VMware unveiled earlier this week the release of the public beta 1 version of Fusion 2.0, the virtualization solution that allows users to run Windows operating system on their Macs, now improved with multi-display support which enables the virtual machine to see any displays attached to the Mac as individual displays.

In addition to that, VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 1will offer experimental support for DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 2 3D acceleration, its developer unveiled. This version will be available for free download here; VMware Fusion 1.x users will be able to download Fusion 2.0 as a free downloadable upgrade. Fusion 2.0 is only available in English.

Fusion 2.0 now offers users the possibility to benefit 100 percent from virtualization, by converting their Boot Camp partition into a “full virtual machine” to run their Windows applications on (prior to this, the Boot Camp partition enabled users to run Mac and Windows applications in parallel).

The experimental support for DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 2 allows users to play PC-only 3D games in Windows XP virtualization machines, VMware said, adding that the feature is still experimental and performance will depend very much on hardware and applications.

The multi-display feature supports up to 10 displays, and Fusion 2.0 made users’ work as easy as possible, by enabling automatic detection of multiple displays, offering the option to view one display in full screen mode or see all of them as distinct displays. 3D is also supported on the primary display.

VMware also introduced a Settings Editor for Simplified Shared Folders, integrated VMware Importer and VMware Converter (PV2), as well as USB improvements (faster USB storage performance, recognition by type, improved robustness).

In terms of full screen improvements, the virtual machines will resume and start directly in Full Screen view, and will support displays over 2048 (MacBook and MacBook Air) or 4096 (iMac, MacBook Pro, mac Pro) pixels wide. More details here.