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Nasty_Savage
Extremely [H]
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2001
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Hi, figured I would relay my experiences with Vista and Vista x64 and games for you guys. All things listed are x64 unless otherwise noted.
I will update as I go along, and add things as people reply to the thread. x32 is running on my 9300 laptop, x64 is running on my Core 2 Duo which I just rebuilt. Specs in sig. Please feel free to add your own workarounds and I will apply them Have lots of games, but not all...especially STEAM and Oblivion.
**before you do anything I suggest you download the latest Direct X from Microsoft. Do not allow any games to overwrite it.**
I found this link on the WoW forums. It shows games and workarounds similar to what I am trying to do here. It also has a list of various other software. Of special note, Alcohol 120% works perfectly fine with the update on their site. I have it confirmed working on x32, but my other license is borky with the new install of x64. Will update when I find answer (probably just a hardware key deal)
Note on hardware for x 64. I experienced what was probably a memory leak using the BenQ DQ 60 DVD R drive. Owners of this flakey drive beware. Replacing it with a slightly slower NEC drive alleviated issues. The drive would spin and seek then crash explorer. Often Vista would recover ala Mac OS X. It pooped once and rebooted. A welcome experience then having to restart after a bluescreen all the time.
nVidia 8800 series. Drivers are still flakey at best!!!
Creative Labs Soundblaster issues: http://www.soundblaster.com/Applications/article.asp?articleID=68455&categoryID=13 According to Creative, their proprietary EAX tech has been effectively wiped due to changes in the HAL for Vista. This contraption solved an issue with one reported users sound problems in NW2. Its designed to detect and change options in popular games to change the sound options. Currently only supporting x-fi, but hopefully other companies or enterprising folks will develop patches so we can retro game. Read for more information.
Monitors: I'm running a dual monitor setup. While x64 managed to find my dinky dell 1500 flat screen, it did not find my 2005FPW and labeled it generic. This caused resolution selection problems with WoW. I had to go into advanced and use the nVidia driver to set the dually setup and it found the 2005FPW fine. Only then was I able to increase the resolution to WoW, though it still doesn't register in Windows itself (still generic PnP Monitor)
OK Lets start with the basics. First off, games that auto download such as WoW and Warcraft 3. Vista, being a more secure operating system will not allow a program to modify files. In order to download updates, you must right-click the executable and 'Run as administrator' to allow files to be modified. In theory, this should cause the virus writers to shuffle a bit and those pesky trojan droppers ought to be met with a good dose of smack back. For games though, this is kinda annoying...but in my opinion...a necessary evil. I'm looking for a way to modify shortcuts to permanantly add this security feature to the games I want to run. This feature will not disappear with an administrator account...its similar to unix/linux based systems with root level access, though a bit simpler since you do not have to login and put in your password all the time. Time will tell if this becomes an achilles heel. You can disable UAC, but you do so at your own risk.
x 64 Games are installed in Program Files (x86) on your main drive. I assume that native 64 games will go in the regular program files when they become available.
Warcraft 3 and Frozen Throne: Installed fine. Right Click and Run as Administrator prior to connecting to Battle.net to allow the patches to upgrade. Thus far, unlike x32, I've been forced to run as admin on x64 or I get the out of disk space error, because it will not allow writing to the drive. This is slightly annoying, I'm looking for a solution.
World of Warcraft and Burning Crusade. Clean install. Again, run as administrator after you connect to allow the patches to download. Thankfully, I have a 30Mbps download so applying the patches actually took longer then the downloads
After fully patching WoW I installed BC and followed the same procedure and was up and stomping in no time. Note on monitor resolution problem above.
Prey. Installed fine, along with punk buster. After installing the retail 1.2 patch I got a message saying 'this program may not have installed correctly' and it gave me 2 options...basically it installed correctly or re-install using recommended settings. I chose 'it installed correctly'...looking to see if there are any problems with it.
F.E.A.R. Oddly enough, I tripped up on disk 4. It eventually took it but I couldn't figger out wtf since the disk is pristine. <shrug> Could be that I am running my slingbox and watching X-Files on my other monitor while I stuff all my games back in and I got a Mobile Device center update in the middle for my Smartphone. Doesn't say much for Multi-Tasking thus far...especially with this hardware. Having Issues with the 108 update. There seems to be a massive delay. I am thinking its because it takes a bit for the patch to find the Program in the new Vista x86 folder. It eventually went in fine. I do not hae the expansion so I can't comment on that.
