Vista, we hardly knew ye
,----[ Quote ]
| Word has dribbled out of Redmond that Windows 7, the successor to Vista, is
| penciled in for release in the second half of next year, rather than sometime
| in 2010 as anticipated.
`----
http://svextra.com/blogs/gmsv/2008/01/vista_we_hardly_knew_ye.html
Just trying to boost sales. Vapourware.
Games Only Available on Vista a Bad Idea
,----[ Quote ]
| I was reading an article today about the upcoming game Alan Wake, a
| psychological thriller from the makers of Max Payne. Apparently the game is
| only going to be developed for Windows Vista and the XBOX 360.
|
| [...]
|
| Developers and publishers are only hurting themselves by making any game
| Vista exclusive.
`----
http://www.mashedbuttons.com/?view=main&article=208
Artificial limitation.
Related:
,----[ Quote ]
| From nathanm Mon Oct 01 11:42:05 1990
| To: billg; bradsi;
| Subject: SPARC, MIPS & Compaq
| DateL Tue Oct 02, 22:57:14 1990
|
| [...]
|
| The purpose of announcing early like this is to freeze the market at the
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| OEM and ISV level. In this respect it is JUST like the original Windows
| announcement ..
|
| One might worry that this will help Sun because we will just have
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| vaporware, that people will stop buying 486 machines, that we will have
| ^^^^^^^^^
| endorsed RISC but not delivered .. So, Scott, do you really think you
| can fight that avalanche?
`----
http://edge-op.org/iowa/www.iowaconsumercase.org/010807/PLEX_0411_A.pdf
Imaginary Innovations
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft, Intel and Motorola were especially vocal in promoting
| alliances with media brands that, a year later, have fizzled or
| haven't come to fruition at all.
|
| Last year, Microsoft pumped up the crowds about its URGE music
| service, which it created in conjunction with Viacom's MTV. But
| while MTV is just now beginning to promote the service, Microsoft
| seems to have moved on in favor of the Zune Marketplace and the
| potential of satellite TV on Media Center PCs and Xbox 360s.
`----
http://www.forbes.com/2007/01/04/vaporware-ces-gadgets-tech-media-cx_rr_0105vaporware.html?partner=yahootix
http://tinyurl.com/y8fdkr
Vaporware '06: Return of the King
,----[ Quote ]
| 8. The "IPod Killer"
|
| Every time we hear about a new portable audio device, it's touted
| as the magic bullet that will end the iPod's reign once and for
| all.
|
| Oh, you mean that thing? The one with the ugly design and clunky
| user interface? Does it at least work with iTunes?
|
| Microsoft's Zune was supposed to do the trick, but it's sitting
| on the shelves (even the SanDisk Sansa is selling better than Zune)w
| hile the kids are all enjoying their freshly unwrapped, shiny new
| iPods.
|
| Note to everyone: It's a White Wire World. Get over it.
`----
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72350-1.html?tw=wn_story_page_next1
Microsoft Murders Max
,----[ Quote ]
| Well, it's official at any rate. Contrary to what you've heard, Windows
| Vista will not be shipping with any of the original technologies,
| features, capabilities, or subsystems originally promised (and for
| those of you that really couldn't tell: it's called sarcasm!). First
| it was the real Aero - complete visual control over one's system.
| Amazing graphics, sidebars that were a part of the Windows Core,
| Aero Diamond. Then it was NGSCB and its amazing security features
| - not DRM, but total privacy control; your privacy. Monad. Last
| we heard, it was WinFS, the king-pin feature that was promised
| to change the way you think of data... And now the last one is
| gone: Microsoft Max is dead.
