Vista Gaming

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Drift3r

Guest
Jun 3, 2003
3,572
0
0
IMHO Vista is overhyped and over rated. DX10 is not the end all and be all and more then a few notable industry insiders have said so like John Carmack and now Gabe Newell.

http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/94869

Gabe Newell: DirectX 10 for Vista was a mistake.

According to an online survey by Valve Software, only one in fifty players who access download service Steam has a DirectX 10-compatible graphics card and Windows Vista installed. In an interview with heise online, Gabe Newell, president of Valve Software, said that Microsoft made a terrible mistake releasing DirectX 10 for Vista only and excluding Windows XP. He said this decision affected the whole industry as so far only a very small percentage of players can use DirectX 10.

When developing cross-platform games which are also released fo Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, developers look for the smallest common denominator. And since neither Microsoft's nor Sony's new consoles support Shader Model 4.0 for DirectX 10, only few games use it, he said.

In addition, Newell bemoaned the increasing lack of input device diversity in PC gaming culture. He would like to see controllers like the Wiimote or the Guitar Hero guitar, but since DirectX support for devices like these had increasingly been reduced over the last few years, developers didn't dare implement these expensive innovations.

The Half-Life 2 Orange Box, which will be released for PC and Xbox 360 on 12. October, uses DirectX 10 functionality only for accelerating some mimics. Visually, however, it was virtually impossible to differentiate between the versions. The PS3 edition is being developed by an EA studio and is scheduled for release two to three weeks later.

The game will already be available from download service Steam on 10. October. Newell said the later release date for the retail editions was requested by the retailers. Retailers also didn't want different versions, resulting in the release of a complete package containing Half-Life 2, Episode 1, Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress. Even before the release date, Valve will announce additional bundles for Steam so that existing Half-Life 2 users don't have to buy a second copy of the game.

The source engine was expanded for Episode 2. A special alpha blend mode generates smoother anti-aliasing edges. In addition, the demo version exhibits new distortion effects and soft shadows. The Orange Box console versions will also apply the new engine features, including high dynamic range rendering and multi core support, to the main game. The PC main game was not revised. Half-Life 2 runs at a resolution of 720p (1280 x 720 pixels) on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. (jk/c't)
 

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
21,303
4
81
Originally posted by: Drift3r
IMHO Vista is overhyped and over rated. DX10 is not the end all and be all and more then a few notable industry insiders have said so like John Carmack and now Gabe Newell.
snipped

We had a nice discussion about Gabe in here: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...y&keyword1=gabe+newell

OP, Vista's been fine for games for a long time now.
Even nV's craptastic drivers are decent these days, so i can't even complain about them myself, though i realize some people still experience issues.

I find it amusing how many people on AT & basically forums everywhere are still clinging to XP, digging around for links backing up their love of XP & dislike of Vista, & just generally refusing to have an open mind.

XP was a great OS, but its time is over, or very nearly anyway.

You'll notice that nearly all knowledgeable users here with Vista are very happy with it.
And ironically enough, n00bs or people who haven't even used the OS are the ones spreading the negativity around...& no, this isn't coincidence.

In short, if you can get Vista for free, by all means try it out as a dual boot perhaps :D

I know that's how i started out with Vista, & now i run Vista only on all three of my PCs.

 

fierydemise

Platinum Member
Apr 16, 2005
2,056
2
81
According to an online survey by Valve Software, only one in fifty players who access download service Steam has a DirectX 10-compatible graphics card and Windows Vista installed. In an interview with heise online, Gabe Newell, president of Valve Software, said that Microsoft made a terrible mistake releasing DirectX 10 for Vista only and excluding Windows XP. He said this decision affected the whole industry as so far only a very small percentage of players can use DirectX 10.
I think what a lot of people don't realize is that DX10 is rooted in the new WDDM in vista, its not a simple job porting DX10 to XP according to an interview with the heads of WDDM and DX10 to port DX10 to XP would have required all but rewriting DX10 and possibly severely limiting its feature set.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
0
Since I can now get Vista Business for extremely cheap through school, I'm going to pick that up. Granted, its more of a student version than the full retail Business edition, but its also 22 USD. According to the lab tech, the licensing agreement allows for 2 activations. If this is the case, thats still worth it for the money, and to determine whether or no Vista is right for me at this point in time. If not, then I'll shelf the disk for a while longer. If it is, then I'll start making plans to purchase the full DVD version.

However, I don't particularly want to install Vista until after the release of SP1.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
Originally posted by: n7
I find it amusing how many people on AT & basically forums everywhere are still clinging to XP, digging around for links backing up their love of XP & dislike of Vista, & just generally refusing to have an open mind.

