In Depth: Which is the best Windows for gaming?
Games never run fast enough. As soon as you've got your system sorted some clever swine develops a game that strains everything to the max again.
In the never-ending quest for faster frame rates the graphic card has centre stage, rapidly followed by the processor. But there is another component staring you in the face that's a factor too: which Windows is best for gaming?
As you hurl yourself at the enemy lines, guns blazing, does it make a difference which version of Windows you are running? Does running a 64-bit version of Windows make any difference? If you are still running XP should you upgrade for faster gaming?
You may think that this question is an easy one, the newest version of Windows should be best, right? That would be too simple. If there's one thing we know about Windows it's that not everything is guaranteed to improve with each incarnation; sometimes it goes backwards.
There's only one real way to find out which version is best for games, we took what we see as an average game system: Phenom II X4 965 armed with a Radeon 5850 and 4GB of main memory, four versions of Windows and a small stack of games and benchmarking tools, formatted our drive and set about testing. And yes, it did take quite a long time and require considerable patience but that's why we are here. Let battle commence.
The big gaming component of Windows, of course, is DirectX that set of APIs sitting between OS and hardware. This is what finally prised gaming away from DOS, and we are jolly glad it did.
To those who fought to get any game running in the bad old days, punting DOS soundcard drivers into high memory and running the likes of QEMM – we salute you.
DirectX had a very shaky start. Microsoft's initial DirectX was finished in 1995, but didn't manage to crawl out of the lab. DirectX 2 was only allowed out on supervised visits, so it wasn't until version 3.0 that we finally got to see what the Redmond giant had planned for us all.
Version 4 was cancelled as well, and to be honest there have been a couple of howlers since this shaky start, not helped by the fact it was a total pain to uninstall. It's all much better now, and well it should be.
DX9 is capable and stable. Then you've DX10 and DX11 on top, with all sorts of fancy new effects. Why aren't all games using DX11 then?
Consoles. Big games demand big budgets and need big sales, which means cross-platform is the watchword. Since consoles are still DX9 (with the odd visual bell and whistle), that is where much of the game development is.
The full list of DX11 games is horribly short: DiRT 2, Alien vs. Predator, BattleForge, Metro 2033, STALKER: Call of Pripyat, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and not much else.
In the list of DX11 games to follow we have Civilisation V, Lord of the Rings Online, Battlefield 1943, Crysis 2, F1 2010 and so forth. Nice and all that, but hardly a massive choice.
DX10 support is thankfully much more prolific. A good gaming PC chews up and spits out consoles and there are some juicy titles that use the extra goodies a PC system can offer, but you'll be running DX9 games more often than might be expected. Thus DX9 performance is still very important when specifying a games system.
What the graphics cards boys do in the future is important here, if development is focused on running DX11, then DX9 will inevitably get pushed back. Currently Radeon's HD 5000 series (our faves) is still basically optimised for DX9, that can't last forever though.
Technical talk of polygon tessellation, Screen Space Ambient Occlusion and volumetric clouds are all very well, but when will we start seeing games that really take DX11? Such capabilities need to really spring out and catch you in your face before we can start unreservedly recommending DX11-capable systems. Until then it's a mixed-up crazy world.
Windows XP
A familiar and friendly face, Windows XP is still running on more machines than Microsoft would like. It does mean that you are limited to running DX9 games, but as we've already pointed out, for the most part this doesn't limit the games you can play that much.
Microsoft does have a great way of 'encouraging' use to upgrade though. It does this by easing back on support for older products, which forces everyone into buying the next version. Clever eh?
There is a 64-bit version of XP, but we decided to ignore it, as it is famously half-cooked, and the editor claimed it was "rubbish" (that wasn't the exact word he used). It has earned itself something of a poor reputation either way, and driver support as a whole ranges from inadequate to woeful. If you are going to go 64-bit, then there are two much more capable and up-to-date 64-bit versions of Windows to pick from.
The installation of XP went smoothly and fairly quickly, at first. Our disc contained Service Pack 1, and Windows was pretty sure we needed Service Pack 2, immediately. Perhaps this would get the graphics card driver working. Nope, that required .NET Framework 2.0, which required Windows Imaging Component first.
Thus began a nice round of updates and patches, which we stopped as soon as what we wanted working, was working. There was more to come, including a lot of security updates, and then came Service Pack 3. It didn't stop there either. Patching XP proved to be a long-winded pain that sees a once svelte operating system dragged down by more software sticking plasters than a self-conscious zombie getting ready for a date.