`----
http://neosmart.net/blog/archives/277
Microsoft exec "guarantees" graphical superiority for 360 titles
,----[ Quote ]
| The idea of a "guarantee" of better-looking titles is substantially
| silly, however. Graphics quality is often subjective, and without a
| clear horsepower advantage of one system over the other, it will be
| difficult if not impossible to claim that titles on one system look better
| than those on another.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061003-7894.html
What Longhorn was supposed to be:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=b9ifQvQCO7Y
MS Released Vista SP1 Information Bad News For Gamers
,----[ Quote ]
| I suppose this really shouldn't surprise me. But it does make me wonder where
| all this SP1 will save the day for gaming crap came from. As it stands now
| SP1 does nothing to fix its poor gaming performance.
|
| [...]
|
| Although Windows is trying to re-establish PC gaming with the Games for
| Windows platform, there is little reason for gamers to use Vista.
`----
http://b1tt.com/1775/
The trouble with Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| DirectX 10
| Microsoft’s highly advertised DirectX 10 (and its spin-off 10.1) should have
| been one of the strong points convincing people to switch over to the Vista
| camp. Microsoft placed a bet on the gamer segment, where fans of Crysis and
| other DX10 games should theoretically migrate merrily to the shiny new OS.
| This had a few people thinking for a while, but they made up their minds when
| they saw the DX9 shots after a few smart brains tampered with Crysis’ files.
| The differences were next to impossible to distinguish more often than not.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/12/20/inside-microsoft-machine
Microsoft, Flight Simulator developers use images to paint misleading picture
,----[ Quote ]
| We received this set of screenshots ages ago from Microsoft itself, which
| used this game heavily to promote the beauty of DX10 and how necessary is to
| switch from Windows XP to Vista. These two screenshots ended in quite a lot
| of mainstream magazines, and were all over the place in specialist IT media.
|
| [...]
|
| Nobody buys explanations about why Flight Simulator runs so slowly on
| quad-core processors and most powerful graphics cards, as we concluded in our
| review.
|
| FSX is rendering practically everything, forget about any modern 3D feature
| such as Occlussion Culling, Occlusion Querry and Z-buffer compression and
| putting a bitmap cockpit on blanked alpha texture, while everything else is
| being rendered.
|
| This procedure just kills performance and we could not imagine any game past
| DX7 utilizing such a concept.
|
| We cannot avoid the thought that this plot might have been done deliberately,
| in order to spark interest about the game itself and boost sales of a product
| that usually has a limited customer base.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/11/26/flight-simulator-developer
Vista Offers Nothing to Gamers
,----[ Quote ]
| This is just a small sampling of games obviously, but for our
| intended experiment, I think they did the trick. We wanted to
| simulate what a normal gamer might go through in order to play
| games on Vista, and the end result was just slightly more hassle
| than you would with XP.
`----
http://tomshardware.co.uk/2007/03/01/vista_offers_nothing_to_gamers_uk/index.html
Crysis DX10 Fraud Exposed - DX9 to DX10 Patch
,----[ Quote ]
| Crytek developers have deliberately crippled Crysis for the only purpose of
| marketing DX10 and Windows Vista. the proof is a simple config file tweak
| allows the use of 'Very High' quality textures, shadows, etc on DX9 and
| WinXP.
`----
http://haleyshothouse.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5159
DX9 and DX10 performance compared
,----[ Quote ]
| So, it seems, there is some difference to crow about - although it is our
| suspicion that, given the time and inclination, most of the flasher DX10
| features could be retro-fitted without much hassle, and the differences are
| more a product of time and money than capability.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=41958
Inside CNET Labs: Lamenting DirectX 10
,----[ Quote ]
| We compared the same title side by side on a system running DX10 on Vista to
| the same title on an identical system running DX9 on XP, and it's
| difficult--sometimes impossible--to detect significant differences in how the
| games look or perform.
`----
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9750536-1.html
Adding DX10 has "done nothing"
,----[ Quote ]
| Having tested the DX10 rendering path against the DX9 version, the chaps at
| the fantastically named Elite Bastards say that they can't "Help but feel a
| little disappointed to see yet another game where the inclusion of DirectX 10
| functionality has done nothing for the title either graphically or from
| performance standpoint".
