This is one of those usual "Will X run on Y?" but with one of my usual twists.
I have a system whose dedicated purpose will be and only to run a very special VR headset.
The goal is to load up Steam and a few other games and program the tracking interface for the headset to feed the right commands to the games like Half-Life 2 (look left, gordon looks left, squeeze index finger in data glove, gun fires, etc).
Unfortunately the interface card is ISA and the (beta) drivers only work in up to Windows 2000 so I'm constrained to using older hardware so I tried to make he best of it and tried to make the most compatible (I'm multibooting 95, 98se, and 2000) and factest configuration I could.
As it stands:
Motherboard: AOpen AX34-U
CPU: Intel Pentium III 1.4ghz (tualatin core)
Ram: 1.5gb PC133 SDRAM
Video: Sapphire Radeon 9600XT (the 9600XT is the fastest AGP card I own that still works under 95, the rest won't)
So assuming the games will be playing at either 640x480 or 800x600, and graphics settings are all set to low, what's the most recent games I can run? I know that Half-Life 2 would be a piece of cake but what about Episode 2? Portal? Portal 2? There isn't much more I can squeeze out of this box unless I can find a newer board that supports faster memory, video, CPU, and on top of still supporting Windows 95, have an ISA slot.
Also, if it means anything, I do own a fair chunk of Valve's games in the older non-steam format (which makes it Windows 98 compatible too!)
Oh god, those specs...
Why don't you just try the games? :downs:
Also, you should try to see if there are PCI/USB adapterd for the VR... maybe it uses Parallel attached to an ISA card?
Steam doesn't even support anything under windows xp.
[QUOTE=.FLAP.JACK.DAN.;25338177]Steam doesn't even support anything under windows xp.[/QUOTE]
It seems to still behave on Windows 2000 which is no suprise since 2000 and XP are almost the same. Valve just does notpenly state it works on 2K anymore.
I can get the games running on Windows 98 without Steam using the older non-steam (copies that came on DVD or several CD's) copies. They are generally unpatched but they work.
[quote]Also, you should try to see if there are PCI/USB adapterd for the VR... maybe it uses Parallel attached to an ISA card?[/quote]
Forte Technologies went out of business before USB or PCI became really standard. A serial adapter exists however it's near impossible to find and nobody has ever bothered to make any sort of adapter.
I can't really try the games right now as I'm sourcing a hard drive to use. I know how they handle on newer systems but I need to know how the above mentioned games, or an other games, notably FPS games, would run on this specific system.
good thing you're trying this with valve games, for some reason they still work with the ancient DX versions found in the operating systems you're using.
anyway, hl2 and cs:s will be a piece of cake, maybe cs:s beta too, there isn't much improvement in the graphical department. if you're lucky, you'll be able to run an unpatched ep1 or left 4 dead, but anything on the ob engine will have some serious issues on that hardware.
[editline]12:03AM[/editline]
actually, how much vram does that 9600xt have? you may even have trouble with ep1
CS:S Beta is/was on the OB Engine? Isn't that the whole point?
yeah but there aren't any graphical improvements that would happen in the DX7/8 he'll be limited to.
Hhe Sapphire 9600XT had 256mb of VRAM which was enough for me to run HL2, lost coast, and deathmatch okay on my old 2ghz Athlon 3000 system.
I'm suprised that DX9 is supported under Windows 98 though I don't have a clue on what would be the max for 95 though by then it wouldn't matter anyways as 95 will mainly what I run DOS games and the really nostalgic stuff from.
Edit: Holy shit. Windows 95 OSR2 will support up to DirectX 8! :v:
[QUOTE=ButtsexV2;25339544] if you're lucky, you'll be able to run an unpatched ep1 or left 4 dead, but anything on the ob engine will have some serious issues on that hardware.[/QUOTE]
Left 4 Dead runs on a post-orange box version of the engine. And it only supports directx 9, so it's a no-go for him.
[QUOTE=kukiric;25342869]Left 4 Dead runs on a post-orange box version of the engine. And it only supports directx 9, so it's a no-go for him.[/QUOTE]
On 95 and 98, yes, but not on 2000.
You know, Star Trek: Elite Force 1 and II will probably run just fine on that. They also fit the VR scheme pretty good :3
[QUOTE=MIPS;25342367]
Edit: Holy shit. Windows 95 OSR2 will support up to DirectX 8! :v:[/QUOTE]
Will?
[quote]OEM Service Release 2 24 August 1996[/quote]
:raise:
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