Windows 8 and CloD (Merged Threads)

[Stormmaster]

Any news concerning the Win8 issue?

[mcdaniels]

...still waiting for the devs respond... will it come? ... or have they really focused only @BoM and CloD is "finished"?

[notafinger!]

Originally Posted by mcdaniels

...still waiting for the devs respond... will it come? ... or have they really focused only @BoM and CloD is "finished"?

Yes, that was made quite clear a long time ago.

[peku]

Same thing...waiting update

[Stormmaster]

Are there any plans to solve this? I didn't read anything about it.

[TheGrunch]

Slightly OT and on a similar vein to AirHog and co., I think the point is that whether you can install third party programs to bypass Metro and regain the start menu or not, what is the actual advantage to installing Win 8 for a PC gamer? I haven't heard of any or seen any, but I bet they lock the next version of DirectX to Win 8 and above as they did with DX10/DX11 for Vista and above. I'm sick of supporting Microsoft as they continue to lock me into OS upgrades that I don't really need in order to access newer games and do little else but make my life a pain in the arse with such "features" as the shallow copy of sudo that was User Account Control.

I heard they even tried to patent that decades-old idea just to add blatant patent trolling to the reasons I can no longer support them. Even then they did it wrong by requiring no user password to bypass UAC, so it was just an annoyance and not a security feature.

Don't get me wrong, I've been watching videos and taking a look at reviews and write-ups of Win 8 since it was first announced just out of curiosity, I just still can't see any advantage.
WinXP to 7 was a good upgrade because it gave me access to some features of modern hardware e.g. TRIM for SSDs, but other than that I can't think of another killer/must-have feature.
Homegroups was flaky, System Restore still doesn't work, Windows Easy Transfer didn't work from XP the one time I tried it, the Control Panel is now even less intuitive, with some features only available from hyperlinks on the sidebar of other menus (not to mention the fact that joystick calibration, etc. has been split out into the games menu), the OS is still hilariously insecure compared to every other and maintaining it is just no fun, with each clean install requiring nearly every incremental update rather than a new combined update.
Also, there is now a requirement to install the previous operating system when using an upgrade disc rather than simply inserting the older OS's disc to go along with the annoyance of activation.

Given that the only reason I even boot into Windows at home any more is to play games, and with Valve planning to port their games to Linux, I am a happy camper and will be very happy to finally put a bullet in my Windows install when the day comes that I am no longer playing games that don't work in WINE and aren't ported to Linux/OpenGL.
Hilariously, L4D2 runs faster in Linux/OpenGL on the same hardware as well, which is somewhat embarrassing considering that Linux development is a new thing at Valve:

"Running Left 4 Dead 2 on Windows 7 with Direct3D drivers, we get 270.6 FPS as a baseline. The data is generated from an internal test case.

When we started with Linux, the initial version we got up and running was at 6 FPS. This is typical of an initial successful port to a new platform.

...

After this work, Left 4 Dead 2 is running at 315 FPS on Linux. That the Linux version runs faster than the Windows version (270.6) seems a little counter-intuitive, given the greater amount of time we have spent on the Windows version. However, it does speak to the underlying efficiency of the kernel and OpenGL. Interestingly, in the process of working with hardware vendors we also sped up the OpenGL implementation on Windows. Left 4 Dead 2 is now running at 303.4 FPS with that configuration."

This experience lead to the question: why does an OpenGL version of our game run faster than Direct3D on Windows 7? It appears that it’s not related to multitasking overhead. We have been doing some fairly close analysis and it comes down to a few additional microseconds overhead per batch in Direct3D which does not affect OpenGL on Windows. Now that we know the hardware is capable of more performance, we will go back and figure out how to mitigate this effect under Direct3D."

[Source: Valve Linux ]

The only sticking point I can foresee for simmers is Linux/Mac OS drivers for TrackIR, because the lack of interest from NaturalPoint is obvious.

tl;dr

I can find no advantage in upgrading to Win 8. Every other major OS is still better for everything except gaming support and that is now rapidly changing because the biggest game distribution service is jumping ship.

[AirHog71]

I don't have Steam / CoD here at work, if anyone has some knowhow and has a Windows SDK installed can you run a program called ILDASM.EXE (usually in the \bin folder of the SDK), then from within ILDASM.EXE open up the launcher.exe for CoD and double click on manifest key.

You should see what .NET version is required in the text output (this is assuming the .exe is a .NET application of course)

You can view the manifest of any .NET .exe or .dll, this may help nail down the .NET issue with Win8 and CoD.

Just remeber each version of .NET is idenpendant of each other, i.e. .NET 4.5 does not include all previous versions. If an app was created in .NET 3.5 and the machine only has .NET 4.0 installed, the app wont run. The user would need to install .NET 3.5.

[jojimbo]

here's the manifest code: Net 4.0 by the look of it.