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=41043
OpenGL 2.x and 3.0 APIs arrive this year
,----[ Quote ]
| Approximately three months after that, Mount Evans (OpenGL 3.0) will
| run specifically on hardware born after November 8th, 2006. You've
| guessed it correctly, we are talking about DirectX 10-class hardware,
| bringing all the features of unified 3D architecture to the world of
| OpenGL. Mount Evans is compatible with Longs Peak, but of course -
| you will require OpenGL 3.0 class hardware to run everything.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39846
Valve survey shows hundreds of thousands steamed up
,----[ Quote ]
| However, the survey also shows how far Microsoft et al have to go
| - currently, DX10-capable gamers (ie those with Vista and a DX10 card)
| make up 1.21% of the gaming population.
| ^^^^^
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40049
DAAMIT! AMD's DX10 is not up to scratch
,----[ Quote ]
| The gap isn't much, but there's a good 10-15 per cent difference between
| the two cards, and this is rather disappointing for a card that has
| been repeatedly marketed as future proof.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40048
Lord of the Rings Online: DX10 Patch
,----[ Quote ]
| The DX10 codepath offered by the latest update to the Lord of the Rings
| client software gives us no reason to recommend anyone upgrade to Windows
| Vista right now to use it. It offers a couple of real visual quality
| upgrades, but currently with a monstrous performance penalty.
`----
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQxMywxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
ATI: Linux vs. Windows Vista
,----[ Quote ]
| Wow! We were completely blown away when our final results came in and the
| Linux 8.42.3 driver had outperformed Windows Vista with Catalyst 7.10 in
| Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. It wasn't just a neck-and-neck race but Linux
| was about 10 frames per second faster when running at 1280 x 1024 and 1680 x
| 1050.
`----
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=897&num=3
Gears of War PC Performance and IQ
,----[ Quote ]
| DX10 On = No Advantage
|
| We are not sure exactly what turning on DX10 does, but we do know it causes a
| large performance drop on every video card. In our testing we found
| absolutely no image quality differences by turning this to “On.” The only
| benefit was being able to use “On/Antialiasing” for 4X AA, but you need a
| very fast video card to use that setting. If you have a GeForce 8800
| GTX/Ultra level video card you can enjoy that setting. But on the GeForce
| 8800 GT/GTS and Radeon HD 2900 XT you will have to sacrifice other in-game
| options or resolutions in order to use 4X AA. It is rather a shame because we
| noticed that 4X AA does improve the visual quality of this game in a
| noticeable way.
|
| Disappointing In-Game AA Controls
|
| [...]
|
| Overall Summary
|
| Gears of War plays very well with DX10 set to “Off,” and this is the mode you
| will find the best gaming performance with.
|
| [...]
|
| The Bottom Line
|
| We found no image quality differences inherent to enabling DX10 mode, but we
| did find a large performance drop on every video card. Simply put there is no
| reason to run this game in DX10 unless you have a powerful enough video card
| to handle 4X AA with this mode enabled. For the best performance run this
| game with DX10 “Off” and crank up the resolution with maximum in-game
| settings for a very fun, fast paced, action game.
`----
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQxNiwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA
Vista-only game cracked
,----[ Quote ]
| Falling Leaf Studios had previously reported that they were working
| on the 'Alky Project' that would contribute 'Alky Compatibility
| Libraries' to allow the successful running of Halo 2 and Shadowrun
| on Windows XP machines.
|
| Looks like it was a lot simpler than that.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40538
Hacked DX10 for Windows appears
,----[ Quote ]
| A chap called Cody Brocious from San Diego, California, claims to
| have started to create an wrapper for Windows executables so that
| they can be ran on another operating system, with no prejudice
| about that operating system.
|
| A year in, the Alky Project has gone live under the cover of a
| company Falling Leaf Systems. Members of its Sapling Program will
| be able to get the wrappers for DirectX10 applications and run
| them not just on DX10 hardware under Windows XP, but with some
| DX9 hardware as well.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39095
Valve questions Microsoft's commitment to PC gaming
,----[ Quote ]
| Half-Life 2 developer Valve thinks that Microsoft's current
| "Games for Windows" marketing push is a cynical ploy to sell
| more copies of Windows Vista, rather than a genuine effort to
| invigorate the PC gaming market.
