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Author Topic:   Will AC Run reliably under NT4?

madpig posted 03-31-99 05:40 AM ET
See subject
MoSe posted 03-31-99 07:37 AM ET
The demo did (er, if necessary still does), NT 4.0 Workstation SP3 (build 1381).
It was terribly slow, but that was probably due to P133, 32Mb RAM, onboard ATI graphics, spare office workstation (the one I'm using now).
I'm looking forward to sneak the full on a better system (BOSS Key wanted, AC doesn't minimize!), since this one has no CD-drive (have to connect to a shared one) and a cluttered 1Gb HD!
We're upgrading now in the company to SP4 & IE5. I'll be telling you, meanwhile I'd like to read here some fresh news too.
supposed_to_be Senior System Engineer
(don't ask me how I'm doing this, used to be an MS Office and 1-2-3 teacher)
MariOne
Fiannaidh posted 03-31-99 08:56 AM ET
If the full game will run under NT, it ought to do it a bit more reliably than '95/'98
BikeDude posted 03-31-99 09:19 AM ET
The consensus seems to be that the game will run, but there's a very good chance the sound will "stutter".
Some graphics cards have also been reported as having problems (updated drivers should fix that though).
My recommendation is to get your hands on Windows 2000. Every NT5/W2K beta I've tried have worked better with games than NT4. In the latest betas I've even had full forcefeedback support under Need For Speed III and enjoyed Falcon4 without any problems whatsoever (I had to rig the NFS3 installation though).
The stability and performance of Win2K leads me to believe that it is the gamer OS of the future (atleast compared to Win9x -- provided you have enough RAM that is).
--
Rune
MikeH II posted 03-31-99 09:27 AM ET
How much RAM are we talking? The NT4 workstations here at work are on 96MB and they are slow. They've got Celeron 266 processors (I didn't buy them!)
BikeDude posted 03-31-99 10:28 AM ET
MikeH: Slow doing what exactly?
I've got a 266MHz P-II at home. It used to have 96MB and only recently (couple of months ago) did I upgrade to 128MB (which seems to be appropriate with current Win2K betas).
If you have the original Celeron (the one without any L2 cache) then you're indeed up the famous creek without a paddle. The effect of not having a L2 cache would probably be more obvious/severe under NT than Win9x.
--
Rune
ZuluMenace25 posted 03-31-99 11:09 AM ET
Wait a minute. I though SMAC was only available for 95/98.
I heard that "a call to power" is available for NT but not SMAC!
Glak posted 03-31-99 01:15 PM ET
Well I have NT and the game runs.. sort of. The movies crash the game (it just goes black) but that might be my video driver's fault. Patch 3 let me disable the movies. However NT knows what is best for me so it didn't give me permission to update the driver (and I'm the administrator!). The sound stutters, of course. I think most games do that with NT, however for other games the stuttering doesn't kick in for at least an hour, more like two.
I have a p200 32 ram, nothing special but it works. That memory leak thing doesn't slow my alpha centauri game but it does slow starcraft! Man that's like sabatoughx5e (dang I can't spell), so I have to restart after a long session before getting on bnet.
p.s. if anyone knows how I can beat NT into submission let me know, it ought to accept that driver. I'm not some computer guy so I don't really know how to go about getting extra permission.
JaimeWolf posted 03-31-99 07:43 PM ET
I'll second that. It works on my NT machine but the movies kill it. I haven't bothered troubleshooting because I only play occasionally under NT and just play with the movies elsewhere so they don't show. I don't have a decent sound-card on that machine either so I don't know what the sound does.
James
dharcom posted 04-01-99 06:58 AM ET
The easiest way to get rid of the stutter under NT is to rename sound.dll to sound.dl_ - this disables all the sound.
However, you must rename it back to be able to apply any patches...
Wonderboy posted 04-01-99 07:09 AM ET
I have a P166 with 31 MBRam and win95. I have no problem running the game. I am soon biying a new computer. It will probably be a 400 MHz with an AMD-K6 Processor amd win98. Will there be a crash problem if I buy an AMD processor?
MikeH II posted 04-01-99 07:24 AM ET
BikeDude: Just generally sluggish, they run at about the same speed as an identical Win95 machine with 32 MBs of RAM. They are a hell of a lot more reliable though.
