Okay, Anyone Doing the Sims/Vista Rhumba?

[Assmitten]

As I type, I have a spanky-new computer shipping to my house that has (alas?) Vista installed. (Dun dun DUNNN.)

SO. Has anyone actually played Sims with Vista? It is the tits or the shit? Or has everyone been scared off by Senor Pescado's giant flashing warning signs? If I add Seasonings two weeks after my pimped out machine arrives, will it be all BBQapocalypse?

[SaraMK]

The Sims 2 is not totally compatible with Vista, from what I understand.

http://thesims2.ea.com/help/detail.php?help_id=281

I hope none of this turns out to be an issue for you.

[J. M. Pescado]

As I type, I have a spanky-new computer shipping to my house that has (alas?) Vista installed. (Dun dun DUNNN.)

Vista is *BAD*. Nuke it and reinstall XP. Who the hell leaves all the factory spyware installed anyway? ALWAYS REFORMAT THE NEW COMPUTER!

More Awesome Than You will not support Vista at this time. Perhaps when it has been properly hacked.

[Paperbladder]

*grumble*stupid solaris 4th disk corrupted grr...*grumble*
Anyway, there's a lot of bullshit out there about Vista such as Pescado's comments about Vista invalidating your XP CD key.  Additionally, some People say is that a lot of stuff doesn't run on Vista but the reality is that about as much stuff is incompatible now as it was when people upgraded from 98 to XP.

TS2 isn't one of them, but there will be a negligible performance decrease like 5% since you're running it on Vista.  Still, you probably will just notice a speed increase just because your new computer is probably faster.  Games and applications that use OpenGL have about 50% of their previous performance due to the fact the drivers aren't built into the kernel anymore.

[sintrinity]

I just got my new PC with Vista today and I have not had a problem with any of the games I play yet (knock on wood).  The only problem I ran into was with my ASUS motherboard's Realtek sound.  The ASUS site already has a fix ready to download for Realtek/Vista and viola my speakers worked just fine after that.

My husband also got a new PC with Vista and he had some problem with his LCD monitor (I refuse to leave my CRT yet) as well as the same sound problem.

So far so good but keeping my fingers crossed on my new Nvidia card.

[J. M. Pescado]

*grumble*stupid solaris 4th disk corrupted grr...*grumble*
Anyway, there's a lot of bullshit out there about Vista such as Pescado's comments about Vista invalidating your XP CD key.

How's that bullshit? It's bad news about Vista. Bullshit is your Pollyanna "everything is fine" blather. How much are they paying you to spew these lies?

[Paperbladder]

The part in there saying that they're invalidating the key was in all of the other versions of Windows.  It's not confirmed either other than in that one story.

They're still doing shady stuff though like adding a DRM service that checks the license of a video 30 times a second, killing analog holes, and locking the kernel for no reason other than to attempt to make a monopoly.  There's still no reason to upgrade to it though because there's no DX10 games and if you do upgrade you'll gimp OpenGL.

[spookymuffin]

Are there really any problems(not including game compatibility) that Vista could cause if it's on a computer that isn't connected to the internet?
I'm thinking of installing Vista on my gaming PC, and leaving my internet PC with XP

[J. M. Pescado]

It is uncertain that Microsoft would let you operate the computer like that. Sort of like their "Registration Procedures", which I refuse to follow. Just like gun registration, software registration is a tool of Nazis who plan to take your software away from you. It was a stinker of a plan when the Nazis came up with it, and it STILL STINKS.

[spookymuffin]

Well I'm thinking of waiting a while until I can get my hands on a copy that doesn't need to be registered, or I find something that lets me bypass the registration

[J. M. Pescado]

Always, ALWAYS, wait for the pirate version of ANY Windoze. The Pirate version is always the safest and most secure, so always hold out for Pirate Edition.

[Assmitten]

Okay, I'm glad I asked. That's all much clearer now.  Thanks to the one person who came in and is actually using Vista. I guess I'll be one of the guinea pigs, too.

I desperately needed a new computer anyway. This one has become an abacus. Here's to the non-thrill of seeing my first cinematic. 

I have XP sitting around. Maybe I can just run it off that. Thanks for the link, SaraMK.

[Weaver]

You could setup a dual boot system with Windows XP Professional x64 and Windows Vista both as available operating system.
That way, you can trial Vista and use XP for The Sims 2. Here's the Wiki article on dual booting and guide for working with XP and Vista.
Most important step is to create a seperate partition or install individually on seperate drives to avoid any conflicts.

[Paperbladder]

If the computer doesn't have internet access, I think you can activate Vista over the phone like you could with XP.

Pes, there's already pirate versions of Vista out there but it's not as idiotproof as it was before since all versions require activation.  There's 3 methods that are used to activate these copies that I know of, the first involves swapping the RTM activation with RC2 which will last until July 31.  Another's setting up a KMS server that pirate Vista connects to every 6 months to activate, and finally there's messing with the clock to give almost unlimited time until requiring activation.  Of course, the DRM isn't hacked out of any of version yet but it's only a matter of time since a security researcher has already cracked it.

