Vista *required* for Halo 2
- Thread starter RiO
- Start date
- Status
saumilsingh
Galvanizer
deathdemon89
Contributor
^ Halo 2 was originally for the XBox,I doubt 68XX cards won't support it...
Now where did I keep my plasma grenades...?
Now where did I keep my plasma grenades...?
Source : BBC
Halo fans will have to upgrade their computer if they want to follow Master Chief's adventures on the PC.
Microsoft has announced that the PC version of Halo 2 will only work on the new version of Windows called Vista.
The decision could make it expensive for many to play the game if they have to buy the new version of Windows and extra hardware for their PC.
Microsoft has given no definite release date for Vista but it is expected to be available by the end of 2006.
Power play
Deciding to make the best-selling Halo 2 Xbox game a Vista-only title is likely driven by Microsoft's desire to get people upgrading to the new version of the Windows.
Minimum specifications for Vista (formerly called Longhorn) will be released in the summer but information gathered from reviews of pre-release versions have given clues about its hunger for computer power.
With Vista, Microsoft has made big changes to the way it handles graphics. Unlike other versions of Windows, it will need an advanced video card to get the most out of it.
It is also likely to demand a lot of computer memory and a sizeable hard drive. While these requirements are likely to be met by dedicated players who want to get the most out of games, many less keen players could struggle to comply.
The decision to make only a Vista version of the best-selling Halo 2 game could significantly stunt the game's appeal.
The Vista edition of Halo 2 will offer single and multi-player versions of the game, extra maps from add-on packs as well as software tools to create new places to play.
To date Microsoft has sold more than 14.5 million copies of the Halo games. Players have also racked up more than 600 million hours of multiplayer Halo gaming on the Xbox Live service.
Halo fans will have to upgrade their computer if they want to follow Master Chief's adventures on the PC.
Microsoft has announced that the PC version of Halo 2 will only work on the new version of Windows called Vista.
The decision could make it expensive for many to play the game if they have to buy the new version of Windows and extra hardware for their PC.
Microsoft has given no definite release date for Vista but it is expected to be available by the end of 2006.
Power play
Deciding to make the best-selling Halo 2 Xbox game a Vista-only title is likely driven by Microsoft's desire to get people upgrading to the new version of the Windows.
Minimum specifications for Vista (formerly called Longhorn) will be released in the summer but information gathered from reviews of pre-release versions have given clues about its hunger for computer power.
With Vista, Microsoft has made big changes to the way it handles graphics. Unlike other versions of Windows, it will need an advanced video card to get the most out of it.
It is also likely to demand a lot of computer memory and a sizeable hard drive. While these requirements are likely to be met by dedicated players who want to get the most out of games, many less keen players could struggle to comply.
The decision to make only a Vista version of the best-selling Halo 2 game could significantly stunt the game's appeal.
The Vista edition of Halo 2 will offer single and multi-player versions of the game, extra maps from add-on packs as well as software tools to create new places to play.
To date Microsoft has sold more than 14.5 million copies of the Halo games. Players have also racked up more than 600 million hours of multiplayer Halo gaming on the Xbox Live service.
RiO said:LOL, don't tell me everyone's going to actually walk in to a store and buy Vista! That's what I'm talking about though... the alternate way of getting Vista is called piracy
thanx for the words of wisdom.
everyone knows tat already and i don think we need to promote that futher.
stormblast
Forerunner
tracerbullet
Explorer
Bluffmaster
Forerunner
deathdemon89
Contributor
Bluffmaster
Forerunner
Desktop Windows Manager
The next version of Windows brings an end to 20 years of 2D desktop rendering. Windows Aero is actually just a theme, or skin type, used by the Desktop Windows Manager, a new graphical system built into Windows Presentation Foundation. While Windows Vista is Microsoft's DirectX 10 vehicle, the 3D Desktop Windows Manager only requires DirectX 9.0. The switch to 3D rendering means that Windows will now finally have a use for that fancy $400 graphics card on the desktop.
The use of a 3D accelerator gives Windows Vista much more flexibility in creating imaginative interface displays on the desktop, such as animated wallpaper. In past Windows versions, the desktop could only display graphics in 2D. The youngsters may not believe this, but the very first 3D graphics cards were actually add-on cards that worked in conjunction with an existing 2D graphics card already in the system. The Windows Presentation Foundation uses DirectX to take advantage of your 3D graphics hardware to convert the 2D windows surfaces into textures that can be rendered onto the desktop.
