Vista and Older Games:- Problems and How to Solve Them

Originally Posted by woges
Well I have an XP machine aswell and it doesn't have the richness of DX10 on Bioshock.

My impression is that DX10 has advantages, but is a pig so that you lose performance disproportionately with graphics gains … true?

Originally Posted by txa1265
My impression is that DX10 has advantages, but is a pig so that you lose performance disproportionately with graphics gains … true?

Seems that way to me. Ran Bioshock on a Vista 64 bit machine and it ran horribly. Video and sound were stuttering a lot and it would crash constantly. Same machine running XP64 and it runs perfect and hasn't crashed once. But at the same time Oblivion ran just fine under Vista on this machine. No problems at all with it. Now we were using some mod to improve performance. Think it was called speedfix or something. So I have no idea if that alone made any real difference.

I just finished Bioshock. I have a 2.4 core duo, 2gb ram, and nvidia 8600 (2 months old), I had zero lag with DX10 options enabled. I did install the latest driver that was especially setup for Bioshock by Nvidia.

Originally Posted by txa1265
My impression is that DX10 has advantages, but is a pig so that you lose performance disproportionately with graphics gains … true?

I don't have enough DX10 games to really make an opinion as yet. Bioshock looks really good in DX9 anyway. I'll try running the game in DX9 on vista and look at the performance difference maybe.

Haven't got around to the Bioshock thing yet but I did install Baldur's Gate 2 again and it seems to work well.

i've installed fallout 2 under every compatability, as administrator and not, and tried to play it under every compatability, and it still doesnt work. i feel like im doing something really obviously wrong. but i dont know what. help, i need to play this.
im running vista home premium 32 bit
i get teh "PLEASE STAND BY" screen and then it crashes.

F2 can conflict with certain drivers. It hates especially some of the latest Logitech drivers. I installed them for my MX Revolution mouse and F2 refused to load. Deleted the drivers package which came on the install CD with the mouse and the game ran perfectly. I'm running XP64!!

To get back on topic: I just re-installed and booted up Planescape: Torment. Appears to run flawlessly -- smoother and better-looking than on XP SP2. Didn't even have to switch on compatibility modes. (This on Vista x64.)

Originally Posted by Bigpapa
Age of Empires 2 and Expansion, couldn't play without a nocd patch, since it refuses to see cd's. With nocd patch, working fine.

Hi all - new member here.
I had the same problem with all manner of games when I started using vista. I found simply running them as an Administrator made the problem go away. Oddly enough, I am the only user of my laptop and everytime I try to run a game it asks if I give my permission to let me. Strange.

We discovered yesterday, that Hamachi doesn't seem to like Vista!! Anyone know much about this?

Well I just made the plunge. So far its not bad. I disabled some security option and found a way to automatically login without having to put the password into the Registry (and have every program be able to read it).

Its as PJ said, XP 32 had terrible problems recognizing my RAID 0 configuration (it wouldn't although XP 64 would see it but crash when trying to boot). So I pulled out my Vista disk and it had no problem at all.

Its weird and a little different but I'll get used to it. I actually had a better driver experience than XP because at this stage of the game Vista loaded everything I had with the update. I didn't have to go to any of the vendor's websites to get updates.

It looks a little different but its not bad. I'm totally ticked that I can't outright remove the Search feature or take the option off the start menu. I've switched to the Basic Windows 2000 on the start menu for the time being. I just wish I could put programs t the bottom of it though.

It seems to be a lot faster than XP but that may be because of the RAID. I had heard it was actually piggier.

The only other problem is its the 32 business version. I'm looking for 64 Ultimate right now.

Another back-on-topic post: I just tried Vampire: Bloodlines, encountered, and solved a problem.

Problem:

On Windows Vista x64 SP1 with an nVidia card and more than 3GB RAM, VtM:B will use lowest-resolution textures. IOW, it'll look like utter rubbish.

Workaround:

Run msconfig from the search box in the Start menu. Go to the Boot tab, hit the Advanced Options button, check the Maximum Memory box, enter 3072 into the box, and reboot.

