No Windows 8 or 32-bit For Battlefield 4 Alpha?

Skripka said:
I'd rather think they'd public test against the latest OS, than the last generation.
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Why? The e-mail suggests the focus of the alpha is testing servers. If that's true, that means at this stage they aren't looking to find out how the game runs on a multitude of configurations, they only care about how their servers hold up under load. This means having the game work without issues for as many people as possible. Windows 7 is more widely adopted and more stable/less likely to run into issues, so it seems like a more sensible option to support that. There will be plenty of time for future alpha/beta tests to get feedback on the end-user experience, at which point you'll surely see support for whatever platforms they will be supporting at retail.
 
Can't honestly see any reasons why it wouldn't run on Win8. Maybe they just won't *support* it, in which case it might work fine and you take your chances but if you end up with issues you are boned on official support. Only an issue for those that might have issues.

At least that's what my spidey sense is telling me. :D
 
heatlesssun said:
One thing that I've not seen mentioned anywhere is that "officially" the Steam client isn't supported under Windows 8: http://store.steampowered.com/about/.
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There's a large difference between an OS version not being listed and an explicit statement saying that an OS version is not supported.

Viper87227 said:
This means having the game work without issues for as many people as possible.
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Client issues and server issues should be well-isolated anyway. If a developer is looking to peg down any issues with a server architecture, that's a rather client-agnostic process (insofar as whether or not clients are stable or not).
 
NKDietrich said:
An uninventive "hurr durr no one uses Windows 8" joke I think. Even though something like 12% of Steam users are on Windows 8 already.
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What percentage of that 12% would want to even test the alpha version of a single game on steam if they could...nuff said. "hur dur" freaking fan boys.
 
The percentage of the "hard core" PC gaming community on Win8 is likely a LOT higher than the general population.

All my systems are on Win 8 now. All I can say is, WTF isn't it already running on Windows 8?

To a certain extent, BF4's lifespan will be right in the middle of the full transition into Win8. Win7 and Win8 will be THE two operating systems that must be supported.

The decisions that Dice and EA make these days are just so unbelievably... ODD.
 
Advil said:
The percentage of the "hard core" PC gaming community on Win8 is likely a LOT higher than the general population.

All my systems are on Win 8 now. All I can say is, WTF isn't it already running on Windows 8?

To a certain extent, BF4's lifespan will be right in the middle of the full transition into Win8. Win7 and Win8 will be THE two operating systems that must be supported.

The decisions that Dice and EA make these days are just so unbelievably... ODD.
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Advil maybe you can help me understand because I don't get it. I have an MSDN account so I can run whatever version of Win I choose. However I despise the Metro interface. Why would I use 8. What are the advantage. Aside from the paltry scheduler advantage for bulldozer processors.
 
1) This is alpha, it's possible final will support Win8, but that stuff is just not ready.

2) It's possible the same is true of 32 bit client, but realistically it's time for games to go beyond 32 bit. Most serious gamers have more than 4GB right now, and a 32 bit engine limits you to 4GB total combined addressable memory space.

Last year, Skyrim needed special treatment to use LBA that would allow it more than 2GB, and it looked great after modding once it could use that space. So it's possible to make large scale great game that fit in 4GB, but the 64 bit movement has to start somewhere. Why not BF4?
 
That_Sound_Guy said:
Im curious what BF4 is really going to do to make the upgrade from BF3 worthwhile. To me, all BF3 did over BF2 was add COD style weapon earning system and a terrible server web plugin.
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They changed the 3 to a 4.:D

Nah lol. It looks like they brought the destructible environments to a whole new level in this one. It looks pretty good. They last one was really well done I thought(cept Origin crap). I just hate all the damn vehicles. Why oh why can't they make an infantry only game? Dice does infantry combat so much better than CoD now days.

1 Map + 32 players + 16 vehicles = kinda dumb:(
 
Bamboo said:
They changed the 3 to a 4.:D

Nah lol. It looks like they brought the destructible environments to a whole new level in this one. It looks pretty good. They last one was really well done I thought(cept Origin crap). I just hate all the damn vehicles. Why oh why can't they make an infantry only game? Dice does infantry combat so much better than CoD now days.

1 Map + 32 players + 16 vehicles = kinda dumb:(
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There are infantry only servers....
 
OFaceSIG said:
Advil maybe you can help me understand because I don't get it. I have an MSDN account so I can run whatever version of Win I choose. However I despise the Metro interface. Why would I use 8. What are the advantage. Aside from the paltry scheduler advantage for bulldozer processors.
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He runs all his stuff on Win 8 so that must mean all 12% of Steam users want to run the alpha of course. Makes prefect sense to target the smallest audience in testing.
 
Oh wow its another cash grab by EA and Dice! I wont pay full price for this turd they already got me with BF3.
 
1) You can despise the Metro interface all you want. No one forces anyone to use it.
2) The power management/bootup/shutdown features are a good enough reason to use it all by itself. The time to boot/resume or shutdown/sleep is spectacular with current hardware and an SSD. It matters to me.
3) Functionality is at least as good as 7. And unlike many people, I actually am getting to the programs and windows features I use all the time FASTER with the layout in Win8. You just have to learn to use the darn thing.

