Profile: Acaeus
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• • Will we ever see a Everquest 1-type game ever again?

  • People here are focusing on the bad aspects of EQ, and there were indeed many bad things in that game (mostly time sinks). These are the things that WoW improved upon.

    However, there were a few things that EQ did that were superior to all MMOs nowadays IMO:

    1. Factions: EQ implemented an incredibly complex and deep faction system. You had to understand at least the basics of the faction system in order to know where you could go and what you could do. This feature was key to how immersive EQ was.

    2. freedom: EQ was a sandbox game. Some classes had the ability to kill a mob in several different ways, depending on certain factors (location, type of mob,etc). This was obviously an unintended feature as all MMOs nowadays steer clear from it.

    3. Related to #1, unique racial towns! This is key for any MMO! WoW did this right(not as well as EQ though) EQ2 f* this up big time with only two original starting cities.

    Even though I agree that WoW is the best MMO out there, and it did improve upon what previous MMO did, WoW failed to even match 2 great features that previous MMOs had:
    

    a) Faction system for PvE #1 above.

    b) PvP from DAoC (IMO best PvP/RvR system ever implemented and best possible end game)

  • Posted: 4/17/08 8:38 AM
    General Discussion
• • Does SP1 make Vista a good choice now?

  • Originally posted by n25philly
    

     

    Originally posted by Acaeus
    

     

    Originally posted by n25philly
    

    Originally posted by Acaeus
    

     

    Originally posted by LiquidWolf
    

     

    Originally posted by turnipz
    

    "A similar (but a bit more specialized) term to DRM is Trusted Computing. The term is intentionally misleading. It does not try to improve the security of the user, but rather wants to ensure that the user can be “trusted”."

     

     

    Interesting stuff with the DRM, im wondering what the vista fanboys here will say about it.

    
    That I guess in the end it won't matter, companies will move to vista, because Microsoft pushes them to, and everyone else will do the same.

     

    I think hackers/crackers/pirates will just have to work harder.

    But everyone will move to Vista or the next OS. Support for XP will stop sometime. I never really liked clinging to the past just cause I felt things worked, just make your present and future better.

    As for performance issues due to DRM, honestly I have not notice any. I read more about hollywood than software, but I figure they are close. Honestly it might use "precious" clock cycles, *GASP* but frankly many people don't care.

     

    Agree, people will end up using vista, as I am. however, people here who run MMO clients *should* perhaps care about precious CPU cycles, specially if the new MMOS around the corner do use multiple cores.

    lots of information here, many facts:

    http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

    He even goes into MS' rebuttal which was pretty much saying that apple OS does it too... BTW, MS does not deny they do DRM in Vista. And no it's NOT done on XP. You can, for example install 3rd party driver in XP! Echo cancellation isn't hindered in XP as it is in Vista (because of DRM).

    Don't believe in opinions, read up and make up your own mind. In the end, it may very well be that you couldn't care less about DRM and vista will do great.

     

    People have been digging out that link since before Vista was released and it's as big a crock of BS as it was then.  3rd party drivers are allowed because they are the biggest reason for crashes in XP.  Someone here mentioned "trusted platform", yet if anyone did any real research they would know that vista only uses Trusted platform for bitlocker.  People seriously need to stop with conspiracy theories and start living in reality.

    You dispute a single point, why 3rd party drivers aren't allowed, giving your personal opinion of why, and then go ahead and claim that the whole huge article with many technical details is "crock of BS."

     

    For whoever is interested, this is Microsoft's Official "rebuttal:" http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2007/01/20/windows-vista-content-protection-twenty-questions-and-answers.aspx

    "Will Windows Vista content protection features increase CPU resource consumption?

    Yes.  However, the use of additional CPU cycles is inevitable..."

    Note that the question was specific about "content protection features" and the answer was "yes."

     

    BTW, what the hell is multithreading in a OS?! Are you referring to that Vista can use multiple cores? So can XP, and every other OS nowadays! Processes are given cpu cyles by the kernel scheduler and if the OS can use multiple cores then so can its scheduler. Multithreading is a single process concept (single program). A game, for example, can be multithreaded or not, depending on design.

    If a game (like EQ2) is single-threaded, there is nothing Vista (or nay OS) can do to magically make it multithreaded. The application has to be modified to be made multithreaded.
    

