduced because of the GeForce behavior mentioned above, but the option has no effect whatsoever with the professional-grade GPUs that are recommended for use with VirtualGL. Instead, VGL will now detect situations in which VGL_FORCEALPHA might be beneficial and suggest enabling or disabling it (if VGL_VERBOSE=1.)
• This version of VirtualGL provides a binary package and full support for Cygwin64.

What is new in version 2.3.3:

• VirtualGL will no longer throw an exception if a 3D application calls certain X11 and GLX functions with a NULL argument. It will instead allow the underlying X11 or GLX library to handle the error. This specifically works around an issue with Fiji.
• Worked around an issue whereby, when ANSYS Workbench 14.5 was run with VirtualGL, subprocesses (such as the geometry editor) launched from within the Workbench environment would not exit properly (and thus would become zombies.) This issue also affected ANSYS HFSS, which would either lock up when exiting or would print an error message: "terminate called after throwing an instance of 'rrerror'".
• Worked around an issue whereby, when using MAGMA5 with VirtualGL, the second and subsequent perspectives opened within the application would not always display correctly.
• Added support for the GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap extension.
• Added support for the GLX_EXT_swap_control and GLX_SGI_swap_control extensions and a new configuration variable (VGL_REFRESHRATE) that can be used to control them. See the User's Guide for more information.
• Added support for depth=32 visuals and FB configs.
• Added a new "window manager" mode that disables certain features in VirtualGL that interfere with 3D window managers such as compiz. This, combined with [6] and [4] above, should allow compiz to run properly with this version of VirtualGL, provided that the 2D X Server has support for the X Composite extension. See the User's Guide for more information.
• Fixed a BadDrawable X11 error that occurred when running the Steam client in VirtualGL.
• Improved the accuracy of TCBench and CPUstat.
• Streamlined VirtualGL's behavior when it is installed from source: -- vglrun now works regardless of where the faker libraries have been installed. The build system hard-codes the value of the VGL_LIBDIR CMake variable into a script that vglrun invokes so it can add this directory to LD_LIBRARY_PATH. If the faker libraries are installed into a system library directory, then packagers can choose to omit the new script, and vglrun will continue to work as it always has. -- Whenever a 64-bit build is installed, glxspheres is now renamed glxspheres64, per the convention of the official packages. This makes it possible to install a 32-bit and a 64-bit version of VirtualGL into the same directory. -- If the install prefix is set to the default (/opt/VirtualGL), then the build system defaults to installing faker libraries from a 32-bit build into /opt/VirtualGL/lib32 and faker libraries from a 64-bit build into /opt/VirtualGL/lib64. -- Similarly, if the install prefix is set to the default (/opt/VirtualGL), then the build system defaults to installing the libGL symlink for Chromium from a 32-bit build into /opt/VirtualGL/fakelib32 and the libGL symlink for Chromium from a 64-bit build into /opt/VirtualGL/fakelib64.
• PBO readback mode is now enabled by default. Further research has shown that professional-grade GPUs always benefit from PBOs being enabled (quite dramatically, in the case of AMD FirePro adapters.) With consumer-grade AMD adapters, PBOs generally do no harm, and with consumer-grade nVidia (GeForce) adapters, the results are mixed. The GeForce drivers will fall back to blocking readbacks if the pixel format requested in glReadPixels() doesn't match the pixel format of the Pbuffer, so PBOs will generally be slower in those cases. Thus, VirtualGL now falls back to synchronous readback mode if it detects that PBOs are not behaving asynchronously.
• Further, VGL_FORCEALPHA is no longer enabled by default when PBOs are enabled. This option was introduced because of the GeForce behavior mentioned above, but the option has no effect whatsoever with the professional-grade GPUs that are recommended for use with VirtualGL. Instead, VGL will now detect situations in which VGL_FORCEALPHA might be beneficial and suggest enabling or disabling it (if VGL_VERBOSE=1.)
• This version of VirtualGL provides a binary package and full support for Cygwin64.