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    Slow Games in Windows 8.1

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by Beyondo, Dec 4, 2013.

  1. Beyondo

    Beyondo Newbie

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    After getting a new Windows 8 laptop (and updating to 8.1 to get the start button back), I tried installing some older games that were working fine on my Windows 7 machine onto Windows 8.1. One in particular I really like is Midtown Madness, but I've just about given up on getting it to work properly.

    The problem is, in this particular game:
    * the text in the pick boxes (where you pick options of a popup list) is slanted at about 60 degrees and very hard to read,
    * the video output in the game stutters horribly, giving me about 1fps, @800x600 on a m760 (yes, a 13 year old game that ran superbly on a geforce2 32mb gtx on my old athon 850mhz is now giving my 1fps).

    The first problem is annoying, but I can sort of halfway read the text by straining my eyes, but the second problem seems to have no solution, other than running the game with a software renderer. The CPU is plenty fast to do that, but the problem then is that the game only offers low resolution and downgraded effects in that mode.

    At first I thought it must be my intel and/or nvidia drivers on the new laptop, so I updated them. I also installed directx 9.0c by downloading it from microsoft. No change. Then I tested the game inside two virtual machines using vmware--a Windows 7 VM, and a Windows 8.1 VM. So this comparison was on identical VMware virtual hardware, with stock drivers. Since VMware has 3d pass-through, the Windows 7 VM ran the game perfectly using the video card, no stuttering, but I saw the same problem on the Windows 8.1 VM as on the real machine. This means it's NOT a driver problem.

    Some further research seems to indicate that Microsoft has changed DirectX so that DirectDraw calls are now emulated, and I suppose 100X slower. (Or maybe this is wrong, but I can't figure out the stuttering problem.) I installed the "mouse fix" from microsoft but that didn't change anything.

    Wow, I don't support Stardocs has anything to solve this problem, huh? I wonder if they have a guy at Microsoft who's job is to intentional break stuff that users like in Windows 7?
     
    Beyondo, Dec 4, 2013
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  2. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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    Then your best bet is to run it in a Win 7 VM. Getting support for a 15 year old game on the latest OS is not going to happen. Your only hope is a GOG.com release of the game. Although I did enjoy that game a lot too. I wish they'd remake it.
     
    HTWingNut, Dec 4, 2013
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