MoSe posted 04-01-99 09:32 AM ET
31 Mb RAM?????
BikeDude posted 04-01-99 01:33 PM ET
MikeH: You probably already know this, but things will fly alot better even if you only add 16MB more RAM... Try to get as close to 64MB as you can. (and remember to size up yer pagefile.sys when upgrading, it should be sized to roughly physical RAM size + 11MB)
--
Rune
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Author	Topic: Will AC Run reliably under NT4?
madpig	posted 03-31-99 05:40 AM ET See subject
MoSe	posted 03-31-99 07:37 AM ET The demo did (er, if necessary still does), NT 4.0 Workstation SP3 (build 1381). It was terribly slow, but that was probably due to P133, 32Mb RAM, onboard ATI graphics, spare office workstation (the one I'm using now). I'm looking forward to sneak the full on a better system (BOSS Key wanted, AC doesn't minimize!), since this one has no CD-drive (have to connect to a shared one) and a cluttered 1Gb HD! We're upgrading now in the company to SP4 & IE5. I'll be telling you, meanwhile I'd like to read here some fresh news too. supposed_to_be Senior System Engineer (don't ask me how I'm doing this, used to be an MS Office and 1-2-3 teacher) MariOne
Fiannaidh	posted 03-31-99 08:56 AM ET If the full game will run under NT, it ought to do it a bit more reliably than '95/'98
BikeDude	posted 03-31-99 09:19 AM ET The consensus seems to be that the game will run, but there's a very good chance the sound will "stutter". Some graphics cards have also been reported as having problems (updated drivers should fix that though). My recommendation is to get your hands on Windows 2000. Every NT5/W2K beta I've tried have worked better with games than NT4. In the latest betas I've even had full forcefeedback support under Need For Speed III and enjoyed Falcon4 without any problems whatsoever (I had to rig the NFS3 installation though). The stability and performance of Win2K leads me to believe that it is the gamer OS of the future (atleast compared to Win9x -- provided you have enough RAM that is). -- Rune
MikeH II	posted 03-31-99 09:27 AM ET How much RAM are we talking? The NT4 workstations here at work are on 96MB and they are slow. They've got Celeron 266 processors (I didn't buy them!)
BikeDude	posted 03-31-99 10:28 AM ET MikeH: Slow doing what exactly? I've got a 266MHz P-II at home. It used to have 96MB and only recently (couple of months ago) did I upgrade to 128MB (which seems to be appropriate with current Win2K betas). If you have the original Celeron (the one without any L2 cache) then you're indeed up the famous creek without a paddle. The effect of not having a L2 cache would probably be more obvious/severe under NT than Win9x. -- Rune
ZuluMenace25	posted 03-31-99 11:09 AM ET Wait a minute. I though SMAC was only available for 95/98. I heard that "a call to power" is available for NT but not SMAC!
Glak	posted 03-31-99 01:15 PM ET Well I have NT and the game runs.. sort of. The movies crash the game (it just goes black) but that might be my video driver's fault. Patch 3 let me disable the movies. However NT knows what is best for me so it didn't give me permission to update the driver (and I'm the administrator!). The sound stutters, of course. I think most games do that with NT, however for other games the stuttering doesn't kick in for at least an hour, more like two. I have a p200 32 ram, nothing special but it works. That memory leak thing doesn't slow my alpha centauri game but it does slow starcraft! Man that's like sabatoughx5e (dang I can't spell), so I have to restart after a long session before getting on bnet. p.s. if anyone knows how I can beat NT into submission let me know, it ought to accept that driver. I'm not some computer guy so I don't really know how to go about getting extra permission.
JaimeWolf	posted 03-31-99 07:43 PM ET I'll second that. It works on my NT machine but the movies kill it. I haven't bothered troubleshooting because I only play occasionally under NT and just play with the movies elsewhere so they don't show. I don't have a decent sound-card on that machine either so I don't know what the sound does. James
dharcom	posted 04-01-99 06:58 AM ET The easiest way to get rid of the stutter under NT is to rename sound.dll to sound.dl_ - this disables all the sound. However, you must rename it back to be able to apply any patches...
Wonderboy	posted 04-01-99 07:09 AM ET I have a P166 with 31 MBRam and win95. I have no problem running the game. I am soon biying a new computer. It will probably be a 400 MHz with an AMD-K6 Processor amd win98. Will there be a crash problem if I buy an AMD processor?
MikeH II	posted 04-01-99 07:24 AM ET BikeDude: Just generally sluggish, they run at about the same speed as an identical Win95 machine with 32 MBs of RAM. They are a hell of a lot more reliable though.
MoSe	posted 04-01-99 09:32 AM ET 31 Mb RAM?????
BikeDude	posted 04-01-99 01:33 PM ET MikeH: You probably already know this, but things will fly alot better even if you only add 16MB more RAM... Try to get as close to 64MB as you can. (and remember to size up yer pagefile.sys when upgrading, it should be sized to roughly physical RAM size + 11MB) -- Rune