Astrotoy7 Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 This was posted over at the tech forum, but should be of sufficient interest to the general KOTOR loving crowd that live here at AHTO. There are varying reports of 'KOTOR in W7' around the web, though many of the ones Ive encountered were for earlier builds of W7, which did not have full featured graphics driver support. * * * KOTOR 1+2 in Windows 7 Report: I've finally gotten around to trying Kotor 1/2 in Windows 7 Here are the latest results if you're interested... *Build tested: Windows 7 Release Candidate (32 bit) *Basic specs: AMD 3.0Ghz dual core, 3GB RAM. EVGA 8800 GTS 640MB *Graphics drivers: nvidia geforce 185.81 windows 7 32 bit drivers *Game versions: KOTOR 1+2: Original discs (didnt apply any patches or fixes) *Direct X Version Note: Windows 7 comes with DX11, but with more comprehensive backward compatability, including for wayward DX9 titles like KOTOR. ie. you do not have to install directX again when running these games in W7. *Installation notes: setup.exe on install disc(one) was launched in XP Service Pack 2 compatibility mode. Nb. THE FIXES REQUIRED IN VISTA ARE NOT REQUIRED ON WINDOWS 7 = \o/ *Running the game: Did not need to set XP compat mode. Launcher starts as normal Did not try update through launcher. *Performance: played each for an hour. Worked great Just one tiny thing, pressing esc before the opening scroll starts for the opening ('a long time ago...') cutscene kept jumping back to the desktop. Once you let it run for a couple of secs, it stopped doing that Here's a screenie of K2 in windowed mode within W7 If you try it on W7, feel free to report back, stating what hardware and graphics driver version you are using. All in all, good news for KOTOR fans !! With regards to W7 specifically, RTM(Release to Manufacturers) build is being released july 13 for deployment on new machines. Retail release will be October 22nd. There are many discount upgrade plans being offered. If you have any further questions about Windows 7, feel free to ask them at the fantabulous ..... Tech Forum ! mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prime Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 OMG Yay! Not as technical as your post Astro, but that is how I feel. Looking forward to enjoying more KOTOR goodness on Windows 7. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aash Li Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 I should try kotor 1/2 again... I could barely play it on my old system. :x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jae Onasi Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 This is excellent news! I've been looking at upgrading to 7 and was hoping we didn't need 18 zillion fixes to get the games to work. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TriggerGod Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Just a note: If you already have installed K2, (I haven't tested K1) you won't need to install it again for Windows 7. I installed TSL on XP, before I started cleaning my HD for W7. After I got it, I assumed that because W7 was basically an upgrade to Vista, I would have to get the Vista fix. Turns out I didn't need to. Some of your settings (graphically) might be lost, as when I tested it, the text was much bigger then it was on XP, and I think the skins were slightly less then top quality. (of the skins provided in game, that is...) Heres what you do. Because you don't have a shortcut that'll take you to the launcher, you can just open your KOTOR directory, (not on the disk, on your actual HD) and find the swkotor2.exe file. Run it, and then exit Windows Explorer. (which, compared to XP's, I do not like...) The game will bypass the launcher and go straight to the LA/Obsidian logos. I didn't run the game in XP compatibility at all, so there were a couple of issues I found when I was playing around with some mods. Mainly, if, when you load a save game, you might have to start pressing random keys on your keyboard. I'm not sure why it did that, but I fixed it by pressing a certain button. Since I hit the keyboard randomly, I can't remember which key it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceAlex Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Works great here (W7 64-bit), though K1 (K2 works fine) seems to be having some problems at playing a sequence of BIK videos (like the game freezing ). I managed to fix that by hex editing some values in swkotor.exe responsible for BIK video's in-game resolution. I made it match my desktop res (widescreen), and this seems to have fixed the problem. Of course, you can just disable the movies altogether (which I'm sure many of you do), but I prefer to have the in the game. EDIT: It appears that I also need to set swkotor.exe to Windows XP SP2 or SP3 compatibility mode, or the saved games loaded from the module will sometimes fail to load and I'm forced to close (ALT+F4) and restart the game. If running in the WinXP compatible mode, this bug disappears. K2, on the other hand, seems to be running without problems of any kind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glovemaster Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 KotOR 2 is working perfectly on Windows 7 for me, no problems at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JesusIsGonnaOwnSatan Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 hooray! