Windows 7 and City of Heroes
By
Adar_ICT,
Posted on: 2009-01-11 08:37 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
Well isn't running a 7series at that big of a resolution kind of too much? I mean, that's pretty big resolution for third generation vid cards... (or fourth if counting the GX-280 series)
It's what I normally run at, and it runs perfectly fine both under XP (my usual) and, since I've done the update, under Win7. Been running it like that for the past few years.
So, right now, I've got the 32-bit W7 beta installed on old desktop (it took me six hours of trying to figure out why the computer would simply refuse to boot from the DVD, at which point I nearly kicked myself for realizing I could just install it from within Windows). Performance is decent and there have been a few glitches and setbacks. Most noticeable is the missing drivers for my onboard Promise RAID, which prevents me from using the 320GB SATA drive I have some stuff stored on.
System specs are as follows:
* Athlon 64 3300+ processor @ 2.4GHz
* 2GB RAM
* AGP WinFast GeForce 6600GT (128MB) GPU
* 160GB ATA hard drive (w/ another 320GB SATA drive once I get RAID working)
* CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive
Playing CoH under windowed mode taking up most of my 20" screen (it's some wonky resolution, I don't remember exactly what) runs comparably to how it did back when this machine had XP installed - smoothly but slowly. I haven't done much testing with it, because in order to test it as if it were my everday computer, I'd have to essentially clone my applications, documents, and such on my main desktop to the older one, and that's not something I'm willing to do.
The new taskbar is nice, though, kind of a fusion between the old taskbar and the OS X Dock.
@macskull, @Not Mac | XBL: macskull | Steam: macskull | Skype: macskull
"One day we all may see each other elsewhere. In Tyria, in Azeroth. We may pass each other and never know it. And that's sad. But if nothing else, we'll still have Rhode Island."
"One day we all may see each other elsewhere. In Tyria, in Azeroth. We may pass each other and never know it. And that's sad. But if nothing else, we'll still have Rhode Island."
I have Vista Ultimate 64 on my sytem to take full advantage of my duo quad core Q9450. Will Windows 7 do as much for my box as my current OS, or will it back down a bit similar to XP?
My Arc - #51736 Here Wolf... There Wolf... Werewolf!!!
Don't worry about the mule going blind, just load the wagon.
>")))>< ~~~~
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I have Vista Ultimate 64 on my sytem to take full advantage of my duo quad core Q9450. Will Windows 7 do as much for my box as my current OS, or will it back down a bit similar to XP?
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You are confused, XP takes full advantage of your CPU, any improvements in the Vista version of the Kernel are micro incremental and in actual practice Vista is generally slower than XP, Windows 7 however appears to be faster than both of the above so far, which is encouraging.
Tried to install Win7 on my secondary computer, didn't take. Here are the CoHelper Specs:
---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.1.1.3---
DxDiag gathered at January 21, 2009 06:55 (-07:00)
Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.vistasp1_ldr.080917-1612)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: System Product Name
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Central Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6420 @ 2.13GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.1GHz
Memory: 8190MB
.Net Memory Report: 6701MB out of 8189MB available
Page File: 14952MB (1477MB currently in use)
C Drive: (WDC WD10 02FBYS-01A6B SCSI Disk Device) 622034MB out of 953867MB (65%) free
D Drive: (WDC WD32 00AAKS-00SBA SCSI Disk Device) 305143MB out of 305242MB (99%) free
E Drive: (WDC WD32 00KS-00PFB0 SCSI Disk Device) 305143MB out of 305242MB (99%) free
F Drive: (SONY DVD RW DRU-810A ATA Device) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\Windows
DirectX: DirectX 10
DirectX Diag version: 6.00.6001.18000 (64-bit version)
Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.
No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.
