Architecture Planning

In most cases, you cannot use a USB device in your client system and in your remote desktop or application
at the same time. Only a few types of USB devices can be shared between a remote desktop and the local
computer. These devices include smart card readers and human interface devices such as keyboards and
pointing devices.
Administrators can specify which types of USB devices end users are allowed to connect to. For composite
devices that contain multiple types of devices, such as a video input device and a storage device, on some
client systems, administrators can split the device so that one device (for example, the video input device) is
allowed but the other device (for example, the storage device) is not.
The USB redirection feature is available only on some types of clients. To find out whether this feature is
supported on a particular type of client, see the feature support matrix included in the "Using
VMware Horizon Client" document for the specific type of desktop or mobile client device. Go to
https://www.vmware.com/support/viewclients/doc/viewclients_pubs.html.
Using the Real-Time Audio-Video Feature for Webcams and
Microphones
With the Real-Time Audio-Video feature, you can use your local computer's webcam or microphone on
your remote desktop. Real-Time Audio-Video is compatible with standard conferencing applications and
browser-based video applications, and supports standard webcams, audio USB devices, and analog audio
input.
End users can run Skype, Webex, Google Hangouts, and other online conferencing applications on their
virtual desktops. This feature redirects video and audio data to the remote desktop with a significantly
lower bandwidth than can be achieved by using USB redirection. With Real-Time Audio-Video, webcam
images and audio input are encoded on the client and then sent to the remote desktop. On the remote
desktop the stream is decoded and played by a virtual webcam and virtual microphone, which can be used
by the third-party application.
No special configuration is necessary, although administrators can set GPOs and registry keys for the
remote desktop to configure frame rate and image resolution, or to turn the feature off altogether. By default
the resolution is 320 by 240 pixels at 15 frames per second. Administrators can also use client-side
configuration settings to set a preferred webcam or audio device if needed.
NOTE This feature is available only on some types of clients. To find out whether this feature is supported
on a particular type of client, see the feature support matrix included in the "Using VMware Horizon Client"
document for the specific type of desktop or mobile client device. Go to
https://www.vmware.com/support/viewclients/doc/viewclients_pubs.html.
Using 3D Graphics Applications
The software- and hardware-accelerated graphics features available with the PCoIP display protocol enable
remote desktop users to run 3D applications ranging from Google Earth to CAD and other graphics-
intensive applications.
NVIDIA GRID vGPU
(shared GPU hardware
acceleration)
Available with vSphere 6.0 and later, this feature allows a physical GPU
(graphical processing unit) on an ESXi host to be shared among virtual
machines. Use this feature if you require high-end, hardware-accelerated
workstation graphics.
Virtual Dedicated
Graphics Acceleration
(vDGA)
Available with vSphere 5.5 and later, this feature dedicates a single physical
GPU on an ESXi host to a single virtual machine. Use this feature if you
require high-end, hardware-accelerated workstation graphics.
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26 VMware, Inc.