CFS3 and Windows 8?

ndicki

ndicki

Charter Member 2016
I'm finally buying parts for a new computer. So far, I've got the basics - i3-4340 processor (3.6GHz), Z87M motherboard and 8Go of RAM. It came as a job lot, so I chose simply the best options I could afford.

As yet, I don't have the video card, and will be needing a SATA 6 hard drive. Other bits I can recycle. In fact, it looks as though even the integrated graphics (HD 4600) can outperform my current 7600 GS AGP... So it might be worth while getting it set up just as it comes anyway. Advice?

And I'm being pushed into getting Windows 8, as the word is that SF2 runs beautifully on Windows 8... I can imagine myself following Rene's example and having a dual-boot set-up with XP, but just out of interest, does CFS3 run well (and easily) on 8? With or without specular textures? Or is 7 better?

Please let me know, because this is getting challenging!
 
Don't expect specular effects with either Win7 or 8, Nigel. It can be done but it's not to XP standards so I'd recommend dual-boot.

What's wrong with Glasgow, by the way?
 
Nigel, from what I've heard from a number of others, I'd say avoid Windows 8 like the proverbial Plague when it comes to the M$ sims.

I do not have it, but I have heard quite a bit of grumbling and hearing from people having many problems with it.

Win 7 is your best bet, even better with a dual boot with XP.
 
Yes, I agree, Win 7 seems to work very well for my set ups here.
haven't tried Win 8 but many seem to have problems with it for CFS3..

A dual boot with XP sounds Great to me.
Planning to do this on my machine, so I can have the Shine back on my aircraft..
Now that I have two 1 tb Hard drives installed..
 
How is the dual boot working?

I still am having BIG PROBLEMS with ETO on my Windows 8 PC. With a dual boot I think you need the older operating system to be installed first, before the newer operating system. This makes a dual boot impossible for me to try.
 
I tested stock cfs3 in windows 8 and it ran fine. The config tool will not work correctly however, and you will not have specular shine by default like in windows 7. Specular shine can be added back to very close to XP standards using this tutorial, and it does work in windows 8: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforu...Tutorial-for-Windows-7-and-ATI-card-users-zip It provides much better results than just modifying the shaders.xml.

I don't know about ETO or Rising Sun with their batch files, sounds like it could be sticky though.

That said, for your sanity's sake, get windows 7. It looks better, it works better, and it can provide as a good a CFS3 experience as XP.
 
HouseHobbit said:
Yes, I agree, Win 7 seems to work very well for my set ups here.
haven't tried Win 8 but many seem to have problems with it for CFS3..

A dual boot with XP sounds Great to me.
Planning to do this on my machine, so I can have the Shine back on my aircraft..
Now that I have two 1 tb Hard drives installed..
Click to expand...

Hi Mr. Hobbit

Before you start trying an XP dual boot, check and make sure you can find all of the drivers for for your hardware. Depending on how new your hardware is there may not be any available XP drivers.

Cheers

TW
 
As far as setting it up is concerned, I noticed that if you have two drives, one with XP and one with W7, it'll ask you during the boot sequence which one to use. I think that's how Rene has done it too, and it doesn't require any supplementary software or fiddling about... Is that right? Obviously, when you install the second OS, you'd disconnect the first HD.
 
Install XP first, then Win7 or 8 on the other HD. Win 7/8 will detect your XP drive and set up a dual-boot configuration if you want: no disconnects required.

You could disconnect one HD if you're really paranoid, and EasyBCD will set up a dual-boot arrangement for you: it's free for non-commercial use. My rig forgot which drive it's supposed to boot from, but I since set up both HDs to offer a dual-boot choice on startup: very easily done with EasyBCD. :triumphant: Note: this isn't some software which must be running to give a dual-boot arrangement, it's just an easy front end to Windows boot settings.
 
Cheers, Tom! Good to know.

The days are counting down... I could almost do the initial install now, except I want to get a new case that supports USB 3, and a SATA DVD drive.
 
USB 3??? Oh no! -he said, a picture of his empty wallet appearing in his befuddled brain...
 
Nigel, I've had Win 8 not read batch files, decide to not enable some features of cfs3

( ok, it's only minor, like I've lost movie play option on on cfs3 and ETO/RS, lost the era music swapper etc, windows won't update all the time and it tells me some applications/ Microsoft KB's arent appicable to my computer when they should be. So Win8 takes control. Also lost SFC Scannow function: can't fix it itself. I could re-load Win 8 via the disc, but then I'd lose the myriad CFS3/Expansion copies with C-drive; all the work.....so haven't done it.)

So Win8 for CFS3 I wouldn't bother or tread carefully. I'm faced with building another computer just to fix the mess....Win 8 's ok for browsing and mail.

Good luck!
 
I've given up on both! I tried W7, and because it doesn't render specualr textures easily - waiting for developments! - I've gone back to XP, at least for the time being. The thing is to get ALL the available updates before they stop support next month. I'll go back to W7 if and went.

That's meant some fun though, because in theory there are no XP drivers for H87 boards, so I've had to fiddle and install the W7 chipset drivers in XP. It seems to work... And I can't do a dual boot either, because the BIOS has to be set to IDE mode for XP, and there are no SATA drivers for XP for H87 boards, so it's IDE mode or nothing. W7 works only in AHCI/SATA mode, so it won't install on an IDE-mode HD.

Bloody computers.
 
I wanted to stay with XP as well, but was forced to go to Win 7 when my computer died a few years ago. I lived with the flat textures, until this Christmas when I finally decided I would just spend the time and fix it. It's been a lot of work (thousands of files to modify because I'm a collector), but well worth it. Now, along with AnKor's mod I'm in 7th heaven.

Shot03-15-14-07-50-10.jpg
 
That does look very good! I've been following your work on the other thread with great interest - and some bewilderment! As I have the same problem as you do, namely a collection of more than a thousand different aircraft...
 
I'm waiting on the reflections to be done before I work through all my models again. It took me six months to bring all my planes up to Windows 7 standards, hopefully less this time around as I can easily pick our where I've already made changes.
 
Windows 8 and CFS3

I agree with icutler! Some CFS3 versions work normally on my Windows 8 PC. But ETO is still STUCK IN ERA 1 and Rising Sun DOES NOT WORK normally. I tried a "workaround" of putting many ERA 2-5 missions in ERA 1, but I don't fly ETO very much. As icutler says, the batch files don't work in Windows 8.

Also the tech folks at HP said that CFS3 was "not compatible" with Windows 8 and "may not work normally". They suggest to contact Microsoft for further assistance. Has anyone contacted Microsoft???
 
renereimann said:
... the tech folks at HP said that CFS3 was "not compatible" with Windows 8 and "may not work normally". They suggest to contact Microsoft for further assistance. Has anyone contacted Microsoft???
Click to expand...

Don't waste your bandwidth, MS are uninterested in CFS3 now and I doubt many on the Redmond helpdesks even know what it is; they pulled the plug on their CFS3 Insider website last year after all! :pop4:
 
I have ETO set up as 5 separate installs since I never did like how the batch file switch over system works. Once you know what needs to be changed you can just make multiple copies and then switch out the appropriate files once and for all in each of them. The only problem with this approach is whenever they post an update to ETO (or Rising Sun for that matter) it's a royal pain to find and change out the specific files that were updated.
 
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