Testing Valve Games on Vista Beta

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This space is for people (the user community) testing the compatibility and/or the performance of current Valve games as well as the Steam platform, on the next generation Windows.

Purpose

The idea is to help Valve optimize their games for the next consumer platform by giving them performance samples similar to what they gathered with their stress tests.

Current Vista

• Build 5342 (2006-03-24) - Staged build. Released on March 24, 2006.
• Build 5308.60 (2006-02-23) - Unstaged build. Released on February 28, 2006. This build was released as a result of Windows Server "Longhorn" having many issues. There are supposedly no changes to Windows Vista since build 5308.17, but some people claim that this build is "faster, smoother, and without memory leaks". There are staged and unstaged builds available - the default build is staged.

Forums (How to get the CTPs)

Steam Forums Vista Discussion

Drivers downloads

These are the latest drivers, but might be for an older Vista build. For each of the following set of drivers, please read the readme for the list of supported devices.

ATi Catalyst Video Drivers Catalyst Beta Driver for Windows Vista Build 5308 The OOB drivers for 5308 are the same as the drivers from ATI's website. Nvidia nForce System Drivers Nvidia nForce Intel/AMD Drivers 32 bit Nvidia nForce Intel Drivers 64 bit Nvidia Forceware Video Drivers Windows Vista x86 February CTP 32 bit Windows Vista x86 February CTP 64 bit Creative Sound Cards Creative Vista Drivers Availibility Chart

Results

nba1341 Game: : Counter-Strike: Source OS: Windows Vista Home Basic (6.0, Build 5308, x86) DX: Version 10 CPU: iP4 3.06 GHz 533 MHz FSB Video: NVIDIA Geforce FX Go5600 (Driver Version: 6.8.0.0) Memory: 1.25GB PC2700 DDR So-Dimm Video Settings Shader Detail: High Model Detail: High Shadow Detail: High Texture Detail: High Filtering: Triliniear Water: Simple Reflections AA: none VSync: off Average FPS 57.43 FPS (800x600) 39.58 FPS (1024x768) Priyajeet Game: : Half-Life 2: Lost Coast OS: Windows Vista Ultimate Edition (6.0, Build 5342, x86) DX: Version 10 CPU: AMD Athlon64 X2 4400+ 2.2GHz (Dual Core) Video: ATi Radeon X1900 XTX (Driver Version: 5308 Vista Beta) Memory: 2GB PC3200 DDR 2-2-2 Video Settings Shader Detail: High Model Detail: High Shadow Detail: High Texture Detail: High Filtering: Antistropic 16X Water: Reflect All AA: 6x VSync: Off HDR: Full (Where available) Average FPS 45.74 FPS (1280x1024) Comments Very minor texture corruption at places Pink textures still a problem

Suede Game: : Counter-Strike: Source OS: Windows Vista Home Premium (6.0, Build 5308, x86) DX: Version 10 CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.21GHz (Overclocked from 2.01GHz) Video: NVIDIA Geforce 6600GT (Driver Version: 6.14.10.8682) Memory: 1GB PC3200 DDR So-Dimm Video Settings Shader Detail: High Model Detail: High Shadow Detail: High Texture Detail: High Filtering: Antistropic 16X Water: Reflect All AA: None VSync: Off HDR: Full (Where available) Average FPS 60.22 FPS (1024x768)

Required

• Adding publisher details to steam client/game executables. Will help in publisher verification at Vista security checks.

Links

• Windows Vista
• MSDN Half Life Coding4fun
• WGF a.k.a Directx 10

Screenshots

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Videos

HL2 in a Window