I'm no apologist for Win8. I know getting rid of the Start button hurt people... but I actually LIKE the new interface. A lot.

I deleted all the apps that I never use from the Metro menu and put in the programs I use infrequently. Everything I use constantly is on my taskbar.

And my games run fantastic.
 
new engine + more features is a cash grab?


so are all products you dont like a cash grab now?
 
pcjunkie said:
He runs all his stuff on Win 8 so that must mean all 12% of Steam users want to run the alpha of course. Makes prefect sense to target the smallest audience in testing.
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That wasn't even close to the argument I was making.

My argument is that 7 will be the primary OS that BF4 runs on (obviously) but over the lifespan of the game the other major OS will be Win8. So it might have made better sense for them to start finding any issues with running the game on that OS now, rather than later.

That's it.

They can do what they want obviously. And alphas are... alphas. Just stating an opinion.
 
Can you retards stop speculating about things you don't know? They have requirements for the very small alpha.. get over it that your favorite OS isn't it. It doesn't indicate anything other than that's the requirement for the alpha.
 
Weenis said:
Can you retards stop speculating about things you don't know? They have requirements for the very small alpha.. get over it that your favorite OS isn't it. It doesn't indicate anything other than that's the requirement for the alpha.
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This is how flame wars start. Why the insults Weenis?
 
Terminus said:
My only guess is that it has something to do with allowing BF4 into the Windows Store (probably still in review until launch).

Word on the street is that both Microsoft and video game publishers don't want you installing the blockbuster PC games directly anymore, only through DRM services like Steam, Origin, or the Windows Store.

How bout them Apples?
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And that's why Windows 8 sucks. It's an EA game, and that means that you'll find it through Origin and not the Windows 8 store. The game will clearly run on Windows 8, but not specifically using it's services.
 
OFaceSIG said:
This is how flame wars start. Why the insults Weenis?
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Sorry not really my intention. I'm just in a bad mood. Searching for work since I got laid off due to government stupidity this year.

It's just annoying when people are constantly speculating and making claims based on no qualitative information. Purely speculating is ridiculous on something like this.. it's an alpha and people unfamiliar with testing methodologies are just spouting off stuff they don't know about. It happens to be a field of expertise for me. :p

And hello there.. you live down the street from me :p I live in Lewisville haha.
 
Ashbringer said:
And that's why Windows 8 sucks. It's an EA game, and that means that you'll find it through Origin and not the Windows 8 store. The game will clearly run on Windows 8, but not specifically using it's services.
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Desktop apps can be listed in the Windows Store though in that case the listing will take one to an external installed.
 
its for the alpha... means nothing about the actual game. You don't toss everything but the kitchen sink into an alpha that is a very bad idea.
 
It's early Alpha, there will still be many changes prior to release.

9496f5d0_bf3-alpha47.jpeg
 
Duhh , this screen shot is from BF 3 not BF 4. BF 3 do have the blue tint in the final version.
But there should be no blue tint in BF 4 hooray :)
 
Planetary Annihilation is doing close to the same thing - 64 bit only and no XP support.

It makes sense. XP is a dead OS that is poorly supported by modern APIs and the same goes for 32 bit programs.

As for no support for Windows 8, my guess would be 8 support will come with beta phase. I have not personally made any programs for 8 but I'm going to guess the windows callstack is different enough that it's not completely trivial to support - not hard either (hopefully) after 8's intricacies have been learned.
 
It's an alpha. The game is probably being developed in Win7 64-bit, so to participate in the alpha you need to use Win7 64-bit. If people send them bug reports from other systems, they'll ignore them. You should be able to install it in Win8, and it might even work, but they're not interested in compatibility this early in development.
 
I remember back when BF2 came out for PC, it was the first game that I had seen that required XP.

Finally got me to jump from windows 2000 (which thinking back, is a hilarious name).
 
I was never able to get Origin to work on Windows 8. Therefore I went back to windows 7. This doesn't surprise me in the least.
 
ReconSniper said:
I was never able to get Origin to work on Windows 8. Therefore I went back to windows 7. This doesn't surprise me in the least.
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I have Origin running fine on two Windows 8 machines. With all of the complaints of Origin even on Windows 7, I'm not surprised either.
 
It'll be supported in the final, of course. Windows 7 has the highest market share, so by targeting that, it is a constant value that most people have.

If they targeted Windows 8, by Steam measurements, you have 12% of the market share targeted. You want to get a wide range of people, so you want the highest used OS out there. Now, it's Windows 7.

Nothing wrong with Windows 8, and I'm sure they aren't saying it's bad, it's just not the majority.
 
Windows 8 runs BF3 better on my machine than Windows 7. I removed the metro UI and returned the start menu with Classic Shell and everything is fantastic. Windows 7, I would get those annoying Nvlddmkm.Sys crashes and after a few months, it completely trashed my system. Happened 4 times and it got to the point where I couldn't even get it to boot. With the return of the start menu in 8.1, I'm excited to see how they fixed things. People on this board are so quick to dismiss things without giving it proper time to adjust is simply mind numbing. Change or die.
 
No 32-bit yay, no Win 8 support wtf? Start screen debacle aside it's faster and lighter than 7 which makes a dash better for games. I've installed Start 8 on both my Win 8 machines and haven't given it a second thought since.
 
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