Win8 and Disaster

[princep01]

Is it just me or is Win 8 the son of Satan?, I'm converting over to a brand new computer with Win8 vs. my old (really old) WinXP computer and War in the Pacific AE runs REALLY slowly. The screen scroll is ok when set at 1, but when I click on a unit to set its course or mission, it takes a second for the command screen to come up. Over the course of a turn this adds up to s significant time burden.

The old clunker never had such a problem. Click....and the command screen for the unit popped right up. What is causing this much more powerful computer to process so slowly?

Any thoughts would be appreciated

[bartrat]

What are the specs of your new computer? RAM (memory), hard drive size, video card and your current video settings?

[SuluSea]

Sure it will work. It needs to be in windowed mode or the game runs too slow.

For me using this command line works well enough to play as before..

"C:\Matrix Games\War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition\War in the Pacific Admiral Edition.exe" -wd -altfont -cpu2 -multiaudio -dd_sw -px1680 -py1050

Ship graphics jump when scrolling past yellow writing which is annoying I believe witpqs gave me a fix -nofire but can't find the post.

[koniu]

Upgrade to 8.1. I saw positive difference between Win 8 and 8.1
Also it looks that -dd_sw is doing good thing to game performance
Also -cpu2 (number is core number of CPU) is helping with performance. Game usually run smoother on single core.

I also experienced major stability improvement with latest 13.12 WHQL AMD graphic drivers if You have AMD GPU.

[princep01]

The computer has 8BG RAM, the HD is practically empty with a capacity of 1TB, the vid card is nothing great, but an INTEL HD Graphics card. Don't know the settings. All this stuff is plenty to run this program and it isn't all that graphics intensive.

Thanks Sulu, I think you have the right idea. I am not computer sophisticated enough to carry out the suggested changes, but know someone that is. I'll try that. The current situation makes playing the game intolerable. I might just play the game on my old computer and forget trying to accommodate Win8. That is if I can get the bios to load on my old one now. Geezzzzz!

As to an upgrade to 8.1...heck, I don't even know if I'll keep Win8. I is operationally so different looking I might go the other direction and retreat to WIN7.

Thanks to all for the quick comments. I think you guys have really identified the problem and it is the program vis the game design.

[koniu]

ORIGINAL: princep01

The computer has 8BG RAM, the HD is practically empty with a capacity of 1TB, the vid card is nothing great, but an INTEL HD Graphics card. Don't know the settings. All this stuff is plenty to run this program and it isn't all that graphics intensive.

Thanks Sulu, I think you have the right idea. I am not computer sophisticated enough to carry out the suggested changes, but know someone that is. I'll try that. The current situation makes playing the game intolerable. I might just play the game on my old computer and forget trying to accommodate Win8. That is if I can get the bios to load on my old one now. Geezzzzz!

As to an upgrade to 8.1...heck, I don't even know if I'll keep Win8. I is operationally so different looking I might go the other direction and retreat to WIN7.

Thanks to all for the quick comments. I think you guys have really identified the problem and it is the program vis the game design.

Windows 8.1 can start directly to normal desktop. It was first thing i do after i upgraded. After few days and few modification to Moder UI (as use it as desk with shortcuts to programs i use in daily basis) a finding win 8.1 more user friendly than Win 7 is. I have no problems with compatibility. only really old dx8 programs like WITPAE had some graphic issues but that i manage to fix

[witpqs]

These are the switches that I use on my Win 8 laptop. Some are personal preferences but others are performance related.

"C:\Matrix Games\WITP AE - PBM #1\Beta2\War in the Pacific Admiral Edition.exe" -altFont -archive -wd -deepColor -px1366 -py768 -fixedArt -noFire -SingleCpuOrders -cpu3

[princep01]

Thanks all for the responses. This is Princep's son - getting into Command Line prompts is a little beyond his ken. Sulu, I used the switches you showed and got the error message "Unable to find PW Area." I'm not familiar with the game, so I'm not sure what it's looking for there. Any ideas?

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: princep01

Thanks all for the responses. This is Princep's son - getting into Command Line prompts is a little beyond his ken. Sulu, I used the switches you showed and got the error message "Unable to find PW Area." I'm not familiar with the game, so I'm not sure what it's looking for there. Any ideas?

It sounds like you set the switches in the wrong shortcut. There is a set of three 'PW' files, the area file being one of them. That error would not crop up all on it's own unless that file vanished for some reason. More likely, you edited the wrong shortcut - a shortcut that is pointing somewhere else.

