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Test
3 - Games - Windows 3.1
As
I said earlier, I decided to use Kings Quest 6 for my Windows 3.1
tests since it supports both DOS and Windows. Unfortunately,
when I tried to run the game, it froze while the game was loading.
I even tried changing the desktop to 640x480x256 color, which the game
recommends, to no avail. Games made for Windows 3.1 were
designed using WinG, which came before DirectX. Either support
for this early Windows API has been removed, or its a problem specific
to this game. To find out if this was the case, I tried another
game designed specifically for Windows, Civilization II. The
game installed fine, but when I try and start the game, I get a stack
fault causing the game to crash back to Windows. I wanted to try
some more Windows 3.1 applications or games, but I didn't have any
lying around the house anymore, so I couldn't test any more.
Nonetheless, it looks like Win2k does have some trouble with early
Windows applications and games, just like Win95 had with Win3.1, and
Win98 had with Win95.
Test
4 - Games - Direct3D
My
next test is with games using Microsoft's Direct3D. The main
concern over D3D is that there have been 4 major builds of DirectX
since Windows 95's conception: DirectX 3.0 all the way to
DirectX 7.0 that is included with Windows 2000. I decided to
test a game that was designed using each of the different versions.
For DirectX 3.0, I dug up Shiny Entertainment's MDK. This was
one of the first games to actually take advantage of Microsoft's
multifunction API, so I was very skeptical on how it would perform.
However, I was pleasantly surprised. Except for a slight
resolution problem (the game played at a 640x480 resolution while the
desktop would only go to 800x600 leaving "noise" filled
borders), the game played perfectly.
Test
5 - Games - OpenGL
My
final compatibility test was with games that use OpenGL.
Unfortunately I didn't have very many OpenGL games to test, but with
just about all OpenGL games out there based on some form or another of
the Quake/2/3 engine from iD Software, I figured if one game worked,
the rest would probably be about the same. That being said, the
first game I tested was Quake 2. Game worked great, no glitches,
no problems, at all resolutions, and at the same frame rate as on my
Win98 system. The other game I tested was Quake 3: Arena, which
like its prequel, also ran fine. With Q3 already requiring a
pretty hefty system to run at all its glory, its no surprise that the
performance on my meager system wasn't exactly the greatest.
I
really wanted to try out Half-Life's OpenGL, but I'm running pretty
low on my hard drive space, and I didn't have a chance to download the
latest patch. Expect some addendums to this report with more
testing. I was also thinking about testing Unreal Tournament's
OpenGL, however with D3D being the primary choice for most users and a
weaker OpenGL implementation, I didn't bother. So overall, it
looks like those of you who spend hours crafting those deathmatch
skills every night won't have to worry about Windows 2000 hurting your
fragging power.
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