Games moving away from windows xp and what it means for the industry

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Have you ever tried out the XP mode that msft has for download for win7? Looks to be basically what you are doing, although you do install the programs to the win7 machine and then open them via the xp VPC.

Oh, I'm aware of that mode, but that's not the purpose of my general usage XPVM. It's for browsing untrusted sites, testing executables, etc. If it gets infested, delete the vhd, fetch a fresh copy from the central fileserver and you're back in business

 

[Fallen Kell]

MS announced that years ago, why has it taken developers so long to move to dx11?

Because developers have been sticking with the same old beaten graphics engines that work on this generation of consoles, as the consoles need to be able to play the game "the way its meant to be played" in terms of graphic performance. The console gamers don't want to see that the game can look so much better on a PC with modern graphics hardware compared to the 6 year old console tech. But it is finally at the point where the PC gamers have had it with developers not pushing the envelope. In a way I have been happy, as I have not upgraded my video card in 3 years, which is longer than I have ever gone before on my PC. The fact is, that the 3 year old card can/could play all current games. It is only in the last month or so that games have started coming out again which push the graphics capabilities on the PC. Previously I would typically upgrade every year, that is until this round of consoles came out and all the game studios needed to release pretty much everything with a console version, which really hemmed them in as to what they could and couldn't do (with the game interface, mechanics, physics, and graphics).

 

[CVSiN]

A combination of waiting for people to get on board with vista/7 (the lack of a good vista launch really hurt), the availability of DX10+ HW, development time for the new engine, driver support, knowing when to leave their low end users (along with just the cost of supporting many more types of hardware), the list goes on.

For each company its unique as they themselves decide when to go to DX10+.

Software lags behind HW.

If people have modern hardware to run games like BF3, its a non-issue to install a new OS. People who are on old hardware aren't even in the target market anyway.

it never used to be this way... before in the heyday of PC gaming software drove the hardware..

game companies would release a amazing game that would run like crap on the current gen top dog and force the market to upgrade to play it at where it was envisioned.

any of the Wing Commanders and even Strike Commander and many many others as examples of this..

 

[Remobz]

I still use it for my recording computer. Currently I dual boot with Win7 for my main, but I'm in the process of upgrading to a new gaming PC and the old box will be solely for recording and video streaming.

I was wondering what to do with my old XP system?

I guess its good to have a backup system in case your Main one needs repairs, but in my case I am trying to figure out what other purpose it could serve?

 

[wuliheron]

I was wondering what to do with my old XP system?

I guess its good to have a backup system in case your Main one needs repairs, but in my case I am trying to figure out what other purpose it could serve?

Multimedia dude. Still great for surfing the web, watching movies, doing homework, or whatever.

 

[thespyder]

it never used to be this way... before in the heyday of PC gaming software drove the hardware..

game companies would release a amazing game that would run like crap on the current gen top dog and force the market to upgrade to play it at where it was envisioned.

any of the Wing Commanders and even Strike Commander and many many others as examples of this..

In today's world, Hardware rules the roost. Specifically the Consoles. Console market share is SO MUCH HIGHER than PC, that PC Only products are very few and far between.

But yeah, back in the day, I remember a bunch of times I had to upgrade "Just to run (x game)". I would hope those days would come again. And with current HW/SW capabilities of PC's far outstripping Consoles, I am wondering if they might come back. But more probably we will see a next gen console revolution before we see any other kind of shift. More's the pity.