That's just a guess, but even if wrong might help you figure it out.

[witpqs]

BTW, you look a lot like your dad! [:D]

[princep01]

Hee, hee, he is big and balder than me, but still has the same wonderful disposition and bon home. Thanks witpqs. he is over at my daughter's right now, but I'll put him back to work on damage control when he returns.

[wdolson]

Your seeing the same multi-core problems many people see. I bet your XP machine was a single core processor?

There are a couple of bugs in DirectX that show up in the game. One bug happens with multi-cores and some video cards. The other only happens on Intel processors.

The forum has had several threads on this. I recall one in the last week or so.

For the record, I program Windows for a living and still use XP on my machines. I only use newer versions of Windows for testing. But then I can be kind of Luddite sometimes.

Bill

[Itdepends]

wdolson- you mean you've had some part in producing the new features in Windows 8?

Can you say Jehovah?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIaORknS1Dk
[:D]

[wdolson]

I just develop applications for Windows. I have no responsibility for any OS. At the moment I'm developing some industrial software for the integrated circuit industry.

I actually did do a stint at Microsoft, but it was back in 1998 and I was working on the Microsoft cordless phone. Microsoft has had a lot of failed products...

I was in the hardware division which is the house the mouse built. The mouse group had half the staff and most of the space. They were also fantastically profitable. There were a number of other projects like the Barney doll which had more technology in it than the space shuttle.

Win 98 was just coming out when I was there. I became a beta tester and my computer completely broke their install program. The technicians were figuring out that one for a while.

The hardware group didn't drink the Kool Aid like most of the rest of MS. There wasn't that much brand loyalty, but I overheard people from other groups talking about the ongoing Netscape court battle and they were behaving like they were personally under attack and it was completely unreasonable. (I was on Netscape's side and even had Netscape installed on my work computer. But I kept my mouth shut.)

It was a weird experience. For creature comforts, it was the second best work place I've ever been. I had an office with a door and the cafeteria was essentially several restaurants ranging from fairly good to excellent. The cafeteria also had the ambiance of a ski lodge. The corporate culture outside the hardware group was a bit odd though.

I have the best work environment now. I work at home and telecommute. The worst traffic problems I have getting to work have to do with the cat being under foot (which he loves to do).

Bill

[olperfessor]

Can one still buy Windows 7? That is, will the boxed system-builder still at Amazon do?

I now play WitPAE on my Macbook, using bootcamp and Windows 7, but I would like to start using my desktop again.

But my desktop's Windows XP has enough problems for me to need to start from scratch (WitP plays but the system is slow, won't shut down, etc.). Not having installation disks, and having it built by a company that did not include a re-install partition, I would like to buy and install Windows 7 -- not 8.

My desktop need only be used for a few games: WitPAE, IL2 1946, and maybe some Paradox games, e.g. Pride of Nations. Windows 8 and 8.1 sound wretched, and I am not a techie able to reliably tweak command lines.

Any advice (or fugetaboutits) would be appreciated. I think my system has plenty of memory and a decent video card, certainly good enough to WitPAE, as I have played it there.

Many thanks.

[wdolson]

You should still be able to get Win7. Microsoft is just ending support for XP this year.

Bill

[pws1225]

I have the best work environment now. I work at home and telecommute. The worst traffic problems I have getting to work have to do with the cat being under foot (which he loves to do).

+1 the next best thing to being retired!

[tdpyle]

I am running AE on Win 8.1 (unwindowed). Dual core Pentium processor @ 2.8 Ghz. Ho hum graphics. Setting the dd_sw switch helped a lot. Setting -cpu# and - SingleCpuOrders helped a little more. Response times are now good -- maybe a few milliseconds slower than they were with Windows 7. I previously ran AE unwindowed) on a Windows 7 machine with an AMD Athlon dual core processor @ 1.3Ghz and an Ion graphics processor. Ran well under Windows 7. Upgraded computer to Windows 8.1. AE ran slowly regardless of switch settings. My takeaway from this is that a reasonably fast processor speed for any kind of gaming in Windows 8 is important. Found this to be true for MWIF also.

[olperfessor]

Thank you, tdpyle. I will take a chance on Windows 8 (as a Mac user who has in the past suffered through several Windows versions, I hate to send any cash Microsoft's way, but . . . Let the games continue).

[tdpyle]

HP just announced that they are now offering Windows 7 as an option on some new consumer desktops and laptops due to the resistance of quite a few users to Windows 8.