Warning against Windows 8.1 for old school gamers

Hi RPGWatch folk,

I had Windows Vista SP2 32 bit on my system and due to latest games that demand or prefer 64 bit system I decided to buy new OS. Anyway I decided to buy Win 8.1 over Win 7 (because of an advice of a tech friend of mine. He said Win8 is generally faster than Win7).

But I’m somewhat disappointed with this decision. Microsoft somehow screwed up Directdraw (Win 8 emulates Directdraw with pure CPU power instead of hardware) and the games that use Directdraw (Directx 8.1 and earlier, also some Directx 9 games) are running really slow in Windows 8.1. The games I tried and couln’t play because of this bug: Arx Fatalis, Divine Divinity, Might&Magic 9, Wizards&Warriors, Gorasul. And there are many others in the net if you search it with “Windows 8” and “Directdraw” words. There are some workarounds like using Wined3d (partially successful method) or using software mode in some games (if it supports of course) but it’s annoying to know that you can’t play your favourite games in your new OS. Funny part is although there are many complaints about this issue in the net (especially in official Windows support pages) Microsoft continues to ignore the problem.

At least I didn’t erase Windows Vista on my system, instead made it dual boot. So I can still play my old games flawlessly. But I warn those who are thinking of moving to Windows 8. Windows 7 64 bit seems like the best choice for gamers who both want to play new games and their favourite old ones.

For Arx Fatalis, try the "Arx Libertatis" mod.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/arx-libertatis


For Divine Divinity, try switching to software mode.

Wizards & Warriors didn't work for most people on Windows 7 or XP either.

JDR13 said:

For Arx Fatalis, try the "Arx Libertatis" mod.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/arx-libertatis


For Divine Divinity, try switching to software mode.

Wizards & Warriors didn't work for most people on Windows 7 or XP either.

Click to expand...

I know all of them pretty well believe me. In Arx Libertatis you lose some of the texture effects which was in the original version. There is also a wined3d workaround for Divine Divinity. And finally it's possible to play W&W with an unofficial patch and a fix in modern computers with some graphical glitches. But why we must use these workarounds when this problem can be solved by Microsoft with a fix?

By the way I searched the net a bit more and some people state that in windows mode those slowdowns are gone, but it's there for full screen. It definitely looks like a bug in DirectX API.

I got Wizards & Warriors to work on windows xp allthough it was quite hard. I think I still have working installation. There is only one game I havent managed to get to work. It was redguard adventure game from bethsoft.

On my pc that I built in 2008 there is space for four operating systems just so I can play old games. I didnt get windows 8 though. It feels inferior to 7.

I think Ill get rid of vista and in future I will have just windows xp, 7 and 9. Maybe steam os as fourth.

Not that I'm big on being a forum police officer, doesn't this belong in the Tech Help forum or something?

I've had to fiddle a bit to get a few games to play on 8.1, but really once I installed the older DirectX version, that fixed most of the problems. I can't think of a game I haven't actually be able to get to play yet.

This is the kind of stuff that scares me back into reading books. If something doesn't work on my computer, I'm totally clueless. There isn't much that all my friends agree on, but every one of them have told me to never get windows 8.

Yes, I've also got Win8 on my gaming PC--about all the interface does is constantly get in the way. Anything you might have done in Win7 is guaranteed to be more cumbersome to accomplish in Win8. Balmer laid a sweaty turd with this one. The boot time is good though.

Meh, I installed 7 stacks and set it to book to desktop right off the bat and its been functionally no different than Win7 for me (You can also use StartIsBack or one of the other things that rebuild the start menu).

The only minor annoyance I had was tracking down the Graphics Setup apps for some of the GOG games because on the Start Screen it dumps them all in the same group with the same name.

My "inner cynic" says : "Microsoft screwed things purposefully. Thou shalt not play ye olde games ! Buy ye newe ones !"

And don't remember that they had always said that the "Win XP Mode" was NEVER made for home users ! It was EXCLUSIVELY made for business programs !

It's by pure chance that games run with that. That was NEVER their intention !

It is clear for many years now because of that decision and because of others that they do not home users at all - despite their "home edition" brands. Twisted tongue.

Nah. Windows 8 was just trying to innovate. Next windows will be the plain old desktop again.

Somewhat related question, how did you get Gorasul to run on Win8 with all item graphics and no horrible slowdown?

zakhal said:

I got Wizards & Warriors to work on windows xp allthough it was quite hard. I think I still have working installation. There is only one game I havent managed to get to work. It was redguard adventure game from bethsoft.

On my pc that I built in 2008 there is space for four operating systems just so I can play old games. I didnt get windows 8 though. It feels inferior to 7.

I think Ill get rid of vista and in future I will have just windows xp, 7 and 9. Maybe steam os as fourth.

Click to expand...

IIRC the W&W problem was the animated (video)menus which I guess that newer versions of windows(including win2k) lacked the codecs for.

I seem to remember having to convert all those menu files to another video format and everything worked fine after that… might have had to do some other stuff, but converting those menu files is something that I still remember doing…

[EDIT]
Windows 8/8.1: yeah metro is pretty sucktacular. I can't even really see it be useful on a tablet or phone either let alone a notebook/desktop.

I shelled out(few $$$) for startisback myself... looks and acts pretty much like win7 although I did leave some of the metro crap operational just in case but it never appears unless you activate a hot corner or a pointer "gesture"...
[/EDIT]

I use xbstart + controller infor metro. Works very nice

What is xbstart?

With xbstart you can control metro using a xbox360 controller. Switch between apps (steam big picture, xbmc) etc

Call me ignorant, I admit I am on this matter.
Do we need xbstart on Win7?

If it matters, I don't use xbmc. I dislike it and use VLC for media as only two file formats it can't open are bink (.bik) video and wwise (.wem) audio.

Well I'm not liking the way Win 9 is heading either. I found this link today.

Link- http://www.dailytech.com/Microsoft+...C+Xbox+Phone+and+Tablet+OSes/article34992.htm

New cross-platform OS project is unprecedented, arguably largest software project in history

A new report in The Seattle Times interviews some of Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) top executives who describe the company's inspired new design direction.

With Windows 9, Microsoft is plotting quite literally the largest software project in history; combining operating systems from at least five platforms, cloud services, and dozens of software projects into one tightly integrated cross-platform bundle of software.

It's an incredible vision. And it's one that could change the entire industry

Click to expand...

It seems Microsoft is trying to be Apple, and will unify the OS on all platforms. Looks like I might have to get used to Win 8.1 now. I hate progress sometimes.

So, they're porting phoneOS on PC?
Whatta joke.
I mean, would you really install Android on your PC?

You know me. If that happens, I'll stick with my good old win7.
They won't make more security patches? Like I care for that. In fact I'm currently researching how to make an offline installer for all those 34537574 updates they didn't bother to unify as ServicePack2. In case I need to reinstall and lack of net card driver that's not included in SP1.

joxer said:

Call me ignorant, I admit I am on this matter.
Do we need xbstart on Win7?

If it matters, I don't use xbmc. I dislike it and use VLC for media as only two file formats it can't open are bink (.bik) video and wwise (.wem) audio.

Click to expand...

If windows 7 has metro you probably can use it too, if you need it.

Vlc is the best video player yes, they also drive development of video and audio codecs. Though xbmc is a media center, completely different

Edit. In a couple of years you can use Linux+steam (or steam os) instead of windows.