Anyone running SEV on Vista64?

I run Vista x64, and combined with an 8800GTS, I can't run SEV effectively. There's a problem, as I've been told by people who seem to be in the know around here, with the way SE:V and DirectX8 graphics work with Vista -- or.. something like that. Googling for DX8 and Vista problems will not help you at all; I've tried it, and either many old popular games that use DX8 have no problems or no one cares enough to of created sufficient stir to rank very well in the search returns.

At any rate, as of the latest patch for SE:V and the latest drivers from nVidia, my frame rates are still too low to be enjoyably played.

That said, your mileage may vary, but fair warning that it might not be smooth sailing. Apparently its not too bad at 1024x768, but if you're like me and have stuck with 1600x1200 as a gold standard for most of this decade, that might not flush with you either.

I'd keep the OS decision fixed as well, couldn't pay me to go back to XP, but just a chance you'll need that XP box for SE:V. I'm not sure if it's nvidia specific or if Ati/AMD shares in the grief -- I'd have to check old threads.

Based on the latest patch having a "DX10 Fix" or something of the sort in one of the config files, I'm under the impression that even though that didn't fix it that Malfador/Aaron is at least working on it. If someone like Kwok that knows of such things could pipe in with an update regarding this common Vista issue, that'd be mighty appreciated.

SE5 usually runs fine in windowed mode on such systems.. You can increase the resolution of windowed mode in data\HudSettings.txt, but there is no telling how much you can increase it before frame rates plummet like a lead brick.

When I tried using some debug settings added by Aaron with Vista 32bit, nothing improved even when I shut off every bit of rendering code save the basic frame-buffer loop. There's nothing specific about SE5's code causing issues in Vista (like the white flashes), so anything Aaron does (short of porting the code to DX10) will have to involve strange hackery to get around Vista's DX8 issues.

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I've tested this windowed method deal for the first time since this 1.63 patch and..

At first, I started a QuickStart standard SE5 game, Terran, and simply opened up Empire Options. 19fps. Which kinda sucks, mostly because the mouse movement isn't as natural as you'd expect.

Then I recalled a tip you'd find in another thread, Andy (there are several), where some people got relief turning of smoothed fonts in Vista. Did nothing for me in full screen, but..

The same above scenario, oscillates between 43 and 50fps.

Research screen, a little less forgiving, at 26 fps -- but it was a slide show previously.

Turning off smoothed fonts doesn't detract from IQ much outside the game, and doesn't disable Aero like disabling some other features do, so you probably won't miss it.

I haven't tested combat, but frankly, the worst drop off occurs as additional text is on the screen, so I don't foresee problems there.. Full screen 16x12 is still too much for it, and for whatever reason it has white flashes more often in full screen than in windowed. Windowed allows for easy multitasking anyway.

If you liked SE4, Andy, buy SE5, run it windowed and you'll be good. Oh, and turn off tooltip popups; not only are they annoying, but they crater the fps as well.

Thanks Fyron for pointing out HUDSettings.txt.

Edit: Started doing work without smooth fonts, and I take it back -- you very well may miss it Easy to turn back on, though!