[smvb]

Here is an article I read this morning regarding games and Vista:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2090646,00.asp

[MxxPwr]

Here is an article I read this morning regarding games and Vista:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2090646,00.asp

FX60 and the 8800? Heh, a typical household rig 

If the writer of the article would give me a rig like his, I'd use Vista too.

[smvb]

Here is an article I read this morning regarding games and Vista:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2090646,00.asp

FX60 and the 8800? Heh, a typical household rig 

If the writer of the article would give me a rig like his, I'd use Vista too.

Yes, which is why I won't be changing from XP anytime soon.... But some year I'll have upgraded my hardware enough to do it.

[wes_h]

I have been seeing some posts in the MilkShape forums about compatibility with Vista.

No one there reported any OpenGL speed problems, but then MilkShape's not a game, except maybe when running animations.

But people have had trouble activating their key. It is believed that the issue is due to a file protection scheme like the one that protects the XP system files that appears to have been extended to program files in Vista.

If they can't patch an .exe, how would a pirate operate?

If this is true, MS has little hope of roping me into Vista even after they get it stabilized in SP2 or SP3. I don't want a Nanny.

<* Wes *>

[J. M. Pescado]

If they can't patch an .exe, how would a pirate operate?

Pirates don't patch exes, they just replace the EXE entirely. Only programmers do things like that.

[Hegelian]

Will Vista Run Your Games? (already referenced above)

Windows Vista Performance Guide

Build a Windows Vista Upgrade Parachute

Windows XP vs. Vista: The Benchmark Rundown

FX60 and the 8800? Heh, a typical household rig 

If the writer of the article would give me a rig like his, I'd use Vista too.

In fairness, if you wanted to test how well Vista runs games, you would need to use a machine sufficiently powerful that the hardware would not be a limiting factor. Writing that Oblivion doesn't run well on Vista because your hardware isn't up to snuff isn't of much value.

[blubug]

They're still doing shady stuff though like adding a DRM service that checks the license of a video 30 times a second, killing analog holes, and locking the kernel for no reason other than to attempt to make a monopoly.  There's still no reason to upgrade to it though because there's no DX10 games and if you do upgrade you'll gimp OpenGL.

I hate all that. Media player already nags me about videos. It's like windoze is the lawyer of what I want to purchase- or not purchase
I just got a macbook as a second computer, and I'm in love with MacOS X (First time mac owner ). And on my gaming pc, no vista for me, I'm prepared to stay away until I have no choice. Stupid microsoft. I just loathe using Windows now. 

[MxxPwr]

FX60 and the 8800? Heh, a typical household rig 

If the writer of the article would give me a rig like his, I'd use Vista too.

In fairness, if you wanted to test how well Vista runs games, you would need to use a machine sufficiently powerful that the hardware would not be a limiting factor. Writing that Oblivion doesn't run well on Vista because your hardware isn't up to snuff isn't of much value.

I understand what you're saying. But, realistically, your gamers are going to have X19xx's or 79xx's in their rigs. Mainstreamers are going to have X18's or 76/66's in their rig's or worse. 1-3 month old namebrand boxes are going to have only the intel X6300's or the lower-clocked 64 X2's. A Vista review using his rig isn't much of a value either.

I'll still take his rig though.

[MxxPwr]

Will Vista Run Your Games? (already referenced above)

Windows Vista Performance Guide

Build a Windows Vista Upgrade Parachute

Windows XP vs. Vista: The Benchmark Rundown

Interesting articles. Thank you. I'm a bit concerned though about hearing words like 'far more processess' 'far larger codebase' 'far more memory used.' I thought MS was throwing the baby out with the bathwater with Vista. No more bloat code; lean and mean. Naive, I know.

I'd wonder what Vista does with alt-tabbing and swapping vid memory to hdd. Does it favor it's own 3d base when going from a game to desktop? Swapping out all your game data from the vid board to main mem or worse the hdd?

[Karen]

I just bought a new Dell XPS 410, Intel Core Duo 6400 (2.13 GHz) with 4 GB RAM, ATI 1300 Pro video card (256 MB).  It came with Vista.  The game, with all EPs and about 1.5 GB of custom content, loads in about a minute.  This compared to *at least* 15-20 minutes on my old machine (Pentium IV 2.4 GHz with 1 GB of RAM and Radeon 9600XT video card).  The graphics settings in-game default to low or medium, but I have turned up just about everything to the max setting and there is no lag at all.  I was a little worried about how the video card would perform with Vista because it's on Maxis's list of "OK" cards, not "Good", but I have zero complaints so far, after about 3 days of playing the game on the new machine.  All my hacks work fine.

[aqualectrix]

It seems likely that your massive loading speedup is mostly caused by the massive jump you took in available RAM.