Windows Vista and Gaming

[bapenguin]

ExtremeTech (http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1841219,00.asp) takes a look at the Windows Vista Beta and discusses why PC gaming isn't dead.There have been many reports in the news lately about the "decline of PC games." Microsoft thinks that is due almost entirely to lazy reporting and bad numbers. Worldwide, retail sales of Windows games have been flat, at about $2.3 billion a year. The press looks at these numbers and compares it with console sales of over $6 billion (and rising each year) and says that Windows games are being marginalized. To begin with, why lump all the consoles together against a single platform, the PC? Shouldn't we compare the PC individually to the Xbox, PlayStation 2, and Nintendo Gamecube? More importantly is that worldwide online sales have increased to $2 billion a year, and those numbers are never included in the typical NPD industry tracking reports.

Make sure to check out the article and read about the WinSAT function. This really could help out retailers and gamers alike. Could it be the end of minimum system requirements if games are created totally scalable?

[Varsity]

Old, but better than the old one. DX10 is sounding mighty fine!

[TRiLoGY]

An interesting Article.. :)

[XxSATANxX]

Okay sounds like a ton of work stripping this bad boy down and shutting off a ton of DRM. Honestly does ANYONE use the MY folders? A good game system keeps things simple and basic. OPEN SOURCE proggies keep your system running and productive and have the added benifit of being free.

Some things to note:

Appears services have been expanded. SHUT OFF
Microsoft restore has been expanded SHUT OFF
Admin's reach and control SHUT OFF
ESRB lock out SHUT OFF
Media player REMOVE and REPLACE
Windows auto Update: SHUT OFF
Internet Explorer REMOVE AND REPLACE
Imbedded services like MSN search, MSN spyware removal REMOVE and REPLACE
Countless MRU tracker files SHUT OFF and REMOVE
Dynamic 3d desktop SHUT OFF
MS Games REMOVE

I'm sure after a year or so the usual sources will publish the how to guide on making VISTA a stable fun platform for games. The fact that MS thinks this is game friendly demonstrates just how out of touch they are with gamers. If they really want to help PC games maybe they should make a few more games when VISTA finally emerges.

XP is great for games once you turn off all the junk. Sure hoping VISTA works out that we as well.

[Varsity]

The fact that MS thinks this is game friendly demonstrates just how out of touch they are with gamers.I think you'll find it demonstrates how out of touch you are. We here on EA are a tiny minority.

[Cupelix]

Honestly does ANYONE use the MY folders?
Uh, yeah? Its way easier for me to store everything as subfolders to My Documents since every program makes that the default folder for the Save dialog - or at least has a shortcut to it in the dialog. Using the My Documents folder only becomes a problem when you're storing things across multiple drives. Even still, I find that its easiest for me to put a shortcut to other folders in the My Documents folder for quick access.

[XxSATANxX]

I think you'll find it demonstrates how out of touch you are. We here on EA are a tiny minority.

Microsoft BUILT a few GREAT franchises on the PC.

Mechwarrior
Midtown madness
Flight Simulator
Crimson Skies

Then came X-Box and the end of promoting the PC as a game platform alla Apple.

Why buy FASA then shut off the PC?

[XenonCJ]

Okay sounds like a ton of work stripping this bad boy down and shutting off a ton of DRM. Honestly does ANYONE use the MY folders? A good game system keeps things simple and basic. OPEN SOURCE proggies keep your system running and productive and have the added benifit of being free.

Some things to note:

Appears services have been expanded. SHUT OFF
Microsoft restore has been expanded SHUT OFF
Admin's reach and control SHUT OFF
ESRB lock out SHUT OFF
Media player REMOVE and REPLACE
Windows auto Update: SHUT OFF
Internet Explorer REMOVE AND REPLACE
Imbedded services like MSN search, MSN spyware removal REMOVE and REPLACE
Countless MRU tracker files SHUT OFF and REMOVE
Dynamic 3d desktop SHUT OFF
MS Games REMOVE

I'm sure after a year or so the usual sources will publish the how to guide on making VISTA a stable fun platform for games. The fact that MS thinks this is game friendly demonstrates just how out of touch they are with gamers. If they really want to help PC games maybe they should make a few more games when VISTA finally emerges.

