Lucid Virtu Installation Guide
1 Introduction
Lucid VIRTU solution is designed for Intel Sandy Bridge platform with Intel Processor Graphics enabled. VIRTU
dynamically assigns tasks to best available graphics resource based on power, performance and features. There is
no need for HW or HW changes.
VIRTU allows user to fully utilize the unique capabilities of the Intel’s advanced media features on Sandy Bridge
along with the high end 3D rendering performance provided by the discrete GPU installed in the system.
When no high end graphics is used and display is connected to integrated GPU, the discrete GPU is put in idle
mode thus GPU utilization, heat, fan speed and power are down to near zero, turning the system to an environment
friendly platform.
2 Hardware and software specifications
2.1 Hardware specifications
In order to run the Lucid VIRTU solution, the following hardware is required:
Item
Motherboard
Configuration/features
Any Intel Sandy Bridge based platform with integrated onboard display output
CPU
Chipset
Discrete GPU
RAM
Intel Sandy Bridge Dual/Quad Core CPU
Intel Sandy Bridge H67/H61/Z68
Any AMD GPU (HD 4xxx and up)
Any Nvidia GPU (GF 2xx and up)
At least 2GB
2.2 Software specifications
Item
OS
APIs
GPU drivers
Configuration/features
Windows 7 32 bit
Windows 7 64 bit
DirectX 9
DirectX 10/10.1
DirectX 11
Intel – any WHQL driver
Nvidia – any WHQL driver
AMD– any WHQL driver
3 Hardware installation
3.1 i-Mode
i-Mode provides user with near zero performance overhead on 3D graphics games, Intel Sandy special features
and power saving options when no 3D gaming is used.
To use Lucid VIRTU solution in i-Mode, display must be always connected to Sandy Bridge motherboard video
output.
Note: Display can be also connected to IPG VGA output instead of IPG DVI output.
3.2 d-Mode
d-Mode is provided for demanding 3D gamers to achieve uncompromised 3D performance of discrete GPU
installed in the system. In this mode, Virtu allows user to utilize Intel special features such as trascoding, while
display is connected to discrete GPU.
Note: in most cases the differences of 3D performance between i-Mode and d-Mode are unnoticeable to the user,
so it is recommended to use i-Mode to save power.
To use Lucid VIRTU solution in d-Mode, display must be connected to discrete GPU installed in the system.
4 Software installation
Notes
a. Lucid VIRTU solution is designed for Intel Sandy Bridge based platforms only
b. GPU drivers and Lucid VIRTU solution should be installed before running any graphic application
c. GPU drivers must be installed prior to Lucid VIRTU installation
d. It is recommended to restart the system after every driver installation
e. All examples relate to 32 bit installation.
1. Double-click on Lucidlogix VIRTU Setup_32Bit.exe
The following security message may appear:
Press “Run” to proceed.
2. In case you are using the trial version- the following message will appear:
Press Yes to continue installation.
3. The VIRTU Setup Wizard window is displayed.
4. Click Next. The End User License Agreement window is displayed
5. Read the license agreement and select I accept the agreement.
6. Click Next.
Then Select Destination Location dialog box is displayed.
7. Click Next to accept the default location.
Select Start Menu Folder window is displayed.
8. Click Next to accept the default Start Menu folder.
An information page is displayed – please read it.
9. Click Next. The Ready to Install dialog box is displayed.
10. Click Install to begin installation.
The Installation window is displayed, indicating the installation. This step may take a few minutes to complete.
11. When the installation is complete, “Completing the VIRTU Setup Wizard” window is displayed.
Select "Yes, restart the computer now" option and click Finish. The VIRTU installation process is completed.
4.1 Older version installed
In case that there is older VIRTU version installed on your system, the driver installation program will automatically
identify it and will perform "uninstall" procedure.
1. The following message is displayed:
2. Click "OK". The following message is displayed:
3. Click "Yes" and the "Uninstall" process will start. The following screen is displayed:
4. Once the uninstall process finished, the following message is displayed:
5. It is recommended to click "Yes". Please note that private data such as new games added by the user to the
game list will be lost. The following restart message is displayed:
6. Click "Yes" and wait for the computer to restart. Start the installation process.
5 VIRTU Operation
After the installation process completed, VIRTU is activated. Once activated, the Lucid logo shows on system tray
(the right bottom corner of the screen). Mouse right click at the icon, will display the following screen.
Clicking on the “Open control panel” option will open a new window with VIRTU control p anel.
Clicking on “Disable” option, allows the user to stop VIRTU function. When VIRTU is disabled, the system will use
the Sandy Bridge IPG for graphics activities.
Invisible or grey logo means VIRTU is not activated.
In case no logo is shown on the system tray, it is possible to activate the driver and the control panel manually by
using the following instructions:
1. Click “Start”, “Programs” and “VIRTU”.
2. Click using the right mouse button on “VIRTU Control Panel”.
In case logo icon is grey, use mouse right click while pointing at the logo to get the following screen:
Clicking on the “Enable” option, will activate the VIRTU.
Typical application of VIRTU in can look like this:
5.1 VIRTU Control Panel
5.1.1 Main Tab
When activating the VIRTU control panel (either from the start menu or from the system tray icon), the following
window is displayed:
By pressing a big “On” button VIRTU solution is activated. If “Show in System Tray” is selected, a small control
panel icon will be displayed on the system tray together with the rest of the current running applications.
“In-Game icon” selection is used to enable/disable in game VIRTU logo indication. The following options are
available:
1. Show – The logo will be constantly displayed in the selected corner of the screen
2. Show for a few seconds - The logo will be shown for a few second and then will disappear
3. Hide – No logo will be shown
“Chose a Corner” – is a control to select a corner of the screen in which VIRTU logo will be displayed.
“Performance optimization” – optimize the performance of the virtualization by using special techniques. Test on
each application in support list. In case of new application some issues may rarely happen it using full performan ce
setting. In this case it is recommended to change the setting to Quality.
5.1.2 Games Tab
If the Games tab is selected, the following screen is displayed:
This screen shows the applications that VIRTU supports with the available graphic cards. The application list is
changed according to the graphic cards available in the system and the curre nt configuration. The list includes the
applications that meet functionality and performance tests done by Lucid quality assurance.
VIRTU allows users to add new applications using the "Add", "Edit" and "Remove" buttons. Lucid cannot guarantee
the functionality and performance of applications that were not part of the Lucid qualified application list provided
with the product.
Note: Adding and editing of the applications list is disabled in evaluation versions of the product.
When selecting the “Add” option, the following window is displayed:
Place the desired application full “exe” file path in the “exe name” box. Clicking on the “…” button next to the “exe
name” box allows using a standard Windows browser to find the location of the desired application “exe” file.
The “Friendly name” box allows the user to give the desired application a name that best describes the application.
This is a free text box.
Press “OK” after filling the required information. This will automatically add and application to the supported game
list. Once the desired application will activate, VIRTU will be applied to this application.
Note - adding manually an application that was not originally part of the game list means that the application did not
pass Lucid QA tests. Lucid cannot guarantee the functionality and performance of applications that were not part of
the Lucid qualified application list provided with the driver.
5.1.3 About Tab
If the “About” tab is selected, the following screen is displayed:
This screen provides VIRTU version installed. In the above example, the version is “1.0.105”.
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