GPU requirements to run SeaView on Azure VMs

GPU requirements to run SeaView on Azure VMs

Summary

This guide provides the steps required to configure an Azure VM for GPU accelerated programs such as SeaView.

Alert
Note: to run SeaView on a virtual environment you must specifically request a VM enabled license. Standard licenses will not run on VMs.

SeaView requires OpenGL 4.1+ to run correctly. Azure SKUs that are not specifically designed for 3D accelerated visualization tasks will not work. 
However, even GPU enabled SKUs such as NVads series need some extra configuration steps after deployment to run correctly.
This guide will show the steps required for NVIDIA based VMs, but a similar procedure can be followed for AMD based ones. 

In this tutorial we will install the specific NVIDIA GRID drivers (not CUDA), and configure Group Policy to force Remote Desktop Services to use the hardware graphics adapter.

Step 1: Verify Default Display Adapter

Once the VM is deployed and running, you will notice that the GPU is not yet active for the OS.

This can be confirmed by the lack of a "GPU 0" tab in the Task Manager, or by the name of Display adapter shown in the Device Manager.

When only the "Microsoft Hyper-V Video" or "Microsoft Basic Display Adapter" are listed, and there is no NVIDIA adapter, it meansdrivers are not installed.

Step 2: Install NVIDIA GRID Drivers

For Azure NV-series VMs, you must use the NVIDIA GRID drivers (not standard GeForce or Quadro drivers) to enable virtualization features. The easiest way to do this is via the Azure VM Extension.


  1. Go to the Azure Portal and navigate to your Virtual Machine.

  2. In the left-hand menu, scroll down to Settings and select Extensions + applications.

  3. Click + Add.

  4. In the search bar, type NVIDIA. Select NVIDIA GPU Driver Extension.

  5. Click Next and then Create/Review.

  6. Wait for the deployment to finish. This process automatically downloads and installs the correct GRID license and driver version for your specific VM SKU.

  7. Restart the VM to finalize the installation.

Verification: After the reboot, open Device Manager again. You should now see the NVIDIA Tesla/GRID GPU listed under Display adapters.

Alternatively, you can manually download and install NVIDIA GRID drivers from this page:

Warning
Do not install NVIDIA CUDA drivers. Those are meant for compute only workloads and do not provide accelerated graphics. Install GRID drivers instead.

Step 3: Configure Group Policy for Hardware Acceleration

Even with the driver installed, RDP sessions may default to software rendering. You must force the session to use the hardware GPU to support SeaView's OpenGL 4.1 requirements.

  1. Log in to the VM (or the Domain Controller if applying via GPO).

  2. Open the Group Policy Editor:

    • Run gpedit.msc for local policy.

    • Use Group Policy Management for domain-wide policy.

  3. Navigate to the following path:

    Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Remote Desktop Services -> Remote Desktop Session Host -> Remote Session Environment

  4. Locate the policy setting: Use hardware graphics adapters for all Remote Desktop Services sessions.

  5.  

  6. Double-click it and set it to Enabled.

  7. Enable the WDDM graphics display driver for Remote Desktop Connections (IMPORTANT)


  9. Alert
    Enabling WDDM graphics for Remote Desktop Connections is mandatory. Disabling this policy will disable OpenGL for remote sessions.

  10. (Optional but Recommended) Locate Configure H.264/AVC hardware encoding for Remote Desktop Connections and set it to Enabled. This improves the stream quality for high-motion applications.

  11. The three group policies highlighted in the screenshot above should ALL be enabled.

  12. Open a Command Prompt as Administrator and run:

    gpupdate /force

  13. Reboot the VM to ensure the Remote Desktop Service picks up the new rendering pipeline.

Step 4: Verification

To confirm that SeaView will detect the correct OpenGL version:

  1. Connect to the VM via Azure Virtual Desktop / Remote Desktop.

  2. Open Task Manager and go to the Performance tab. You should see the GPU 0 (NVIDIA) listed.

  3. Launch SeaView. It should now detect the hardware acceleration and load the OpenGL 4.1+ context successfully.