Hi all, if you are looking for an event that is all about CAD, CAM, CAE, PLM, Rendering, 3D technologies, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and 3D printing then is FREE!! then DEVELOP3D LIVE is the event to join. Rachel Berry opened my eyes going there last year 2015 and she made me come all the way from Denmark to Warwick and it was worth the long trip 🙂 If you are looking for travel advice Hotels and such I recommend you read Rachel Berry blogpost, I use myself Kayak.com 🙂 that always saves my life when i am traveling around the world and if you want it cheap use Airbnb.com.
My things learned from DEVELOP3D LIVE 2015
I went there and had high expectations and I was in for a surprise. It was all about above and much more I saw for the first time Carl Bass the CEO of Autodesk, Gian Paolo Bassi the CEO of SolidWorks, Jon Hirschtick the CEO of Onshore and the founder of SolidWorks, Nikola Bozinovic the Founder and CEO of FRAME, and many many more.
I got my hands on the HP Zvr for the second time, I saw the unit for the first time at NVIDIA GTC in 2013 and HP have acquired the company. I also saw another favorite Augmented Device the HP Sprout, which is an amazing unit. 3Dconnexion was off course also there so all my favorite CAD peripherals and next gen tools.
Below is the picture of Carl Bass CEO of Autodesk talking at DEVELOP3D LIVE last year and Rachel Berry trying Fra.me solution
Meet the Speakers of DEVELOP3D LIVE 2016
I am looking very much forward meeting a good friend of mine Adam Jull from IMSCAD Global.
Adam and his team have been early adapters of HDX 3D Pro like myself, so its great to see a pioneer talking at Develop3DLive.
I am also looking very much forward meeting the NVIDIA team + my favorite CAD genius Rachel Berry and also see if AMD have something interesting to show like the Multiuser gpu if its ready for that time.
Get your ticket for free here for joining the awesome CAD event in beautiful Warwick. If you never been to UK well this is your reason to go, learn from the best and brightest people on CAD and see the beautiful country side of England. Two awesome things.
Citrix have released a limited hotfix for Citrix XenDesktop 7.6 and XenApp 7.6 that fixes an issue with Autodesk AutoCAD & AutoCAD Civil 3D where the mouse pointer permanently displays as an hour glass. By applying this hotfix this fixes the issue for AutoCAD.
Mozilla Firefox 40.x Blocks GPU Acceleration for WebGL, Direct2D, DirectWrite with Citrix XenApp on Windows 2008R2/2012/2012R2
One of the great things about adding a GPU in a Citrix XenApp environment is that you can allow rich graphics and offload CPU and run your DirectX, OpenGL applications on a XenApp server. In latest version of Mozilla Firefox WebGL, Direct2D, DirectWrite this have been disabled, so you can’t open webpages that uses these graphics in a Citrix XenApp session.
Symptoms or Error
If you open Mozilla Firefox 40.x and try to open a webGL website like http://madebyevan.com/webgl-water
this will not load anymore cause WebGL is default now disabled in Mozilla Firefox. Mozilla Firefox 40.x blocks GPU acceleration for WebGL, Direct2D, DirectWrite in remote sessions on Windows Server operating systems.
To determine what content Firefox is blocking, run Firefox in your XenApp remote session and enter the address about:support into the browser address bar. In the section labelled “Graphics” you will see the following content disabled (as of Firefox version 40.0.3):
Direct2D Enabled Blocked for your graphics card because of unresolved driver issues.
DirectWrite Enabled false (6.3.9600.17999)
WebGL Renderer Blocked for your graphics card because of unresolved driver issues.
Solution
The text “Blocked for your graphics card” is misleading as, in this case, it is not the specific graphics card but general Windows Server operating system remote sessions that are blocked. Mozilla’s published advice on how to override the graphics driver blocks also applies to XenApp sessions on workstation operating system (see bottom of this Mozilla Wiki – Blocklisting/Blocked Graphics Drivers).
Enable WebGL in Mozilla Firefox
In Mozilla Firefox entering the address about:config into the address bar and setting webgl.force-enabled=true will enable WebGL for XenApp on operating system (Server 2008R2/2012/2012R2)
You can double click on it and then it will become enabled. (with the value=true) and this is user set.
These settings can be change with a policy or with profile management such as RES Workspace Manager or others.
Now you can open the WebGL demo and the graphics will work
Enable DirectDraw2D
In Mozilla Firefox entering the address about:config into the address bar and setting gfx.direct2d.force-enabled=true will enable WebGL for XenApp on operating system (Server 2008R2/2012/2012R2)
You can double click on it and then it will become enabled. (with the value=true) and this is user set.
These settings can be change with a policy or with profile management such as RES Workspace Manager or others.