It's also amusing, because everyone spouts off 6 month old information like it was released just yesterday. "OMG, Vista is 20% slower in games than XP!" I see people spouting this crap mostly on Slashdot trying to make excuses for why Vista is not worthwhile and how it is comparative to Windows ME. Hell, anyone mentioning ME in an argument against Vista loses all credibility with me.
 

HardWarrior

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2004
4,400
22
81
Originally posted by: Drift3r
IMHO Vista is overhyped and over rated. DX10 is not the end all and be all and more then a few notable industry insiders have said so like John Carmack and now Gabe Newell.

Your opinion is inaccurate. Being "overhyped" is a consumer malidy. If you viewed MS marketing as THE source of factual information you were silly. I expected Vista to be demostrably better than XP, and after 4-months use I can say that MS delivered. As for DX10, I don't recall anyone saying that we were in for a gaming revolution that would redefine the universe. Moreover, I don't remember anyone from MS saying that it would.
 

Stefx

Member
Jul 17, 2007
54
0
0
Originally posted by: Aikouka
Originally posted by: tdawg
Ditto. No problems here.

Same here. Been running Vista since this past January with no problems... both 32-bit and 64-bit.

double-ditto. No problems here

As with every new version of Windows, performance is a bit lower compared to the previous version (more memory needed, a bit less FPS, etc), and as with every new version of Windows, that's not a problem on recent hardware.

Those with older hardware (or lesser capable hardware) might want to stick with XP

 

AdamK47

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,168
2,829
126
I've been using Vista Home Premium x64 OEM since January 28 of this year. The OS itself has been very stable. The drivers at the time needed some work, but right now I can say that they are on equal grounds with XP drivers. At least with my hardware.

They say a picture is worth 1000 words. It may not be 1000 words, but I know this screenshot is worth at least 210. And yes, I own them all. I have three of these. I make sure these games play 100% correctly, so there isn't any half-arse install with a game that sorta plays.
 

Noema

Platinum Member
Feb 15, 2005
2,974
0
0
Vista HP64-bit; no problems. Only at gunpoint would I return to XP on my main machne.
 

Xavier434

Lifer
Oct 14, 2002
10,377
1
0
If you already have a good gaming rig then Vista should make it better due to Superfetch. At the very least, that was my experience. My comp isn't cutting edge, but it's good for gaming. 3500, 2 gigs of good corsair memory, 7800GT. I also bought a 1 gig stick for readyboost which is nice. There is talk about certain new games experiencing slower frame rates but that list is getting smaller and smaller. Those issues are primarily driver related.

In conclusion, find out if your video card's current driver is experiencing problems with the games you want to play on it. If you don't find any concrete evidence then I say give it a shot. Also, remember that Vista needs to "learn" your computing habits. Don't expect positive results until you use it regularly for about two weeks.
 

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
21,303
4
81
Originally posted by: AdamK47
I've been using Vista Home Premium x64 OEM since January 28 of this year. The OS itself has been very stable. The drivers at the time needed some work, but right now I can say that they are on equal grounds with XP drivers. At least with my hardware.

They say a picture is worth 1000 words. It may not be 1000 words, but I know this screenshot is worth at least 210. And yes, I own them all. I have three of these. I make sure these games play 100% correctly, so there isn't any half-arse install with a game that sorta plays.

Holy sh!t! :Q

I'd say this post is /thread worthy :Q
 

BladeVenom

Lifer
Jun 2, 2005
13,540
16
0
Originally posted by: miniMUNCH
Originally posted by: BladeVenom
When Windows Genuine Advantage screws up, like with what happened to their servers this weekend, Vista will turn off features like DirectX. I'll stick with XP for games until games start recommending 4gb or more of memory.

Whaaaaa??:laugh:

It did nothing of the sort... I was playing titan quest and bioshock most all of the weekend.

" In what might be termed a classic case of the disadvantage of Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), the servers behind the Windows validation software over the weekend flagged all copies of Windows XP and Vista as invalid and pirated. In the case of Vista, this failure placed the operating system in reduced functionality mode.

It wasn't until about mid-afternoon on Sunday that WGA started running correctly again. Microsoft hasn't given any clues as to the cause of the problem, and there's still no indication how many Windows users were affected."
http://redmondmag.com/reports/...e.asp?EditorialsID=552

http://arstechnica.com/news.ar...e-problems-galore.html
 

Phlargo

Senior member
Jul 21, 2004
865
0
0
I've actually found I gain some frames (average, min, and max) in Titan Quest under Vista. Especially in the really busy areas. I am running no slouch though - C2D ~ 3.2 ghz, 8800 GTS 320, 2 gb RAM. Oblivion performance is definitely equivalent (no real gain though). I haven't played many others on Vista yet though...
 

