diff --git a/src/osgViewer/CompositeViewer.cpp b/src/osgViewer/CompositeViewer.cpp
index a3e3e099f..f1d8a7ef8 100644
--- a/src/osgViewer/CompositeViewer.cpp
+++ b/src/osgViewer/CompositeViewer.cpp
@@ -119,6 +119,8 @@ bool CompositeViewer::readConfiguration(const std::string& filename)
 
 void CompositeViewer::addView(osgViewer::View* view)
 {
+    bool alreadyRealized = isRealized();
+    
     bool threadsWereRuinning = _threadsRunning;
     if (threadsWereRuinning) stopThreading();
 
@@ -128,6 +130,33 @@ void CompositeViewer::addView(osgViewer::View* view)
     
     view->setFrameStamp(_frameStamp.get());
     
+    if (alreadyRealized)
+    {
+        Contexts contexts;
+        if (view->getCamera()->getGraphicsContext())
+        {
+            contexts.push_back(view->getCamera()->getGraphicsContext());
+        }
+        for(unsigned int i=0; i<view->getNumSlaves(); ++i)
+        {
+            if (view->getSlave(i)._camera->getGraphicsContext())
+            {
+                contexts.push_back(view->getSlave(i)._camera->getGraphicsContext());
+            }
+        }
+
+        for(Contexts::iterator itr = contexts.begin();
+            itr != contexts.end();
+            ++itr)
+        {
+            if (!((*itr)->isRealized()))
+            {
+                (*itr)->realize();
+            }
+        }
+
+    }
+    
     if (threadsWereRuinning) startThreading();
 }
 
diff --git a/src/osgViewer/ViewerBase.cpp b/src/osgViewer/ViewerBase.cpp
index be46ec882..ff5f85e45 100644
--- a/src/osgViewer/ViewerBase.cpp
+++ b/src/osgViewer/ViewerBase.cpp
@@ -372,6 +372,12 @@ void ViewerBase::startThreading()
     {
         osg::GraphicsContext* gc = (*citr);
         
+        if (!gc->isRealized())
+        {
+            osg::notify(osg::INFO)<<"ViewerBase::startThreading() : Realizng window "<<gc<<std::endl;
+            gc->realize();
+        }
+        
         gc->getState()->setDynamicObjectRenderingCompletedCallback(_endDynamicDrawBlock.get());
 
         // create the a graphics thread for this context