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnderWiggin Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 This is excellent news! I've been looking at upgrading to 7 and was hoping we didn't need 18 zillion fixes to get the games to work. Thanks! Exactly. _EW_ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astor Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 This is great news, not just for playing KOTOR without a mass of fixes, but also, hopefully other games that were previously headaches on Vista might work well on 7 too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted July 8, 2009 Author Share Posted July 8, 2009 hoping we didn't need 18 zillion fixes to get the games to work. Thanks! Exactly not just for playing KOTOR without a mass of fixes... lolz... it must be International Hyperbole Week! There was was ONE fix worth a grand total 372Kb to download. Deployment instructions are the same. Although I didnt *run* the game in compat mode, its probably a good idea to ensure DX9 conditions as DX updates ensue within RTM/Retail builds. There other unstested issues lurking out there... which may prove equally hazardous as they did in Vista eg, securom/direct download versions/mounted backup images. I have not tried anything outside of a standard install, no mods, patches etc. My description applies only for the above conditions Ive described. Someone could try it under other conditions and get less pretty results. Making the jump that W7 has cured all your backwards compatibility blues is somewhat foolhardy I definitely dont recommend making a purchase decision on those grounds alone. 'Tis a roll o' the ole dice mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Betrayer Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 KOTOR in Win7 for me was crashing every 5 minutes. We can't all be that lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Keep in mind that Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate have a complete install of XP built-in that can be run on a virtual machine. Your CPU should have a virtualization technology feature like Intel's VT to take advantage of it, but there may be a workaround available in the future. Windows 7 Pro and Ultimate will eliminate any reason to set up a dual-boot with XP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted July 8, 2009 Author Share Posted July 8, 2009 KOTOR in Win7 for me was crashing every 5 minutes. We can't all be that lucky. Whilst unfortunate for you Darth Betrayal, this illustrates my point ! My positive results are best applicable to the conditions I tested in! (ie, my specs) *What are your specs ? (esp. graphics card and driver version) *What build are you using ? *Did you deploy an upgrade install? Windows 7 Pro and Ultimate will eliminate any reason to set up a dual-boot with XP. This depends on how robust DirectX9(and less) graphics compatibility is. High end DirectX graphics are not applicable in virtualised environments - hence if you have a game or graphical application that DOES work in XP, but doesnt in W7, the virtualised XP will be of no help. In this instance, if you really want to use that game/app, a dual boot is unfortunately the only option. The newest versions of VMware allow for some basic DirectX functionality, but as virtualised environments dont run standard GPU drivers, its not much help for gamers. mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Betrayer Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 *What are your specs ? (esp. graphics card and driver version) 1 GB RAM, Core 2 duo CPU. GeForce 7300GT (don't know driver version) *What build are you using ? 7137 *Did you deploy an upgrade install? Nope, reformatted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 1GB system RAM? Srsly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrotoy7 Posted July 8, 2009 Author Share Posted July 8, 2009 GeForce 7300GT (don't know driver version) Did you install a set of drivers from nvidia or are you running the ones provided by winupdate.. ? If you havent tried the latest Win7 WHQLs for your nvidia card > give them a go.. 186.18 WHQL Windows 7 32 bit 1GB system RAM? Srsly? Indeed. Thats as close as Id get to the bare minimum... even in W7. @Darth Betrayal, I know KOTOR sysreqs in XP were not as meaty, but when deploying it in another OS, those sysreqs are essentially invalid. mtfbwya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Betrayer Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Used to have 2GB actually, but one of my RAM slots got blown. Installed the NVIDIA drivers provided by WinUpdate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Have you tried setting CPU affinity to one core after launching? The KotORs don't like multi-core. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Betrayer Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 How would I do that? Have heard of doing it before, but don't know how to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Ah, then I'll bet that that's the source of your problem. After launching the game, hit Ctrl-Shift-Esc to bring up the Task Manager. Look for "swkotor(2).exe" under the "Processes" tab, right-click on it, hit "Set Affinity", uncheck all but one CPU and hit "OK" then return to the game. You'll have to do this every time you launch the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khorino Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 It doesn't work. I put only CPU 0, and it crashed. I'm using Windows 7 64-bits with 4 GB RAM DDR2, nVidia GTS 250 512 MB DDR3 and Intel Core2Duo E7400 2.8 GHz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingerhs Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 works great for me, mods and maxed settings included (on KotOR 1 only). its tempting to get another playthrough running, but i'm too involved with Prototype to jump in right away. specs: Win 7 x64 RC 4GB DDR2-1066 (overclocked) Radeon HD4850 1GB (overclocked) Athlon X2 4600 (overclocked @ 2.8GHz) X Fi Gamer soundcard latest drivers for all components tried it w/o compatibility first, and it still launched just fine. curiously, the framerate is actually worse w/o compatibility mode active. granted, i'm getting well over 60 FPS regardless of compatibility mode active or not (measured with FRAPS), and screen tearing is horrible which necessitates the use of VSync. and to emphasize, this is only with KotOR 1. i'm missing one of my TSL install discs (plus i'm a bit taxed for HD space). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Really? With a 4850? I've heard that the latest ATI cards and drivers had mega-trouble with the KotORs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khorino Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 Tried many things. Replace the mss32.dll; patch; compatibility mode; new entries at the Windows Registry... It has random crashes. Obs.: KotOR 1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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