Monitor: Dell SE198WFP(Digital)
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
Manufacturer / Chip: NVIDIA / GeForce 8800 GTX
Video Memory: 2791 MB
Driver Version: 7.15.0011.7824
Driver Date: 10/7/2008 12:33:00 PM
Driver Language: English
Sound Device Description: Speakers (Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS (WDM))
Driver File: ctaud2k.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.1242
Driver Date: 2/13/2007 3:50:50 PM
Sound Device Description: SPDIF Out (Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS (WDM))
Driver File: ctaud2k.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.1242
Driver Date: 2/13/2007 3:50:50 PM
WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: StrikerExtreme
Motherboard Version: 1.XX
BIOS Manufacturer: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
BIOS Name: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
BIOS Version: Nvidia - 42302e31
BIOS Release: 20081007000000.000000+000
Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1440x881
3D Resolution: 1440x881 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: No
Maximized: Yes
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 0Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: Yes
Physics Quality: Very High
Maximum Particles: 50000
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No
Anti-aliasing: 4x
Anisotropic Filtering: 16x
Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
Water Effects: High Quality
Bloom: 1.000 (turned off)
Depth of Field Enabled: No
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: Yes
Shader Detail: High
World Texture Level: Very High
Character Texture Level: Very High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 2.000
Entity Detail Level: 2.000
Shadows Enabled: Yes
Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of Extra Player FX Enabled: No
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: No
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes
Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 1.000
Music Sound Volume: 0.600
Show Advanced Graphics Options: Yes
Overall Graphics Quality: 1.000
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 31676 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 18.20081105.12T5
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files\City of Heroes\City of Heroes
Mod files in the Data directory
No modifications found
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It would help to give us the error you got so we know why it didnt take.
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No error, it just hung at the "Starting Windows" screen. When I re-logged to Vista, I got a message saying that Windows could not install, try back later with later versions of Win7.
Help make America #1 in Broadband: www.broadband.gov
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Probably take it you were updating from Vista to windows 7 or doing it on another partition?
Need moar infoz!
At this point in time, because this is a beta after all, it's probably safer to install Windows 7 on its own partition and leave Vista as it is for now. If you set it up to dual boot like that, then if there's a problem with Windows 7 that makes it temporarily unuseable, or when the beta finally expires, you'll still have a working OS and not need to have down time wiping your drive and starting over. Also, keep in mind that there may still be certain programs that don't work, or don't work properly, with 7. If you're set up to dual boot then you can just switch back to Vista/XP if you need to use that program, and send in feedback so that whatever's wrong can be fixed in future versions of 7. There are a ton of reasons against having Windows 7 as your only OS, especially if you only have the one computer to work with. As complete as Windows 7 looks, there are bound to still be some issues.
I was set up installing Win7 on a seperate HD. I installed it while in Vista, maybe I'll try booting from the DVD, and installing that way, see if that makes a difference.
I dunno what else to say. It appeared to install nicely, up till it had to re-boot, came up to the "starting windows" screen, and stayed there for 10 minutes. I hit the reset button on my puter, tried 3 more times (1 time in safe mode, 1 time in debug mode). No errors were visible to me. It simply didn't get past the "starting windows" screen.
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Hm....I never tried installing it to a separate hdd from inside of my other Windows installation. I just booted it from the DVD. That may make the difference....let us know if it doesn't for ya.
Should be installing it by booting from a DVD. As this is in it's first beta, I wouldn't expect features like the upgrade to function fully and or properly. I've also never attempted to install an OS to another hard drive through another OS. A fresh install on its own partition or hard drive is recommended.
We'll see....
[ QUOTE ]
I was set up installing Win7 on a seperate HD. I installed it while in Vista, maybe I'll try booting from the DVD, and installing that way, see if that makes a difference.
I dunno what else to say. It appeared to install nicely, up till it had to re-boot, came up to the "starting windows" screen, and stayed there for 10 minutes. I hit the reset button on my puter, tried 3 more times (1 time in safe mode, 1 time in debug mode). No errors were visible to me. It simply didn't get past the "starting windows" screen.
[/ QUOTE ]This happened a couple of times on a pc at work I tested this on. It is just really slow when it first starts windows, you might need to give it more time.
Bump and Grind Bane/SoA
Kenja No Ishi Earth/Empathy Controller
Legendary Sannin Ninja/Pain Mastermind
Entoxicated Ninja/PSN Mastermind
Ninja Ryukenden Kat/WP Scrapper
Hellish Thoughts Fire/PSI Dominator
Thank You Devs for Merits!!!!
Well, it is really nice layout. Too bad it doesn't recognize that I have a video card and hence cant update drivers for it. 
Manually or with Windows Update. Device manager doesn't even show any video in there.