Windows Vista
Vista, while offering the usual host of 'benefits' trumpeted by Microsoft, was not generally loved on release. There's nothing majorly wrong with it as it stands now you understand, but it was buggy and barely functional at launch, and it wasn't the leap forward that Microsoft had promised and many of us had hoped for.
A whole bunch of those promised benefits proved to be cumbersome and not as compelling as the hype as well.
We started with the 32-bit version. Not the speediest of installations and it includes a couple of long silences with little on the screen to suggest that anything is actually happening, but for the occasional whirr of the drive.
We thought we had better patch it, and the 107 important updates that were initially reported took some time to chew through. The PC was left to run overnight, and we have a dizzying fast connection at PCF Towers. You have been warned. From this we learnt not to use Windows Update. Official Microsoft support for the original version of Vista stopped on the 13 April this year.
The 64-bit installation wasn't any more informative. Is it beyond the wit of Microsoft to make a status bar that doesn't stop at 0 per cent for forty minutes?
Using a 32-bit operating system does have one big disadvantage: it can only address 4GB of RAM. Under Vista 32-bit, our 4GB reported having 3.33GB or 3.25GB (depending on the reporting software), which left 2.55GB for Windows to skip and jump through. There's a pretty good reason to go 64-bit right there.
Windows 7
The best version since Windows XP in our humblest of opinions, Windows 7 installed easily and there were 'just' 32 important updates waiting for us. There is a 32-bit version of Windows 7, but what is the point of that?
There are several versions of Windows 7, depending on how much cash you want to splash out. Exactly which version to go for is a matter of taste (and cash), and if you don't like any particular aspect there are a multitude of tweaks to be made and utilities you can download to customise it.
Windows 7 holds your hand like a friendly uncle (the nice kind). Stray from the path to forge forward on your own, and it's so unhelpful it almost feels as if it is being deliberately obstreperous.
Windows XP's preference for the My Documents directory looks like a helpful suggestion in comparison to Windows 7's 'you must put your documents here or else. Installing Windows can be annoying to put it lightly, but thankfully you (generally) don't have to do it very much, so moaning about sloppy or slow installation procedures is fun, but no way to pick a version.
Each incarnation of Windows was subjected to a battery of games and benchmarks. The games were run in two configurations: a maximum setting with everything turned on or up to really stretch things, and a lesser setting, which is more of a match for a typical game setting.
What did we learn?
When we last looked at which version of Windows made the best gaming system Windows XP was top banana at DX9. And it still is. It's not top by a huge margin, but it is a significant one when you are trying to squeeze every ounce of performance out of a system.
Win7 hasn't managed to close the gap on the old timer. Switching to DX10 told a very different story. No XP here and the three versions left in the running (Vista 32- and 64-bit and 64-bit Windows 7) all crossed the line pretty much together.
Win7 coped with the higher demands of the maximum settings on Far Cry 2 better. Otherwise a draw.
DX11 testing came down to running DiRT 2's benchmark. Here we have a little oddity. Crank up the settings and Win7 falls behind. Running Win7 without everything on maximum and it's faster. Something fishy perhaps with the Win7 graphic card driver?
DX9 AND 11 SIDE BY SIDE: We still await the game that makes us all dribble slightly and demand DX11 or nothing
We believe the slower result is the odd one out and we're backing Win7 for DX10 and 11. if you've got the 32-bit version of Vista then put a paper bag on your head and don't remove it until you've upgraded.
You get all the disadvantages of a 32-bit OS, plus it's the slowest for gaming. Pah. Vista 64-bit is little faster for games, and offers access to oodles of RAM, so you don't have to wear a bag on your head. However, it's neither the best for DX9 or DX11.
If you have XP then fret not, you have a decent OS for games and until DX10 and 11 take off you are well set. Until the market is more established you won't miss out on top titles, they will still be DX9 compatible for a while yet. The limited memory addressing isn't ideal and you'll miss out on 64-bit programs, of course.
When the draw of DX11's lighting effects and physics becomes too much then jump straight to 64-bit Windows 7. If you have Win7 then you can enjoy the full spectacle of DX10 and 11 and have the best overall OS, if you can live with the fact that your DX9 games aren't necessarily giving you the peak of performance.
And there we have it. In an ideal world you would have XP for DX9 games and Windows 7 for DX10 and 11. Until DX9 games fade for good, it looks as if it'll stay that way too.
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In Depth: Is indie gaming the future?
