RWFF and Windows 8

[Anguis]

Hi, folks,

I believe this should go here. I've installed Windows 8 on my main game-playing computer. First game re-installed? You guessed it - RWFF!

While W8 is snappier than the Vista it replaced, it hasn't been exactly smooth sailing w/ RWFF. The only problem - RWFF does not play 'Fullscreen,' unfortunately (on my system, at least). Well, actually, it does, but not the way it used to (window chrome and lag is present). Fullscreen 'Off' gets things moving like before, just in a window. And, depending on the resolution you normally run on your computer, that can be a very small window.

Anguis

[Yellowstone7]

Hi Anguis:

Did you read the little piece that I did on Windows 8 and RWFF? It may be a great browser for surfing, touch screen, tablets and the like but for working with RWFF it is a nightmare. I am having the same problems as you on my new Windows 8 laptop and cannot displace full screen, (from edge to edge) on any resolution. Like you said, when run as less than full screen it gave a small picture. Hope you have good eyes!

Paul did comment that Windows 8 is a big step backwards for Microsoft. To me personally, it is too much eye candy and too difficult to work with if you want to do anything other than using it for surfing the internet and listening to music and things like that.

Personally I think Windows 7 is a far better system if you do any work on your computer.

Regards,

Stanley

[Anguis]

Hi, Stanley,

Yes, I did see your note, earlier (though I didn't realize I'd titled mine the same!). I had been running Vista forever, and, while generally happy with it, I had noted over the years that W7 had a lower memory footprint - I was intrigued with the potential for performance improvements without having to change hardware. Windows 8, apparently, uses even less memory than W7 (and more efficiently). I read up on some benchmarks that showed performance improvements over W7, as well. Additionally, the 'Refresh and Reset' features of W8 looked like something I'd want (turns out to be true - I've used both a few times already, toubleshooting the upgrade just to get things the way I like). Security-wise, I thought a fresh start would be nice, too. So, I pulled that trigger (cheap - $40 upgrade until 1/31), and, thus far, it is definitely an improvement over Vista, performance-wise. Everything's faster/smoother.

Now, my vid. card is old - I can't install the control software as before, which might be my problem with running RWFF fullscreen (I don't run it in compatibility/Admin mode - hasn't improved things). I have managed to run another of my games fullscreen at 1600x1200, with no lag, and it looks about as good as it did with Vista (can't do certain graphics tweaks w/o Catalyst Control Center, which is frustrating). I have a few more select games to try out. We'll see how that goes.
As far as general use of the computer, I do like the Start Screen. The Metro environment hasn't been a problem with keyboard and mouse. I spend most of my time on the desktop, so it's mostly like using Vista or 7. Some of the new tools I'm discovering are pretty cool.

All in all, I'd say I'm mostly satisfied, so far. Windowed RWFF isn't so bad for me, because I can drop to 1280x1024 on the desktop whenever I want to play (old CRT monitor).

We'll see how it goes. If Paul manages a W8 fullscreen fix, so much the better!

Later!

Anguis

[Yellowstone7]

Hi Anguis:

Glad you liked the Windows 8 in general. It is a pretty smooth system but I hate relearning where everything is hidden. Seems they could have made it a little more intuitive than what they have now. You are probably one of the last Mohicans to be using a CRT monitor with a modern system! Those are hard to find these days. I take it you have a 32 bit system and both Windows7 and 8 take quite a bit of memory to run. I think 2 gigs minimum. Nice thing about the new 64 bit mother boards is they support a lot of memory which makes the graphics and speed better in general. Might be worth an upgrade in the future with memory so cheap these days.

When I have time I will go back and play with the new Windows 8 laptop and see if you can do some work on it. If not I will just give it to my wife who enjoys playing hidden object games and she will like the nice screen display.

Take care and keep in touch!

Regards,

Stanley

[Anguis]

You're right about things being hidden. The "Windows key-and-then-type in a search term to find what you want" action wasn't something I used very much in Vista (I think the only thing I used it for was pulling up the calculator). It seems MS is trying to habituate everyone in that direction. It's effective, but something I still need to get used to (the "no Start button" thing can throw you when you're looking for it).

As far as an upgrade, I'm always tempted! One of these days. . .