problems running Unity using remote desktop to a virtual machine of windows 7

Questions & Answers
1

I’m currently using Remote Desktop to access a virtual instance of windows 7. When I try and start Unity.exe I get the following message…

Failed to initialize Direct3D 9.
Make sure you have DirectX 9.0c installed, have drivers for your
graphics card and have not disabled 3D acceleration
in display settings.

I have DirectX 11 installed, and when I run dxdiag and look at the display tab I see…

Display Devices

      Card name: RDPDD Chained DD
   Manufacturer: 
      Chip type: 
       DAC type: 
     Device Key: Enum\
 Display Memory: n/a

Dedicated Memory: n/a
Shared Memory: n/a
Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Driver Name:
Driver File Version: ()
Driver Version:
DDI Version: unknown
Driver Model: unknown
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: , 0 bytes
WHQL Logo’d: n/a
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
Device Identifier: {D7B70EE0-4340-11CF-B123-B03DAEC2CB35}
Vendor ID: 0x0000
Device ID: 0x0000
SubSys ID: 0x00000000
Revision ID: 0x0000
Driver Strong Name: Unknown
Rank Of Driver: Unknown
Video Accel:
Deinterlace Caps: n/a
D3D9 Overlay: n/a
DXVA-HD: n/a
DDraw Status: Not Available
D3D Status: Not Available
AGP Status: Not Available

From what I’ve found online so far, if you are using Remote Desktop you will get the card RDPDD Chained DD which doesn’t allow for Direct3D Acceleration.

Is it even possible to run Unity.exe on a virtual machine? If so how?

2

In versions 3.2 and earlier, I was able to launch Unity in remote desktop with:
Unity -force-opengl

Starting sometime after that though, Unity crashes on startup. Even when opening a new project.

Wish I knew of a workaround.

3

Make sure you have Remote desktop set to use Millions of colours instead of Thousands… this got it working for me. Forcing OpenGL also crashed for me.

4

Here is a user that managed to get it running using -force-d3d9 command line switch, i havent tried it yet
https://forum.unity.com/threads/unity-5-free-and-remote-desktop-window-rendering-issues.334836/