Windows 7 Adds few Pro's to PC Gaming

Overheal

According to Kotaku,

Kotaku.com wrote:

n 2006, then Microsoft Vice President Peter Moore apologized for what he called a dereliction of duty to the company's number one gaming platform: The PC. Now more than three years after promising, and some say failing, to deliver a PC gaming renaissance with the Vista operating system, Microsoft is set to roll out Windows 7.
But this time there are no apologies or promises. PC gaming, it seems, has taken a back seat.

When Windows 7 goes on sale on Oct. 22, PC gamers will have little reason to run out to buy it, says Matthew Murray, managing editor of ExtremeTech.

"I don't think there's a lot about (Windows 7) that's going to make it that much more compelling to gamers than Vista," Murray said. "It's a bit better using memory, and it's a bit faster in certain areas, but the performance overall isn't really that much different. If you have Vista and you're happy with it, you can probably keep it, at least for now."

To be fair, much of that promised renaissance in 2006 was tied to the Games for Windows initiative, which launched alongside the Windows Vista operating system.

While the two hit at the same time, they're not directly connected.
The biggest idea behind Games for Windows was to make it easier to play games on your PC. This was done by creating a set of criteria that computer games needed to meet to have the Games For Windows label on their box.

Those criteria included compatibility, easy installation and including parental controls. There were also a number of neat ideas tested out, but never fully realized. Most computer games require an installation before playing, but the Tray and Play option was meant to allow gamers to pop a game in their computer and start playing almost immediately, similar to what most console gamers experience now. Unfortunately, only one game, Halo 2 for the PC, currently uses this system.

The most noticeable way in which Vista and Games for Windows crossed over was the operating system's Game Advisor and Games Explorer.
The Game Advisor ranks a person's computer and available games making it easier to tell if a title would play on a PC.

The Games Explorer was meant to collect all the games installed on a computer and display them in one folder. It's here that Window 7 does bring a modicum of improvement for gamers.

One of the biggest issues with Games Explorer was that it often didn't detect games that were purchases through online retailers and providers like Steam.

While Windows 7 still doesn't seem to include Steam in the Game Explorer, it now has the ability to if the company wants to support the service. If a game provider does choose to be listed in the Game Explorer, computer owners will be able to view news from the service and information about the service's games, all inside the window.

Another update to Games Explorer allows you to be notified when a game you own has an update or patch and then install the update from the explorer without having to launch the game.

Finally, Games Explorer will track statistics for the games you play, showing you how many times you've played, how long and your win and loss ratio.
Currently only the included games seem to support this function, but I'm sure more will include it after the operating system officially launches.
Murray says the only improvement he can find in Windows 7 for gamers is in the Games Explorer, but even he doesn't find it that useful.

"Being able to check for updates for all your games in one interface is a nice feature, but since it doesn't install the updates automatically (the way Windows Update itself does), I don't know how useful that's going to be to a lot of people," he said. "And I've never gotten that into using the Games Explorer anyway—I tend to just add icons to the new taskbar, as with everything else. Aside from that, there aren't a ton of game-friendly changes I've come across."

The problem I have with Windows 7, though, isn't its failure to vastly improve the gaming experience, it's Microsoft's failure to take advantage of the attention brought by the launch of a new operating system to once more thrust PC gaming into the spotlight.

The biggest promise the Games for Windows initiative made when it initially was unveiled was that it would be backed by a huge marketing campaign, one similar to the push Microsoft gave the Xbox 360 when it hit.
But that was never fully realized and PC gaming was left to suffer as a second favorite system next to the Xbox 360 and Microsoft's continued marketing blitz for its gaming console.

In the vacuum left by Microsoft game developers, chip manufacturers and PC builders have come together to try and reinvigorate PC gaming though the PC Gaming Alliance. But even this effort seems oddly absent during Window's big week?

If Microsoft want its PC gaming platform to thrive they will need to do more than offer lip service in the future. But with the lasting success of the gaming console and PC gamers' ability to seemingly put up with anything, why should they?

Microsoft declined to comment for this article.

Even though its a familiar concept, I never have heard the term Tray and Play. I didn't even think it was possible to do, tbph. And most console gamers will laugh back saying 'More like Pray and Play'.

Still the article's right. Gaming advancement, Vista and XP are not. Its a great step up for Personal Computing dont get me wrong, but in-game its true, it offers few benefits.

The only one I can personally think of, is Windows 7 has by far the best device support (....you heard me!) - Under vista/xp if I plugged in USB Headphones, I use to have to shut down whatever program I was using (be it a media player, firefox, or left 4 dead) and go through the pain in the ass of restarting. This was especially bollox if the USB became unplugged in the middle of a fragfest. Under 7 this is no longer a problem, and sound switches over to the USB headphones seamlessly.

I think the real question Microsoft needs to ask themselves, is do they have the balls to come out with a purified gaming OS or Gaming Mode. Need not be fancy. Like Safe Mode with Networking and better resolution. Snap. Even at that, you've got a slick running monster. If you wanted to go farther you could bring us Tray and Play.

But microsoft being microsoft, I deeply suspect that will fall on deaf ears well into the next decade.