The error message that I get everytime is something like "Could not find a device to match these drivers" or some such.
What I've tried: Win7 64 and 32 bit (couple times), flashed bio's, updated chipset drivers, newest nvidia drivers, older nvidia drivers, changed compatibility mode where appropriate, removed vid card and reset cmos.
Posting this from my main comp, so don't have a cohhelper log right now. But basic spec's:
AMD Athalon 3500+
1gig ram
XFX 6800XT
ASUS Barebone V2 AE-1
I had seen a few pages back that someone had it running on slightly less specs. Guess mine is just gimp or something.... 
Anyway, if someone has a nifty little trick for this, that would be cool. But if not, I'll just send in my report and reload XP....
[ QUOTE ]
Well, it is really nice layout. Too bad it doesn't recognize that I have a video card and hence cant update drivers for it. Manually or with Windows Update. Device manager doesn't even show any video in there.
The error message that I get everytime is something like "Could not find a device to match these drivers" or some such.
What I've tried: Win7 64 and 32 bit (couple times), flashed bio's, updated chipset drivers, newest nvidia drivers, older nvidia drivers, changed compatibility mode where appropriate, removed vid card and reset cmos.
Posting this from my main comp, so don't have a cohhelper log right now. But basic spec's:
AMD Athalon 3500+
1gig ram
XFX 6800XT
ASUS Barebone V2 AE-1
I had seen a few pages back that someone had it running on slightly less specs. Guess mine is just gimp or something....
Anyway, if someone has a nifty little trick for this, that would be cool. But if not, I'll just send in my report and reload XP....
[/ QUOTE ]Its possible they drop support for your card. I know that happened to me when vista first came out. I had to find haxed drivers for my video card and motherboard. They worked for a while then I started getting heat problems on th card so I upgraded.
Bump and Grind Bane/SoA
Kenja No Ishi Earth/Empathy Controller
Legendary Sannin Ninja/Pain Mastermind
Entoxicated Ninja/PSN Mastermind
Ninja Ryukenden Kat/WP Scrapper
Hellish Thoughts Fire/PSI Dominator
Thank You Devs for Merits!!!!
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Well, it is really nice layout. Too bad it doesn't recognize that I have a video card and hence cant update drivers for it. Manually or with Windows Update. Device manager doesn't even show any video in there.
The error message that I get everytime is something like "Could not find a device to match these drivers" or some such.
What I've tried: Win7 64 and 32 bit (couple times), flashed bio's, updated chipset drivers, newest nvidia drivers, older nvidia drivers, changed compatibility mode where appropriate, removed vid card and reset cmos.
Posting this from my main comp, so don't have a cohhelper log right now. But basic spec's:
AMD Athalon 3500+
1gig ram
XFX 6800XT
ASUS Barebone V2 AE-1
I had seen a few pages back that someone had it running on slightly less specs. Guess mine is just gimp or something....
Anyway, if someone has a nifty little trick for this, that would be cool. But if not, I'll just send in my report and reload XP....
[/ QUOTE ]Its possible they drop support for your card. I know that happened to me when vista first came out. I had to find haxed drivers for my video card and motherboard. They worked for a while then I started getting heat problems on th card so I upgraded.
[/ QUOTE ]
Why in the world would they drop support for a card that exceeds the requirements for running the OS? I had no problems finding drivers for my 6600GT.
@macskull, @Not Mac | XBL: macskull | Steam: macskull | Skype: macskull
"One day we all may see each other elsewhere. In Tyria, in Azeroth. We may pass each other and never know it. And that's sad. But if nothing else, we'll still have Rhode Island."
"One day we all may see each other elsewhere. In Tyria, in Azeroth. We may pass each other and never know it. And that's sad. But if nothing else, we'll still have Rhode Island."
This most recent box I installed vista7 on had the worlds slowest install times. Seriously I had nearly 2 hours in the install alone. The complete lack of progress bars often made me think it had hung when it hadnt. I just had to keep walking away from it so I didnt kick it across the room out of fustration. I dont know what triggered the super-slow install on that machine that hadnt occured on my other machine. I dont know if it was because I was dual-booting it with "An Earlier Version of Windows" (XP) or if I've got a piece of hardware it doesnt appreciate. Once I got through the install though, it runs alright. Of course I lack mainboard drivers for 90% of my hardware on that box, so I cant do too much.