    1) You post a blog about blue ray and hd-dvd, systems that have DRM requirements in any system that plays them, even things like blue-ray players.

     

     

    2) The very next paragraph after the phrase you quoted say that the same protection requirements are in XP

     

    3) Vista is multi-threaded and takes full advantage of multiple core cpu's, XP does not.

     

    You can twist words all you want, it won't make them true.

    Do you have any comment concerning the bit I quoted (from a MS engineer on vistablog) about spending CPU cycles on DRM-related stuff?

    #1 google DRM and vista and read (lots of info to whoever is interested)

    #2 yes it does. Microsoft has been adding a little bit here and there on every SP. But it's not embedded in the Kernel OS like it is in Vista. That's the whole point of it, that you are paying for (with your hardware) for stuff you don't want (permanent DRM controls embedded in the OS). XP didn't have any problems by allowing installation of 3rd party drivers (which could be used to bypass DRM), or with echo cancellation. You do know that XP has outperformed VISTA on every test for gaming and applications that demand raw performance right? http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/29/xp-vs-vista/ (google xp vs vista focusing on gaming)

     

    #3 this is my job, I write server software in C++ that depends on multiple cores and multiple threads to achieve the required performance.  Threads are a a facility provided by the OS kernel. Yes, the OS itself can be multithreaded, some'd call them tasks however. Now, I've found a couple of improvements Vista has concerning the scheduler http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc162494.aspx if that is what you referred to, it sounds good, but nothing impressive or that can be called "Vista is multitithreaded." I don't even know what that means?! Is it the kernel that is multithreaded? Is the threading facility provided by the kernel that has been improved (which the article above implies)? That Vista can fully use multi-core machines is pure PR talk to me. THere is no such a thing as Fully use multiple core/cpus. At some point resources need to be shared and tasks will get serialized.

    BTW, talking about the links, and twisting words... I'm the only one providing links to back up what I say..

  • Posted: 4/15/08 8:47 PM
    General Discussion
• • Does SP1 make Vista a good choice now?

  •  

    Originally posted by n25philly
    

    Originally posted by Acaeus
    

     

    Originally posted by LiquidWolf
    

     

    Originally posted by turnipz
    

    "A similar (but a bit more specialized) term to DRM is Trusted Computing. The term is intentionally misleading. It does not try to improve the security of the user, but rather wants to ensure that the user can be “trusted”."

     

     

    Interesting stuff with the DRM, im wondering what the vista fanboys here will say about it.

    
    That I guess in the end it won't matter, companies will move to vista, because Microsoft pushes them to, and everyone else will do the same.

     

    I think hackers/crackers/pirates will just have to work harder.

    But everyone will move to Vista or the next OS. Support for XP will stop sometime. I never really liked clinging to the past just cause I felt things worked, just make your present and future better.

    As for performance issues due to DRM, honestly I have not notice any. I read more about hollywood than software, but I figure they are close. Honestly it might use "precious" clock cycles, *GASP* but frankly many people don't care.

     

    Agree, people will end up using vista, as I am. however, people here who run MMO clients *should* perhaps care about precious CPU cycles, specially if the new MMOS around the corner do use multiple cores.

    lots of information here, many facts:

    http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

    He even goes into MS' rebuttal which was pretty much saying that apple OS does it too... BTW, MS does not deny they do DRM in Vista. And no it's NOT done on XP. You can, for example install 3rd party driver in XP! Echo cancellation isn't hindered in XP as it is in Vista (because of DRM).

    Don't believe in opinions, read up and make up your own mind. In the end, it may very well be that you couldn't care less about DRM and vista will do great.

     

    People have been digging out that link since before Vista was released and it's as big a crock of BS as it was then.  3rd party drivers are allowed because they are the biggest reason for crashes in XP.  Someone here mentioned "trusted platform", yet if anyone did any real research they would know that vista only uses Trusted platform for bitlocker.  People seriously need to stop with conspiracy theories and start living in reality.

    You dispute a single point, why 3rd party drivers aren't allowed, giving your personal opinion of why, and then go ahead and claim that the whole huge article with many technical details is "crock of BS."

     

    For whoever is interested, this is Microsoft's Official "rebuttal:" http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2007/01/20/windows-vista-content-protection-twenty-questions-and-answers.aspx

    "Will Windows Vista content protection features increase CPU resource consumption?