Retr0gamer

Gone are the days when Bill Gates advertised Windows 95 by running through doom blowing away imps

SeantheMan

I don't, nor have I ever, in all my time gaming seen a need for what you call "gaming mode"

Most users, if were they were so inclined would have 2 user profiles.
One standard, and one for gaming.

If you go into services and processes and remove all uneccessary items that are not required for gaming your machine will run at peak, or what you'd call gaming mode.

Personally I have removed most if not all uneccesary items from my startup/services "msconfig" so I don't need to deal with Apple updates this, and xfire loading that, and steam and so on etc starting when i load up

And on windows 7, i like it, really like. I've only had 1 or 2 niggles with it though up till now...that is when i put in my earphones my mic doesn't seem to work (forcing me to play matches on XP). Aside from that its excellent

BopNiblets

Used Vista and Windows 7 over the last few years, never once used Games Explorer and Games For Windows Live is a crock of horse dung really, especially for GTA IV which just delayed everything.
For Batman Arkham Asylum it was ok but still it's just more bloat.

gizmo

It's unfortunate that he chose not to highlight XP Mode which I find to be a huge advantage for gaming on Win7. That being said, it's probably it's lack of inclusion in home desktop versions of the OS that made them thinking twice about talking it up.

Menengroth™

on Windows Vista Ultimate atm, and while its pretty good and looks a lot better than XP i'm definitely moving to Win7 Ultimate when I can get my hands on it and they release all the drivers for my laptop, a lot better performance over Vista I hear, and even over XP.

also, **** Games for Windows Live.

Polar101

Menengroth™ wrote: »

a lot better performance over Vista I hear, and even over XP.

That sounds like a marketing scam to me. The one Vista vs 7 test I read said 7 started a couple of seconds faster, but starting programs was slower and there was no noticeable difference (1-2%) in performance.

savemejebus

gizmo wrote: »

It's unfortunate that he chose not to highlight XP Mode which I find to be a huge advantage for gaming on Win7.

Isn't XP mode gimped when it comes to accessing the gfx card due to hardware virtualization issues? I remember something about it coming up at the Win 7 launch in DIT last week.

StopNotWorking

savemejebus wrote: »

Isn't XP mode gimped when it comes to accessing the gfx card due to hardware virtualization issues? I remember something about it coming up at the Win 7 launch in DIT last week.

It's the same for any VM software, GPUs get very very little use. I'm not too sure why but I believe it's to do with the drivers and how they interact with the OS. Then trying to change that tight interaction between them so it works on the VM is supposedly quite hard with the way drivers are designed.

Either way I don't really see the point in customising an OS to someones needs. I'm all for making it good for everyone and then letting third party devs do their own thing. Steam+Win7 and I love it, integrating a package like steam into windows would make MS a killing, something like live(stop laughing) but more PC orientated. That I could buy into, but not OS tweaks and the like, I see very little point in them. If you are having trouble playing a game it's very rarely going to be because of how many other processes you are running.

Menengroth™

Polar101 wrote: »

That sounds like a marketing scam to me. The one Vista vs 7 test I read said 7 started a couple of seconds faster, but starting programs was slower and there was no noticeable difference (1-2%) in performance.

didn't hear it from MS sources, have the RC on a seperate partition and it seems pretty damn good and is quite likely to get better, XP was terrible for years until they released SP2 and it became the OS we all know and love, so i have big hopes for 7!

Polar101

Menengroth™ wrote: »

didn't hear it from MS sources, have the RC on a seperate partition and it seems pretty damn good and is quite likely to get better, XP was terrible for years until they released SP2 and it became the OS we all know and love, so i have big hopes for 7!

It just seems almost completely alike to Vista to me, so I can't help to feel that MS just changed the name and a did a few tweaks - because Vista got so much bad publicity. I run Vista currently, and wouldn't mind upgrading to 7 if it is significantly better. It just doesn't seem very different to me at the moment.

StopNotWorking

Polar101 wrote: »

It just seems almost completely alike to Vista to me, so I can't help to feel that MS just changed the name and a did a few tweaks - because Vista got so much bad publicity. I run Vista currently, and wouldn't mind upgrading to 7 if it is significantly better. It just doesn't seem very different to me at the moment.

The best example I found between the two was checking the amount of threads running on my desktop and my OHs laptop, she has Vista home premium x86 and approx 980 threads running at once(With the OS, msn messenger, AV client+firefox). I have around 800 threads running on Build 7100 x64 with even more applications running(Addition of steam,xfire,ventrillo and proprietary software for my mouse+keyboard) Maybe it's just that 7100 is very stripped down but the numbers alone really startled me.

Steffano2002

Windows XP FTW!!!

ScumLord

I never really used vista, I couldn't get my wireless adapter working on the trial and with all the bad press it got I wasn't to bothered about it. I'm still on the Win7RC but I have the full version ready to be installed and even the RC is amassing, it's much better than XP, the games I've tried so far (GTA4 and ARMA2) definitely run smother under Win7.

I'm always amassed by how quick it boots. I still use an XP machine at work and it's painful how slow it is compared to Win7.