Enable DirectDraw2D
In Mozilla Firefox entering the address about:config into the address bar and setting gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled=true will enable DirectWrite for XenApp on operating system (Server 2008R2/2012/2012R2)
You can double click on it and then it will become enabled. (with the value=true) and this is user set.
These settings can be change with a policy or with profile management such as RES Workspace Manager or others.
Users should be aware and note the caveats and warnings that Mozilla advises if taking this route to above settings for DirectWrite, Direct2D, WebGL
This issue only affects server operating system (example – Win 2012 R2 and Win 2008 R2) and XenApp.
How to force-enable blocked graphics features
If you would like to forcibly enable a graphics feature that is blocked on your system, follow these instructions. Warning: do this at your own risk. There usually are good reasons why features are blocked.
To force-enable WebGL, go to about:config and set webgl.force-enabled=true.
To force-enable WebGL anti-aliasing, go to about:config and set webgl.msaa-force=true.
To force-enable Layers Acceleration, go to about:config and set layers.acceleration.force-enabled=true.
On Windows Vista and Windows 7, to force-enable Direct2D Content Acceleration, go to about:config and set gfx.direct2d.force-enabled=true.
On Android, to force-enable StageFright software decoding, go to about:config and set stagefright.force-enabled=true.
On Windows, you can also spoof your graphics system information to help debug driver blacklisting issues (see bug 604771):
Create spoofed-firefox.bat in the installation folder (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox)
Set the new values of spoofed variables ending with a command to launch Firefox:
SET MOZ_GFX_SPOOF_WINDOWS_VERSION=60001
SET MOZ_GFX_SPOOF_VENDOR_ID=0x8086
SET MOZ_GFX_SPOOF_DEVICE_ID=0x0046
SET MOZ_GFX_SPOOF_DRIVER_VERSION=8.15.10.2302
“C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe” -p -no-remote
Double-click spoofed-firefox.bat and create a profile if required
Click the Firefox button, then select Help, finally Troubleshooting Information and check the Graphics section.
If force-enabling a feature doesn’t work, that probably means that your hardware doesn’t support it. For example, layers acceleration currently requires support for 4Kx4K textures, which rules out some graphics cards, like the Intel G31/G33.
Citrix released Feature Pack 2 for Citrix XenDesktop & Citrix XenApp.
What’s new in Feature Pack 2 for Citrix XenDesktop 7.6 and XenApp 7.6
The Feature Pack 2 release includes the following new and enhanced features.
StoreFront 3.0
StoreFront includes the following new features and enhancements.
Unified Receiver provides modern, centrally-managed and customizable user app selection experience across all user devices.
Google Chrome Support without NPAPI.
Delegating Authentication to XenApp and XenDesktop when there is no AD trust between sites.
Treat All Desktops as Applications to apply Workspace Control and group icons together.
Integrated Monitoring Service enables NetScaler to monitor StoreFront.
Extended Store Customization SDK for business logic.
Updated StoreFront management console
Support for the unified Receiver experience — StoreFront 3.0 delivers centralized customization and branding of your end users’ applications and desktop selection experience to Receiver users. Your company can customize the interface to reflect your logo, colors, and so forth. Some of the new Receiver and StoreFront features:
Simplified application organization — Familiar and consistent application selection experience for use.
Featured app groups. Administrator configured applications that are logically grouped and advertised to users in the applications selection experience.
Folder view of applications. Return of Web Interface functionality in StoreFront.
Favorites. Easily add or remove applications to Favorites for quick access.
Server-managed user experience — Application selection experience is server configured.
Change once, deploy everywhere. User application selection experience changes are made by the administrator on StoreFront server.
Consistent application selection experience for user. Any device running Receiver receives its application selection experience from the server as HTML5, providing for consistency as users move across smartphones, tablets, and desktop form factors.
Decouple the application selection experience from Receiver capabilities. Client upgrade without end user training or user experience impact; Support legacy user experience without legacy client cost.
Fit for purpose user experience customization options — You select the appropriate level of customization.
Updated out-of-the-box user experience. Modernized end user application selection look-and-feel.
Server-configured branding customizations. You brand with corporate logos, color, and featured application groups.
Deeper customization and branding options. CSS and script APIs available to enable deeper levels of customization.
Use the StoreFront management console to do the following Receiver related tasks:
Set Receiver for Web as the default for the store.
Create a Receiver for Web website.
Change website type.
Customize the website appearance.
See the Support for Receiver for Web article.
Featured app groups management — App groups are groups of applications that are related or fit in a specific category making them more easily discoverable. With Studio and the StoreFront management console you can define app groups using keywords, application names, or categories.
See the Create and manage featured apps article.
XML service-based authentication.
