Dual Booting for better game compatibility

WantoN · 7 Jun 2018 at 18:10

So I’m noticing these days that games are taking more and more work to get running on modern hardware. So much so that :

A) Instead of selling my current rig when I upgrade I’m considering keeping it so I have a decent enough machine that I can use if the situation worsens.

B) I’m considering dual booting for better compatibility for games look FEAR and Return to Castle Wolfenstien etc

So any input? Am I mental and/or stupid? What OS would you recommend, and does one simply walk into Mor... purchase a win 7/XP key? I’ve only ever done Linux dual boots, is the process similarly painless and annoying at the same time?

ExRayTed · 7 Jun 2018 at 19:26

I'm pretty sure it's a painless process to dual boot nowadays. The only issue you may run into is drivers for any newer kit you have

Raumarik · 7 Jun 2018 at 21:10

More effort to get running on modern hardware?

eh? You got any examples? If anything it's vastly easier these days. I remember when autoexec/config.sys had to be perfect or you had no sound, nor cdrom etc etc.

These days it's a doddle.

ExRayTed · 7 Jun 2018 at 21:13

Raumarik said:
More effort to get running on modern hardware?

eh? You got any examples? If anything it's vastly easier these days. I remember when autoexec/config.sys had to be perfect or you had no sound, nor cdrom etc etc.

These days it's a doddle.

I meant that if he chooses XP for example, there may not be drivers available for some of his kit if it's very new

Raumarik · 7 Jun 2018 at 21:15

Didn't mean you Ray!

I've a feeling his difficulties are probably limited to specific hardware already or particularly guff games which need tweaked like mad.

WantoN · 7 Jun 2018 at 21:59

Raumarik said:
Didn't mean you Ray!

I've a feeling his difficulties are probably limited to specific hardware already or particularly guff games which need tweaked like mad.

I’ve quoted two in my OP, if you haven’t come across this issue then I’m glad for you. I regularly play games 10-20+ years old, and I can assure you modern operating systems can cause serious issues.

ExRayTed said:
I'm pretty sure it's a painless process to dual boot nowadays. The only issue you may run into is drivers for any newer kit you have

Yes this is my concern, may have to track down an older system and flog mine when the time comes.

Cromulent · 17 Jun 2018 at 21:27

WantoN said:
I’ve quoted two in my OP, if you haven’t come across this issue then I’m glad for you. I regularly play games 10-20+ years old, and I can assure you modern operating systems can cause serious issues.

If they are 10 to 20 years old you could probably quite easily run them in either DOSbox or a virtual machine which supports GPU passthrough.

WantoN · 18 Jun 2018 at 00:08

Cromulent said:
If they are 10 to 20 years old you could probably quite easily run them in either DOSbox or a virtual machine which supports GPU passthrough.

If that’s a better solution then brilliant, thanks!

I’ve heard of DOSbox, I’ve never run a virtual machine. Could you suggest any links so I can clue myself up?

Rroff · 18 Jun 2018 at 10:39

Raumarik said:
More effort to get running on modern hardware?

eh? You got any examples? If anything it's vastly easier these days. I remember when autoexec/config.sys had to be perfect or you had no sound, nor cdrom etc etc.

These days it's a doddle.

Cromulent said:
If they are 10 to 20 years old you could probably quite easily run them in either DOSbox or a virtual machine which supports GPU passthrough.

With Windows 10 quite a few older games don't work well - many of them use Open GL in a way that doesn't work nicely with a VM and passthrough and some use older versions of D3D in a way that isn't supported. There are loads like Quake 2 that are a bit too new to work with all features in DOSbox (though you can get it sort of working) but old enough to cause problems with 10. In the case of Q2 you can recompile the source code with a newer dev environment or use one of the 3rd party recompiles but that isn't useful if you want to play MP on a server that bans modified clients (though a lot don't bother now) but fine for SP.

Quite a few older games you have to stick some modified rendering API files in the game directory or you get things like incorrectly rendered resolution or half the screen missing which is fine for SP but some are still supported online by PunkBuster and a modified client gets you kicked or banned for online play.

But weird actually as a lot of these games work fine on 7 and even 8 but have a hissy fit on 10.

jpaul · 18 Jun 2018 at 11:26

(in my more limited experience than Rroff) I am still using win7 partly for some peripherals(scanner/sound-cards/esata) that do not have drivers at win10 ,
threads on the web suggested vm performance would be poor : slow&some-incompatibilities.... so I would go dual boot.
HOWEVER : I am still looking for a dual boot option where win7 partitions can be made invisible to win10, since win10 updates have caused corruption on other partitions,
ideally I would haver two discs and physically switch betwen them, so complete isolation, but maybe, putting non-required partition off-line.?

Rroff · 18 Jun 2018 at 11:34

jpaul said:
since win10 updates have caused corruption on other partitions

I was tempted to post about that - it is one reason I'm in no hurry to dual boot Windows 10 just for the safety of my main OS LOL but I've had enough rants about Windows 10 the last 24 hours I was going to go easy...

I have an eSATA enclosure and a copy of Acronis to hand to keep my Windows 7 OS backed up anyhow (its a good policy in general) which mitigates that a bit.

jpaul · 18 Jun 2018 at 18:23

Rroff said:
LOL but I've had enough rants about Windows 10 the last 24 hours I was going to go easy...

but, it is the gift, that keeps on giving .... sorry Athlon

WantoN · 21 Jun 2018 at 17:03

So I run quite a comprehensive backup system, and I delay everything but critical security updates for as long as possible / necessary; I’m not too concerned about issues there.

As has been discussed here already I do think there’s a case for dual booting an older WinOS for game compatibility, and it seems to me that a VM might not be the best way forward.

I might have XP discs knocking about somewhere, though I’d have to install via an external cd drive. Any comments on this? Would Win7 be a better choice?

If someone could point me in the direction of some appropriate reading, or offer any advice that’d be dandy.

Rroff · 21 Jun 2018 at 17:10

I've not had many problems with getting older games running on 7 - slight caveat in that for best compatibility you'd want to install 32bit Win 7 so you could install the native VDM which doesn't play nice with some newer hardware i.e. limited in how much RAM you can use and doesn't always like even running if the system has more than 4GB RAM.