Neverwinter Nights DVD Edition Installed without hitch. Autopatcher worked without having to 'Run as Administrator'
Quake4 DVD Got error message saying 'known compatability issues with this version. Prompted me to install the latest Flash Player, which I did. Then the install crashed with a missing MSVCR80.dll and Required by OFFICE GrooveUtil.dll (client peer to peer Microsoft Office Program in Office Ultimate). Going to the disk itself and using 'explore' I ran setup.exe wit RaA (Run As adminstrator) and the installation ran through. Must be an error on the disk or something or the way setup.exe is set. Or maybe just a misfire by my computer.
XFire Gaiming IM Client. Handle is nastysavge. Feel free to add me. Rightclick shortcut, run as administrator to get updates.
Company of Heroes Same as Quake 4. Right click disk icon and explore disk. Right click intsall icon and run as administrator. There's a report of crashing on Vista x32. To date, I personally have run through two of the tutorials without issue in x64. Will update as I go along.
X3 Reunion DVD Installed game then installed 2.002 patch and ran game without incident. Applied patch via RaA, not sure if its necessary though. Important to note, that the latest patch removes that pesky Starforce protection. Runs fine and no longer need the disk in the drive. Not sure if Starforce protected games are going to experience any issues. Do not know what Gothic 3 uses, but note problems below.
Original Ghost Recon: Installs fine, haven't played it yet.
Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow Medieval II: Total War, Far Cry, Heavy Metal FAKK 2, and Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast Other games confirmed working.
Dawn of War + Expansions Issues reported. DirectX error. 'Spooge' error. Waiting for someone to try, as I do not have the games, spooge error in the DoW forums is reported to be graphics Driver related. Check to see if there is an update. One of the first things I did was install the latest DirectX after I installed my drivers. You can find it here
/edit, Found a post by TheONE320 on DoW forums. Please note, I have not tried this so do so at your own risk:
Flight Simulator X Deluxe addition. you would bet this OUGHT to install without a hitch, and it does.
Rise of Legends - Reported 'Installs and runs fine on Vista x64 without running as Admin.'
Gothic 3 - Reported 'Game installs, but Vista x64 blocks the copy protection driver from loading, so it always asks me to put the disc in the drive.'
Call of Duty 2 Reported Installs fine in Vista, initial disk load is long. Additional report that running or installing in compatability mode will eliminate the disk load wait.
Other reported games:
Oblivion: Works fine, including all of the add-ins.
Age of Empires 3: gives an error message stating that it may not work, but seems to work fine.
Madden '07: no issues
Tiger Woods '07: Blue screened a couple of times upon completion of a Team Tour event which completely corrupted the player file, but no other problems to date with other modes of play.
Need for Speed Carbon: Installs fine, does not run w/default settings. As I learned via Google, the cut scenes are the issue - either deleting the Movies folder or running in XP SP2 compatability mode seems to work.
Titan Quest: Works fine.
Star Trek Legacy: Works fine (it's still just as flawed as in Windows XP )
NBA Live '07: See Star Trek Legacy
Steam games (including HL2, Sin Epispodes 1, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic): no issues
Marvel Ultimate Alliance: Works fine - in fact, looked a lot better for me (could be it auto-sensed better settings than it had in XP). Still the few camera jumping bugs from XP.
Halo: Worked fine.
Doom3: Worked fine.
NASCAR SimRacing: Installation failed by default. Installed fine in XP SP2 compatability mode. Game would not run.
FarCry 64: Beautiful
Sid Meier's Pirates!: Works fine.
Call of Duty, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, Battlefield 2/2142 work great
More added games:
No One Lives Forever 2: Works okay. Had some sound issues (as in only music, no game sounds) that were resolved by disabling hardware sound.
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Works fine.
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: Works fine.
GTA San Andreas: Works fine.
More reports:
Command and Conquer: The First Decade: All games can be made to work, but some need changes.
C&C, Red Alert, and Renegade all worked with no modifications.
RA2.exe, RA2MD.exe, and clokspl.exe need to run as admin for Red Alert 2, Yuri's Revenge, and Tiberian Sun respectively.
For Generals and Zero Hour, it would crash upon starting the game. Looks like the game has trouble autodetecting settings during its first run. Copying the folders from My Docs in my XP install to my Vista install got both running. If you run RA2 and Tiberian Sun manually they appear in Games Explorer. None of the other games do by default. CD versions will most likely work also.
