X-com CE on Vista

[BladeFireLight]

I installed the basic copy of CE with no mods on my vista computer.

I end up with a black screen, and can here the sound.

tried f0dders loader to no avail.

I"m using a 7800GT with the current 101 beta drivers

the system is 4800+ 64 x2 with 2gig's of ram.

 

Dosbox with the old versions work great. but I cant test xcomutil on vista that way.

 

Does any one have any ideas?

 

-Blade FireLight.

[Bomb Bloke]

You get a black screen whether you use f0dders patch or not? Are you able to disable your hardware acceleration perhaps?

 

If that doesn't work, maybe Moks version will. Note that this doesn't work with f0dders code at all.

[BladeFireLight]

That was no help either it just crashed right off.

[Slaughter]

Did you try the Windows ** compatibility mode? Haven't tested myself, but that worked on other games for me...

[BladeFireLight]

Did you try the Windows ** compatibility mode? Haven't tested myself, but that worked on other games for me...

yep. it was a no-go.

[Bomb Bloke]

Tried changing your resolution, color depth, hardware acceleration and refresh rate settings?

[SAns]

I have the same problem using vista. I have Ati Mobility Radeon X1700 on my notebook so i cant change my video card or something like hat. I'm also not capable to change perfomance issues such as disable DirectDraw acceleration due to windows Vista and driver restrictions. I've tryed to use PStrip, but with no result. I think that the problem is in DirectDraw acceleration, as wrote F0dder. Can anybody say me where and how can i fix this in Vista and with Ati Mobiliti Radeon card?

 

Thanks.

[Gimli]

As far as we can tell, X-COM working on Vista is not going to happen. The problem is that the source code of the game seems to have been lost, so there is nothing that can be done. At least not from that direction. The only other solution may be Microsoft, I remember they had solved some compatibility issues with XP. I can't remember what the web page was, you'll have to search for yourself. The only thing I remember about the page was that the guy working for Microsoft kept a diary of games he got to run.

[Danial]

I end up with a black screen, and can here the sound.

I get the exact same thing

[BladeFireLight]

Well unless some aspiring hacker can fix CE on Vista it's going to be hard for me to test xcomutil with CE.

I personally prefer DosBox for playing EU/TFTD.

[Gimli]

It looks like DX 10 is not compatible with previous versions of DX, unlike DX 9. I am still trying to figure out how this affects things, but I would assume that the CE version is using and older version of DX. This should mean that unless someone gets the source code, there really is no future for CE X-COM.

Unfortunately, due to lack of drivers for the wireless USB adapter, I was unable to validate my copy of Vista, and just now found out that the 2 months are over. I'll have to do it over the phone tomorrow and then try to find an alternate solution.

For those of you desperate enough, you can get the game to run if you switch to the VGA driver, but that's a pain in the butt.

[Azrael Strife]

After trying it myself... I can't imagine why you people get Vista on your computers! :\

[BladeFireLight]

After trying it myself... I can't imagine why you people get Vista on your computers! :\

 

you know, people have said the same thing with every previous version on windows. and the only time they were right was with ME. I have used every version of windows sense v2. Every time a new OS comes out there are always issues with thoes that upgrade. OSX 10.5 has been a real mess for me, as was XP.

 

I'm very happy with vista, for a pre SP1 OS, it has been more stable then OSX or XP were then they first came out.

 

And thanks to those that figured out the video driver issue. Switching back and forth to Standard VGA is a real pain. but I at least can test xcomutil on vista.

[zaimoni]

..., but I would assume that the CE version is using an older version of DX.

While it is possible to upgrade Win95 to DirectX 9 (barely), the practical versions Win95 games expect are in the DirectX 3-6 range.

 

There were some severe downward-compatibility problems with DirectX 6. F0dder's patch is meant to deal with a parameter error on the fly. It may be that Vista is blocking real-time rewrites of executables [too lazy to check docs right now].

[Azrael Strife]

you know, people have said the same thing with every previous version on windows. and the only time they were right was with ME. I have used every version of windows sense v2. Every time a new OS comes out there are always issues with thoes that upgrade. OSX 10.5 has been a real mess for me, as was XP.

 

I'm very happy with vista, for a pre SP1 OS, it has been more stable then OSX or XP were then they first came out.

 

And thanks to those that figured out the video driver issue. Switching back and forth to Standard VGA is a real pain. but I at least can test xcomutil on vista.

Dunno about others, but I have tried it myself and definitely don't see a reason to use it. Face it, it's bloatware, vaporware, not even the Aero look justifies its size or the huge amount of resources it consumes, there is just no reason to use a monster like that.

[Danial]

Besides some minor conflicts such as X-COM CE, I love Vista. My computer actually runs a lot faster now than it used to under XP. Anyway, each to their own...

[Azrael Strife]

Besides some minor conflicts such as X-COM CE, I love Vista. My computer actually runs a lot faster now than it used to under XP. Anyway, each to their own...

Really? wow must that be a first! All the benchmark tests I found online said that Vista was significantly slower than XP, all the technical blogs and sites suggested a minimum of 1GB of RAM to run it properly (not even talking about Aero), and when running it it did feel slower than XP (not to mention the annoying "security" messages).