OVerLoRDI

Diamond Member
Jan 22, 2006
5,494
4
81
Same here, I got vista for free shortly after it came out from my school and initially the driver issues caused a lot of games to not function properly. Now those issues have all been worked out and it works great.
 
Jun 20, 2007
51
0
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Originally posted by: AdamK47
I've been using Vista Home Premium x64 OEM since January 28 of this year. The OS itself has been very stable. The drivers at the time needed some work, but right now I can say that they are on equal grounds with XP drivers. At least with my hardware.

They say a picture is worth 1000 words. It may not be 1000 words, but I know this screenshot is worth at least 210. And yes, I own them all. I have three of these. I make sure these games play 100% correctly, so there isn't any half-arse install with a game that sorta plays.

Somewhat random, but just noticed homeworld 2. How did you get it working with Vista?
 

BD2003

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
16,815
1
76
Originally posted by: BladeVenom
Originally posted by: miniMUNCH
Originally posted by: BladeVenom
When Windows Genuine Advantage screws up, like with what happened to their servers this weekend, Vista will turn off features like DirectX. I'll stick with XP for games until games start recommending 4gb or more of memory.

Whaaaaa??:laugh:

It did nothing of the sort... I was playing titan quest and bioshock most all of the weekend.

" In what might be termed a classic case of the disadvantage of Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), the servers behind the Windows validation software over the weekend flagged all copies of Windows XP and Vista as invalid and pirated. In the case of Vista, this failure placed the operating system in reduced functionality mode.

It wasn't until about mid-afternoon on Sunday that WGA started running correctly again. Microsoft hasn't given any clues as to the cause of the problem, and there's still no indication how many Windows users were affected."
http://redmondmag.com/reports/...e.asp?EditorialsID=552

http://arstechnica.com/news.ar...e-problems-galore.html

You're implying that every Vista PC ran in reduced functionality mode over the entire weekend, and thats simply not the case, nor what the article was talking about.
 

AdamK47

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,168
2,829
126
Originally posted by: Bob Ghengis Khan
Originally posted by: AdamK47
I've been using Vista Home Premium x64 OEM since January 28 of this year. The OS itself has been very stable. The drivers at the time needed some work, but right now I can say that they are on equal grounds with XP drivers. At least with my hardware.

They say a picture is worth 1000 words. It may not be 1000 words, but I know this screenshot is worth at least 210. And yes, I own them all. I have three of these. I make sure these games play 100% correctly, so there isn't any half-arse install with a game that sorta plays.

Somewhat random, but just noticed homeworld 2. How did you get it working with Vista?

I don't recall doing anything special to get it installed. I did just try running the game again to make sure it does run. It ran perfectly. It even runs better than when the game first came out now that self shadowing displays perfectly and doesn't bog down my entire system. Runs perfectly and as smooth as glass in Vista.
 

Staples

Diamond Member
Oct 28, 2001
4,952
119
106
Does anyone know where the patch for Vista is that makes it address far less memory in games? It was featured in a Vista article here on AT and supposedly released the 23 of August. I would like to try it.

As far as performance, NVIDIA drivers have gotten a hellava lot better of the past 6 months and most games run pretty well. But they do use up a lot more memory as AT has shown.
 

melijak

Senior member
Aug 5, 2004
219
0
0
I saw the hot fix link on Hardforum. The link was to the Nvidia.com download page and one for microsoft.com page. Hope this helps.
 

Noema

Platinum Member
Feb 15, 2005
2,974
0
0
Originally posted by: Staples
Does anyone know where the patch for Vista is that makes it address far less memory in games? It was featured in a Vista article here on AT and supposedly released the 23 of August. I would like to try it.

As far as performance, NVIDIA drivers have gotten a hellava lot better of the past 6 months and most games run pretty well. But they do use up a lot more memory as AT has shown.

Here ya go
 

Acanthus

Lifer
Aug 28, 2001
19,915
2
76
ostif.org
Nvidias vista drivers are still overall terrible, but, all of my games run, even in 64 bit.

There are some random issues, like
-enabling AA in Civ4
-running freespace in any emulation mode.
-all kinds of weird CoH issues
-Having to mod supreme commander so i can properly address memory even in 64 bit vista

And half the damn control panel is still missing as of the lastest betas.