You can configure StoreFront to use the XenApp and XenDesktop XML Service to authenticate the user name and password credentials where a user explicitly provides a user name and password. Use PowerShell cmdlets to enable and disable this feature. For more information, see XML service-based authentication.
Support for HDX Real-Time Optimization Pack 1.8
HDX RealTime Optimization Pack includes the following new features and enhancements.
Support for the Microsoft Skype for Business client in Lync UI mode, the Microsoft Lync 2013 client, and the Microsoft Lync 2010 client.
Support for the Lync Server 2013 Autodiscover Service.
Call Park and Call Pick Up in Lync 2010 client.
Call forwarding and simultaneous ringing controls for Lync 2010 client
Support for Mac.
Kerberos authentication.
Plus (+) symbol in the dial pad.
Support for the Microsoft Windows 10 technical preview.
For information, see HDX RealTime Optimization Pack 1.8.
Session Recording
Session Recording includes the following new features and enhancements.
You can specify the connection credentials to the database when installing the Session Recording Database component.
You can test the connectivity of database during the installation of the Session Recording Database and Session Recording Server components and test the connectivity of the Session Recording Server during the installation of Session Recording Agent component.
Microsoft Shared Management Objects is no longer requirement for Session Recording Database installation.
You can now create Linux virtual desktops based on SUSE and Red Hat distributions. Prepare your Linux virtual machines, install the new Linux VDA software on them, configure your Delivery Controller, and then use Studio to make the desktops available to users. For more information, see the following documents.
Installation guide for SUSE
Installation guide for Red Hat
Framehawk Virtual Channel
Framehawk is a new ICA virtual channel that extends Citrix HDX technologies, a set of capabilities that work together to deliver a high-definition user experience of virtual desktops and applications.
The Framehawk virtual channel optimizes the delivery of virtual desktops and applications to users on broadband wireless connections. It is ideal for mobile devices under lossy network connections. With Framehawk integrated into the industry-leading HDX technology, Citrix provides a smooth and intuitive user experience in conditions where remote workspace users previously experienced poor interactivity, such as on wireless connections with high packet loss or congestion.
For more information, see the following document.
Administrator guide
Director 7.6.300
This version of Director supports the Framehawk virtual channel. You can display HDX graphics information, which lets you monitor and troubleshoot any session that uses the channel.
After a succesfull NVIDIA GTC (gpu technology conference) in San Jose, March 2015. It was amazing all the brain gathered in one place, at NVIDIA GTC 2015, I had so many great conversations with friends, partners and there was one sentence I thought through “try to imagine what could you do for the world if we tried to build 1 thing with all this brain power in joined forces” . NVIDIA is doing amazing things and this year it was all about “Deep Learning” and “NVIDIA GRID”. Google was part of the keynote and it was very interesting seeing how far AI is evolving, Elon Musk the guy behind Tesla, Space-X was also on stage.
NVIDIA GRID was big this year and all the vendors, Lenovo, HP, Dell, Cisco, Supermicro, Citrix, Vmware and such was there. There was tonz of success stories and best practices. So amazing to learn all the best on GPU enabled application/desktop using either Citrix or VMware, this is the conference to learn from people that are early adapters, the best of the best. If you feel missed out come next year and you understand what I mean. This conference is very different compared to other conferences. This is here it all happens, all industries meet and make a fusion across GPU’s. If you missed this year GTC, I highly recommend you go to the next year GTC which takes place in April 4-8th, 2016 in Silicon Valley
I meet for the first time the CEO and founder of NVIDIA Jen-Hsun Huang, he is a very inspiring person.
Another great friend was Fred Devoir from Textron “the man in the middle” and another great friend and fellow CTP, Dane Young.
Fred Devoir had two sessions at GTC, I highly recommend you watch them both.
If you attended and could see all the sessions or you couldn’t join GTC, now all 500 sessions are available for the public. #AMAZING, thank you NVIDIA for this.
I have in this blogpost made it easy to find all the great sessions about NVIDIA GRID
Learn the best of the best about NVIDIA GRID implementations:
Roland WartenbergDirector Global SAP Alliance, Citrix David CruickshankSr. Director, Strategy and Operations, SAP Co-Innovation Lab, SAP Labs S5377 – Running SAP 3D Visual Enterprise Using Citrix and NVIDIA – What about Performance?
Erik Bohnhorst, SR. GRID Solution Architect from NVIDIA Ronald Grass, SR. Systems Engineer from Citrix
George Thornton, VP of Engineering from Logical Front Jim Galib IT Director from Roger Williams University
Ryan Tiebout, System Operations Manager from Rogers Williams University
Aivars Apsite,Technology Strategist, Metro Health Cedric Courteix,Partner Alliance Architect, VMware Clint Pearson,IT Systems Lead, HDR Inc. John Meza,Performance Engineering Team Lead, Esri
