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To run ignition-gazebo with accelerated 3D graphics on an Ubuntu VMware guest you need to set the Mesa environment variables that disable some of the OpenGL extensions.

The following applies to a macOS Big Sur 11.4 host (AMD Radeon Pro W5700X 16GB) with an Ubuntu 20.04.2.0 guest on VMware. You may need to experiment with the choice of valid extensions depending upon the OpenGL support of your GPU.

Set up a script you can source containing these environment variables or add them to your .bashrc:

# set_mesa_env

# Configure the Mesa Environment
# https://docs.mesa3d.org/envvars.html

# Core Mesa environment variables
export MESA_DEBUG=1
export MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.1
export MESA_GLSL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=410
export MESA_EXTENSION_OVERRIDE="\
  -GL_ARB_buffer_storage \
  -GL_ARB_multi_draw_indirect \
  -GL_ARB_texture_buffer_range \
  -GL_ARB_compute_shader \
  -GL_ARB_ES3_compatibility \
  "

Then source them:

source set_mesa_env

Additional debug info can be obttained by setting the LIBGL_* and GALLIUM_HUD environment variables:

# LibGL environment variables 
export LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose
export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=false
export LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=false
export LIBGL_NO_DRAWARRAYS=false
export LIBGL_SHOW_FPS=false
export LIBGL_DRI2_DISABLE=false
export LIBGL_DRI3_DISABLE=false

# Gallium environment variables
export GALLIUM_HUD="simple,\
  fps\
 +frametime\
 +cpu\
 +cpu0\
 +cpu1\
 +cpu2\
 +cpu3\
 +samples-passed\
 +primitives-generated\
 +num-draw-calls\
 +nic-rx-ens33\
 +nic-tx-ens33\
 +num-fallbacks\
 +num-flushes\
 +num-validations\
 +map-buffer-time\
 +num-buffers-mapped\
 +num-textures-mapped\
 +num-bytes-uploaded\
 +num-command-buffers\
 +command-buffer-size\
 +flush-time\
 +surface-write-flushes\
 +num-readbacks\
 +num-resource-updates\
 +num-buffer-uploads\
 +num-const-buf-updates\
 +num-const-updates\
 +num-shader-relocations\
 +num-surface-relocations\
 +memory-used\
+num-shaders\
+num-resources\
+num-state-objects\
+num-surface-views\
+num-generate-mipmap\
+num-failed-allocations\
+num-commands-per-draw\
+shader-mem-used\
"

Setting LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=true is an alternative to unsetting Accerated 3D Graphics in the virtual machine settings if you want run ignition gazebo using software OpenGL.

Running the shapes.sdf example:

 ign gazebo -v 4 shapes.sdf

PBS materials are supported: this using the panda_world from Ignition Fuel: Panda joint control world

 ign gazebo -v 4 panda_world.sdf

If you build ignition-edifice from source you can test using the ign-rendering examples: simple_demo will run with either ogre or ogre2 as a render engine. The ogre2demo illustrates that there is still something not quite right with the OpenGL settings. It will render if you reduce the number of spot lights to a 3 x 2 grid, but fails to render correctly with a 3 x 3 grid. I'm still chasing down why that is, but any suggestions welcomed.

To run ignition-gazebo with accelerated 3D graphics on an Ubuntu VMware guest you need to set the Mesa environment variables that disable some of the OpenGL extensions.

The following applies to a macOS Big Sur 11.4 host (AMD Radeon Pro W5700X 16GB) with an Ubuntu 20.04.2.0 guest on VMware. You may need to experiment with the choice of valid extensions depending upon the OpenGL support of your GPU.

Set up a script you can source containing these environment variables or add them to your .bashrc:

# set_mesa_env

# Configure the Mesa Environment
# https://docs.mesa3d.org/envvars.html

# Core Mesa environment variables
export MESA_DEBUG=1
export MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.1
export MESA_GLSL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=410
export MESA_EXTENSION_OVERRIDE="\
  -GL_ARB_buffer_storage \
  -GL_ARB_multi_draw_indirect \
  -GL_ARB_texture_buffer_range \
  -GL_ARB_compute_shader \
  -GL_ARB_ES3_compatibility \
  "

Then source them:

source set_mesa_env

Additional debug info can be obttained obtained by setting the LIBGL_* and GALLIUM_HUD environment variables:

# LibGL environment variables 
export LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose
export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=false
export LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=false
export LIBGL_NO_DRAWARRAYS=false
export LIBGL_SHOW_FPS=false
export LIBGL_DRI2_DISABLE=false
export LIBGL_DRI3_DISABLE=false

# Gallium environment variables
export GALLIUM_HUD="simple,\
  fps\
 +frametime\
 +cpu\
 +cpu0\
 +cpu1\
 +cpu2\
 +cpu3\
 +samples-passed\
 +primitives-generated\
 +num-draw-calls\
 +nic-rx-ens33\
 +nic-tx-ens33\
 +num-fallbacks\
 +num-flushes\
 +num-validations\
 +map-buffer-time\
 +num-buffers-mapped\
 +num-textures-mapped\
 +num-bytes-uploaded\
 +num-command-buffers\
 +command-buffer-size\
 +flush-time\
 +surface-write-flushes\
 +num-readbacks\
 +num-resource-updates\
 +num-buffer-uploads\
 +num-const-buf-updates\
 +num-const-updates\
 +num-shader-relocations\
 +num-surface-relocations\
 +memory-used\
+num-shaders\
+num-resources\
+num-state-objects\
+num-surface-views\
+num-generate-mipmap\
+num-failed-allocations\
+num-commands-per-draw\
+shader-mem-used\
"

Setting LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=true is an alternative to unsetting Accerated 3D Graphics in the virtual machine settings if you want run ignition gazebo using software OpenGL.

Running the shapes.sdf example:

 ign gazebo -v 4 shapes.sdf

PBS materials are supported: this using the panda_world from Ignition Fuel: Panda joint control world

 ign gazebo -v 4 panda_world.sdf

If you build ignition-edifice from source you can test using the ign-rendering examples: simple_demo will run with either ogre or ogre2 as a render engine. The ogre2demo illustrates that there is still something not quite right with the OpenGL settings. It will render if you reduce the number of spot lights to a 3 x 2 grid, but fails to render correctly with a 3 x 3 grid. I'm still chasing down why that is, but any suggestions welcomed.