// Metadata version: v4.0.30319
.assembly extern mscorlib
{
  .publickeytoken = (B7 7A 5C 56 19 34 E0 89 )                         // .z\V.4..
  .ver 4:0:0:0
}
.assembly extern maddox
{
  .publickeytoken = (8B 68 39 72 5E 48 40 4F )                         // .h9r^H@O
  .ver 1:0:0:0
}
.assembly Launcher
{
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Reflection.AssemblyCopyrightAttribute::.ctor(string) = ( 01 00 1D 43 6F 70 79 72 69 67 68 74 20 C2 A9 20   // ...Copyright .. 
                                                                                                  31 43 3A 53 6F 66 74 43 6C 75 62 20 32 30 31 30   // 1C:SoftClub 2010
                                                                                                  00 00 ) 
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Reflection.AssemblyDescriptionAttribute::.ctor(string) = ( 01 00 00 00 00 ) 
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Reflection.AssemblyConfigurationAttribute::.ctor(string) = ( 01 00 00 00 00 ) 
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Reflection.AssemblyCompanyAttribute::.ctor(string) = ( 01 00 0B 31 43 3A 53 6F 66 74 43 6C 75 62 00 00 ) // ...1C:SoftClub..
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Reflection.AssemblyProductAttribute::.ctor(string) = ( 01 00 08 4C 61 75 6E 63 68 65 72 00 00 )          // ...Launcher..
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Reflection.AssemblyTitleAttribute::.ctor(string) = ( 01 00 08 4C 61 75 6E 63 68 65 72 00 00 )          // ...Launcher..
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Reflection.AssemblyTrademarkAttribute::.ctor(string) = ( 01 00 00 00 00 ) 
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Reflection.AssemblyDelaySignAttribute::.ctor(bool) = ( 01 00 00 00 00 ) 
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Reflection.AssemblyKeyFileAttribute::.ctor(string) = ( 01 00 00 00 00 ) 
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Reflection.AssemblyKeyNameAttribute::.ctor(string) = ( 01 00 00 00 00 ) 
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Runtime.Versioning.TargetFrameworkAttribute::.ctor(string) = ( 01 00 29 2E 4E 45 54 46 72 61 6D 65 77 6F 72 6B   // ..).NETFramework
                                                                                                        2C 56 65 72 73 69 6F 6E 3D 76 34 2E 30 2C 50 72   // ,Version=v4.0,Pr
                                                                                                        6F 66 69 6C 65 3D 43 6C 69 65 6E 74 01 00 54 0E   // ofile=Client..T.
                                                                                                        14 46 72 61 6D 65 77 6F 72 6B 44 69 73 70 6C 61   // .FrameworkDispla
                                                                                                        79 4E 61 6D 65 1F 2E 4E 45 54 20 46 72 61 6D 65   // yName..NET Frame
                                                                                                        77 6F 72 6B 20 34 20 43 6C 69 65 6E 74 20 50 72   // work 4 Client Pr
                                                                                                        6F 66 69 6C 65 )                                  // ofile
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Runtime.CompilerServices.CompilationRelaxationsAttribute::.ctor(int32) = ( 01 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 ) 
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeCompatibilityAttribute::.ctor() = ( 01 00 01 00 54 02 16 57 72 61 70 4E 6F 6E 45 78   // ....T..WrapNonEx
                                                                                                             63 65 70 74 69 6F 6E 54 68 72 6F 77 73 01 )       // ceptionThrows.
  .publickey = (00 24 00 00 04 80 00 00 94 00 00 00 06 02 00 00   // .$..............
                00 24 00 00 52 53 41 31 00 04 00 00 01 00 01 00   // .$..RSA1........
                E7 98 EB 75 11 26 5B 45 8D 28 F3 F0 39 5C E7 1D   // ...u.&[E.(..9\..
                77 80 D7 93 6D B4 11 5C B8 24 88 A0 47 A5 BE B6   // w...m..\.$..G...
                0E CE 1E 5D A1 CB 17 F9 2F B5 0D FF 59 08 6F 14   // ...]..../...Y.o.
                D3 F4 FE D1 78 5B 82 60 AF 49 A9 FF A5 67 C8 12   // ....x[.`.I...g..
                66 DC CA 26 1B 82 3E 5F DE C1 2C BE EA F1 7B 08   // f..&..>_..,...{.
                20 E1 70 2A FE F2 FA 15 47 9E 5A CB 24 B6 7A E7   //  .p*....G.Z.$.z.
                73 C3 C4 E0 51 A1 2E B9 3F A6 E0 1E 26 0B B3 5E   // s...Q...?...&..^
                2D 3D 91 81 6B 65 03 93 CA B6 48 D9 50 CB 2E C0 ) // -=..ke....H.P...
  .hash algorithm 0x00008004
  .ver 1:0:0:0
}
.module Launcher.exe
// MVID: {458DE738-7931-4000-A6B5-87E73479C4A3}
.imagebase 0x11000000
.file alignment 0x00001000
.stackreserve 0x00100000
.subsystem 0x0002       // WINDOWS_GUI
.corflags 0x0000000b    //  ILONLY 32BITREQUIRED
// Image base: 0x06030000

[Chivas]

Originally Posted by mcdaniels

...still waiting for the devs respond... will it come? ... or have they really focused only @BoM and CloD is "finished"?

I would imagine that the Sequel will be able to use Windows 8. Standalone COD is dead, but the Channel map in the Sequel will live on and prosper. Any fixes and features added in the Sequel will also apply to the Channel Map as well as any other map made for the Sequel. Its possible the devs and microsoft could make the Standalone COD compliant with Windows 8, but I'm sure the development has higher priorities right now. I have no idea if its a fix Microsoft has to make or the Development or both.

[AirHog71]

Ok so launcher.exe on it's own is targeting .NET 4.0 client profile, so it should run on Win8. It would pay to check the .dlls used in CoD and see if its the same.

I have been checking MSDN and I've read that in Win 8, .NET 4.5 has .NET 4.0 incorperated into it (this is a first).

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/a...ework-3-5.aspx

I wonder if there is an issue with that version of .NET 4.5

I bought Win8 last night to try it out for myself. After I restored CoD in to my Steam library and ran it, it went to install .NET 3.5, problem is the installer hung. I don't know if it was the installer or that my net connection was really slow as my kids were complaining they couldn't login to thier Minecraft accounts. I'll check it all again when I get home.