Being blessed with a strong independent games industry has always been one of the PC's strengths. If you want to make a game, it's an open platform. There's no Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft to tell you that you can't do it, or anyone you need to suck up to for the tools. If you want to make a game then, dammit, you can.
Not only that, you can make just as big a splash as any of the biggest companies. The most attention-grabbing changes to strategy in the last few years for instance haven't come from a Command and Conquer or a Warcraft, but from the free Defense of the Ancients mod, and tower defence games.
NEW AND IMPROVED: Demigod isn't just an updated version of Defense of the Ancients, but that's definitely the core of its action
The casual market has exploded, to the point that previously top-tier designers, such as Brian Reynolds and Levelord are no longer chasing after the huge AAA dollar, but the millions of smaller dollars from games, such as Farmville and hidden object games.
At the same time, devices such as the iPhone have opened up a huge new audience of people willing to drop 50p to £10 on a whim, and one where the little guy can do just as well.
ANGRY BIRDS: The iPhone can be filled up with games with the same lack of financial concern as dropping 50p into an arcade machine
Take the example of Rovio. In 2003, it was three students with a game called King of the Cabbage World. By 2006, they were buying other mobile gaming companies. Now, its Crush the Castle-style game Angry Birds is on phones around the world, in all its sweetly frustrating glory.
Ages of independence
We're currently in a real golden age for independent games, with only one minor drawback – there are so many of them screaming for attention that many unfairly get overlooked or ignored.
Playing a Flash game on a portal such as Kongregate.com is quick, easy, and you're into the action almost as soon as you click on a link. Having to actually download a game almost feels like an inconvenience.
Actually playing a game, you're inundated with links to others, especially on the portal sites that use games to drive traffic to their adverts. When you find one you like, there'll be another along in seconds, tugging at your hand, wanting you to play in its own imaginative garden.
OLD SCHOOL: VVVVVV brings the frustration of games like Jet Set Willy to a whole new audience. And, in fact, the exact same audience too
For the most part, the ones that get attention are the ones that spread virally, typically via the blogs, and they usually go for a relatively small subset of what's available.
The constant flow of games mean that something with an instantly explicable gimmick will usually get far more attention than something complex and difficult to learn (a platform game versus an RPG, for instance) and free is always good, unless you're a developer eating ramen to survive.
Less immediately catchy games are frequently trapped in a niche of very specialised blogs and forums, which may not provide enough traffic to get enough people to pay up. Of course, getting cash has never been an easy thing.
The last golden age for the indie scene was the glory days of shareware, which began long before the internet made buying a new game a case of punching in a credit card number. The internet existed of course, but this was the early 1990s – it was still a dream for most UK gamers.
Instead, we had adverts for distribution companies in magazines, all proudly offering 'Try Before You Buy' software. For a couple of quid a piece, these companies sent catalogues and floppy disks stuffed with glorified game demos that could be anything from a few levels to a full game in their own right.
The idea was that you'd play this sampler, love it, mail off a cheque to the developers and – eventually – get the rest through the post. Needless to say, most people didn't actually bother with that last bit, at least not very often. It was easier and cheaper to get a stack of new games, and the generous size of shareware episodes compared to regular game demos made it a cheap way to fill your library. Still, many did.
ARTISTIC FLAIR: The glorious art of Machinarium makes it a must-play, even if we did find some of the puzzles a little on the annoying side
Unreal creators Epic, which started as Epic Megagames, began this way in 1991 with the text-best dungeon crawl ZZT, before going on to publish other peoples' games, such as Tyrian and Jazz Jackrabbit.
Doom creator id software began life making platform games with names such as Rescue Rover and Dangerous Dave, before discovering a knack for 3D shooters with Hovertank and Catacomb 3D, and bringing the world Wolfenstein 3D and one of the most important shareware games of all time, Doom.
DOOM: It's tough to remember, but id wasn't only an indie developer once, but a shareware company that specialised in platform games
Independent games never went away, but they became temporarily less relevant after this. New technology such as 3D accelerator cards raised the bar in terms of what gamers expected, and made creating an industry-shaking game that much harder.
Instead of original games, attention primarily shifted to mods – levels, total conversions and other experiences built onto the top of existing games and engines, particularly from id and Epic.
In the last few years, the pendulum has swung back, mostly because of the popularity of tools like Adobe Flash, and the wide availability of game making tools, such as Adventure Game Studio, Blitz Basic and Game Maker. Why would you limit yourself to the audience of an Unreal game when you can use Unity 3D and actually sell your hard work?