So, if your "hanging" on installation... you might want to try going to take a walk. I cant say it wont be a true hang, but you just might be in the situation I was too.
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Well, it is really nice layout. Too bad it doesn't recognize that I have a video card and hence cant update drivers for it. Manually or with Windows Update. Device manager doesn't even show any video in there.
The error message that I get everytime is something like "Could not find a device to match these drivers" or some such.
What I've tried: Win7 64 and 32 bit (couple times), flashed bio's, updated chipset drivers, newest nvidia drivers, older nvidia drivers, changed compatibility mode where appropriate, removed vid card and reset cmos.
Posting this from my main comp, so don't have a cohhelper log right now. But basic spec's:
AMD Athalon 3500+
1gig ram
XFX 6800XT
ASUS Barebone V2 AE-1
I had seen a few pages back that someone had it running on slightly less specs. Guess mine is just gimp or something....
Anyway, if someone has a nifty little trick for this, that would be cool. But if not, I'll just send in my report and reload XP....
[/ QUOTE ]Its possible they drop support for your card. I know that happened to me when vista first came out. I had to find haxed drivers for my video card and motherboard. They worked for a while then I started getting heat problems on th card so I upgraded.
[/ QUOTE ]
Why in the world would they drop support for a card that exceeds the requirements for running the OS? I had no problems finding drivers for my 6600GT.
[/ QUOTE ]
6series are outdated. What with the 9s and 280s. 7s are the new lows. It's not surprising. Technology moves on. Plus Doesn't Microsoft 7, or wont it, support Direct X11?
Just thought I'd post a solution/workaround for the flickering/tearing screen in CoH that worked for me. I tried turning on Triple Buffering and forcing Vertical Sync on at the driver and it didn't work *until* I also turned 2x Antialiasing at the driver (and no, I don't have a clue why it worked). Now all seems well, even though it doesn't actually turn Antialiasing on in the game until I change the in-game settings.
This is on a Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop with an NVidia 7900GS card in it and Win7 64 bit 1.0 drivers. Actually found the fix when I downgraded to Vista 169.09 64 bit drivers.
"With everything that I do, I hope that they see people struggling to live decent, moral lives in a completely chaotic world. They see how hard it is, how often they fail, and how they get up and keep trying. That, to me, is the most important message I'm ever going to tell." - Joss Whedon
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Well, it is really nice layout. Too bad it doesn't recognize that I have a video card and hence cant update drivers for it. Manually or with Windows Update. Device manager doesn't even show any video in there.
The error message that I get everytime is something like "Could not find a device to match these drivers" or some such.
What I've tried: Win7 64 and 32 bit (couple times), flashed bio's, updated chipset drivers, newest nvidia drivers, older nvidia drivers, changed compatibility mode where appropriate, removed vid card and reset cmos.
Posting this from my main comp, so don't have a cohhelper log right now. But basic spec's:
AMD Athalon 3500+
1gig ram
XFX 6800XT
ASUS Barebone V2 AE-1
I had seen a few pages back that someone had it running on slightly less specs. Guess mine is just gimp or something....
Anyway, if someone has a nifty little trick for this, that would be cool. But if not, I'll just send in my report and reload XP....
[/ QUOTE ]Its possible they drop support for your card. I know that happened to me when vista first came out. I had to find haxed drivers for my video card and motherboard. They worked for a while then I started getting heat problems on th card so I upgraded.
[/ QUOTE ]
Why in the world would they drop support for a card that exceeds the requirements for running the OS? I had no problems finding drivers for my 6600GT.
[/ QUOTE ]They (Nvidia) done it with the geforce 5 series cards when they are perfectly capable of running aero and vista quite nicely. My guess is that they want folks to spend more cash to upgrade again.
Bump and Grind Bane/SoA
Kenja No Ishi Earth/Empathy Controller
Legendary Sannin Ninja/Pain Mastermind
Entoxicated Ninja/PSN Mastermind
Ninja Ryukenden Kat/WP Scrapper
Hellish Thoughts Fire/PSI Dominator
Thank You Devs for Merits!!!!