Star Wars Empire at War: Works fine
Star Wars EaW: Forces of Corruption: Also works fine. Doesn't show up in games explorer at all though.
I will update as I go along, and add things as people reply to the thread. x32 is running on my 9300 laptop, x64 is running on my Core 2 Duo which I just rebuilt. Specs in sig. Please feel free to add your own workarounds and I will apply them Have lots of games, but not all...especially STEAM and Oblivion.
**before you do anything I suggest you download the latest Direct X from Microsoft. Do not allow any games to overwrite it.**
I found this link on the WoW forums. It shows games and workarounds similar to what I am trying to do here. It also has a list of various other software. Of special note, Alcohol 120% works perfectly fine with the update on their site. I have it confirmed working on x32, but my other license is borky with the new install of x64. Will update when I find answer (probably just a hardware key deal)
Note on hardware for x 64. I experienced what was probably a memory leak using the BenQ DQ 60 DVD R drive. Owners of this flakey drive beware. Replacing it with a slightly slower NEC drive alleviated issues. The drive would spin and seek then crash explorer. Often Vista would recover ala Mac OS X. It pooped once and rebooted. A welcome experience then having to restart after a bluescreen all the time.
nVidia 8800 series. Drivers are still flakey at best!!!
Creative Labs Soundblaster issues: http://www.soundblaster.com/Applications/article.asp?articleID=68455&categoryID=13 According to Creative, their proprietary EAX tech has been effectively wiped due to changes in the HAL for Vista. This contraption solved an issue with one reported users sound problems in NW2. Its designed to detect and change options in popular games to change the sound options. Currently only supporting x-fi, but hopefully other companies or enterprising folks will develop patches so we can retro game. Read for more information.
Monitors: I'm running a dual monitor setup. While x64 managed to find my dinky dell 1500 flat screen, it did not find my 2005FPW and labeled it generic. This caused resolution selection problems with WoW. I had to go into advanced and use the nVidia driver to set the dually setup and it found the 2005FPW fine. Only then was I able to increase the resolution to WoW, though it still doesn't register in Windows itself (still generic PnP Monitor)
OK Lets start with the basics. First off, games that auto download such as WoW and Warcraft 3. Vista, being a more secure operating system will not allow a program to modify files. In order to download updates, you must right-click the executable and 'Run as administrator' to allow files to be modified. In theory, this should cause the virus writers to shuffle a bit and those pesky trojan droppers ought to be met with a good dose of smack back. For games though, this is kinda annoying...but in my opinion...a necessary evil. I'm looking for a way to modify shortcuts to permanantly add this security feature to the games I want to run. This feature will not disappear with an administrator account...its similar to unix/linux based systems with root level access, though a bit simpler since you do not have to login and put in your password all the time. Time will tell if this becomes an achilles heel. You can disable UAC, but you do so at your own risk.
x 64 Games are installed in Program Files (x86) on your main drive. I assume that native 64 games will go in the regular program files when they become available.
Warcraft 3 and Frozen Throne: Installed fine. Right Click and Run as Administrator prior to connecting to Battle.net to allow the patches to upgrade. Thus far, unlike x32, I've been forced to run as admin on x64 or I get the out of disk space error, because it will not allow writing to the drive. This is slightly annoying, I'm looking for a solution.
World of Warcraft and Burning Crusade. Clean install. Again, run as administrator after you connect to allow the patches to download. Thankfully, I have a 30Mbps download so applying the patches actually took longer then the downloads
After fully patching WoW I installed BC and followed the same procedure and was up and stomping in no time. Note on monitor resolution problem above.Prey. Installed fine, along with punk buster. After installing the retail 1.2 patch I got a message saying 'this program may not have installed correctly' and it gave me 2 options...basically it installed correctly or re-install using recommended settings. I chose 'it installed correctly'...looking to see if there are any problems with it.
F.E.A.R. Oddly enough, I tripped up on disk 4. It eventually took it but I couldn't figger out wtf since the disk is pristine. <shrug> Could be that I am running my slingbox and watching X-Files on my other monitor while I stuff all my games back in and I got a Mobile Device center update in the middle for my Smartphone. Doesn't say much for Multi-Tasking thus far...especially with this hardware. Having Issues with the 108 update. There seems to be a massive delay. I am thinking its because it takes a bit for the patch to find the Program in the new Vista x86 folder. It eventually went in fine. I do not hae the expansion so I can't comment on that.