`----
http://tomshardware.co.uk/2007/03/12/valve_questions_microsofts_commitment/
Vista still lacks the gaming performance of XP
,----[ Quote ]
| The computers were tested with the latest ATi drivers with all OS patches and
| updates applied. The indexing service was turned off, details in the game
| were set to “ultra high” with a resolution of 1024 x 768 (yeah, can’t really
| expect much out of a 2600XT card).
`----
http://www.underdark.cc/2007/09/21/vista-still-lacks-the-gaming-performance-of-xp/
Does WINE + Linux support more Windows apps than Vista?
,----[ Quote ]
| WINE supports most of the applications which are made for Windows
| 2.0 up to Windows XP. WINE has the ability to run different versions
| of IE, run most of Adobe's products, run World of Warcraft, Half Life
| 2, Microsoft Office 2003, XP, 2000 and 97, Visio, Quicken,
|
| * Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars
| * Need for Speed Carbon
|
| [...]
|
| What about drivers, hardware support, and upgrades?
|
| Want to upgrade you XP to Vista? no chance. might as well do a fresh
| install and shell out $300.
`----
http://jagtalon.wordpress.com/2007/04/30/does-wine-linux-support-more-apps-than-vista/
XP vs. Vista - A Tale of Framerate
,----[ Quote ]
| Seldom has the rumor mill turned faster than when gamers talk about gaming
| in Vista. Some folks are staying away from the new OS simply because
| they feel it doesn?t game well.
`----
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTMzNCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
A Messy Transition (Part 3): Vista Buys Some Time
,----[ Quote ]
| Under Vista the game is still using an additional 160MB of virtual address
| space compared to XP, but this is far better than the gap being the entire
| size of the video memory on our 8800GTX prior to the hotfix.
`----
http://www.anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.aspx?i=3060&p=2
Vista breaks 90% of games, claims game publisher
,----[ Quote ]
| Alex St. John, chief executive of game publisher WildTangent, today
| blasted his former employer for a half-baked and negligent way of
| treating the majority of game publishers - small development studios
| and individual programmers of casual games: St. John claims that at
| least nine out of ten games do not work with Vista.
`----
http://tomshardware.co.uk/2007/01/30/vista_games/
Cursor hackers target WoW players
,----[ Quote ]
| World of Warcraft players are being targeted by hackers exploiting
| flaws in how Windows handles animated cursors.
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6526851.stm
Vista proves a disaster for gamers
,----[ Quote ]
| If you're asking yourself, why linux? Head over to HardOCP and
| read its experience after surviving 30-days of Vista.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38745
30 Days with Windows Vista
,----[ Quote ]
| Comparisons, conjecture, and controversy. Microsoft's new operating
| system is here, but is it ready for primetime? We spend 30 days
| with Windows Vista to see if it's worth the leap or if Microsoft
| should go back to the drawing board.
`----
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTMxOCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
Counter-Strike on Windows Vista - Windows XP/Windows Vista comparison
,----[ Quote ]
| Of course, some of you love Counter-Strike and can apply a lot of
| tips and tricks to optimize the settings and get improved performance,
| but for a beginner user, Windows XP is the recommended platform for
| games.
`----
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Counter-Strike-on-Windows-Vista-54569.shtml
Linux FPS [PCLinuxOS]
,----[ Quote ]
| A few weeks ago I installed PCLinuxOS 2007 and I'm very impressed
| with it. One of the things I like is their package manager--everything
| is there, you don't need to add any extra repositories (a popular
| distro that starts with "U" infuriates me with all the mucking
| around you have to do), and there are never any issues with
| unresolved dependencies.
|
| Anyway, last week I downloaded through the package manager a
| game called Sauerbraten. It's a great multi player FPS. It's
| completely free and very entertaining to play.