[ QUOTE ]
They (Nvidia) done it with the geforce 5 series cards when they are perfectly capable of running aero and vista quite nicely. My guess is that they want folks to spend more cash to upgrade again.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, which is why I'm in the process of building a new rig. But untill then, reloaded xp on that machine and still have my main rig running xp. The new one I will once again load Win7 on.....
Why I never got Vista? Never wanted to transfer files, reload programs, settings and all that. Too lazy for all of that
[ QUOTE ]
Tried to install Win7 on my secondary computer, didn't take. Here are the CoHelper Specs:
---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.1.1.3---
DxDiag gathered at January 21, 2009 06:55 (-07:00)
Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.vistasp1_ldr.080917-1612)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: System Product Name
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Central Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6420 @ 2.13GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.1GHz
Memory: 8190MB
.Net Memory Report: 6701MB out of 8189MB available
Page File: 14952MB (1477MB currently in use)
C Drive: (WDC WD10 02FBYS-01A6B SCSI Disk Device) 622034MB out of 953867MB (65%) free
D Drive: (WDC WD32 00AAKS-00SBA SCSI Disk Device) 305143MB out of 305242MB (99%) free
E Drive: (WDC WD32 00KS-00PFB0 SCSI Disk Device) 305143MB out of 305242MB (99%) free
F Drive: (SONY DVD RW DRU-810A ATA Device) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\Windows
DirectX: DirectX 10
DirectX Diag version: 6.00.6001.18000 (64-bit version)
Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.
No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.
Monitor: Dell SE198WFP(Digital)
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
Manufacturer / Chip: NVIDIA / GeForce 8800 GTX
Video Memory: 2791 MB
Driver Version: 7.15.0011.7824
Driver Date: 10/7/2008 12:33:00 PM
Driver Language: English
Sound Device Description: Speakers (Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS (WDM))
Driver File: ctaud2k.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.1242
Driver Date: 2/13/2007 3:50:50 PM
Sound Device Description: SPDIF Out (Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS (WDM))
Driver File: ctaud2k.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.1242
Driver Date: 2/13/2007 3:50:50 PM
WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: StrikerExtreme
Motherboard Version: 1.XX
BIOS Manufacturer: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
BIOS Name: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
BIOS Version: Nvidia - 42302e31
BIOS Release: 20081007000000.000000+000
Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1440x881
3D Resolution: 1440x881 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: No
Maximized: Yes
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 0Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: Yes
Physics Quality: Very High
Maximum Particles: 50000
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No
Anti-aliasing: 4x
Anisotropic Filtering: 16x
Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
Water Effects: High Quality
Bloom: 1.000 (turned off)
Depth of Field Enabled: No
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: Yes
Shader Detail: High
World Texture Level: Very High
Character Texture Level: Very High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 2.000
Entity Detail Level: 2.000
Shadows Enabled: Yes
Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of Extra Player FX Enabled: No
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: No
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes
Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 1.000
Music Sound Volume: 0.600
Show Advanced Graphics Options: Yes
Overall Graphics Quality: 1.000
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 31676 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 18.20081105.12T5
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files\City of Heroes\City of Heroes
Mod files in the Data directory
No modifications found
[/ QUOTE ]
Same system, tried booting to the install DVD, and it sat there at the mostly black screen with the funky Win7 icon, and the "Starting Windows" for 6 hours. I really didn't think I had a strange computer, other than the PhysX card. Who knew.
Help make America #1 in Broadband: www.broadband.gov
Take the survey/test (like a Census for Broadband): http://broadband.gov/qualitytest/about/
Was gaming tonight on vista7 and was stable although low FPS. However after several hours, I threw a "wglmakecurrent failed" error and crashed. The only reason this is note-worthy is that is an OpenGL error according to everything I can find on it. I hope that doesnt bode badly for things to come. (Yeah yeah, I know its beta.. lol)
Quickly touching base:
Win7-64 on a seperate partition. Very nice install... very hands off!
Athlon 64x2-4000, nVidia 7900GS, 2 Gb RAM, 1680x1050 resolution on my LCD.
Initial COH load - *Dang* that's bright... but a driver update seems to have fixed that. Only problem right now is that it refuses to let me change graphics settings, defaulting back to 800x600, everything "blah."
Seeing if TweakCOH helps.
Edit: Yep. It did.