Orbiter on windows 7

[Jarvitä]

...runs great!

The VistaBoost module still works. The notorious screen flashing problem from Vista is gone. I'm getting around 60 FPS on the stock DG scenarios (I haven't bothered copying my 20GB orbiter install with all the addons over yet). Unlike on Vista, it's able to recognise all of my 3 screens and use each one of them in fullscreen without issues.

Here's to a somewhat faster and less buggy monopolistic OS built on criminal business practices and NSA backdoors

 

[Hielor]

Here's to a somewhat faster and less buggy monopolistic OS built on criminal business practices and NSA backdoors

................................

 

[escapetomsfate]

Windows 7

Just got Windows 7 today. In vista, I was getting 50ish fps - Now I'm getting 80 odd!

It's not just Orbiter that's improved. In Crysis, vista gave me a miserable 17 fps. I now get about 40

I wish W7 didn't expire now

 

[Jarvitä]

Just got Windows 7 today. In vista, I was getting 50ish fps - Now I'm getting 80 odd!

It's not just Orbiter that's improved. In Crysis, vista gave me a miserable 17 fps. I now get about 40

I wish W7 didn't expire now

The beta ends in august, doesn't it?

Oh, and remember never to use a beta product (and an MS product at that) as your primary OS!

 

[Andy44]

Cool. So when's the release? I've been putting off buying a new laptop until something better than Vista comes along, and this sounds hopeful.

 

[tl8]

Cool. So when's the release? I've been putting off buying a new laptop until something better than Vista comes along, and this sounds hopeful.

Hopefully before the release of the Christmas PCs this year.

That would put it about October November. Looking at the response from the Beta, this is plausible.

 

[dbeachy1]

Beta-1 is out now for public testing and will be available until February 10th (the keys will work until August 1st). Microsoft has not specified an official release date except to say that it will ship in the second half of this year.

Unlike previous Windows releases, no additional public beta releases are planned for Windows 7; Microsoft is working on RC1 now: http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2235540/windows-release-candidate-way

 

[escapetomsfate]

The beta ends in august, doesn't it?

Oh, and remember never to use a beta product (and an MS product at that) as your primary OS!

I just found a patch to stop it expiring - http://keznews.com/5218_Windows_7_Plus_Patch_V6

I think it's pretty stable for a beta release. I'm dual booting it with vista just incase.

 

[KosmoKen]

I downloaded the Windows 7 beta and not only is Orbiter working as well/better than on Vista, but so is everything else. Even though I hate feeding the pig you can count on me getting an OEM version when it goes retail.

 

[-Pv-]

"The USA spent billions and billions of dollars designing a pen that works in space."

Not even a billion. Not even a million. Not even a thousand. Not even a hundred. Urban Legend.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/613/1
-Pv-

 

[escapetomsfate]

"The USA spent billions and billions of dollars designing a pen that works in space."

Not even a billion. Not even a million. Not even a thousand. Not even a hundred. Urban Legend.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/613/1
-Pv-

I knew it wasn't that much. It's called comic exaggeration

 

[Mandella]

It may very well run Orbiter better than Vista, but I'm afraid I'm only getting about half the framerate of my XP install. Now to be fair, I've only just begun to play with the new operating system, and haven't really started tweaking yet -- but still, several other graphic intensive games are running just fine, at or even a little above XP's rates.

One bug I do notice is that with the stock orbit MFD the "G" value is always zero, no matter how close I am to the planet. The various autopilot functions seem to work however, as do the orbit projections.

 

[Hielor]

It may very well run Orbiter better than Vista, but I'm afraid I'm only getting about half the framerate of my XP install. Now to be fair, I've only just begun to play with the new operating system, and haven't really started tweaking yet -- but still, several other graphic intensive games are running just fine, at or even a little above XP's rates.

One bug I do notice is that with the stock orbit MFD the "G" value is always zero, no matter how close I am to the planet. The various autopilot functions seem to work however, as do the orbit projections.

The problem with Vista (and now Win7) is that for some reason MS dropped hardware support for DX7 (as I understand it) and is now running some kind of software emulation layer.

Try VistaBoost from this page: http://www.dougsorbiterpage.com/index-3.html . It disables ClearType font smoothing while Orbiter is active, which for me made a huge difference. YMMV tho, and I haven't tested it on Win7.

 

[Mandella]

Thanks for the link Hielor! At least that helps the framerate, the MFD problem persists, however. Even running in WinXP compatibility mode doesn't help.

Ah well, it's not that important. I'll keep tinkering with it, but of course I have my primary WinXP install to give me my regular Orbiter fix until the problem gets sorted out.

 

[escapetomsfate]

Are all your references set up right? The G counter works fine for me in Win7

 

[Mandella]

Well now that's just odd. It's working today. I didn't do anything that should have made a difference.

I did copy the entire orbiter directory into the Win7 partition (it was on a separate disk), and noticed that the MFD was working correctly this time. Aha! I said, figuring that was the problem. But just to double check, I opened the version still off the Win7 disk -- and it's now working as well.

Computers.....

Framerate is still a bit lower than I would like, even with Vistaboost, but I can live with it I suppose.

Thanks again for the help!

 

[escapetomsfate]

Do you have a graphics card program installed like ati catalyst control centre? I have the beta version for windows 7

 

[Mandella]

Do you have a graphics card program installed like ati catalyst control centre? I have the beta version for windows 7

Nvidia, and that's sort of a long story in itself (beta testing is not for the faint of heart!). Nvidia officially wants you to download the beta Win7 drivers from Microsoft, but those drivers are barebones, with no control center and no physX as far as I can tell. However, the Vista 64 drivers work, and in fact on the installation screen properly identify the operating system as Win7.

But my MFDs are working now, so I'm happy enough, and I can deal with the performance hit..

 

[T.Neo]

One bug I do notice is that with the stock orbit MFD the "G" value is always zero, no matter how close I am to the planet.

Do you have the "outer planets" addon installed? I run XP, and after installing outer planets, that happened.

 

[synonys]

He needs msvcr71.dll and msvcp71.dll to get the G value counter to work.