I'd actually also heard something about many games that were made for XP will not work under Vista. The thing I'm trying to get at, is, if there is no support for older versions of DirectX, and if the new games will then not work under old windows versions, the message to us is clear? Adapt or die. I mean, old games like gma's games and others will not work under Vista, and, what's even worse is would those of us using XP and older versions of Windows then have to upgrade to Vista to play new games that come out? How are developers of accessible games going to adapt to Vista? By the way, from what you tell me about the whole thing being a sort of web interface, it sounds awful! At the university, some people use the Active Desktop in Windows, I can't stand it! I also don't like these web interfaces like the help system where you try and move round and round in a circle of links! Ari ----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Ward" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Gamers Discussion list" <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, November 27, 2006 7:39 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Gaming on Windows Vista?
Hi Ari, Mind you not all of what I am about to say here I am totally sure about, but I've been looking over the beta sdks for Vista and it is going to prove to be quite a bit different from the 98/2000/XP era of Windows. First major change, from a programming standpoint, is that most of the sdks and apps will be gueard for Visual Studio .NET 2005 and later versions. Vista's Platform SDK will be shipping with .NET Framework 3 which has some drastic upgrades including a new version of MS SAPI which is fully managed. Meaning, that Sapi will be compatible with .NET Framework applications. Also the Vista Platform SDK contains a new approach to accessibility which is going to replace MSAA in the future, or probably will at any rate. The DirectX 10 SDK appears to be geared totally for the managed .NET Framework coder, and not giving much backward compatibility to older games using DirectX 7 and 8. The point here Microsoft is making a clear drive to get developers to comply with Visual Studio 2005, use one of the .NET languages, and stop monkeying around with VB 6 and other older languages, and get with the program. Grin. Of course, the core of Vista isn't the only consideration. The entire look and feel of Vista is, well, weird. I will say it is more designed around a web-centric roll with Internet Exploder 7 practically running the background, in your face, and waiting for you to jump on the web. For example XP has had this feature, but Vista has magnified it you can clear away all your icons on your desktop and make it one massive web page. In short if you are on cable your home page, www.someplace.com, can be your desktop, and the web is no further than your desktop. Of course, your desktop has the usual task bars etc but now you have this ugly media bar with stock tickers, weather reports, etc running in the background happily updating away. As I said Vista is very web-centric, and if you are not web connected Vista might break down, cry, and then crash. Ha, ha, just joking. Vista also has a more 3D look and feel than any other os to date. Probably, one of the major reasons it needs a very modern processor and lots of ram to run smoothly. I have heard that visually many apps such as office 2007 are suppose to look quite different. The menu bars are going to be replaced by a menu strip, some tool bars added, and I am sure that little twerp, my arch enemy, the enemy of my computer, the dread of dreads,, Mr. Office Assistant will have some new and stupid looking looks and animation. Lol! By the way, does anyone else hate that little goof ball? I mean ever since his intro in Office 97 I never got use to him. He pops up so much and is so annoying I named him Q after the Star Trek character. Instead of Captain Picard saying, "Q, get off my bridge," my version kind of goes like, "Q, get off my screen." Ah, but I digress. Anyway, I have heard there are visual differences in the ways apps look, buttons look, icons, etc, and most of that is of the real question about games. So I will summarize quickly what I think is going to be the case. However, this is a guess only not fact. Games written with .NET in mind STFC, Rail racer, Monty will certainly work well as they are employing early versions of the technologies that are a core of Vista. If problems are encountered they can be easily updated to meet the challenge. Games designed on an unmanaged version of DirectX such 7 and 8 may have a tougher time as I have heard, not prove, that Vista might be dropping 8 support. If true any games, engines, based in languages like VB 6 would be stuck where they are, and remain there until updated to VB.NET 2005 and DirectX 9/10. Point here is that Microsoft is moving on even if the agdev community is not and it is one reason I urge new developers not to try VB 6, and start out in the dark ages of programming, and start out fresh with what is current, cutting edge, because by the time tomorrow comes what you know will be the standard. I will leave it to others to prove or disprove weather or not DirectX 8 support is being dropped, but I have heard it from a somewhat reliable source. Bottom line, developers may need to update to support Vista. _______________________________________________ Gamers mailing list .. [email protected] To unsubscribe send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can visit http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org to make any subscription changes via the web. _______________________________________________ Gamers mailing list .. [email protected] To unsubscribe send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can visit http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org to make any subscription changes via the web.