`----
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/VanAlstine/3051
Vacuous Vista
,----[ Quote ]
| When I bought my new pc in March, I was ambivalent (yet hopeful, if that
| makes sense) about the preinstalled copy of Vista which was to be installed
| on it. Since my current hard disk was more than sufficient for all things
| productive (linux), I left the new drive with windows for my games.
|
| [...]
|
| Today I wiped out the drive and reinstalled xp, which boots in fractions of
| the time, supports my soundcard, plays my games well!
`----
http://amarok.kde.org/blog/archives/414-Vacuous-Vista.html
Windows XP and Vista Performance Comparison
,----[ Quote ]
| Even before Windows Vista was publicly released, there was a lot of
| concern from people beta testing the O/S. Running Windows Vista
| seemed to have a large performance drop for their PC when compared
| to Windows XP. Was it true? Or is it just scare tactics from
| Microsoft haters?
`----
http://www.ozhardware.com.au/content/view/18/1/
Vista Offers Nothing to Gamers
,----[ Quote ]
| This is just a small sampling of games obviously, but for our
| intended experiment, I think they did the trick. We wanted to
| simulate what a normal gamer might go through in order to play
| games on Vista, and the end result was just slightly more hassle
| than you would with XP.
`----
http://tomshardware.co.uk/2007/03/01/vista_offers_nothing_to_gamers_uk/index.html
Because penguins need to play too.
,----[ Quote ]
| The Windows camp have a lot of great games to play and a popular
| misconception is that Linux is lacking in games. That is not true.
| There are literally thousands of games for Linux. In fact a lot of
| them have been ported to Windows too.
|
| [...]
|
| There are both free and commercial games available. Some of the best
| ones I really like are America's Army, Tremulous and Enemy Territory.
`----
http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/linux/locutus/archives/because-penguins-need-to-play-too-14767
Windows Vista and casual games: the woe starts now
,----[ Quote ]
| Casual game company alleges the security of Microsoft's new
| OS goes to far and stifles web-based games.
`----
http://gaming.monstersandcritics.com/pc/news/article_1253720.php/Windows_Vista_and_casual_games_the_woe_starts_now
World of Warcraft - Poor Frame Rates on Windows Vista
,----[ Quote ]
| I have to say that the performance results are pretty disappointing. The
| test machine is a 2.5Ghz Pentium 4, with 2GB of RAM and a 256MB Radeon 9600
| video card. This same machine stayed regularly in the 40fps range with
| Windows XP installed. Now, sitting around in Orgrimmar, it?s struggling to
| stay above 20fps, regularly dipping into the teens. The scary part is that
| even standing idle, my CPU usage is pegged at 100% and 60% of my RAM is
| used.
`----
http://www.philoking.com/2007/01/28/world-of-warcraft-poor-frame-rates-on-windows-vista/
http://tinyurl.com/yqsvwq
Vista Gaming: Is It Truly Ready?
,----[ Quote ]
| Gaming Challenges for Vista Ahead. With the upcoming release of
| DirectX 10 and the new UI, there is really no question that the
| new OS has some great potential as a gamers' platform. Unfortunately,
| things are still going to be very lumpy for the first 3-6 months
| after Vista's release, I suspect.
|
| With challenges offered by Starforce copy protection and Punkbuster
| problem, the need to "run as admin" does seem rather minor in the
| grand scheme of things. Regardless, in the upcoming months, Vista
| gaming is said to be "where it's at," according to much of the
| press. The real question is - will Vista be ready for the demands
| of the existing games already in the market? This, my friends,
| remains to be seen.
`----
http://www.osweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2376&Itemid=449
Gameplay Stinks with RTM Vista and Current Drivers
,----[ Quote ]
| Vista is coming, and if you are on the bleeding edge of the
| technology wave, then you had better be prepared for what's in store.
