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Multi-headed VMWare Gaming Setup (Article)

Dangman

Dangman

Ninja Editor SuperMod
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Dec 15, 2005
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Thought this might be a fun read for some of you:
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Multi-headed-VMWare-Gaming-Setup-564/

At Puget Systems, we are constantly trying out new (and sometimes old) technologies in order to better serve our customers. Recently, we were given the opportunity to evaluate desktop virtualization with NVIDIA GRID which GPU virtualization and virtual machines to stream a virtual desktop with full GPU acceleration to a user. NVIDIA GRID is built around streaming the desktop, which requires robust network infrastructure and high quality thin clients. Even with the best equipment, there is latency, video compression, and high CPU overhead. These can be worked around for many application, but are all big turn-offs to gamers.

VMWare ESXI PCI Passthrough Diagram

What that in mind, we set out to build a PC that uses virtualization technologues to allow multiple users to game on one PC but where there is no streaming and no additional latency because all of the user inputs (video, sound, keyboard and mouse) are directly connected to the PC. By creating virtual machines and using a mix of shared resources (CPU, RAM, hard drive and LAN) and dedicated resources (GPU and USB) we were able to create a PC that allows up to four users to game on it at the same time. Since gaming requires minimal input and display lag, we kept the GPU and USB controllers outside of the shared resource pool and directly assigned them to each virtual OS which allows the keyboard/mouse input and video output to bypass the virtualization layer. The end result is a single PC running four virtual machines; each of which behaves and feels like any other traditional PC
Click to expand...

While this forum has shown many examples of similar setups, I haven't seen an actual well done article on such a setup.
 
While this kind of setup is great for "I'm gonna do it, because it can be done", they essentially crammed the hardware for 4 PCs into one.

It'd probably be cheaper and more efficient to just use 4 different PCs. Virtualization is not the cure-all for everything.
 
Has anyone tried this with a 290? Been wanting to use my i7 white box as my gaming rig and consolidate into one machine. Tempted to give it a go tomorrow evening. Would you advise against it?
 
The issue I had with AMD is that they dont support Function Level Reset, and are not as streamlined as NVIDIA.

I modded a GTX 465 into a Quadro 4K. The idea was cool, but having my system run 24/7 wasn't worth it.
 
use a 8350/motherboard combo and save a ton of money.
I have been thinking about doing this type of setup but with lower end vid. cards because they will not be used for heavy gaming and have all the house computers in one.
 
Interesting concept, but a bit of a waste as it does not really save that much vs. 4 gaming computers.

What I personally would love to see is a gaming VM that can be completely accessed from a client so that you could game from anywhere using any computer or device that has Internet access.
 
I've done this in the past with KVM for a virtualized local gaming machine. Neat when it works, but it would sometimes lock up the host. I can no longer do this successfully with my hardware and the new VFIO passthrough framework in Linux (as it's both x16 slots or nothing now). I ended up just building a mini-ITX gaming machine and stacking it right on top of the big workstation tower.
 
I think it's cool to test this to see how well it would work, but just for fun. I can't see this ever being a practical application for hardcore gamers. Maybe it could work for some type of casual terminals or something, though.
 
bigdogchris said:
I think it's cool to test this to see how well it would work, but just for fun. I can't see this ever being a practical application for hardcore gamers. Maybe it could work for some type of casual terminals or something, though.
Click to expand...
Hmm.. only way I see this being "practical" is if there's severe space limitations in the area.
 
Dangman said:
Hmm.. only way I see this being "practical" is if there's severe space limitations in the area.
Click to expand...

Impractical for pure gaming, but imagine something like this for a small game developer that wants to test against a few different cards.
 
I kinda wouldn' mind this for a LanParty. Like me and 3 other friends load up 4 monitors, 4 keyboards n mice and one box in the car instead of 4 boxes. It would be kind of nice to have.
 
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