Instead of displaying plain old windows, the new 3D user interface elements will be able to scale, rotate, and be manipulated with ease. The new desktop paves the way for new navigation features, like Flip3D and an improved Alt-Tab application-switching interface. Flip3D lets you navigate through all your application windows by pulling your open windows together and arranging them into a 3D rolodex format that you can cycle through and select by using your mouse or arrow keys.
The new Alt-Tab interface presents thumbnail shots of the contents of each window, as opposed to the Alt-Tab interface found in Windows XP, which only provides an icon of the program. As is the nature of beta software, nothing is set in stone; the look and functionality might change considerably.
Windows Aero
Aero is Microsoft's new default 3D desktop theme. Gone are the bright blues and smooth color gradients of Windows XP. The new transparent Aero theme features subdued colors and unobtrusive rounded corners ready for the Web 2.0 era. Transparencies and soft fade effects give Aero a polished look. The borders of each window blur objects lying under them, leaving the window you are working on in focus while giving you a hint of what lies beneath. It's all very pretty.
Mouse over a navigation button, and the button will glow and spill light onto neighboring windows or onto the background. New windows slowly materialize into existence, and, when minimized, they fade and shrink downward.
To accommodate for no-frills power users, Microsoft will include a classic Windows theme that closely resembles desktop elements found in Windows 2000. However, in our hands-on testing with Beta 1 we noticed that the austere theme doesn't feel as snappy as the Aero interface, which is strange considering that the Aero theme has a lot more visual complexity. We'll chalk that up to the beta status of the product--performance tweaks will likely wait until the end.
Graphics Card Requirements
Windows Vista doesn't have official minimum system requirements yet, but Microsoft has recommended at least 512MB of memory, a "modern" Intel or AMD processor, and a DirectX 9.0 graphics card for the current Windows Vista Beta 1. You'll need to have the right hardware to get the Windows Vista experience you see in all the pretty screenshots. Yes, your system can run Vista if you don't have a DirectX 9.0 card, but you won't be able to enjoy the full Aero desktop effect because the system will default back to 2D mode.
You can't have just any DX9-compatible card either. According to Andrew Dodd, product manager for ATI's software group, the quality of the graphics card can impact the performance of the Aero desktop because it's now just like any other 3D application. Using a new Windows Vista driver from ATI, we tested a handful of ATI DX9 video cards on Windows Vista to see if we could get the system to lag on the desktop. Our 256MB Radeon X1900 XTX and Radeon X850PE cards performed flawlessly when we dragged a window over 10 open Internet Explorer windows. Our 128MB Radeon X300 SE showed some slight hitching when we got up over seven windows, but we had to frantically whip around the mouse to make it noticeable--we wouldn't have seen any signs of strain with normal usage. Current discrete DirectX 9.0 video cards should be able to handle Aero without a problem.
If you're thinking about upgrading your video card for Windows Vista, consider waiting a little while for ATI and Nvidia to release their DirectX 10 graphics cards. DirectX 9.0 cards will work great on the desktop and in legacy DX9 games, but you'll need DirectX 10 hardware for advanced Windows Vista games.
tracerbullet
Explorer
Bluffmaster
Forerunner
saumilsingh
Galvanizer
^ For 'advanced' Vista games which Halo2 won't be. It looks only marginally better than Halo1.
Things will hardly be as drastic as people are thinking, anything over a 9500 will be fine for Vista.
The advanced DX10 games will obviously require better hardware but that has always been the case.
This is just Microsoft doing their 'our new os will change your life' bit.
It will be better than XP and MS is really pushing it as a gaming platform since they plan to port majority of the X360 titles. But non-gamers won't need a fast DX9/10 accelerator to run it as fast as an OS needs to be.
Things will hardly be as drastic as people are thinking, anything over a 9500 will be fine for Vista.
The advanced DX10 games will obviously require better hardware but that has always been the case.
This is just Microsoft doing their 'our new os will change your life' bit.
It will be better than XP and MS is really pushing it as a gaming platform since they plan to port majority of the X360 titles. But non-gamers won't need a fast DX9/10 accelerator to run it as fast as an OS needs to be.
This is the part that I hate about Vista. How will I enjoy games I'm playing when my OS and GFX card are too busy rendering 3D-windows and scrolling pop down windows. Is'nt an OS supposed to be efficient(as in not consume all my system resources that could otherwise be spent on games). I sure hope there is a way to turn this off like in xp.
Halo sold rather well on PC and I'm sure this will do the same a well. Not sure If I'll be getting one at launch itself though.
Halo sold rather well on PC and I'm sure this will do the same a well. Not sure If I'll be getting one at launch itself though.
- Status