    Yes.  However, the use of additional CPU cycles is inevitable..."

    Note that the question was specific about "content protection features" and the answer was "yes."

     

    BTW, what the hell is multithreading in a OS?! Are you referring to that Vista can use multiple cores? So can XP, and every other OS nowadays! Processes are given cpu cyles by the kernel scheduler and if the OS can use multiple cores then so can its scheduler. Multithreading is a single process concept (single program). A game, for example, can be multithreaded or not, depending on design.

    If a game (like EQ2) is single-threaded, there is nothing Vista (or nay OS) can do to magically make it multithreaded. The application has to be modified to be made multithreaded.
    

  • Posted: 4/15/08 9:41 AM
    General Discussion
• • Does SP1 make Vista a good choice now?

  •  

    Originally posted by LiquidWolf
    

     

    Originally posted by turnipz
    

    "A similar (but a bit more specialized) term to DRM is Trusted Computing. The term is intentionally misleading. It does not try to improve the security of the user, but rather wants to ensure that the user can be “trusted”."

     

     

    Interesting stuff with the DRM, im wondering what the vista fanboys here will say about it.

    
    That I guess in the end it won't matter, companies will move to vista, because Microsoft pushes them to, and everyone else will do the same.

     

    I think hackers/crackers/pirates will just have to work harder.

    But everyone will move to Vista or the next OS. Support for XP will stop sometime. I never really liked clinging to the past just cause I felt things worked, just make your present and future better.

    As for performance issues due to DRM, honestly I have not notice any. I read more about hollywood than software, but I figure they are close. Honestly it might use "precious" clock cycles, *GASP* but frankly many people don't care.

     

    Agree, people will end up using vista, as I am. however, people here who run MMO clients *should* perhaps care about precious CPU cycles, specially if the new MMOS around the corner do use multiple cores.

    lots of information here, many facts:

    http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

    He even goes into MS' rebuttal which was pretty much saying that apple OS does it too... BTW, MS does not deny they do DRM in Vista. And no it's NOT done on XP. You can, for example install 3rd party driver in XP! Echo cancellation isn't hindered in XP as it is in Vista (because of DRM).

    Don't believe in opinions, read up and make up your own mind. In the end, it may very well be that you couldn't care less about DRM and vista will do great.

     

  • Posted: 4/14/08 3:36 PM
    General Discussion
• • Does SP1 make Vista a good choice now?

  •  

    Originally posted by Fadedbomb
    

     

    Originally posted by Acaeus
    

    I am running Vista 64 on a Q6600 with 4gb of RAM just because I had to buy a second windows and didn't want to buy another XP. My wife has to run XP on her (originally loaded with Vista) notebook so it got our XP copy. It's not bad OS and does a few things better than XP (mostly GUI related).

    Now, I hear a lot of clueless people saying that Vista is going through what XP went through when it first came out. That is not the case!

    Vista wastes resources (as in CPU/MEM) by doing a LOT of DRM-related  things which are, of course, not in the users' best interest. In other words, Vista wastes CPU cycles to watch what you are doing!

    If you want details, or proof, go ahead and google vista DRM. You will find lots of links. Microsoft response to this is, if you you ignore the PR gibberish, "apple does it too."

    How one feels about DRM and piracy is irrelevant IMO. What this is about is Vista wasting your hardware resources 9that you paid for) by constantly checking on DRM-related things. This is why Vista just cannot ever be faster than XP.

    I have DRM disabled, along with 20 other background vista processes that a home user has ZERO use for, that is otherwise ALWAYS running. Nearly everything is able to be disabled and customized by the user if they have minimal information about it.

     

    I built a self-help computer noob-friendly help forum, however apparently it's not been very popular :D. Somehow people have "more helpful" websites to help them, yet I continue to see ignorance around vista and software/computer components on a daily basis yet they claim these other websites that are disorganized to hell help them with ALL they need.

    You must be talking about something else, DRM cannot be disabled. It's an intrinsic part of Vista (in the Kernel) and the ability to disable it would make the whole concept of DRM a moot point.

     

    There is no DRM process! It's not a process. It's built in in the kernel, and watches many tasks. DRM is, for example, why Vista will NOT accept 3rd party drivers for hardware it doesn't "support." Because, theoretically, this hardware could be used to bypass DRM.

  • Posted: 4/14/08 2:04 PM
    General Discussion