 

Anyway, as long as you're happy... I got rid of my Vista copy after the first day I got my new computer, I was real jolly to have this version of XP

[Danial]

Really? wow must that be a first! All the benchmark tests I found online said that Vista was significantly slower than XP, all the technical blogs and sites suggested a minimum of 1GB of RAM to run it properly (not even talking about Aero), and when running it it did feel slower than XP (not to mention the annoying "security" messages).

 

Anyway, as long as you're happy... I got rid of my Vista copy after the first day I got my new computer, I was real jolly to have this version of XP

Well I did have 2GB RAM to begin with and I've turned off the "annoying security messages", so maybe that makes it run a bit better. Who knows...

[Bomb Bloke]

Coulda been slowdown associated with the crapware that builds up on many systems over time.

 

There might be a reason to update to Vista in the future. In fact, there probably will be one. Right now, though, I don't see it.

[Azrael Strife]

Coulda been slowdown associated with the crapware that builds up on many systems over time.

 

There might be a reason to update to Vista in the future. In fact, there probably will be one. Right now, though, I don't see it.

It was considerably slower on a fresh install, I had *just* purchased the computer, the difference between XP and Vista is very noticeable. There is a reason MS has business accords with processor companies, you know, they're basically forcing you to upgrade with greatly bloated software, that's what bothers me the most, there IS a reason why XP runs faster and why most linux distributions run way fater on way less than 1GB of RAM, even with *prettier* interfaces than Aero...

[zaimoni]

Well I did have 2GB RAM to begin with and I've turned off the "annoying security messages", so maybe that makes it run a bit better. Who knows...

Simply changing the default power plan from "balanced" to "performance" tripled the download speed over a USB wireless adapter. (Yes, new Vista system; does *not* replace the dual-boot Win95/W2K system, got it specifically for the USB wireless adapter).

 

This makes me wonder just how much the energy efficiency options cripple Vista.

 

2GB RAM is the minimum I'd consider for a Vista system.

[Gimli]

OK, I need a little help. My copy of Vista has to be validated, and I have no web connection working in Vista to do it. To top it off, it's a national holiday so the MS support system is not working either. Until I can get it validated and perhaps find a solution, could anyone who has Vista and the CE version try and help a little?

 

Be sure to check that you have the latest drivers for your graphics card. Well, actually, any drivers will work as long as they are DX 10 compatible. Be sure to check that they are, then try to run the game (don't forget to try the compatibility modes as well).

 

EDIT: I wrote something about dplay.dll, but then I decided to turn on my brain, and remembered to check what DirectPlay does in the first place. It's for networking and has nothing to do with X-COM whatsoever (because X-COM has no network mode).

[BladeFireLight]

OK, I need a little help. My copy of Vista has to be validated, and I have no web connection working in Vista to do it. To top it off, it's a national holiday so the MS support system is not working either. Until I can get it validated and perhaps find a solution, could anyone who has Vista and the CE version try and help a little?

 

M$ actualy allows you to extend the trial period twice. However it it has already expired it's a trick to get "rearmed"

 

if you go into limited use mode you only get IE and no explorer. but this is enough. If you type c:\windows\system32 into the address bar it will open the windows directory, once there you fine "CMD.exe" right click on it and select run as administrator. with that open close the IE window. in the command window type "slmgr -rearm" if you get an error about not enought resorces of some sutch junk, close everything but the command window and try again. if it give a sucessfull message, reboot and your good for another 30 days.

 

Instructions for doing this can be found on Microsoft.com, so this is not some ilegal trick. it's just not highly advertized.

 

You can only do this twice. M$ wants there money.

 

-Blade FireLight

[Bomb Bloke]

Just thinking, if disabling HW acceleration is all it takes to get CE going under Vista, perhaps that setting can be batched into the X-Com shortcut?

 

I did a little research on the registry keys involved, and perhaps one of you "bleeding edge" types would like to try it out:

 

Create two files in your CE folder, call the first "HWAenable.reg" and the second "HWAdisable.reg". Open each with Notepad and copy and paste in the following:

 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

 

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Avalon.Graphics\]

"DisableHWAcceleration"=dword:1

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

 

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Avalon.Graphics\]

"DisableHWAcceleration"=dword:0

(You might need to replace the "Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00" line with whatever Vista wants there (run regedit and export a random key somewhere to find out), or remove it altogether).

 

Now create a new batch file (call it something like "Vista UFO.bat") and copy and paste the following into that:

 

regedit /s HWAdisable.reg

regedit /s HWAenable.reg

Running that batch should, hopefully, get rid of the acceleration when the game starts and put it back in place when you're done. Create a shortcut to it on your Start Menu and that's it; Making a Vista batch for XcomUtil should be simple enough as well.

[zaimoni]

Just thinking, if disabling HW acceleration is all it takes to get CE going under Vista, perhaps that setting can be batched into the X-Com shortcut?

 

I did a little research on the registry keys involved, and perhaps one of you "bleeding edge" types would like to try it out:

It's video-driver specific, however. The proposed patch will work for your video card, but creating a universal patch will be trickier.

 

It can't hurt to have a working example to generalize from.