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I switched from VirtualPC to VirtualBox and I'm recreating from scratch my virtual machines.

I would like my Windows 3.11 in 1024*768 with 24 or 32 bits colors (16 bits colors would be OK too).

So far the best I was able to find is 1024*768 with 256 colors. It's better than the default 16 colors settings but the lowest I'm ready to settle is 65536 colors (16 bits).

Is there a way to get 16 bits+ colors in 1024*768 in Windows 3.11 under Virtualbox?

AlexV
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  • These operating systems didn't support what you want when they were new – Ramhound May 12 '14 at 20:03
  • Is it an option to use VMWare Workstation? I don't really know but Windows 98 seems to work pretty well and I'm able to use all colors up to 32bit, except ofcourse 16bit, but there is an option to enable 16bit color emulation layers. Also, side note: wouldn't DosBOX be better for Windows 3.1? – Gizmo May 12 '14 at 20:10
  • @Ramhound I had more than 256 colors in Windows 3.11 back in the days... QuickTime movies on Windows 3.11 was unwatchable until I found out how to switch to higher color modes. – AlexV May 12 '14 at 20:22
  • @Gizmo I would prefer all my virtual machines to use the same program (easier to manage). AFAIK DosBOX is aimed at emulating game environments and while there are hacks that supports networking I'm not sure it would be as complete as VirtualBox... – AlexV May 12 '14 at 20:25
  • From everything I've come across, the virtual graphics card doesn't work with any drivers that support those color depths. DOXBox definitely does however. – Jason May 26 '14 at 21:24
  • You’d have to request the VM devs to provide compatible virtual adapters and drivers. Unfortunately, they just don’t support the older OSes that well. For example, I had to try numerous combinations of VM software and Windows versions to find one that would let me play my old copy of DarkSeed 2 with full color and sound. The only combination that ended up working was Windows ME in VirtualBox. Every other combination I tried had some sort of problem. ಠ_ಠ – Synetech May 30 '14 at 03:24

2 Answers2

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Through some detective work I have found in the thread Help me with some Windows 3.X based games toward the end a guy that says:

I'm using default settings in DOSBox 0.74, WfW 3.11, S3 Trio 32/64 video driver version 1.70.04, SB16 driver + patch. I chose minimum install for the game, and did not try to install the included QT, installing QT 2.1.2 instead.

BTW, the movies look better with more than 8-bit color depth. The game worked fine with 32-bit color, but 16-bit looked about as good, so 32-bit might be overkill.

The S3 Trio 32/64 video driver is no longer available from the S3 drivers page, but I have managed to find a copy in a Russian university via the FileWatcher website for the Trio64V+ (in the hope that it helps).

However, I think that VirtualBox does not emulate the S3 Trio, so you will need to use VirtualPC for that. This Microsoft blog post says:

A physical S3 Trio 64 does support 24-bit color but we only support 1,2,4,8,16 and 32-bit color modes.

Glorfindel
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harrymc
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    Yeah my Win 3.11 VM under VitrualPC is in 32-bit color with success. But I'm switching all of them to VirtualBox. I will try those drivers with VB to see if by chance they work. – AlexV May 27 '14 at 18:33
  • VirtualBox natively supports .vhd disks. – harrymc May 27 '14 at 20:23
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    Yeah I know but the hardware emulated between VirtualPC and VirtualBox is different and the OS won't boot. – AlexV May 28 '14 at 13:02
  • Can you see which video card is emulated by VB for WfW 3.11? – harrymc May 28 '14 at 13:23
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    "By default VirtualBox provides graphics support through a custom virtual graphics-card that is VESA compatible." which is the reason it's so hard to get drivers... I guess if I can find generic 16-bit+ VESA drivers I would be fine... – AlexV May 28 '14 at 13:29
  • Have you increased video memory to the max on VB? – harrymc May 28 '14 at 17:46
  • There are also reports about [Windows 3.11 for DOSBox, ready-to-run](http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=27770) which might work better with [DOSBox](http://sourceforge.net/projects/dosbox/) then VB. Although why not continue with VPC? – harrymc May 28 '14 at 17:53
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    VPS is no longer updated and don't support USB (I know It's not something I use with Win 3.11 but I prefer using the same software for all my virtual machines). – AlexV May 28 '14 at 17:54
  • As my last gasp, see [this thread](http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=724091). Otherwise, I don't believe that the VB video driver was ever hacked to work in 16-bit mode in WfW. – harrymc May 28 '14 at 18:35
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Why not switch to KVM (The Linux kernel hypervisor)? One single program that can handle direct gpu pass-through, VESA-enabled vga card, cirrus logic card (windows 3.11 compatible, with 16bit color mode), qxl and vmware svga2 emulated video. It can easily handle multiple cpu types as well, plus all the other usual features you would expect from a hypervisor. You can simply port all your vm's to kvm and be done with it.

Juan Manuel
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