Don't forget to un-check the box (and reboot) when you're done with Bloodlines; until then, that extra gig of RAM will be sitting in your box doing nothing.

There's another solution known, but it involves patching the executable with a hex editor, so I didn't try it.

Er… Hello. Please may I ask a stupid question about Might & Magic 6 and Vista. The game seemed to work fine under Vista Home premium, but I seem to have 2 problems which I'm not sure are real. Firstly, the circus where I'm supposed to find Nicolai seems to have permanently moved, no matter the time of year I visit any of the sites. Secondly, the wooden door in the east of Castle Kriegspire doesn't seem to open, no matter what I do. I've read a walkthrough to refresh my memory about the game, and it says I should just run at the door, and it should open. I'm not getting it mixed up with the door to the west, which is the exit from the pit. Now for the stupid question - is it possible that Vista could cause these specific problems, as everything else so far seems to be going as I remembered it. I just had hopes of finishing this game again, as I have such fond memories of it. I hope I've asked this question in the right place & in the right way. I also hope that this problem isn't just to do with me being a bit senile now! I'd be grateful for any advice.

Do you have patch 1.2 installed Mike? I have read in multiple forums that patch 1.2 permanently locks Kriegspire's doors. There is an unofficial patch, called Mok's patch that keeps all the changes to 1.2 but fixes a couple things that 1.2 broke (such as that door). http://telp.org/mm6/tavern/anyboard/posts/27430.html is the forum post I found it on, click the related link at the bottom to download it.

I however am having a different problem with MM6. I can get the game to run, but once I create a party they turn at an uncontrollable speed. I can make them spin at roughly 2000-3000 rpm's It's impossible to control them, I don't know if my processor or graphics card or something else is running the game too fast? They move forward/backwards slightly faster than they should but its not nearly as bad as using the left and right arrow keys. I've tried multiple patches/mods/etc to try and fix this including Microsoft's Vista Application Compatibility Toolset. The toolset will slow down the up/down arrow keys to normal but it does nothing to fix the left/right ones.

Anyone else having/had this problem? Anyone know any possible fixes aside from using an older computer?

Thanks Aqana, the patch certainly solved the door problem, and now I'm heading back to the circus to see if it has fixed my problem with finding Nicolai. Here's hoping! By the way, my party has certainly speeded up a lot since installing the patch. Do you think that reverting to patch 1.2 might solve the speed up problem, then reinstalling Mok's patch when needed? Anyway thank you so much for solving the Kriegspire problem.

Welcome to the Forums Mike. You do realise that for some months of the year the Circus is not available. Check what month you're in and where the circus is supposed to be.

Hello Corwin. Thanks for the welcome. I've tried visiting the Circus at various times of the year at Bootleg Bay, The Mire and Blackshire. I was pretty sure that I visited at the correct times, but, now that I've installed Mok's patch, and it solved one of my problems, I'm going to try again. It may just be that I'm getting old & forgetful - I've just turned 50 - so I'm hopeful that things work out better now, one way or another. Anyway, now that I've found this forum, I'm sure that I'll have lots of other questions in time, as RPG's have always been my favourite games. Thanks for the suggestion. Wish me luck!

Thank you to both Aquana & Corwin. I managed to pick up Nicolai at the Circus. I don't know if Mok's patch fixed it for me or if I'm just dumb! Whatever, it seems that M&M 6 DOES run under Vista, so I apologise for posting in the wrong forum.

Originally Posted by Aqana
I however am having a different problem with MM6. I can get the game to run, but once I create a party they turn at an uncontrollable speed.

I had that problem in XP, so it seems to be more of a hardware speed issue as you suspect. There is an option that can be ticked that regulates whether your turning is "stepless" or limited to 16 or 32 directions. Either ticking or unticking that option helped.

Originally Posted by Zaleukos
I had that problem in XP, so it seems to be more of a hardware speed issue as you suspect. There is an option that can be ticked that regulates whether your turning is "stepless" or limited to 16 or 32 directions. Either ticking or unticking that option helped.

Wow, can't believe I didn't try that! Thank you very much. That solved it for me. Well time to enjoy the game Thanks again.