XP is great for games once you turn off all the junk. Sure hoping VISTA works out that we as well.You're above statments, while some may be useful, show just how out-of-touch you are with the average user\gamer. The average user will NEVER do any of your above tricks and tweaks, and just like XP is, it will run just fine anyway without those modifications. Also I think it's funny you think it's a good idea to turn off Auto-Update, the average user should ALWAYS leave this on.

"OPEN SOURCE proggies keep your system running and productive and have the added benifit of being free." (you forgot to mention useless for 99% of all games)

Bottom line, the average joe-six-pack user isn't a Open Source\Linux snob. MicroSoft DOES know what they are doing, if you don't believe me, take a look at thier financial statements. kk thx la

[XxSATANxX]

Okay folks....

One of the so called appeals of VISTA will be all it brings to games. Look we actually have a folder called GAMES. Woopee! it will be marketed like a console a GAMERS MUST HAVE. It will be sold with a must have game????

Don't get me wrong I love XP. DX10 sounds great. The SA things sounds scary.

I'm a slut puppy for games. Just saw F.E.A.R. demo running on a DX8 engine can't wait.

Dare I think it Mechwarrior 5 on VISTA??? crap it'll just be minesweeper.

[the_suspect]

I wonder what Intel thinks about this, since their integrated video chips currently have the biggest market share and they really don't have decent 3D performance. They might be left out unless the completely revamp their lines.

[H.Bogard]

the suspect - most people running on integrated video chips really arent that much into gaming.

on another note....wont a 3d desktop take up too much resources?

[Varsity]

The whole idea behind WinSAT is that it won't unless you want it to. :)

[kokyunage]

on another note....wont a 3d desktop take up too much resources?

Surprisingly, it's not as much as you would imagine. With decent drivers a lot of the work can be done by the 3d video card, which is all but idle during normal windows usage.

I’ve been running Vista for a few days now. Here are my observations:
(1) The “look” is definitely different. Even the copy/delete/move dialogs that come up are more useful (telling you speed, how much data is left to copy, etc…)
(2) I definitely don’t like Explorer in Vista. Gone is the “move up one directory” button. The OS just tries to hide the actual directory structure of your computer from you. It really wants you to use those “My _____” directories.
(3) Not sure why, but there now moved the users into their own “Users” directory on the C: drive. It’s no longer in the “Documents and Settings” directory.
(4) File searching is actually useful. Although, I haven’t found a way to turn off the idle indexing.
(5) Everything in general is just a tab bit slower than XP. Maybe it’s because I tweak the hell out of XP to make it exactly how I like it. I never use themes in XP also, so that might be the difference in I’m noticing in Vista.
(6) Rendering errors up the wazzoo. But that's just indicative of a beta product.
(7) Not sure I like the new start menu. Rather than expanding menus, it’s all in the main start menu. Here’s a screenshot of what I am talking about:

http://www.altsitesltd.com/startmenu.jpg

[Varsity]

Indexing is turned off in XP through the drive's properties. And do you really use the button to go up a dir? :p

[mister_slim]

Kokyunage, thanks for the overview.

[jeffool]

My question is 'does the compatability mode actually work this time around'? I mean, XP broke tons of my games. Is Vista going to do it again?

[ElectricMonk]

you know, the more i use a computer the more i start using the command line for everything.

it's just faster to use windowskey+r and type calc than it is to actually find it in the start menu.

[XenonCJ]

My question is 'does the compatability mode actually work this time around'? I mean, XP broke tons of my games. Is Vista going to do it again?Yes.



..............

[Gel214th]

The WinSAT Thing sounds really useful. Would be like a built in 3DMark for Windows.
I also thought that they were introducing technology that would enable A game to be streamed off the DVD, negating the need to do a formal 'sit and wait' installation of it, bringing PC gaming closer to the console style of Stick the disc in and play.

I hope this wasn't one of the features axed from Vista.