Independent games' most valuable asset is that they don't have to sell millions of units to be successful, which lets creators both target smaller niches and experiment with more interesting ideas than big publishers' games.
Inventive, completely creative games like Psychonauts or Startopia usually die in the market, no matter how good the names attached to them, or how much everything from reviews to other gamers scream to give them a chance. Instead, what the industry considers an innovative game is typically doing something safe with bolt-ons.
Bioshock, for instance, is a beautiful corridor shooter, but it's still just a corridor shooter. New genres, like the way Mirror's Edge turned parkour into a first-person experience, are spectacularly rare.
For something like Zeno Clash, a first-person melee combat game set in an organic world ruled by a depraved hermaphrodite, or The Void, in which you're a dead soul gathering colour in a purgatory filled with naked ladies, you have to go indie. On the plus side, both of these did get worldwide publishing deals. There's always hope.
Art games are a particular speciality of modern independent developers, using the language of gaming to tell stories and tap into emotions beyond alien invasions and bloodthirsty revenge. Some are narrative based, such as Digital: A Love Story (www.scoutshonour.com/digital), but others are masters of using abstract concepts to convey mood and feeling.
EVERSION:Eversion can be played as a metaphor for… well, you'll have to play it
Eversion for instance can be played as both a straightup platform game, and as a metaphor for… well, that would be giving it away. Download it from zarat.us/tra/offline-games/eversion.html. Don't Google it first.
We'll highlight one more here – Loved. It's an incredibly simple platform game on the surface, and a mean-spirited one. From the moment you start, it belittles you, gives you orders, questions your man/womanhood, tries to force you down difficult paths instead of taking the easy route, or simply expresses power by telling you to stop moving.
Whether you obey or rebel alters the level in subtle ways, neither right nor wrong. Is the voice showing tough love, or just being cruel? Is it worth harming your own progress just to spite it? The more you rebel, the harder the game becomes, but the more the originally monochrome graphics begin sparkling with colour.
With full subservience comes an easier path, but one forever cast in shadow. If art makes you think, games like this demonstrate that yes, games can be art.
The independent look
Art is however a growing problem for independent games that are being developed now. As much as people claim that gameplay is more important than graphics, and as popular as simple pixel art and the retro look is in games like VVVVV (thelettervsixtim.es) or Spelunky (www.spelunkyworld.com), production values are important.
SPELUNKY: Look at it. You will love it. You will hate it. It will beat you. You will return to it
A game has to look like it's worth the money being charged, especially with games like World of Goo (www.worldofgoo.com) and Braid (www.braid-game.com) very publicly raising the bar.
The trouble is that these things don't come cheap. Braid for instance looks like a cheap game, coded and designed by Jonathan Blow, but in practice it had a claimed budget of $180,000 and spent three years in development. Designers may work for love, but contractees usually want cash.
BRAID: The time-travelling platformer, Braid is easily one of the most ambitious indie games of the last few years. But what does it all mean?
The silly approach is to try and take on the likes of EA and Ubisoft with a tiny fraction of the budget. Instead, there are three basic schools of thought – to actively not care, to bite the bullet, or to find a new style that nobody else has used, making your game stand out of the crowd by default.
Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software is one of the former kind, having spent the last ten years using the same basic engine and artwork for his games and relying on the fact that people who want to play traditional RPGs aren't usually graphics junkies.
The art is representational and simple, the interface not very pleasant, but get past that and you know you're in for a great game – especially in the Geneforge games. His next world, Avadon, sees a graphical level-up, but not one you're going to mistake for Dragon Age any time soon.
Dave Gilbert of Wadjet Eye Games is a great example of the second school of thought. While making his freeware adventures, Microsoft Paint was sufficient. When he moved into making his games commercially, it was time to start contracting out.
Adventures rely on graphics, character design and animation much more than RPGs, especially if they're going for atmosphere, like his main series has, the wonderful ghostly mystery series The Blackwell Legacy. Compare the graphics of its effective pilot episode, Bestowers of Eternity, with the gorgeous painted art of the latest instalment. Money well spent.
THE BLACKWELL LEGACY: Creating atmosphere this detailed can cost money
As for the third style, they don't come much more impressive than Love – a beautiful, procedurally generated MMO written by just one man, Eskil Steenberg. Its painted, abstract worlds are instantly recognisable, and unlike anything else out there. Other approaches include olde-time noir style of The Misadventures of P.B.