Neverwinter Nights DVD Edition Installed without hitch. Autopatcher worked without having to 'Run as Administrator'
Quake4 DVD Got error message saying 'known compatability issues with this version. Prompted me to install the latest Flash Player, which I did. Then the install crashed with a missing MSVCR80.dll and Required by OFFICE GrooveUtil.dll (client peer to peer Microsoft Office Program in Office Ultimate). Going to the disk itself and using 'explore' I ran setup.exe wit RaA (Run As adminstrator) and the installation ran through. Must be an error on the disk or something or the way setup.exe is set. Or maybe just a misfire by my computer.
XFire Gaiming IM Client. Handle is nastysavge. Feel free to add me. Rightclick shortcut, run as administrator to get updates.
Company of Heroes Same as Quake 4. Right click disk icon and explore disk. Right click intsall icon and run as administrator. There's a report of crashing on Vista x32. To date, I personally have run through two of the tutorials without issue in x64. Will update as I go along.
X3 Reunion DVD Installed game then installed 2.002 patch and ran game without incident. Applied patch via RaA, not sure if its necessary though. Important to note, that the latest patch removes that pesky Starforce protection. Runs fine and no longer need the disk in the drive. Not sure if Starforce protected games are going to experience any issues. Do not know what Gothic 3 uses, but note problems below.
Original Ghost Recon: Installs fine, haven't played it yet.
Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow Medieval II: Total War, Far Cry, Heavy Metal FAKK 2, and Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast Other games confirmed working.
Dawn of War + Expansions Issues reported. DirectX error. 'Spooge' error. Waiting for someone to try, as I do not have the games, spooge error in the DoW forums is reported to be graphics Driver related. Check to see if there is an update. One of the first things I did was install the latest DirectX after I installed my drivers. You can find it here
/edit, Found a post by TheONE320 on DoW forums. Please note, I have not tried this so do so at your own risk:
Flight Simulator X Deluxe addition. you would bet this OUGHT to install without a hitch, and it does.
Rise of Legends - Reported 'Installs and runs fine on Vista x64 without running as Admin.'
Gothic 3 - Reported 'Game installs, but Vista x64 blocks the copy protection driver from loading, so it always asks me to put the disc in the drive.'
Call of Duty 2 Reported Installs fine in Vista, initial disk load is long. Additional report that running or installing in compatability mode will eliminate the disk load wait.
Other reported games:
Oblivion: Works fine, including all of the add-ins.
Age of Empires 3: gives an error message stating that it may not work, but seems to work fine.
Madden '07: no issues
Tiger Woods '07: Blue screened a couple of times upon completion of a Team Tour event which completely corrupted the player file, but no other problems to date with other modes of play.
Need for Speed Carbon: Installs fine, does not run w/default settings. As I learned via Google, the cut scenes are the issue - either deleting the Movies folder or running in XP SP2 compatability mode seems to work.
Titan Quest: Works fine.
Star Trek Legacy: Works fine (it's still just as flawed as in Windows XP )
NBA Live '07: See Star Trek Legacy
Steam games (including HL2, Sin Epispodes 1, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic): no issues
Marvel Ultimate Alliance: Works fine - in fact, looked a lot better for me (could be it auto-sensed better settings than it had in XP). Still the few camera jumping bugs from XP.
Halo: Worked fine.
Doom3: Worked fine.
NASCAR SimRacing: Installation failed by default. Installed fine in XP SP2 compatability mode. Game would not run.
FarCry 64: Beautiful
Sid Meier's Pirates!: Works fine.
Call of Duty, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, Battlefield 2/2142 work great
More added games:
No One Lives Forever 2: Works okay. Had some sound issues (as in only music, no game sounds) that were resolved by disabling hardware sound.
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Works fine.
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: Works fine.
GTA San Andreas: Works fine.
More reports:
Command and Conquer: The First Decade: All games can be made to work, but some need changes.
C&C, Red Alert, and Renegade all worked with no modifications.
RA2.exe, RA2MD.exe, and clokspl.exe need to run as admin for Red Alert 2, Yuri's Revenge, and Tiberian Sun respectively.
For Generals and Zero Hour, it would crash upon starting the game. Looks like the game has trouble autodetecting settings during its first run. Copying the folders from My Docs in my XP install to my Vista install got both running. If you run RA2 and Tiberian Sun manually they appear in Games Explorer. None of the other games do by default. CD versions will most likely work also.
Star Wars Empire at War: Works fine
Star Wars EaW: Forces of Corruption: Also works fine. Doesn't show up in games explorer at all though.