OpenGL 3.2+ Support

T

ThomasP3

Bit poster
Currently Parallels supports only OpenGL 2.1 which was originally released 10 years ago in 2006. The latest Standard already reached version 4.5 in 2014.

Im wondering why Parallels isn't providing a more recent OpenGL Standard for their users. Unfortunately i need OpenGL 3.2+ for some applications and i would like to request this hereby.

VMware Fusion 8 already provides OpenGL 3.3 and if Parallels isn't planning to provide a newer standard anytime soon, then im forced to switch.

Are there any plans for providing a newer OpenGL Version?
 
Hello Sylvester,
thank you for your reply. So are there plans to release it in the coming major version parallels 12? The article is not helpful for me as I would rather like to directly read about coming changes than waiting for and advertising newsletter.

I've tried the VMware Fusion 8.1 30 days trial for now, as i was in need for OpenGL 3.2 for VTK 7.0 combined with PCL 1.8 (PointCloudLibrary). Performance wise VMware 8.1 worked quite smooth at rendering a dense point cloud. Parallels 11 seems to need to catch up there and i hope they will do so... If anyone wishes, i can upload comparison videos.

Thomas
 
Sylvester@Parallels said:
Hello Thomas,
Our development team is working on it! Please subscribe to our newsletter by following this article to know about the product updates.
Click to expand...
I would like to note that this is an issue for me as well. Overall, my Parallels experience has been very positive and it surprises me that the software is so far behind the curve in graphics development. I am shocked that more people have not brought this issue to the forefront.
 
Hi RobertM13,
Switch to Options tab -> Optimization. Make sure that Performance option is set to 'Faster virtual machine', and Power option is set to 'Better performance.
Virtual machine has virtual memory allocated from Mac RAM. Virtual video memory almost does not depend on Mac video card and Mac video memory. While operating with virtual machine, the textures and the other Guest video data are transmitted to the Host OpenGL. OpenGL decides itself whether to collect this data in the Host RAM or in the Host video memory.
Generally, 256 MB of video memory is enough. Sometimes, Parallels Desktop recommends to increase it to 512 MB, e.g. when retina is enabled and there is an external monitor. Certainly, you can increase the video memory to 512 MB or more, even if there are no retina and external monitor, but it leads to some consequences:
Virtual machine consumes more Host RAM.
Windows apps are smart, they adapt to larger amount of video memory and start to load textures with higher resolution. It increases the Guest RAM consumption since Guest DirectX, relatively speaking, keeps the copy of its resources in the RAM. Therefore, increasing the video memory, you should also assign more RAM to the virtual machine.
Host OpenGL consumes more RAM since it also keeps the copy of its resources in the RAM.
So, virtual video memory has triple prize for Host RAM.
 
PaulChris@Parallels said:
Hi RobertM13,
Switch to Options tab -> Optimization. Make sure that Performance option is set to 'Faster virtual machine', and Power option is set to 'Better performance.
Virtual machine has virtual memory allocated from Mac RAM. Virtual video memory almost does not depend on Mac video card and Mac video memory. While operating with virtual machine, the textures and the other Guest video data are transmitted to the Host OpenGL. OpenGL decides itself whether to collect this data in the Host RAM or in the Host video memory.
Generally, 256 MB of video memory is enough. Sometimes, Parallels Desktop recommends to increase it to 512 MB, e.g. when retina is enabled and there is an external monitor. Certainly, you can increase the video memory to 512 MB or more, even if there are no retina and external monitor, but it leads to some consequences:
Virtual machine consumes more Host RAM.
Windows apps are smart, they adapt to larger amount of video memory and start to load textures with higher resolution. It increases the Guest RAM consumption since Guest DirectX, relatively speaking, keeps the copy of its resources in the RAM. Therefore, increasing the video memory, you should also assign more RAM to the virtual machine.
Host OpenGL consumes more RAM since it also keeps the copy of its resources in the RAM.
So, virtual video memory has triple prize for Host RAM.
Click to expand...

Seriously, what are you talking about???
 
NickG3 said:
Same problem here. Downloaded latest Dialux Evo and it needs OpenGL 3.0 minimum. Not happy.
Click to expand...
Hello @NickG3,
Our development is aware of the rise in the request for upgrading the OpenGL support and are working towards the possibility of implementing this feature. Please subscribe to our newsletter for future product updates.
 
So sounds like it will be some time. I really don't need another newsletter subscription. I'll try VMWare as that seems to be the answer. What a pain though, have been using Parallels for many years.
 
NickG3 said:
So sounds like it will be some time. I really don't need another newsletter subscription. I'll try VMWare as that seems to be the answer. What a pain though, have been using Parallels for many years.
Click to expand...
Hi NickG3, I understand the importance of the issue and I would like to let you know that we have already involved our Development in this case and they are currently working on the resolution.
 
Is this why graphics on Linux VM's goes to hell with Parallels Tools automatically installed?
No Parallels Tools- no Coherence Mode with Linux. One of the features that made me look at Parallels. VMWare starts looking more interesting now.
 
OpenGL is not mentioned at all in their press release, which means still no GL3 support. Plus, now that VMWare has fired their entire Fusion dev team, Parallels has no real competition and no incentive to update to GL3. Great. :mad:
 
AutoCAD requires DirectX 11, Recap requires OpenGL 3.3. Parallels 12 is still stuck with OpenGL 2.1. This is an issue since 3+ years and two new releases have not helped. I did subscribe to news letter and that also did not help.
VM Fusion 8 helps... Maybe i may not get future support there but i am not getting current support here. Vote with feet!
 
MichaelR14 said:
Maybe i may not get future support there but i am not getting current support here. Vote with feet!
Click to expand...
Well put Michael. If Parallels would even give an idea as to the timeline of OpenGL 3 support, I would be willing to upgrade and wait. But since they won't, I'm off to Fusion. Guess I'll try again next year with Parallels Desktop 13.
 
At the risk of merely bumping an old request, consider me another customer who requires a modern version of OpenGL (3.2), and another customer really wanting an update on when this will be available in Parallels.

I have a single piece of software that requires Windows, and Parallels can no longer run the current version of that software... so if we're not even going to get a rough timeline, I guess this is goodbye.
 
Just started a trial today. Noticed my program was having trouble with an OpenGL 3.3 context. I found an old article claiming 2.1 was the latest supported version and thought it must be outdated. Wrong! Wow!
 
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