From here to there
One of the main reasons that independent games are having to step up is that the distance between them and standard commercial games is drawing ever thinner. Instead of being in two separate worlds, the move towards digital distribution means that they're both fighting in the same arenas.
On Steam, a multi-million dollar game and a one-man design may not be quite equal, but they're damn close. On Xbox, the dedicated Live Arcade section still segregates 'proper' games from homebrew titles, but the fact that both are in the same store clearly points the way forward.
Digital distribution services like this also offer a number of bonuses over going it alone, including not having to persuade customers to hand over their payment details to someone they don't know, and catching the browsing audience who just wants to play a new game while waiting for the next big releases.
Going digital also offers lots of potential for new business strategies. Eversion, for instance began as a free downloadable game, but is now available commercially with better graphics.
CHANGING THE GAME: World of Goo began as a tech-test, Tower of Goo
Games that have been out for a while can return in force with a clever marketing gimmick, such as the recent trend of 'pay what you want' schemes. World of Goo, for instance is usually $20, but for a brief period, creators 2D Boy let people pick their own price. The average paid was $2.03, but with over 57 thousand people taking 2D Boy up on its offer, the result was a solid stack of cash – especially compared to the nothing that they'd otherwise have been pulling in.
A more recent collection of games, The Humble Indie Bundle, offered a similar pay-what-you-want for a collection of variably old games that have long since faded from mass attention, pulling in $1,273,613 (of which 30 per cent went to charity, a split chosen by the purchasers when choosing how much to pay).
The price of freedom
One of the most interesting things about the current indie market is how much people in the industry are starting to gaze longingly in its direction. As teams get bigger, individual contributions and input become less, and for people who got into the industry to make games, the freedom to make what they want is highly compelling. Lest we forget, for every Sid Meier, there are hundreds of programmers and artists slaving away on a bad movie licence or generic sequel.
The tools are now available to let artists script games, or programmers create art, and more importantly, keep the profits instead of drawing a salary. It's a risk, but if you've got to go down, you may as well do so doing something you love.
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Guide: Build a Magic Trackpad-style controller for your PC
Using a few simple tools we'll show how you can create your own multi-touch Magic Trackpad-style controller for your PC - although admittedly slightly larger than Apple's little trinket.Now, you're able to download the software to implement a multi-touchand Windows 7 is set and ready for your fingers, but it's the hardware interface that's the tricky part.
There are a number of approaches to creating a multi-touch surface, we're opting for the most basic one, but at its heart it's using the same detection software and pointer driver as any other system.
For example, you can go the whole hog and set up a surface with side IR illumination and either rear or front projection. This is a little more convoluted and you require multiple layers to help reflect the visible light and the IR light over the surface.
Our version uses the minimal number of components based on just detecting finger movement and placement from the shadows cast by your fingertips.
This basic system works by placing a clear perspective sheet covered by a sheet of paper over a webcam. All constructed over a box for ease of use The system will work well enough with the natural light in the room, but it does throw up the possibility of projecting the screen image onto the surface and having an interactive table surface.
The best place to pick up Perspex sheeting is still eBay and a 40 x 30cm sheet should cost about £6 including p&p. Besides that costs should be next to nothing.
What you will need
Picture frame
Cardboard box
Paper
Perspex sheet
Webcam
1. How to get touchy-touchy Seriously, is this lot going to become a multi-touch surface? We hope so.
2. If you want a neat finish, measure the Perspex sheet to the size of the frame.
3. You can then cut it to fit.
4. Trim and tape plain laser printer paper to the sheeting, it shouldn't be too thick.
5. Hopefully you'll get a neat picture-frame finish.
6. This is an exciting photo of a cardboard box. For this to work you'll want it to be 30cm high, a wine box would work well for some reason we have a lot of those.
7. Pop a hole in the side of the box and secure the webcam to the base. You'll still need to be able to focus it.
8. Never has such high-tech kit graced PC Format towers.
9. Now the clever bit. Head to ccv.nuigroup.com and download the Windows software. Extract it, locate the Community Core Vision executable and run it.
To start click the 'Use Camera' setting at the top left. Make sure the 'Amplify module' is active. Adjust the 'Tracked Image' sliders so only your fingertips are detected and selected.
Pay attention to the minimum and maximum blob size, as the outlines in the left display are the actual selected areas.
10. The system seems to work best with flat, consistence lighting. Make sure you save the settings but leave the program running.
Using the Communication section you can pass tracking information to various programs, such as Flash-based ones. Grab the Flash examples from ccv.nuigroup.com or the Windows mouse driverand have fun!
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