3D graphics are becoming increasingly important in virtual desktop environments.  While a number of high-end applications and use cases, such as CAD and medical imaging, require 3D graphics, modern applications are increasingly turning to the GPU to offload some processing.  These days, most web browsers, Microsoft Office, and even Windows are utilizing the GPU to assist with rendering and other tasks.

VMware has been slowly adding 3D support to Horizon.  Initially, this was limited to dedicating GPUs to a virtual machine or sharing the GPU through hypervisor-level components.  Horizon 6.1 added  NVIDIA’s vGPU to provide better shared GPU access.

Horizon 6.2 includes a significant number of improvements to virtual 3D acceleration.  In fact, most of the improvements are in this category.

NVIDIA GRID 2.0

NVIDIA announced the next generation of GRID on Sunday afternoon.  For more information, see my write-up on it here.

vDGA for AMD GPUs

AMD/ATI graphics cards were supported on virtual desktops in vSphere 5.x and Horizon 5.x.  This did not carry over to Horizon 6.  AMD support has been reintroduced in Horizon 6.2 for vDGA.

3D Support for RDS Hosted Applications

RDS desktops and published applications will now support both vDGA and vGPU when utilizing supported NVIDIA graphics cards.  3D acceleration is supported on RDSH servers running Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012.

Linux Desktop vSGA and vGPU Support

When Linux desktops were introduced in Horizon 6.1.1, they only supported vDGA for 3D graphics.  This limited Linux to a few specific use cases.

Horizon 6.2 adds significant support for 3D acceleration.  Both vSGA and vGPU are now available when utilizing supported NVIDIA graphics cards.

Linux desktops with vGPU will be able to utilize OpenGL 2.1, 3.x, and 4.x, while desktops with vSGA will be limited to OpenGL 2.1.

4K Resolution Support

4K content is extremely high resolution content, and more 4K content will appear as the displays start to come down in price.  These displays, which have a resolution of 3840×2160, are useful in situations where high resolution imaging is needed.

Horizon 6.2 will support in-guest resolutions up to 3840×2160.  In order to achieve this, Horizon Agent 6.2 is needed in the guest, and the client must be connecting with Horizon Client 3.5.

The guest operating system must be running Windows.  A Windows 7 virtual desktop can support up to three 4K monitors when running on a VM with HW version 11 and with Aero disabled.  Windows 7 machines with Aero enabled, or Windows 8 desktops running on HW version 10 can support a single 4K monitor.

Please note that this is for in-guest display resolutions.  Clients that have a 4K display with High DPI scaling are not supported at this time.