`----
http://tomshardware.co.uk/2007/01/17/gameplay-only-gets-worse-with-vista_uk/index.html
Windows Vista Gaming Performance Reports
,----[ Quote ]
| First is the fact that Vista is not going to be an OS for an ultimate
| gaming machine anytime soon. This is something that you should
| consider before you throw a bunch of cash at a new computer and
| then pick up Vista along with it.
`----
http://techgage.com/article/windows_vista_gaming_performance_reports
Vista for Games: Boon or Burden?
,----[ Quote ]
| It's (Vista) very immature. When you get Windows Vista you're
| going to need to update your video drivers right away. If you're
| a gamer, there's no question about it. It's not a matter of "I'll
| get around to it." No, if you plan to game you'll have to update
| immediately. If you don't then your games are GOING to crash.
`----
http://gigagamez.com/2007/01/26/vista-for-games-boon-or-burden/
Opinion: 'Vista Casts A Pall On PC Gaming'
,----[ Quote ]
| In the interest of full disclosure I should make it clear that in a
| previous life time I was responsible for all of Microsoft's OS
| strategy for games and media, from writing the original DirectX
| development plan, to managing Microsoft?s relationships with the
| industries leading game developers. 10 years after launching DirectX
| 1.0, I still have strong opinions and feelings about how to make
| Windows a great game platform, and probably feel a stronger sense
| of pique than most when I see Microsoft making careless or callous
| mistakes that impact game developers.
`----
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=12314
Life with Vista - Is this dogfood really for the dogs?
,----[ Quote ]
| # Vista is not ready for primetime. By that I mean that Vista still
| feels like a beta. That's right. It has so many compatibility
| problems with existing applications that running anything other
| than stuff from Microsoft that specifically says "for Vista Build
| XXXX" makes me feel like I'm taking my life into my own hands.
|
| 1. Games - don't even get me started...
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
|
| 2. Visual Studio 2005 - I can't find the words to express the irony...
|
| 3. Virtual PC - worthless. Don't even attempt on Vista.
`----
http://dotnetaddict.dotnetdevelopersjournal.com/vista_dogfood.htm
Old (beta):
Vista gaming will be 10 to 15 per cent slower than XP
,----[ Quote ]
| So if you play Battlefield 2 or FEAR or any other popular game you are
| likely to get lower frame rates with Vista. That is certainly not a
| good buying argument but don?t think you and I have much choice as it
| looks like a take it or leave it deal. I like Vista as the 3D desktop
| looks sexy but that is probably its key feature.
`---- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34915
Microsoft doesn't yet play games on Vista
,----[ Quote ]
| The firm has its Vista logo all over its boothm, but all the machines that
| we investigated were running Windows XP.
|
| Obviously, it is still not the right time to switch to Vista as things
| might be not stable for current games. We hope that they can meet the
| early 2007 schedules.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33924
Vista RC 2 gaming with Nvidia not there yet
,----[ Quote ]
| On average, Vista means losing frames. Serious Sam 2 is the
| mystery and we will try to figure out why is this is the case but,
| apart from this example, upgrading to Vista at the current stage
| with current drivers means a certain loss of performance.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35084
Quake 4 On XP, Vista, & Linux
,----[ Quote ]
| However, I spent the extra time and while I was at it had run three
| Quake 4 v1.3 benchmarks in XP, Vista, and Fedora Core 6 (2.6.20 kernel).
| The hardware used was a modest AMD Sempron setup with a NVIDIA GeForce
| 6150 and the NVIDIA 1.0-9755 drivers (the hardware chosen was to
| represent the more common Linux user rather than using an octal-core
| setup). The NVIDIA driver on Vista was 100.65 while the XP version
| was 93.71. Below is the average frame-rate from each test on each
| operating system.
`----
http://www.michaellarabel.com/index.php?k=blog&i=164
|
|
